Commentaries, Interviews & Profiles
Pool service tech, Robert Foutz Jr., takes a look back over his 40 years in the service side of the pool industry, with an eye toward some of the many changes he has seen along the way—as well as some of the new things he had to learn in order to adapt.
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When a construction site is left unsecured, it can become a serious hazard, says veteran expert witness, Scott Cohen. The danger isn’t hypothetical. It’s real, potentially fatal, but also, thankfully, preventable. The key is always keeping in mind that clients, and especially kids, don’t always appreciate the hazards of a working construction site.
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Winters in the Hamptons on Long Island, NY, are cold, long and for pool service businesses, also quiet and even lonely. As summer residents vacate for ski slopes or warmer climes, Julie Kazdin reports that winters at her company are focused on rest, retooling, and renewal, all essential in preparing for the busy season ahead.
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Service technician Robert Foutz Jr. has worked on his company’s pool service route for more than four decades. During that time, he has seen generational change in pool service and the broader landscape of society—none more dramatic than in the ways we communicate.
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Preventable, yet tragic on a global scale, unsafe water, poor sanitation, and lack of hygiene kill millions each year—more than all acts of violence combined. Tracing the history of water treatment and today’s waterborne-disease crisis, calls for renewed commitment to clean water as humanity’s most essential defense.
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When designing landscapes around swimming pools, trees are among the most valued elements. They provide shade, scale, greenery, and privacy — all hallmarks of luxury backyard design. But the wrong tree in the wrong location can cause expensive pool and hardscape damage. Few species demonstrate this more dramatically than the ficus tree.
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The need to manage and control water is one of the defining challenges of human civilization. One visionary landscape architect believes the key to sustained success is to use natural processes to create “sponge cities” that ingeniously integrate manmade infrastructure with the widespread use of wetlands, rain gardens and green belts.
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Pool plastering veteran and instructor, Jon Temple, believes the industry needs to rethink its approach to the cementitious surface installation process. That transformation, he says, should start by changing some of the language used to describe how plaster and exposed aggregate finishes are formulated, placed and maintained.
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The ocean hides many secrets, and among its most haunting are the remains of ancient civilizations now lost to its depths. With new technology, including sonar mapping, underwater drones, and satellite imagery, now more than ever before researchers are uncovering forgotten chapters of human history hidden on the ocean floor.
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Seeds of Purpose