A Remarkable Journey

An Interview by Lenny Giteck

Randy Beard, owner of Pure Water Pools in Costa Mesa, Calif., has never been short on ambition.

At the ripe old age of 19, he and his then new bride, Martha, started Pure Water as a pool-cleaning company. (“Even after being married and working together
all these years,” he says, “Martha is still my best friend.”) In the nearly three decades since then, Beard and his company have evolved from strictly servicing pools, to doing pool repairs, to remodeling pools, to building pools and other watershapes, to doing design work.

Today, Pool Water Pools has 35 employees and is one of the most sought-after pool construction outfits in well-to-do Orange County — especially when it comes to exquisite, high-end, creative watershapes, some of which take literally years
to complete. (One of the most spectacular backyard installations Beard was involved with was named the #1 Extreme Pool on HGTV’s “Big Splash” show.)

In addition to his construction and design work, Beard is an instructor in the Genesis 3 educational program. He travels around the country giving seminars on vanishing-edge pools, a specialty and special passion of his.

Recently, we spoke with Beard about how far he has come in his watershaping career, what gives him his greatest professinal satisfaction and what his dream is for the future.

Describe how your company got going.

When we started Pure Water Pools, we initially worked out of our garage — that’s where we stored the chlorine and other chemicals — until we were able
to buy a warehouse. Luckily, the business took off pretty fast.

Within three or four years, we had 22 employees and 18 trucks, and we were cleaning about 600 residential pools. Also, we began getting commercial work — mostly health clubs in the area — which took us into more high-end products and some really crazy engineering rooms. By then we had the young kids, the “vacuum jockeys,” cleaning the pools, and I was mostly doing repair work.

How did you gain the knowledge to tackle repairs?

I was pretty much self-taught. I’ve always had an aptitude for that kind of stuff, and I learned some while I was at the first company I worked for. At 19, I also became involved with IPSSA [the Independent Pool & Spa Service Association], and I was the IPSSA liaison to the National Plasterers Council. If I encounted problems I couldn’t handle, some of the older gentlemen would give me advice. Plus, you absorb quite a bit on the job from dealing with your own service customers. So I took on the electrical and plumbing aspects of the business.

Especially in the early years, you must have put in some very long hours.

Absolutely. Back then we had to be ready to work 24 hours a day, especially because we were cleaning many of the health clubs in the middle of the night. If something went wrong at 2 or 3 in the morning, I’d get out of bed and go down to take care of it. But the truth is, I really enjoyed the work despite the long hours.

The main reason was that my wife and I were in business for ourselves. We were building something together. In addition, I got to spend a lot of time in beautiful backyards or at amazing commercial facilities. I got to move around a lot, rather than sitting behind a desk all day. So I thought it was pretty good.

How did you transition from doing repair work to remodel jobs?

Word of mouth, mainly. Back then there were many older pools, so there was
a big need for replastering and retiling. There were a lot of leaks, and we had to replace a huge amount of copper plumbing. It was actually pretty easy to get remodeling work, due to the fact that we had already gained the confidence of the hundreds of homeowners and commercial guys whose pools we’d been cleaning. We had built-in credibility.

Still, there must have been a fair number of competitors who were more established than you.

You have to understand that in those days many pool builders didn’t like to do remodeling work. They still don’t. The average pool builder who hasn’t been part of the service side of the business tends to shy away from remodeling. They see it as difficult, and they don’t make a lot of money at it because there are all kinds of hidden expenses.

But you were able to avoid those pitfalls?

Because we came from the service side, we really understood the remodeling. process. We figured out how to bid these projects so that we actually made a nice profit. It was a great market for us, because as I’ve noted, there wasn’t that much competition. It’s almost an untapped market — although that may have changed somewhat because of the current economic situation.

And the transition from remodeling to construction?

Basically the same story. Eventually the remodels opened up some opportunities to build new pools. By then I had a California pool-construction license. We initially worked for general contractors — but once we realized how profitable construction could be, we started doing projects on our own. Again, the credibility we had built along the way was invaluable in helping us to advance.

When we got serious about construction, we began to balance it with the pool service side. About 10 years ago, we left the service business all together. It’s a lot more fun to be creative — and face it, there’s not that much room for creativity when you’re cleaning pools.

Now you’re involved with some extraordinarily high-end, cutting-edge projects, and you’re working with truly top-notch architects. Has that been a challenge, given some people’s egos?

It’s true that a number of these well-known architects have huge egos. But we’re here to facilitate their projects; we’re here to help them look good. It’s a creative environment of all of us. And with these really high-end pools — when you’re building crazy, whacked-out stuff that’s never been done before — there are a lot of problems that need to be solved. That’s when it truly become a team effort.

What do you mean?

Today, with computers and AutoCAD playing such a big role, we almost always are part of a team. Most of the contact among team members is not face-to-face — it’s via e-mail. Everyone is responsible for their own particular aspect of the project. So while the architect has the overall vision, a lot of other people are involved in turning that vision into reality.

By the way, I have to admit that whether we’re talking about landscape architects, engineers, watershapes designers — most everyone working on these teams has a pretty healthy ego.

You’ve started doing your own design work. Is that what you like best?

It’s fun to do the design work, but the really great thing is when you’ve finished building a pool, and you see that the client’s eyes are all lit up, and the neighbors are knocking on the door wanting to see it, and you get calls wanting to know what color plaster you used, because they think it’s the perfect color — that’s the biggest thrill for me. I enjoy design work, but the greatest reward is having happy clients at the end of the construction process who are going to recommend you to their neighbors.

It seems that you’ve always pushed yourself to achieve more. What has driven you?

I think it’s been my love for this industry. My wife and I absolutely love what we do. Now we’re getting to build what are really pieces of art made out of water.

We’re working with some pretty amazing architects, for clients who are hugely successful people. Getting inside their heads and seeing what their vision is — that’s the challenge. So it’s very rewarding, and not just in terms of money.

When you were starting out, did you ever think you’d end up where you are today?

We’ve never known where this would end up. We’ve often said that it has been like being on a out-of-control locomotive and just hanging on for the ride.

What would you tell young people who are just beginning their watershapeing careers?

Have a dream and follow it. And be creative. Become that little kid again, playing with crayons and popsicle sticks. Whether you’re talking about a $15,000 job or a $1 million job, don’t make it all about price. Give clients something a little different than what all their neighbors have. Maybe most important, be enthusiastic about what you’re doing, because that’s what clients like. But it has to be genuine; it’s not something you can fake.

Do you still have a dream?

My dream is to keep doing what I do, and to have a lot of fun doing it. I don’t think I ever want to stop working.