Wet-n-Wild Water Park
Wet-n-Wild Park in Orlando, Fla., sits on a busy intersection a few block from Universal Studios.
Posted: July 17, 2008
Wet-n-Wild management and the public were thrilled with the final results of Freddie Combas’ landscape project. (Courtesy of Freddie Combas) | Wet-n-Wild Water Park in Orlando, Fla., sits on a busy intersection a few blocks from Universal Studios. Years ago, the management team planned to have a waterfall built under the main sign, located atop a nearly 20-foot-high hill. Instead, due to budget constraints, they planted blue-toned bushes and grasses to simulate the flow of water. In time, the highly visible area became overgrown.
The team then decided to give the waterfall project another try and contacted Freddie Combas, also known as The Pondman™, owner of Florida Water Gardens Inc. in Winter Park, Fla. Once the No-Pond™ Waterfall feature was approved, Florida Water Gardens’ construction manager flew to American Mountain Stone in Tennessee to hand select the Tennessee fieldstone boulders used in the project. Back in Orlando, the construction crew removed the overgrown landscaping along with the existing irrigation and electric systems.
The bare landscape instantly changed the project’s visual aspect. Combas’ team believed that the visual impact of the proposed waterfall size would be lost on such a high hill, so the waterfall’s width was increased from 9 feet to 27 feet.
Construction of the waterfall began from the top down, using Tennessee fieldstone boulders. (Courtesy of Freddie Combas) | Due to the busy vehicle and pedestrian traffic at the intersection, the team had to use a smaller excavator than normal on a project of this size. To compensate, the builders constructed the waterfall in sections from the top down instead of the preferred way of building in one piece and from the bottom up.
Before the team could dig, it had to wait for 22 agencies and companies to check and tag buried lines, pipes, cables and more because of the number of hotels, stores, amusement parks and theme parks in the area. Skipping this step would have caused the excavator to hit a buried 1,300-volt line.
With the help of the excavator’s bucket, the team discovered a 6-inch irrigation drain line and a fiber optic line belonging to the water park that were located on a spot that was cleared and deemed safe to dig. The team repaired the issues and slightly modified the dimensions and layout of the No-Pond™ basin.
When it was time to dig, the crew cut out a section of the waterfalls from the hill. Then 2-ton to 4-ton specimen boulders were measured for placement. Next, the team carved out the boulder areas individually, installed EPDM liner and placed the boulders into their perspective locations. Throughout construction, the team kept in mind how the water flow would land on each boulder and onto the boulder below. The builders repeated the process until the waterfall was complete.
The team added the low-voltage light system, gravel and final installation and plumbing of the four pumps. They installed the landscaping a few days later to complete Wet-n-Wild’s waterfall project. According to Combas, the public’s response was amazing, and the water park’s management team was ecstatic about the results.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Designer: Freddie Combas, The Pondman™
Installer: Florida Water Gardens Inc.
Contact Information: Florida Water Gardens Inc., 1600 W. Fairbanks Ave., Winter Park, FL 32789, 407-679-7787, fax 407-679-0577, thepondman@gmail.com, www.floridawatergardens.com
Project Location: Wet-n-Wild Water Park, 6200 International Drive, Orlando, FL 32819.
Construction: Tennessee fieldstone boulders on EPDM liner using 3-inch PVC plumbing onto waterfall weirs using four pumps and 132 Matrix boxes for the No-Pond™ basin.
Components: Four American Ponds waterfall weirs, 25 American Ponds 50-watt underwater lights with three 900-watt transformers, four W.Lim Corp. 3 hp pumps at 16,000 gph each, PondmanUSA™ No-Pond™ Basin System totaling 4,000 gallons, 76 tons of Tennessee fieldstone, six cubic yards of river jacks and one Hudson valve.
Time to Complete: 3.5 weeks with three men
Project Cost: $78,000
 Give us your opinion on
Wet-n-Wild Water Park
Industry Professional Site: Comments from non-industry professionals will be removed.
|