Easy Water Pump Project To Make Your Stationary RV Pop
For stationary RVers, making a beautiful and functional getaway spot is a top priority. My family and I purchased our land almost three years ago on Labor Day weekend. Since then, it has been my goal to really put in the time and effort to create a small paradise for my family. I’m always on the lookout for ways to improve our space to get the most out of it. Our water pump area was in need of a makeover, so why not make it our next DIY project?
When we bought our property it already had a water pump. This was great, as it was one less thing we had to do to really be able to camp at our place. And of course, we use the water constantly. Filling up the fresh water tanks, jugs to use in the outdoor kitchen area, kids playing around with sprinklers and slip & slides. You get the idea. My husband wanted to make a gravel pad around the pump base to simply make it look better. So that’s what we did.
Our water pump is a basic set-up that you would find at any campground. We would just weed eat around it and go about our business. It was time to give this area a little more curb appeal.
Our DIY water pump project
We really sheared the grass around the base of the water pump, all the way down to the dirt. We did this in a circular shape, to go with the scalloped stone pieces we were using. We used quartered scalloped stone edges, four to make a circle around the water pump.
You can do this any number of ways, with a wide variety of borders to choose from. We chose this option because these were the stones we already had on hand from another project. We wanted to put them to good use!
Use weed killer and landscaping fabric
Once the area was sheared, we used Spectracide weed killer to really kill off the grass and prevent it from coming back for a while. After using the weed killer around the bottom of the water pump, I lined it with landscape fabric to ensure that the grass wouldn’t come back, at least for a while.
Using this fabric is an important step in this project. Grass is probably one of the most resilient things on earth. No matter what you do, it will always come back. I want to keep the area around the water pump base as free from grass as long as I can.
Set up the stones
After placing the landscaping fabric around the base, we put the quartered stones in a circle around the water pump. When I put the fabric down, I cut it into small sheets and pieces to fit my space.
I layered some of these pieces too, in the spots that needed it. Putting the stones in, we dug them into the dirt to make them more level.
Fill it with river rocks
I took scissors and a pocket knife to cut off any excess fabric coming out from under the stones. I also used the pocket knife to tuck the really tiny pieces in under the stones.
Once we had everything in place, we used two bags of river rocks to complete the project. We just dumped them out into the barrier that we created and leveled them out. I did a final light top coat of weed killer over the rocks to help keep the grass and weeds at bay for a while.
This was such an easy project to do and it looks so nice. We also have some banana trees at our place that I just planted last year. I wanted to protect them when my husband was mowing, so we did the same thing around the base of the banana trees. We used mulch instead of river rock for this part of the project. They look great!
The finished product on this project was lovely. It really gives our land a more landscaped feel to it. As we continue to enjoy our lake getaway, I feel like every little thing we do just makes it better and better.
We usually relax when we are there, but as the seasons turn, we re-evaluate what needs to be done. We will take a weekend and knock out a list of chores. We have done big and small projects in the past few years. It is finally becoming the place that we always dreamed it could be. The pride in all that we have done with it is pretty great too. Happy camping!
