hydrostatic pressure
There are few things in the world of watershaping as dramatic or devastating as a popped pool. On their way up out of the ground, they'll shatter decks and coping, break pipes and conduits and, often, leave cracked shells behind and generally make a terrible mess. They also lead to one big first question from the owner: "So can you make it go back down?" I'm pleased to report that none of the pools I've built has ever risen above its assigned grade, but I live and work in the south, often in areas where
Pond liners are great: They're tough, last a long time and endure a great deal of abuse during their service lives - but sometimes people want to do strange things with them, as the first question addressed in this edition of "Ask the Pond Digger" attests. As you'll see, I was asked if it was acceptable to place a new liner inside
'I've expended lots of ink,' wrote Bruce Zaretsky in opening his On the Level column in WaterShapes' June 2010 edition, 'extolling the virtues of good water management. . . . And this all makes sense, given both the needs of our society and the fact that we who read and write for WaterShapes all derive some portion of our livings from the work we
Let’s start this time with a key definition.In the deepest part of a typical pool, you ordinarily carve out a two-by-two-foot box and backfill it with gravel. On top of that gravel sits a valve designed to open when the water pressure outside the shell is
From its very first issue, this magazine has made one key point over and over again: Soil conditions determine the way a watershape’s shell is constructed; to achieve success in construction, the approach must be established by a competent engineer and followed on site. Through the years, numerous contributors to the magazine have described the process of placing watershapes on hillsides or dealing with soil conditions that lead to differential settlement. So far, however, relatively little attention has been paid to the challenges of working in locations where
