Another Look

Before I walk away from my little series of blogs on big transitions, I want to call attention to renovations, which I consider to be both a generational phenomenon as well as the greatest potential source of projects and market growth through the next two or three decades.

The swimming pools being built when I started paying daily attention to such things in 1986 were mostly primitive by today’s standards. They were still mostly rectangles or kidneys, still had little more than steps and maybe a bench and were lit by one big 500-watt incandescent bulb. The coolest ones had spas attached in some way, but these units were generally underpowered and a bit disappointing in the hydrotherapy department.

Thing is, there are millions of these “standard” pools around, every single one of them coming to a point in their existences where something will need to be done. (I’m focusing on pools here, but I suspect the same may be said of vintage fountains, ponds and other waterfeatures. I will also stipulate that a whole lot of these “standard” watershapes have been built in the past 30 years and that many of them could use some attention, too.)

In many cases, the “something” needing done will be mechanical and will be about little more than keeping the watershape plugging along; in many more, however, there will also be a call for cosmetic work to help a vessel keep up with the times and, more important, with the elevated expectations of new generations of homeowners.

This is why I’m so happy that my friends at Genesis/NSPF have turned their attention to what’s involved in these projects with a course entitled, “Construction 281: Major Renovations.” To my knowledge, they’ve run the class at least once already; they’ll be offering it again – for the first time on the West Coast, where I see most of the opportunities – on September 12 and 13 at Zodiac Pool Systems’ headquarters in Vista, Calif.

Genesis is pulling out two of its biggest guns for the event, with Dave Peterson and Bill Drakeley as instructors. But far more important from my perspective is the inclusion of a third instructor, landscape designer Kate Wiseman, who will ensure that the focus of the course is broader than exploring ways, for example, to knit new concrete into existing structures.

That technical stuff is obviously important, but in my book, the hay is to be made with a pure aesthetic vision of what can happen in the backyard of someone saddled with an aging kidney-shaped pool. Take mine, for example.

My own pool was built in 1983, six years before we bought the house. It was rather hip for its day, with a raised bond beam along the back of the pool and a spa elevated by a quarter-inch or so above the pool’s waterline. But it is also so standard as to be laughable in this context: It has a set of shallow-end steps and two deep-end benches to go along with a single 500-watt incandescent light (shining directly at the window of our den, so I don’t recall using it more than once or twice).

It has a narrow ribbon of plain beige decking, red-brick coping to go with the red-brick raised wall and a strange blue-and-brown waterline tile with a white-plaster finish. There’s a single-point suction head in the deep end, and the same in the spa – a perpetual safety concern for me and a reason I’m extra-vigilant when kids are in the water. The only thing “modern” about our pool is the equipment pad, which I’ve updated a couple times through the past 30 years.

And the fact is that just about every pool in my neighborhood – and there are dozens of them within an easy walk of my front door – is similar to mine, the big difference being that mine was built in 1983 while most of the rest were installed in the 1960s and ’70s and are in need of even more mechanical and aesthetic attention.

Just about every day, I see a story about an old public pool that’s being closed or demolished. Much less frequently, I see an item on one undergoing a major rehabilitation. I would hate to think that there’s a similar proportionality in the residential sector, with more people giving up on their watershapes than are renovating them.

Perhaps those who emerge from the Genesis course will take up the cause and start deliberately, purposefully marketing their services to people with existing pools in serious need of updating. I see this as an exciting possibility, a lucrative opportunity and, above all, a chance to change the way people think about their existing watershapes – that is, as constantly upgradeable works in progress rather than as static monuments to days long gone.

The before-and-after shots with blank-slate yards are truly satisfying; those with old pools as the starting point can be downright thrilling. If renovations are a key part of what you do, congratulations – and keep up the good work! If this is an alien concept to you, please do give it a good look and watch The Genesis course schedule: If I’m right, it’s going to represent a huge percentage of the construction business for the next 20 or even 30 years.