ARTICLES Archives - Page 100 of 312

When he builds custom pools for fully engaged homeowners, Randy Beard usually has no problems with setting and exceeding expectations. But here's a case where the client just couldn't absorb a key message about how to use the pool -- and therein hangs a tale.

A Lesson in Communication

This project is wonderful in so many ways that it's tough to believe our clients could be anything less than perfectly satisfied - but, surprisingly, they've had a bone to pick with me. It's just gorgeous: A great shape, beautifully detailed tile, a perimeter-overflow system augmented with a vanishing edge, underwater speakers, lush landscaping - a perfect Hawaiian-style plunge for

Those who own or manage swimming pools know that heating the water can be a major expense. But higher efficiencies and new technologies can bring those costs way down, says Mike Fowler, who leads a tour through the money-saving possibilities in this article.

Heat of the Moment

There are two truths when it comes to swimming pools and heat: Year in and year out, some months are colder than others and, year by year, energy prices tend to rise. For a facility built around a heated swimming pool, those two truths are powerful drivers of the ongoing cost of staying in operation - and it's safe to say that seasonal expenses related to keeping the water warm are never far from the minds of

On the Edge

Our work in this backyard was only part of a larger project - a big part, to be sure, but once we were done a landscape crew came on site and kept on working. That's not unusual with a project on this scale, but we were so happy with our work that it was a bit disappointing not to paint the entire picture. In some sense, however, I think this made us focus all the more on

Happy Plaster

Picture this: You've just completed the installation of a beautiful new swimming pool - a real step up for the home and its backyard. The clients had their hearts set on its dark-gray interior finish: They'd heard it would help warm the water on sunny days, and they liked the thought that the pool would look more like a beautiful lagoon than a pale swimming hole. The plaster crew

Living in Color

'Few things are as important to the aesthetic impression made by swimming pools, spas and other watershapes as the colors you select to use in and around them,' wrote David Tisherman in opening his Details column in the September 2005 issue of WaterShapes. 'Take tile as an example. Whether it's just a waterline detail, a complete interior finish or some elaborate mosaic pattern, it serves to draw the eye into a design. If the color and material selections work, the scene can become

Winter’s Work

For many years, Bruce Zaretsky faced the annual need to generate enough income to keep his business and his staff going through New York's long, cold winters. Here's a look at few of the most successful sidelines he found in his quest to keep the seasonal wolves at bay. As you read this, some of us in upstate New York are already thinking about

My Digital Confession

It all started at the Orlando pool expo last November, when Noah Nehlich stopped by the WaterShapes booth toward the end of the show and asked how we might work together. He's the founder of Structure Studios (which produces the Pool Studio software system), and I have to admit that I'd never been terribly receptive to the concept of digital design. At that point, in fact, I was still so

#20: Organic Spa

I've been working as a watershape designer long enough to have seen big trends emerge and really take hold. It seemed for a while, for example, that vanishing edges came up at some point in just about every initial client conversation. More recently, I've found myself discussing lots of geometric pools - rectangles and various other squared-off perimeters - and that's great, because it gives us plentiful ways to

If you want to bring a dash of visual style and authenticity to a older property, writes Robert Nonemaker, look no further than local infrastructure projects: In older areas, they can supply you with salvaged materials well suited to your clients' driveways, decks and poolscapes.

Salvaged with Care

In recent years, more and more of our clients have asked us to use old hardscape materials on their projects: They love the stuff, they tell us, and they're sold on its aesthetic richness, authenticity and time-tested visual appeal. Living in southeastern Pennsylvania near some of the country's oldest cities gives me the advantage of ready access to these timeless objects - mostly old cobbles, bricks and stone curbing pulled up in the process of infrastructure

Water Emotion

Our early-summer trip to Yellowstone National Park was a revelation to me, pure and simple. As I related in my Travelogue for July 22 (click here), the thing that occurred to me is that the inspiration at Yellowstone comes less from