ARTICLES Archives - Page 309 of 311

Beginning with the Finish

Back in August 1989, I experienced my first day in a brand-new job covering pools and spas for one of the industry's trade magazines. My first assignment: attend a meeting of

The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Fla., boasts one of the country’s oldest, largest and most historic swimming pools. Built in the 1930s and covering nearly half an acre, there was no such thing as an easy way out when it came to fully restoring what is still one of the largest pools in North America. And as renovation specialist Steven Lucas also learned, a short timeline adds considerably to the stresses of dealing with a national treasure. (Photo courtesy Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables, Fla.)

With just a few weeks to go before our work was to begin, I took my wife Denise to visit the historic pool at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. I wanted to take a long look at what was (and may always be) the largest re-plastering job I'd ever landed. As I stood at the edge of what can truly be described as a huge pool, I actually thought for the first time in my career that I'd bitten off more than I could chew: The surface of the massive U-shaped pool was in terrible shape and dragged down the hotel's otherwise beautiful decor and landscaping. Yes, it was the kind of prestige job I'd always wanted, but it only took a few minutes for the enormity of what I had undertaken to

Swimming pool plaster has changed a great deal in recent years. With the advent of pigments in the ’60s and the arrival of pebbles in the ’80s, first color and then texture were added to surfaces once only white and smooth. Now, reports Greg Garrett, two new admixtures are finding their ways into the mix to add strength and durability and further the evolution of these useful pool finishes.

Pebbles, Pozzolons & Polymers

One certainly emerges from all the discussions that have taken place about swimming pool plaster over the past several years: The product has had plenty of room for improvement. Among the complaints has been that traditional white-plaster pool finishes simply haven't kept pace with the rising expectations of owners, who increasingly want their pools, spas and waterfeatures to be entirely forgiving when their lifestyles limit the time they can spend on maintenance and upkeep. In that environment, in fact, traditional

The sound of water moving through the landscape adds something special to any backyard, offering a powerful aesthetic component to even the simplest of designs. These auditory enhancements evoke strong images, emotions and associations even from casual or occasional observers, notes landscape designer and watershaper Rick Anderson, who suggests that the 'aural factor' should be considered from the very beginning of the design phase.

Soothing Sounds

All too often, the purchasers of a home (new or old) find a garden space stripped of any natural feel. Large lot or small, they sense no "connection" to the land - only a bleak space devoid of vegetation or any sort of overhead canopy and lacking the finishing touches that draw them out of the confines of the home to enjoy what usually represents the majority of their real estate. From my perspective, the best way to generate this connection to the land is through the creation of ponds, streams and waterfalls in these backyard settings. Such features bring a more natural look and feel to residential garden spaces and instill a sense of connectedness. And whether customers pick up this sense consciously or subconsciously does not matter: What matters is that they somehow know it, that they feel it. Plantings are a big part of this picture, but I lean heavily on watershapes to create connections because of

Why spend tens of thousands of dollars for a freeway-strong substructure if you’re not going to put a beautifully designed and well-constructed pool on top of all that stabilizing steel and concrete? In this second article detailing the evolution of a spectacular installation on a fragile hillside, builder/designer David Tisherman describes what it takes to craft a shell worthy of so spectacular a setting.

Shaping Perfection

When I talk with prospective customers about hillside installations, more often than not I'll find myself saying "A good foundation deserves a great pool" at some point during our conversations. In fact, I view all of my pools as works of art, whether they're installed on a hillside or on flat land. The design can be a simple rectangle (which in my opinion are some of the most beautiful pools built) or an elaborate oceanscape with all sorts of bells and whistles. Regardless of location, style or complexity, I build my pools with first-rate foundations engineered for the specific soil conditions, and I give my clients the best pool I possibly can. As I explained in

Pneumatically applied concrete – better known to all the world as ‘shotcrete’ or ‘gunite’ – is so pervasive in watershape construction and so structurally dependable in most cases that a great many builders forget one of the primary steps in its application: proper curing. The result, says consultant Curt Straub, is a rash of hairline cracking in plaster surfaces that might easily be avoided.

Finding the Cure

As a former shotcrete builder myself, I believe you can't find a better method of building a pool, spa, pond or waterfeature of any type than by using pneumatically placed concrete, or "shotcrete." The method and the material offer the designer and builder great and often incredible design flexibility, and the resulting watershapes will last several lifetimes. Given that the vast majority of watershapers around the world depend on shotcrete as their primary construction material, it only makes sense that we should know as much as possible about putting this amazing product to its best possible use. Unfortunately, however, that's not always the case. There's little argument that the process of shotcrete construction is laborious and demanding, that it requires a major logistical and physical effort and that fairly precise timing is necessary. For all the focus it takes to apply it and shape it just so, however, I have observed a couple of critical steps many builders overlook in the press of getting the job done - the most important of them being the proper curing of the

Today’s swimming pools have a great and wonderful tendency toward beauty, but the plain and unhappy fact, says Fred Hare, is that many of them are not as sound in design, engineering and construction as they should be – and this is particularly true when it comes to their hydraulics. To find out why, this engineer and educator asks a pointed question: ‘Are your pools as good as they look?’

As Good as It Looks?

How far we've come since the days of the lazy L, the kidney and the rectangle! During the more than 30 years I've been part of the pool industry, I've witnessed mind-boggling advances in the designs of swimming pools, spas and watershapes of all types. Especially in the past 10 years, the ideas, creativity and workmanship found in residential backyards far surpasses what we saw or even dreamed of 20 or 30 years ago. Back then, you'd have to go to a movie set or Las Vegas to see the exotic designs we are seeing today. I'd even say that today's designers are turning backyard pool environments into

The owner wanted something unique, something spectacular to mark the entrance to a new development of upscale homes. Michael Nantz dove into the project with enthusiasm and a head full of ideas – but soon found that the flat terrain and the site’s immediate proximity to a busy highway presented special challenges.

Roadside Attraction

Some projects grab you right from the start, and this was definitely one of those cases. As the principals at Herzog Development Corp. explained in our initial meeting, their new development was to be a "golf course community with a rustic feel, but refined." To embody that refinement, Don Herzog and his son, Daryl, wanted some sort of elaborate waterfeature - something that would break the monotony of the stark, flat terrain of northeast Dallas County and welcome

Artificial rock may have its place, but the real thing is still king when it comes to adding beauty, value and prestige to natural-style pools, spas and waterfeatures. Here, a natural-rock specialist defines some of the ways he uses rock by the ton to turn common waterscapes into truly dazzling works of naturalistic art.

Classic Rock

If you love rock, New England is a great place to work. A special combination of geology and the glaciers of the last Ice Age left behind a spectacular legacy of granite formations and scattered countless tons of boulders of all types and descriptions across the landscape from Maine through Massachusetts. It's the indigenous rock, so it's not too surprising that affluent New Englanders have long chosen granite and other local species to accent their landscaping. And this is especially true in

Terms in Currency

You don't have to be a football expert to sit in the stands on a nice fall day and watch the locals bash the visitors. But to get the most from the festivities, it helps to know the difference between a two-point conversion and an on-side kick. Being able to converse with your seatmates about the nickel defense and the single-wing offense surging back and forth before your eyes makes it even better. The jargon isn't just for the players and sportscasters. Electricity is a bit like that. Most of us are users, and most of us know some of the jargon despite the fact we don't work at a power plant. We know that we have 12-volt batteries in our cars and that the porch light takes a 60-watt light bulb. And for many folks, that's enough. I believe, however, that those of us who work with things electric on a larger scale can benefit from