A sluice is a wooden channel that is designed to transport water from one area to another by letting gravity do the work. Natural springs or underground streams are excellent sources of water that can often be diverted to a pond area or create a running water source in your garden. If your elevation grades work to allow you to tilt your lock downhill, the water can be moved freely without the aid of pumps for years and years at no cost.

I was lucky enough to have a subterranean water table that is so high in the ground that my basement has a year-round creek that runs along the base of a wall in a concrete channel. This channel exits the basement through a four-inch pipe into daylight about eighty feet from the building. At the point where the pipe meets daylight, the pipe itself is approximately four feet above ground in a stone retaining wall. The area grades from that point slopes downward and outward and generally ends about ten feet lower where the land flattens out. The lower property has a small creek that winds down to our eight acre lake. The creek is there all year except in the driest summers. I have seen the creek dry up only once in thirty-five years and that was only for a few weeks or so. Over the years I have designed grassy areas from the house to the lake (approximately 750 feet) that provide beautiful walking areas. A few benches here and there, some shaped yew trees and potted deer resistant plants and for me it is heaven in the summer just to sit quietly and listen to the summer winds. My children and grandchildren have played here for years and have now started adding their own touches to the property. One day while sitting down I looked at the pipe coming out of the basement of the house and thought it would be a great way to create a freestanding waterfall or small pond if I could just get the water down there. The idea of ​​a lock quickly became a reality after a short conversation with the wife and we went to look for building materials.

I decided to use pressure treated lumber for the sluice as it would last for many years and after a few years of running water through it, it shouldn’t be harmful to plants or fish. I chose six-inch-wide by sixteen-foot-long boards, since they were the longest the mill had in stock. I set up my sawhorses and started building my lock. I built the bottom using two boards side by side so that it was twelve inches wide. Adding a few short twelve-inch-long pieces to the side as braces provided added strength to prevent sagging. Next, the sides were made from a board, each of which formed the finished channel twelve inches wide and six inches deep. I used good galvanized screws for mounting as they won’t loosen over time and a dab of silicone caulk at each joint would provide a good temporary seal between the boards.

Over time, as the caulk aged and failed, dirt, leaves, and other debris sealed the joints from the inside, making the gate virtually waterproof against leaks. Starting at the point where the water exited the basement drain pipe, I placed the first gate with one end to capture the water and the other pointing where I wanted to create a small pond and landscaped area. I found out later that I had to add a baffle plate at the water entry point to channel the water into the gate when the water flows were high enough to shoot past the gate instead of just falling into the gate . I built a total of three sixteen foot long lock channels and zigzagged down the hillside, moving the water almost forty feet horizontally from where it started. It requires very little slope for the water to run. I was lucky enough to have a six foot tall rock outcropping which, by placing the last gate on top of the rock and letting it hang several feet in the air, created a six foot tall waterfall that falls into a small fish. pond I built underneath. I put goldfish in this little pond every summer for the kids to feed and watch. The water that constantly falls from the gate keeps the water well aerated and fresh throughout the summer. My gate has been in place for about twenty years and, except for an occasional removal of excess blades and slight realignments, it has worked fine with no further maintenance.