soil conditions
I consider myself fortunate to work in a part of the country where the soil holds few mysteries. There's a lot of clay, which means we make our shells stronger than you typically do in the sandy soils of Florida, but we don't generally have the sorts of steep slopes where you have to worry about having a pool
In many parts of the country, it's not uncommon to encounter the unexpected when you start digging to make way for a swimming pool or some other watershape. There might be field stone, a rock ledge, a buried outcropping or even hardpan. Depending on the size, depth and extent of these stony intrusions, running into any of them can, as the video linked below suggests, take a homeowner's budget expectations and throw them right out the window. And it's not just rock that can be a hidden issue: Various types of soil can be problematic, as can the groundwater level in the
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
The project is complete. You've put the last touches on the landscaping, the swimming pool and spa are up and running, the pond and its water lilies are ready to be joined by some colorful fish, and the expanse of stone decking has been tailor-made for your clients' entertaining pleasure. You've managed to achieve exactly the look they originally imagined, and now they can sit back and enjoy it - or can they? The answer will be a resounding "yes" only if you took the time to consider the longer-term effects their beautiful new plants might have on the watershapes and decks. Partly, the concern over longer-term effects is about what certain types of plants can do as far as dropping leaves and what that can mean with respect to maintenance. Partly, too, it is about
Retaining walls are used for one simple reason: to hold something back. Whether you need to terrace down to a lower yard, hold up a house on a hillside lot or provide a level area for watershape installation, these walls are indispensable when you lack the room needed to grade a sloped area gradually. Of course, this notion of holding back the forces of ground movement is no small challenge, and proper engineering and construction are critical. Do the job well, and a retaining wall will hold up indefinitely. But if you cut corners or
If you're in the business of digging holes, lining them with steel and concrete and then filling them with water, you need to know that the ground will support the structures. That's particularly true of hillside areas, but the same can be said of areas with high water tables, expansive soils or improperly compacted fill - to name just a few. We've all heard the horror stories of distressed vessels, including pools and spas out of level, significant structural shell cracks and differential movement between the decking and the shell. As we see it, part of the problem is that many pools are simply built with too low a structural tolerance for the stresses to which they
Put yourself in your customer's swim suit for a moment: You're floating in a lounge chair in your pool, taking in the surroundings and proud ofwhat you and your family now enjoy. As you scan the perimeter of the pool, you spot something you're certain wasn't there the last time you looked. Yes, you're sure of it: A portion of the deck seems to be rising above the backside of the coping. Instead of continuing to enjoy a lazy afternoon's float, you now start to
Put yourself in your customer's swim suit for a moment: You're floating in a lounge chair in your pool, taking in the surroundings and proud ofwhat you and your family now enjoy. As you scan the perimeter of the pool, you spot something you're certain wasn't there the last time you looked. Yes, you're sure of it: A portion of the deck seems to be rising above the backside of the coping. Instead of continuing to enjoy a lazy afternoon's float, you now start to
