admixtures

Concrete’s Ways
Many times in the past 15 years, articles published by WaterShapes have referred to water as "the main ingredient" when it comes to pools, spas, fountains, ponds and all of the other forms of contained, controlled water.  I'm willing to accept that assertion and have probably offered it myself a time or two. Here, however, I want to
Protective Measures
Next to the water itself, concrete is the most important and widespread of materials used in watershaping.  Not only is it instrumental in creating the structures that contain water as well as the substructures that support them, concrete is also the stuff of which faux-rock panels, pre-cast or poured-in-place coping, pavers, all manner of stamped or textured decks and poured-in-place or block walls are made.  Despite its omnipresence, however, concrete remains one of the most misunderstood of all watershaping materials in this sense:  Because it is so durable in basic structural applications, there's a tendency to
Beginning with the Finish
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
Pebbles, Pozzolons & Polymers
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
Finding the Cure
As a former shotcrete builder myself, I believe you can't find a better method of building a pool, spa, pond or waterfeature of any type than by using pneumatically placed concrete, or "shotcrete."  The method and the material offer the designer and builder great and often incredible design flexibility, and the resulting watershapes will last several lifetimes. Given that the vast majority of watershapers around the world depend on shotcrete as their primary construction material, it only makes sense that we should know as much as possible about putting this amazing product to its best possible use.  Unfortunately, however, that's not always the case. There's little argument that the process of shotcrete construction is laborious and demanding, that it requires a major logistical and physical effort and that fairly precise timing is necessary.  For all the focus it takes to apply it and shape it just so, however, I have observed a couple of critical steps many builders overlook in the press of getting the job done - the most important of them being the proper curing of the