Professional Watershaping
Until quite recently, it was difficult to find too many people in the watershaping industry who were willing to say much about “going green.” For a while now, I’ve thought that was a mistake: It’s been manifestly clear for several years that practices and programs related to energy conservation, water conservation and an overall sense of environmental responsibility are here to stay, and I always think it’s better to stay ahead of the curve when these movements arise than it is to
In the world of concrete science and application, innumerable variables have an influence on whether a concrete installation is successful or not. These include but are not limited to the skill of the applicator, the suitability of the mix design, the temperature at the time of application, the equipment used, the water-to-cement ratio and the size of the aggregate. For all the seeming complexity, however, the nature of the material itself invests the process with a few immovable facts. One of these directly undermines the swimming pool industry’s “standard” that calls for a compression strength of 2,500 pounds per square inch for pneumatically placed concrete (that is, gunite or shotcrete). It’s not because the standard is inadequate per se; rather, it’s because
In my last “Currents” column (June 2009), I began a discussion of Project Manuals with an overview of these written specifications and other construction documents and how they are formally bound and made part of a project’s contract documents. This time, we’ll dig inside the manuals and take a closer look at what they contain. Let me start with a simple recommendation: If you don’t already work with Project Manuals in some form, now is probably a good time to get started – especially if you’re a watershaper who prepares designs to be
One of the themes I’ve covered repeatedly through the years has had to do with the need for all of us to become effective team players. True, there have been times when egos have gotten in the way and I’ve found myself in fairly dysfunctional groups, but for all that, I have to say that collaboration very often yields great results. In fact, the vast majority of team projects in which I get involved these days are wonderful collaborations among clients, architects and general contractors as well as (depending on the project) interior designers, landscape architects, lighting designers and more. Of all those practitioners,
The notion that we should do all we can to exceed client expectations is one we hear trumpeted in almost every inspirational business seminar and in nearly every keynote speech during trade shows. There are very good reasons for this: After all, when you perform beyond your clients’ expectations, they’re far more likely to be pleased with the process, more reasonable in their requests and, ultimately, readier sources of the referrals that will keep your business hopping. Not only that, but there’s also something wonderful in making people happy – if for no other reason than in doing so, we tend to make ourselves happy as well. In the watershaping world, conjuring those good vibrations is right up there for me alongside
“I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Those words (originally uttered by the fictional newsman Howard Beale, for those of you who remember the movie “Network”) reflected the frustration of a man overwhelmed by the forces that governed his working life and the society in which he lived. His declaration became the rallying cry of a movement that formed around his sense of outrage. I’m in that same sort of outraged mode right now and find myself on a similar quest for allies: I want the watershaping industry to change now and for the better, but
Through the past year and a half, I’ve dedicated four “Currents” columns to the subject of drawing practices and the National CAD Standards. But construction documents consist not only of drawings, but also written specifications – so now I’ll shift my attention to Project Manuals – key communication tools used by architects and engineers to uphold quality and establish performance requirements for all of a given project’s contractors. Basically, a Project Manual is a bound book of construction documents prepared to define
As winter draws to a close here in the northeast, we begin preparing in earnest to deal with the inevitable springtime rush. There are contracts to sign, materials to order, plants to grow, schedules to set and hires (if any) to be made. And we do all of this knowing that, once the weather breaks, we want to burst out of the gate like an odds-on favorite at the Kentucky Derby. To make this happen, we need to be ready. Where I live and work, winters are usually long, so by spring our coffers are low, our staff is eager to get some exercise and our general desire to
One of the longest-standing knocks against the pool and spa industry is that too many designers and builders rely too heavily on convention and seem disinclined to pursue new paths and ideas no matter how compelling they might be. Of course there are exceptions, but there’s a lot of truth to that statement when it comes to the technology chosen, for example, to drive circulation systems and chemically treat or light the water: All too often, pool and spa professionals tend to keep on specifying and installing equipment they’ve used for years – even if it’s outmoded or is no longer the best available approach – because they feel comfortable with it and
One of the greatest epiphanies I’ve ever had as a watershaper came many years ago when I was asked to tell a group of businesspeople what I did for a living. I’d been invited to attend a meeting of the Miami Chamber of Commerce and, as a newcomer, was asked to say a few words about my company and my work. I was to go second: The first speaker was in the carpet-cleaning business and, as I recall vividly, described what he did in such a way that it would’ve been a great cure for insomnia. Standing up after his sleep-inducing performance, I was
