Jim, Author at Water Shapes

When do you think about the exterior lighting for your watershapes and their surroundings? Is it an afterthought, or part of your plan from the beginning? In his experience, says veteran lighting designer Mike Hersman, the former is too commonly the case – and that’s a bad habit this designer and installer of lighting systems would like to change because of the visual wonders that can be unveiled once the sun goes down.

Night Visions

It's a simple fact: No matter where you are on the globe, ultimately it's dark exactly half the time. So no matter how beautiful your watershapes may be, if you don't fully consider lighting as a key component of your projects, you may be robbing your work of half its potential for pleasing your clients. That makes it a bottom-line issue, because lighting adds real value to most any watershape installation with a long list of benefits. For starters, it extends the time a watershape can be used beyond daylight hours. It also adds

Horses to Engines

When I first begin to do research for a column, I really have little control over the direction I might take. If it's a cut-and-dried technical subject where I'll be dealing primarily with solid, scientific facts, the task is relatively simple. Using my own textbooks, two local libraries and the Internet, I look for my subject matter in a minimum of three separate sources. If the information is identical in each selected source, I feel pretty confident that I can use the data in an article. It isn't always so easy, however, and that's nobody's fault but

Small Solutions

What do you do with a space that seems too small for a watershape and too small for plantings? The answer: Think small. You don't have to compromise on style or substance, but simply by thinking on a smaller scale, you'll open up a lot of possibilities you might not have considered. About three years ago, for example, I was brought in on a job to do a quick fix for a very small but prominent area of a client's yard. The homeowner wanted to completely rework the entire property, but it was clear there was a lot of other work to do first. The quick fix went very well and the clients were pleased, so they asked me to

Fear Not the Future

Not long ago, a gentleman who had attended one of the Genesis 3 schools was discussing an encounter he'd had with some other pool builders. Much to his surprise, one of the people he was talking to told him he'd been crazy for taking the time and spending the money to attend the school. To me, this is indicative of the sort of mentality that holds our industry back. What the Critic was saying was that his colleague was foolish to have attended the equivalent of a college-level course in aquatic design - a course designed to help him advance in his own line of work. It boggles the mind, like that whole "dead architect" question and the difficulty some people have in valuing what we can learn from designers who have gone before us. When I'm asked what we, as exalted pool builders at the turn of the millennium, have to learn from

Pride, Not Pretense

There's an important point about this magazine that I'd like to clarify: A small number of readers have commented that because this magazine tends to

The procession started more than 20 years ago, when those who apply interior finishes to pools, spas and other watershapes began looking beyond white plaster: First came the colored plasters, then pebbles and colored aggregates and, more recently, the polished aggregates. Now, says Kirk Chapman, more new materials and the advent of hybrid approaches are carrying surface specialists to new possibilities limited only by their imaginations.

Subtle at the Surface

Back in 1987 and particularly in California and Florida, the surfacing industry found itself in the middle of an unfortunate wave of plaster failures. Some people blamed the material, others blamed application techniques - and traces of the debate continue to this day. The situation was truly desperate in some areas, so much so that it drove many plasterers to seek new materials and techniques - anything to escape the cycle of negativity. Our firm in San Diego, for example, moved early and became the first in our county to apply exposed-aggregate finishes. Today, more than 80% of

Retaining walls are made to do an awesome job: High or low, long or short, upslope or downslope, they’re called on to keep earth movement from wreaking havoc on watershapes or any other ‘permanent’ fixtures installed on hillsides. Keeping these walls from failing, says landscape design/build contractor Bruce Zaretsky, is a matter of good planning, design and engineering – much easier said than done, as he explains in this feature on making them work.

The Making of a Great Wall

Retaining walls are used for one simple reason: to hold something back. Whether you need to terrace down to a lower yard, hold up a house on a hillside lot or provide a level area for watershape installation, these walls are indispensable when you lack the room needed to grade a sloped area gradually. Of course, this notion of holding back the forces of ground movement is no small challenge, and proper engineering and construction are critical. Do the job well, and a retaining wall will hold up indefinitely. But if you cut corners or

Interactive waterfeatures are hot these days. Hotel chains, resorts, theme parks and even municipalities have jumped on what Jeff Horvath describes as an ‘interactive bandwagon’ to kick up interest among locals and tourists alike. It’s a simple formula: By attracting children and their families with a combination of design appeal, flexibility and fun, these innovative watershapes boost traffic – and revenues.

Dancing Waters

In conceptual terms, interactive fountains are really nothing new. In fact, fountains have featured water effects and sequencing lights since the turn of the 20th Century. What's emerged lately is a perception that these "dancing" waters are great sources of fun - a means for children to get soaked and for adults to stay dry and enjoy the show. This resurgence of interest has led designers and manufacturers to apply the knowledge and mechanics of the past in creating effects that delight the eye, capture the imagination and bring fun to

The project was massive: Four sets of spectacular model homes for a gated community set in the rolling hills above Newport Beach, Calif. – designed by three different landscape architects and each featuring its own creative use of water. By the time he left the site, says pool builder Kent Hart, he had installed more than 20 vessels of various types, shapes and sizes at the One Ford Road development – and found unique challenges in executing the architects’ divergent visions.

Making Models Super

Not every upscale pool contractor has to be working with his or her own designs to be successful in building beautiful pools. Our company, for instance, has established its reputation by excelling at making the ideas of others come to life. Examples of this can be found in the work we did at One Ford Road, a development where we were asked to follow through on designs prepared by three of Southern California's best-known landscape architects. We've found here and elsewhere that when you work with highly creative people (including those who designed the pools, spas and waterfeatures pictured on these pages), the process can be truly rewarding, exciting and even

Well Grounded

Last month we covered the "hows" of grounding pretty well. Using the definitions from the National Electrical Code (NEC) for guidance, we saw that in order to be considered effectively grounded, the non-current-carrying metal parts of all equipment associated with a watershape must be connected to the system grounding bus at the electrical service panel. This is accomplished by installing a green-colored (or green with a yellow stripe), minimum No. 12 AWG insulated copper conductor between the equipment's grounding terminal and the system grounding bus. This conductor is