#video
For as long as I can remember, I've noticed that people with pools in their backyards tend to like to put big pots near the water: It's a nice touch that breaks up the horizontal plane and brings an easy sense of scale to the setting. The greenery and flowers can be nice, too. Watershape designers have gotten in on the act as well, inserting pots into projects as visual anchors, as is the case in the project on display in the video linked below: We used them here not only to
All too often, do-it-yourself pond installers will jump the gun, apparently unable to resist the urge to start digging right away. My guess is that they want to get the intense labor involved in excavation out of the way, not to mention all of the grunting that comes with using a plate compactor. As the pair of videos linked below indicate, there comes a time when there’s no avoiding shovel and spadework – but it shouldn’t happen first. Instead, the installation process should begin with the
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 video linked below covers one of the many phases of a pond-installation project that can seem less critical than it really is. As I mention there, homeowners in particular tend to look at plumbing of the filter as pretty much the equivalent of working on the sprinklers – and they’re not far off, practically speaking. But the difference
We at The Pond Digger Waterscape Design & Construction do a lot of our business locally, and we’ve always found value and satisfaction in giving back to the communities we serve. Back in 2002, we started Ponds for Schools, a curriculum-based program in which we work with administrators, teachers and students to set up “outdoor waterscape classrooms” for use throughout the year. This enables teachers to expand their lesson plans into the great outdoors, and we’ve heard about
I’m generally a low-key guy, but I love almost everything about building waterfalls. I like discussing a site’s potential with my clients. I like going to the supply yard and selecting stone. And while I don’t mind letting others take the lead with the digging, I do like laying out shelves and setting the pond’s interior contours in ways that will maximize
For a while there, it seemed like most pool/spa combinations were being built with raised spas – that is, systems in which the level of the spa was set above the level of the pool, with the connection between the vessels made by means of a spillway of some sort. Recently, however, some of our clients have opted for a different approach in which the pool and spa appear to
It’s a case of familiarity breeding neglect: Pool and deck contractors work with so much mastic through the years that it’s easy for them to take this wonderful material for granted. And that’s a shame, because I’ve run into plenty of clients who are plainly interested in learning what function these rubbery joints serve and why they’re a necessary part of the package. The video linked below offers an
