hot tub
I've always loved the word "pamper." I love its meaning, I like the way it sounds and, most of all, I think it's the perfect verb for us Baby Boomers, because I know as we slide through middle age and head toward retirement, a word that means "to treat with excessive indulgence, gratify desires or coddle" will only grow in usage and importance. As I've pointed out many times, I'm a big proponent of indulging in the good life and gratifying one's needs for pleasure and enjoyment. One of the places you can go to plunge headlong into such indulgence is what some people call
Whether a spa is concrete or portable, custom or mass produced, sound hydraulics and good plumbing are needed if the spa's jets are to give clients the hydrotherapeutic action they crave. The manufacturers of portable spas do this work for their dealers, observes hydraulics expert Steve Gutai, putting watershapers who work in concrete at a disadvantage that must be addressed if a concrete spas are to compare favorably with a client's portable options.
Last time, we began a discussion of giving our clients the satisfying hot-water experience they crave with a review of basic design principles and coverage of a range of materials-selection issues. Translating the good on-site positioning and great materials we surveyed in February into a luxurious spa experience requires the designer to have an advanced understanding of the technology at work in hydrotherapy as well as a grasp of the spectrum of options available to drive and control hot-water systems. Before we address those key topics, however, it bears
Since time immemorial, humans have sought out warm water for purposes of pleasure, bathing, relaxation and healing. That's a great thing for modern watershapers, almost all of whom are steadily asked to design swimming pools with attached spas or to set up stand-alone inground spas or to find ways to make portable spas work as part of a landscape or deck setting. I'd argue that hot water is even more important to contemporary lifestyles than it was to the Assyrians, Greeks or Romans of antiquity, given the stresses of modern life and the fact that we seem to have more of the leisure time required to enjoy a
Of all the features associated with inground swimming pools, attached spas almost certainly have the most complex designs. Achieving proper hydrotherapy-jet action requires the interweaving of air lines, water lines, fittings, jets and associated pumps, blowers and motors in a way that delivers results the customer wants and expects. And making mistakes is definitely costly: Once the plumbing is set in concrete, there's no easy way of turning back. The bottom line: You have to get it right the first time! Yes, you can adjust inground systems, but it usually involves ripping out expanses of decking and chunks of the spa shell at the very least - definitely not activities that breed customer satisfaction. It's a high-stakes game, but all too often I see pool builders take an ill-advised roll of the dice by not doing the work ahead of time to make sure the
