There’s no bigger testament to the life-enhancing qualities of pools and spas than a pool professional’s own waterscape. After working a full day delivering these products to customers, they come home and enjoy their own waterscapes, built to their own liking. We thought we’d find out what kinds of designs these builders chose for their own personal spaces.
Brian Claffey, Vice President, Claffey Pools, Southlake, Texas
Claffey Pools
Claffey found an old metal fire box, and the inspiration for a backyard was born. After adding a 15-foot-tall metal chimney, the fireplace became the focal point of the backyard.
The designer went for a clean but eclectic look, with straight lines that mostly follow an invisible grid.
Two main objectives guided the design of this pool: Preserving views from the home, and presenting a softened geometric form. This was achieved by keeping structures and furnishing to the back of the yard so it wouldn’t block views from the house, and incorporating some curves to the mostly linear form.
Most of the yard falls within an invisible grid. The only exception — the Ipe deck that appears to float. The offset position and a 12-inch cantilever over the water enhance the illusion of a floating dock. Above right, a set of scuppers at the end of the raised wall provide water movement for those across the way.
David Peterson, Owner, Watershape Consulting, San Diego
Watershape Consulting
This project had to be built on fairly limited space, as part of the yard was allotted to a structure that would house spaces dubbed the Man Cave and Lady’s Lair. So Peterson, also president and co-founder of Watershape University, crafted a “social pool” — just large enough to hang out and have fun. Measuring 6 feet, 8 inches by 20 feet, it maintains a consistent depth of 3½ feet.
A slot-edge detail frames three sides, while a gutter and planter cap the fourth. When not in use, the corner spa is hidden under water. When activated, cold and hot water separate on either side of a channel.
A 10-by-10-foot sunshelf is finished with a mesh-mounted natural stone, chosen for its durability against the scraping of movable furniture. Two umbrellas on the sunshelf provide plenty of shade so users can move around — and the bronze sleeves provide electrical bonding for the pool. Drains in the pool were placed on the wall, at floor level, tucked under the cantilever of the stairs. A front yard waterfeature continues the minimalist thread.
“I didn’t bombard it with a whole bunch of bells and whistles,” Peterson says. “Sometimes, the more simple you want it to look, the more complicated it is. And I think it does make my smaller yard look bigger.”
Roger Jay, Owner, Island Watershapes, Victoria, B.C., Canada
Island Watershapes
To work with the Asian theme of the yard and complement the farm home, this builder enlisted the help of Skip Phillips, an occasional partner on Western Canadian projects, to provide one of his signature minimalist creations.
At least as important to Jay as the functionality was the appearance. He wanted a highly reflective body of water with fire accents.
The dark perimeter-overflow pool with floating stepping stones seems to have fit the bill. Wanting the features to be larger than standard fire bowls, the designers chose three 40-inch firepits. To get the highly reflective look Jay wanted, the team chose black glass tile and a black aggregate finish for the pool interior.
Based on visitor input, that objective was achieved, he says. “When you come around the corner, people are
shocked,” he says. “Especially where we live, it’s something you don’t see much. I don’t think there’s one client that we’ve shown the pool who didn’t contract with us to build their project.”
Rich Gallo, CEO, PureSwim, Valencia, Calif.
Rich Gallo’s pool turned out to be more than a beautiful place to hang out — it’s served as an educational tool that never stops providing.
The first lesson came eight years ago, when the CEO of PureSwim, based in Valencia, Calif. decided to renovate the 1970s pool and backyard. He thought he might add renovations to his company’s repertoire, so he figured he’d take this on as his first project and see how it worked out.
PureSwim
He chose to leave the pool structure intact, but tore out the rest of the backyard so he could add a backyard kitchen and lush tropical landscape. The vessel itself would be refinished.
“The main thing was the aesthetics of the whole yard and changing a really plain, basic ’70s pool into a tropical paradise,” Gallo says.
He spared no expense on materials, including a 2-by-2-inch glass tile and 4-inch-thick Cherokee Creek sandstone for the deck. Other features included colored and regular LED lights for the pool and landscape, and outdoor kitchen, misting system, and high-tech subterranean audio system with subwoofers and six speakers strategically hidden throughout the yard.
The backyard was just what he wanted. As for the experience of contracting his own pool … It was intense.
“I got to be both the contractor and the homeowner at the same time, which was actually very maddening,” he says. “I felt like a split personality. I’d yell at myself, ‘Hey, why isn’t this done?’ ‘I don’t know — I’ve got other jobs.’ ‘That’s not good enough. You’ve got somebody else coming tomorrow at 7:00. It’s got to be done before that.’
“The next thing you know, it’s 11:00, and you’re out there digging a trench for three hours.”
In addition to learning about the customer experience, he came to find out that renovations wouldn’t fit in his business model. “There are too many unknown obstacles,” he says. “There’s great money in the service industry, and I think I can do just as well with a lot fewer headaches.”
Long-term education
But Gallo benefits from the ongoing education his pool brings. He set it up with various types of water-quality equipment, including an ozone system, UV, ionization, a descaling water softener, ORP/pH system, a hydrogen ion system and one or two other brand-new products being tested.
“We really wanted to take advantage and use the pool to test products and see how they really work before we recommend and sell them to clients,” Gallo says.
He not only tests individual products, but also observes to see which are compatible with the others, so he knows what should and should not be included in packages he sells to clients.
Additionally, he installed a portable hot tub, even though an inground spa came with the pool. The hot tub is also used to test products, and it’s valved to empty into and draws water from the inground spa. “The one downside to having a hot tub is that you should drain them more often than people do,” Gallo says. “So we can drain that hot tub into the pool and then fill it with the hot, ozonated water from the inground spa.”
