When I got my license 33 years ago, I was proud of it. The word “contractor” meant that you’d accomplished something. But nowadays people say “contractor” like it leaves a bad taste in their mouths. In California, I think this has everything to do with the state of licensing. Once
Beach entries, sun shelves and other shallow features are especially vulnerable to the potential havoc wrought by expansive soils. Learn why and what to do. In addition to design and construction, I do quite a bit of work as an expert witness. This involves inspection of damaged or failed pools,
Vanishing-edge pools (or infinity pools, as some call them) have become a fixture in the world of pool and spa design. Once considered exotic and highly unusual, you find them now in nearly every neighborhood.Plenty of designers and builders know what this effect is about and have mastered the hydraulics
Lots of pools built in the 1960s and ’70s and even through the ’80s were surrounded by ribbons of concrete decking of uniform width, all the way around. Frequently, those decks were too narrow to make them of much use for more than walking around the pool: lounge chairs are
In selecting materials, most of us know enough to think about how our choices will work when exposed to water. Only rarely, however, do we think about how those materials will perform when exposed to fire — which is being featured in more and more projects these days — and how they
In most backyard swimming pool projects, we install the drainage systems for decks after the swimming pool’s plumbing, basically because the pool plumbers use big trenchers that will likely destroy the small drainage plumbing if it’s already in place. That sequencing, combined in one instance with bad timing and a
The lessons we’ve covered in this long sequence of articles have typically revolved around single, key errors and have generally called for commonsense (and often simple) remedies. In the world of pool construction, however, there are situations in which the problems are far more complex, often rising from multiple missteps
In recent years, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the use of faux stone as well as concrete flagstones and pavers. Popular for their affordability and ease of installation as well as the ever-improving realism of their appearance, these materials are widely available for use on decks, pathways and driveways
Last time, we looked at an instance in which migrating water presents mostly aesthetic challenges – scale formation, evaporation residues and other hassles that simply make a watershape look worse than it should. This time, we’ll look into a case where the migrating water not only made the watershape look
In my work as a construction-defect expert witness, I see a certain problem in the design and construction of spillways all too frequently: When the system is initiated, the flow of water down the face of the dam wall will behave more or less as desired, holding to a narrow
