soils engineering
On many pool projects, the excavation phase often calls for the addition of competent fill to establish a foundation solid enough to support a concrete structure. That extra step can be both laborious and expensive, observes watershaper Paolo Benedetti, who uses this fresh entry in his new series on sensible solutions to common technical problems to describe a time- and money-saving alternative to standard methods of soil remediation.
In the last several of these "Details," I've covered what happens in my projects before construction begins. Now we're ready to shift gears and look at what happens on site - the place where design and execution meet. Before we look at the way I build things, however, I want to take a hard look at common practices in the field. What I write here may seem harsh, but it's not intended that way: To establish a baseline for doing things in what I would term the right way, I need to point to practices in our industry - particularly the pool/spa sector - that
In the last several of these "Details," I've covered what happens in my projects before construction begins. Now we're ready to shift gears and look at what happens on site - the place where design and execution meet. Before we look at the way I build things, however, I want to take a hard look at common practices in the field. What I write here may seem harsh, but it's not intended that way: To establish a baseline for doing things in what I would term the right way, I need to point to practices in our industry - particularly the pool/spa sector - that
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
