construction

Right to the Finish
Of all the points that are hard to get across when working with clients on a pool design, the one highlighted in this video can be among the hardest:  You can paint word pictures until you turn blue; you can show countless photos; you can even take your clients on tours of completed projects and try to show them what you mean:  If they have their hearts set on a colored interior finish (that is, pretty much anything beyond plain
Soil Retention Offers Verdura Plantable Wall Systems
Soil Retention (Carlsbad, CA) produces Verdura, a strong, versatile, plantable retaining wall system. Designed for…
Raypak Offers Low-NOx Pool/Spa Heaters
Raypak (Oxnard, CA) manufactures four models of low-NOx gas heaters for residential pools and spas.…
Emperor Aquatics’ Multi-Cyclone for Ponds
Emperor Aquatics (Pottstown, PA) manufactures the Multi-Cyclone pre-filter for pond applications. A centrifugal solids-separating device,…
Sealing the Deal
The project we've been covering in this series of videos is definitely in the home stretch, but there are several key details that still need our attention.  The most important of these from the perspective of long-term performance is properly securing the liner to the faceplate of the waterfall/filter unit. As seen in the video linked below, this step in the process is all about preventing leaks:  No matter how small they might be, the fact that they'd allow water to
Caribbean Outpost — North
Since the very beginning, WaterShapes has been a strong advocate for the importance of working in context and making certain that what's done with a watershape, its landscape and various exterior amenities all align in fairly specific ways with the architecture of a home and the nature of its surroundings.   I'm all for that in principle and toe the line carefully in almost all of the projects I pursue.  But it's only almost, because in select sets of circumstances, creating
Cascading Exertion
Earlier in this sequence of articles and videos, I mentioned how much I enjoy the fact that pond installation is an improvisational art form:  You can roll through a design in your head and sketch it until your pencils are worn to nubs, but the reality is that working with boulders is a process of placement and on-site adjustment that ultimately brings a design vision to life. That's particularly true with waterfalls, which is why this single part of the series encompasses four videos and nearly 40 minutes of running time.  And as you will notice, there are probably more
Keep It Clean
It's a plain fact:  Nothing cools the affection of a new owner faster than confronting an under-equipped swimming pool's need for lots of routine maintenance.  He or she doubtless wanted the watershape for the good times it would provide; vacuuming the walls and floors and skimming leaves off the surface were definitely not part of the conceptual bargain. That's why, as this video relates, it's so important to include some form of automatic cleaning system along with the pool right from the start.  Yes, there are
2013/12.1, December 4 — Using Reflections, Liner Repair ABCs, Soil Basics and more
December 4, 2013 www.watershapes.com ESSENTIAL Graceful Reflections The potency of water’s reflective nature is a…
2013/11.2, November 20 — Behind Disney’s Magic, Rocking a Pond, Olympic Vistas and more
November 20, 2013 www.watershapes.com ESSENTIAL Riding a Golden Wave Completing the fountain for Disney’s California…