Pools & Spas
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
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
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
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
When he was brought in to replace a pool that had failed because of improper construction for the existing soil conditions, David Tisherman knew he’d have to dig deep to come up with a solution – literally. The resulting structural design defines an approach to building in which at least as much thought and care goes into what’s installed beneath a pool or spa as into how the project ultimately will look to the client. Some projects are doomed from the start, and it was pretty obvious when I first laid eyes on what was left of the existing pool that this was one of those cases: Light-duty construction coupled with a complete lack of consideration of existing soil conditions had resulted in a nightmare for the homeowner – and costly litigation for the contractor. But with every failure comes a chance to succeed, and that’s what we’re working toward in this project, which is about 50% complete as this chapter of the story is being written. Our goal: taking an utter catastrophe and transforming it to a
