engineering
Just the term “dead spot” sounds bad on its own – and that’s probably a good thing, because it’s definitely something every watershaper should try to avoid. That can be tough these days, given the complex shapes of modern swimming pools and their multiple curves, inlets, grottos, vanishing edges, beach entries, tanning shelves and various other features that complicate the interior contours of the shell. To get the job done, you need to
I know they’ve been around for quite a while, but in our marketplace, beach entries are the latest thing these days – maybe hotter than ever before. The enthusiasm makes sense: Beach entries give bathers a way to dip into the water and take up a spot in the pool or on a lounge chair without making a full commitment to getting soaked. Better yet, we get a lot of sun in Texas, and these spaces can easily be rigged with umbrella stanchions – a cool
The key to good pond-filter/waterfall installation is making certain the area around the unit is well compacted, well supported and properly positioned. If you take care of all of those things, the system that drives the pond will be stable and offer trouble-free performance for many years to come. In this video, we look with special focus at one of the support systems we see as crucial to many of our successes – that is, a good retaining wall that will help keep
This was a fun project in lots of ways – not the least of which involved figuring out how to fit a skimmer into the system without completely disrupting the clean look of the coping-only treatment of the pool’s perimeter. Usually, of course, pools at grade level are
The feature clients like most about custom pool slides – particularly those of the modular variety – is their tremendous flexibility: The average slide is about 15 feet long, but the sky truly is the limit, with elaborate installations stretching out across 30 or 40 feet in length. Slopes are generously variable as well, but there are obvious space considerations that come into play with larger-scale projects. A good rule of thumb for a desirable 20-degree slope: Every foot built up vertically generally requires about three feet of horizontal build-out. Obviously, this means that space availability is a major factor in slide design and construction. The great thing is, the basic procedures of slide installation do not vary much with size, so the process, once learned, is pretty straightforward and repeatable. Here, we’ll be focusing on what this means with
