Pools & Spas
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
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
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
It's not what I'd call a common request these days, but every now and then I come across homeowners who want to be able to sit in the water to enjoy a cool drink or even a meal. It gets hot in Texas, after all, and these folks figured that relaxing under an umbrella around an in-pool table would be a great way to beat the heat. It's actually a decent concept, but just as is the case with the stools we sometimes set up for swim-up bars, the designer or builder needs to
It started a couple years ago: More and more often, I was meeting clients who wanted great pools and spas that involved no chemical enhancement - just the water itself. These were generally people who had studied up. They had rejected dichlor and trichlor and were opposed to any kind of cyanurate presence. They'd considered saltwater pools until they figured out that chlorine was part of the package. They'd looked at ozone and were concerned
These days, I run into lots of clients who want clean, crisp detailing when it comes to everything associated with their backyard spaces - pool, spa, patio, decks and outdoor kitchens included. They're after works of visual art that, when not in active use, can be seen from inside the house as a continuation of the elegant, well-appointed interior spaces they've set up so thoughtfully. Sometimes, this means that
Last time, we looked at an instance in which migrating water presents mostly aesthetic challenges - scale formation, evaporation residues and other hassles that simply make a watershape look worse than it should. This time, we'll look into a case where the migrating water not only made the watershape look bad, but was also doing structural damage to a nearby deck and, ultimately, to the pool shell itself. It's a cautionary tale that should make any contractor
With hillside projects, it's generally true that lines of sight mean everything. No matter whether the views are up close or in the far distance, no matter if the space looks out over water, trees, rugged terrain or other structures, a design wins huge style points (and a client's gratitude) if you are conscious of the way your watershapes fit into their environments. The project covered in this article had almost every advantage in the view department. Set on a slope overlooking the Pacific Ocean at Dana Point, Calif., the home sits
In my work as a construction-defect expert witness, I see a certain problem in the design and construction of spillways all too frequently: When the system is initiated, the flow of water down the face of the dam wall will behave more or less as desired, holding to a narrow path into the pool or trough that awaits it. After a time, however, that water will begin to migrate, spreading out farther and farther beyond the desired pathway until the material - usually some sort of
It's a fact: Those who own and operate commercial aquatic facilities spend a lot of time trying to find ways to keep costs under control. From elaborate hotel pools to huge waterparks, it's all about finding money to reinvest in new programs and features - or a simple matter of keeping the doors open. In a recent article, I wrote about how the increasing use of
