ARTICLES Archives - Page 104 of 315

For someone who started out as a pool designer who never visited his clients' backyards, Jeromey Naugle has come a long, long way -- and knows how important a part digital technology has played in his progress as a professional 'paradise expert.'

Rising Aspiration

Back in 2001, I took a job working for a high-volume pool-construction firm as one of its 30 salespeople. For the first four years or so, I did all of my design work by hand. Quantity was always king in that operation, so I never even left the office: Someone would hand me a set of plans and I'd start working, despite the fact I'd never walked the site, seen its surroundings or had any

The Necessity of Restraint

'Everywhere you turn these days,' wrote David Tisherman to start his Details column in August 2005, 'you see watershapers tackling projects that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago.' 'With this broadening list of possibilities, however, . . . [t]he industry's like a teenager with a fresh driver's license: just because he or she knows how doesn't necessarily mean that

Priced Out

Something has been nagging at the edges of my consciousness for a while now, and I think it's high time to write about it. One of my duties for the past several years has been to roam the Internet to find stories related to pools and all sorts of other watershapes and decide whether a given item merits your attention. From the start, I noticed but did not share a whole class of items related to

When the goal is glass-tiled perfection, says Jimmy Reed, there's no substitute for the hard work that goes into ideal surface preparation. And that's especially true when, as in the case highlighted here, the project involves resurfacing an old, deep pool and its odd set of coves.

Iridescent Perfection

In my career, I've applied lots of fine finishes to swimming pools, spas, fountains and other types of waterfeatures. Most often we work with glass tile, but we also keep our hands in a variety of ceramic or porcelain tiles, various mosaics and, generally, what most would call classy, top-flight materials. No two projects are ever quite the same, but the procedures we follow are: In every case, we at Rock Solid Tile (Calabasas, Calif.) end up having to work through imperfections in the concrete shells left for us by builders and their concrete crews - and that's true even if they're experienced and have

Nature’s Studio

For most of my life, I've been lucky to live within easy driving distance of a bunch of great national parks. Yosemite, Sequoia, Joshua Tree - the names alone flood my mind with memories of towering waterfalls, raging rivers, incredible landscapes, amazing rock formations and campfires that couldn't quite keep the cold at bay. In all my visits through the years, I've seen these "neighborhood" parks as naturalistic-design laboratories, as settings in which careful observation influences the work, fills the spirit and send watershapers back to the drawing board with all sorts of general ideas that might be of use down the line. Conceptual and visual treats, in other words - the stuff of inspiration. Last month, my wife and I ranged a bit farther afield than usual, hopping a plane to visit Yellowstone National Park. I have to say that the experience completely altered my sense of what a "naturalistic-design laboratory" might be. In this one park, I saw more

Picking a Path

Once a new swimming pool is filled with water and turned over to its owners, the designer and builder have completed their work: Let's assume that the results have met or exceeded the clients' expectations and that everyone is pleased by the outcome. If all has truly gone well, little will occur in subsequent weeks to change the general sense of

Passion and Practicality

'If you ask my employees,' wrote Bruce Zaretsky in starting his July 2010 On the Level column, 'they'll tell you that I'm an unrelenting pain in the neck - a real tyrant. That's because I'm always asking nagging sorts of questions such as, "Why isn't this project finished yet?" or "How much longer is this going to take?" or "Can you speed things up?" 'My questions, of course, are somewhat unfair. . . . But I have no reluctance to come across as a tyrant

Righting a Hurtful Wrong

I came across this news item a couple weeks back and have wanted to share it with you ever since. Written by Suzanne Perez Tobias for the May 24 edition of the Wichita Eagle, it's about one person's response to the Kansas legislature's decision to prevent the state's needy citizens from using any public assistance money to go to public

The Aquatic Quiz #30

What Do a Japanese Zoo's Elephants Do After Swimming in Their New Pool?

His clients wanted a home that reflected their refined tastes, writes Randy Beard. The fact that, for a change, others were focused on the challenge of working on a difficult slope freed him to get everything just right with their large spa and understated entryway fountain.

Eastern Sensibilities

It's rare, but it happens: Every once in a while, a client's desires align perfectly with the capabilities of a watershape designer and builder - so much so that the collaboration becomes a study in how powerful creative harmony can be. This sort of synergy was a hallmark of the hillside project under discussion here. Early in the process, we were brought aboard to work on an unusually large spa as well as a small