These aren't our parents' public pools. Whether run by a city or by a county, these recreational facilities are now subject to a new set of rules in response to evolving consumer demand and the growing popularity of elaborate waterparks. The inert, rectangular pools of years past - ten or 12 feet deep at one end, three or four feet deep at the other - are fast being replaced by multi-faceted, multi-purpose, quasi-organic forms that appeal to users of all ages and abilities. The new designs incorporate large
If you're in the business of digging holes, lining them with steel and concrete and then filling them with water, you need to know that the ground will support the structures. That's particularly true of hillside areas, but the same can be said of areas with high water tables, expansive soils or improperly compacted fill - to name just a few. We've all heard the horror stories of distressed vessels, including pools and spas out of level, significant structural shell cracks and differential movement between the decking and the shell. As we see it, part of the problem is that many pools are simply built with too low a structural tolerance for the stresses to which they
I've spent a lot of time in the past few years thinking about the things that generate the most interest in what we do as pool builders - and even more time turning those thoughts into designs and effects that meet my customers' desires. Once I started down this path, there was no way to turn back: There's a market out there at the high end that most pool builders never even approach, and breaking through with these clients takes persistence, skill and talent. As important, it also takes a willingness to stop looking at pools, spas and waterfeatures in the context of traditions and conventions that just don't line up with the needs or expectations that these customers at the highest levels have these days. These are customers who won't settle for the ordinary. They won't accept plans that stick
Why does the current flow? That was the question we left on the table at the end of our last session. We had pretty well nailed down the ampere as being the basic unit of measurement of electric current, in that it describes the quantity of flow of electrons from one place to another. We were about to examine the volt, the ohm and the watt when the current-flow question arose to command our attention. To get a firm handle on this, we are forced to backtrack a bit. Actually, we have to go back a long, long way - about 60 million years, to when a particular species of pine-like trees grew along the Baltic coast. Over the millennia, the resin from those trees became fossilized, producing the beautiful, beer-colored material called anbar by the
Surely you've heard this line before and never believed it, but I'm here to tell you that size does matter. Have you ever, for example, built a pond or fountain with concrete either surrounding it or fanning out from it beneath the soil - and then had your clients say they wanted a very mature tree or shrub planted right up against the edge? There you are with six inches of soil (maximum!) to work with, and there's just no way to
Back in August 1989, I experienced my first day in a brand-new job covering pools and spas for one of the industry's trade magazines. My first assignment: attend a meeting of
With just a few weeks to go before our work was to begin, I took my wife Denise to visit the historic pool at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. I wanted to take a long look at what was (and may always be) the largest re-plastering job I'd ever landed. As I stood at the edge of what can truly be described as a huge pool, I actually thought for the first time in my career that I'd bitten off more than I could chew: The surface of the massive U-shaped pool was in terrible shape and dragged down the hotel's otherwise beautiful decor and landscaping. Yes, it was the kind of prestige job I'd always wanted, but it only took a few minutes for the enormity of what I had undertaken to
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
All too often, the purchasers of a home (new or old) find a garden space stripped of any natural feel. Large lot or small, they sense no "connection" to the land - only a bleak space devoid of vegetation or any sort of overhead canopy and lacking the finishing touches that draw them out of the confines of the home to enjoy what usually represents the majority of their real estate. From my perspective, the best way to generate this connection to the land is through the creation of ponds, streams and waterfalls in these backyard settings. Such features bring a more natural look and feel to residential garden spaces and instill a sense of connectedness. And whether customers pick up this sense consciously or subconsciously does not matter: What matters is that they somehow know it, that they feel it. Plantings are a big part of this picture, but I lean heavily on watershapes to create connections because of
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