Pools & Spas
Once U.S. designers and builders "discovered" vanishing edges - probably at some point in the 1980s, although the look emerged long before then with some forward-thinking architects and watershapers - we've never let this highly visual design detail go. I use these edge effects in my designs all the time, and setting them up in the best way possible has
Devising an approach to the application of fields of glass tile to complex surfaces is never simple, but when your goal is to do so while minimizing cuts and eliminating any visual "tics" that might stand out like sore thumbs when the work is done? That's taking the work to a whole different level. The project under discussion here, built in Gilbert, Ariz., offered this sort of challenge twice - once in a large entryway waterfeature, and again in the backyard with an outsized
The fun thing about working on spec houses is that, every once in a while, you run into a client who truly wants to blow the doors off - in the best way possible, of course. That was certainly true here: The home is right on the water on one of the islands in Biscayne Bay where Miami's elite prefer to live, and the eventual asking price for the property was in the $26 million range, give or take. It's an area where few
In most backyard swimming pool projects, we install the drainage systems for decks after the swimming pool's plumbing, basically because the pool plumbers use big trenchers that will likely destroy the small drainage plumbing if
In recent years, it's been difficult to avoid two large and related discussions about water treatment as it relates to swimming pools and spas. One the one hand are discussions of the evils of chlorine, which, after more than a century of common and beneficial use, is still widely misunderstood by homeowners and many professionals in the watershaping trades. On the other are conversations about chlorine-free pools and spas - another set of exchanges where there's proving to be
I'm a big fan of beach entries: As I see it, they wrap at least five important design and usage issues up in one neat package. First, they provide easy access to the pool. Second, that access is gradual, which many bathers prefer. Third, they bring a bit of visual drama to the water's edge - and then repeat it where the slope breaks off into deeper water. Fourth, they create an easy
This is the story of a project where I'm still not sure which was tested more - my creativity or my patience. It was one of the first design tasks I tackled after moving to Katy, Texas, in 2009. In retrospect, it may not have been the ideal time to relocate: The full force of the Great Recession wasn't clear at that point; I had a job but no direct way to bank on the good reputation I'd built where
'Through the past two years,' wrote Mark Holden to start his January/February 2011 Currents column in WaterShapes, 'a handful of voices in this magazine and elsewhere have called for building pools without drains as a means of virtually eliminating suction-entrapment incidents. The response to this suggestion has been strong, both for and against.' 'In sifting through some of these discussions . . . one item caught my
Through the years, I've come across all sorts of clients with unique motivations and interesting available spaces. My task in collaborating with each of them centers on carefully evaluating the situation, sorting through various sets of possibilities and, ultimately, delivering a design that hits the mark on all possible levels. This project, however, was a bit different from most: The client had acquired
WaterShapes recently published a pair of my articles on techniques for filling newly plastered swimming pools with water and starting them on the path to a long, successful service life. In the second of those articles (click here), the focus was on the bicarb start-up method and the effect this approach has on the establishment of a durable plaster, pebble or quartz finish. But rather than being a step-by-step description of how the bicarb start-up works on site, the article was about
