Pools & Spas

All in the Details
In most of our projects, we do the lion's share of the work related to our clients' backyards. We'll design and build the pool and spa, set up the landscape and take care of all of the components of outdoor living from laying decks to installing outdoor kitchens. We like having that level of control over exterior environments, and our clients seem to appreciate the single-source service we're able to provide. Every once in a while, however, we'll come across a project so outstanding that we're perfectly happy to join a great team, interpret someone else's plans and
Perfection, Please
Many of the projects we work on could best be classified as show-stoppers: big, elaborate installations with undulating surfaces, multiple planes intersecting at odd angles and elaborate mosaic patterns - interior finishes with a level of technical difficulty that makes lots of tile applicators head in the other direction at a rapid clip. We at Rock Solid Tile (Calabasas, Calif.) enjoy just that sort of technical challenge. It's why we invest so much time in training, take our work so seriously and keep expanding the range of what we can accomplish for our clients. But truth be told, we occasionally like tackling installations where
Toxin-Free Choices
  Wrapping up his series on a comprehensive approach to healthier pool water, John Cohen goes into great detail in defining system components and making specific product recommendations.
The Clean Slate
  They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In the case of this project, that old truism was right on the mark. From the start, what my clients seemed to want most was to look at every image I could muster and ask questions and make comments about each one. And it worked: Through their words and body language during these sessions, they offered me almost all of the information I had to have to deliver precisely what they wanted. And that was great, because when I
#28: Channel Drain
  For the past ten years or so, high-end designers and builders have focused extensively on hiding things that disrupt a viewer's visual pleasure or violate the clean lines and sleek surfaces they've lavished on their watershapes. This may be why you see so few diving boards and slides these days. It may also be a contributing factor in the speed
Interventions
  Tireless in his quest for information about and approaches to the creation of toxin-free pools and spas, John Cohen has spent years weighing observations of nature and the human body and figuring out ways to use what he's learned to help people swim in pure, clean, safe water.    
A Faraway Hill
  Through the years, we've worked on lots of projects in remote locations all around the world, from Sri Lanka to Bermuda. In a few instances, we've worked without any site visits - but our strong preference is to see where we're working: It helps move our process along if we get the lay of the land and have the opportunity to meet with clients or architects or property representatives on site. The reasons for this preference are obvious: We draw ideas from what we see, nail down a sense of scale and proportion and head to the drawing board armed with
Nature’s Blueprint
  For years, John Cohen has dedicated himself to meeting the needs of clients averse to using traditional sanitizers.  As he reports in the first in a series of articles, his quest began with a narrow-minded 'expert' and has since pulled him toward a biologically inspired set of solutions.  
Making a River Flow
  For more than 50 years, our company has focused on designing and building swimming pools for municipalities, universities, health clubs, state parks, swim clubs, subdivisions, apartments and hospitals - with some residential projects added in for good measure. We're good at what we do, and if we've learned anything through the years, it's that we're successful because we approach each and every project as being
Pushing Limits
  When it happens this way, it's truly special. The clients had seen my work and had been so impressed that they said they didn't want to "sway" me in one direction or another by offering their own design ideas and suggestions. Almost as important, they had the wherewithal to set me loose in pursuit of what I thought should be done throughout the entire space - everything from the watershapes and the outdoor kitchen to the plants and furnishings and small decorative details. As I discovered and they already