(ARA)
- The pool industry is making new waves -- with pools that offer
plenty of backyard fun while also serving as beautiful and functional
extensions of living space. With smart innovations in design and
maintenance, today’s pools are more attractive than ever.
These splashy ideas are from the National Spa and Pool Institute (NSPI),
an international trade association of more than 5,300 manufacturers,
distributors, retailers, service companies and builders in the pool and
spa industry. They are proof positive that life just gets better when
you add water.
1. Go to Your (Outdoor) Room. More and more people are looking to their
own homes and backyards for escape from a hectic world. And in many of
these backyards, the pool is the centerpiece of an outdoor living space
complete with cooking stations, comfortable furniture and even dining
room tables.
“People are looking at pools differently,” says Marc Campbell, senior
vice president at San Juan Pools in Lakeland, Fla., and a member of NSPI’s
Builders Council. “They are not just places to splash and play anymore.”
How you outfit this extension of your home is up to you. Acrylic stucco
and stainless steel islands with grills, rotisseries, cook tops, and
tiled prep and serving areas are popular. So, too, are beverage centers
with sinks, granite counters and outdoor refrigerators. Bars and swim-up
bars are hits, as are outdoor fireplaces and fire pits, says Lew Akins,
a fellow NSPI Builders Council member.
2. Water without Walls. Some of the most popular ideas in pools now involve
the lack of pool walls -- most notably playful and pretty beach entries,
shallow and comfortable wet decks and dramatic vanishing edges. The beach
entry is just what it sounds like -- a gently sloping entrance to the
pool that mimics a beach in looks and feel. Wet decks are extremely popular,
says Campbell. “You can lie in about four inches of water and read
your magazine and stay cool.”
Akins built his first (perhaps the first) vanishing- or infinity-edge
pool back in 1982. And it’s still highly popular. This design element
gives the illusion of water flowing off the edge of the pool. (Really,
the water goes over a ledge to a trough or structural wall where it is
re-circulated.) This is especially dramatic when the pool overlooks a
view of sweeping countryside or sparkling city lights. “People are
overwhelmed when they see the water from a negative-edge pool vanishing
into water in the background,” Akins says.
3. Fountain Fun. Fountains that gently bubble or those that make a big
splash create a sound shield for your pool and help keep it clean. And
some are downright fun. Intermittently squirting fountains in a beach-entry
area will entertain little ones for hours. Fountains coming from and
highlighting statuary or antique Greek urns make a beautiful, timeless
statement. Subtle, yet immensely refreshing misters look and feel great.
Laminar flow fountains shoot a stream of water about the thickness of
your finger through the air. The water holds together to create a moving,
watery tube that will carry the glow of fiber optic lighting. Foaming
fountains mix water and air for a frothy, mushroom-head effect. Lots
of manufacturers are offering adjustable nozzles to let you control how
high and how far your fountain will go.
4. Water Falling. Always popular, waterfalls continue to be one of the
most-requested design elements on pools. The options often are only limited
by imagination. Sleek sheets of water fall over granite platforms to
offer a secluded area for swimmers. Other versions are playful cascades
that splash and fall from real or manmade rocks. Some waterfalls let
you increase or decrease the rate of fall to get the sound of gently
falling rain or a turbulent rain shower.
5. It’s Automatic. Turn on your waterfalls, light your night, take
the work out of pool work. There’s automatic equipment to meet all
these needs. Just program them, and relax. Many of these controls are
computer-friendly, allowing you to telelink to your system. You can then
operate pool functions via telephone from the office or your mobile phone.
But you might not want to bother. “The automatic systems are computers
in their own right,” says Akins. “They are incredibly simple
to operate,” he adds. “On-screen programming walks you right
through it.”
6. Light it Right. The right lighting will not only enhance your poolscape,
but it also will make it safer. Glowing incandescent lighting can spotlight
water features as well as garden and architectural elements. Perimeter
lighting will make a pool look magical at night. Floating, color-changing
solar lights are downright fun. Little lights set in stone illuminate
walkways and steps. And fiber optic lighting offers colors to suit any
mood. These high-tech, yet accessible systems work by transmitting light
-- from a source located away from the pool -- through high-quality glass
or acrylic fiber optic cables. Color wheels make coloring your world
as easy as flipping a switch.
7. Material World. Italian glass mosaic tiles, vinyl, fiberglass, natural
and native stone, composite materials made with sprayed concrete and
pebbles from rivers around the world. There’s a smooth and comfortable
pool finish to suit any lifestyle and taste -- and you don’t have
to worry about snagging your swimsuit. There is a definite trend toward
natural materials, says Akins. And new finishes make even the slickest
granite slip-proof. The latest pool-surfacing materials have one thing
in common -- they are as easy to maintain as they are on the eye.
8. Maintenance Made Easy. Today’s superior chemicals, state-of-the-art
equipment and advanced cleaning techniques have made pool care pretty
much carefree. With automated systems, it takes little more than a touch
of a button or a flip of a switch to cover or uncover the pool, clean
it, control the temperature and dispense the chemicals. (If you want
to do even less, call on a NSPI Certified Service Professional who will
be well trained, knowledgeable and highly skilled.) Meanwhile, pool maintenance
has gone high-tech. Magnetic water conditioners turn oil and other substances
into larger particles so that the filter can pick them up. And salt chlorine
generators (which turn ordinary salt into chlorine) keep pools sparkling.
9. Energy Efficient. Energy-efficient filters and pumps sometimes garner
power company rebates but always pay for themselves in the long run.
Campbell notes that small pools (a trend in itself) combined with heat
pumps make for energy-efficient backyard retreats. Thermal pool blankets
or solar covers have soared in popularity, especially in California.
Lightweight and relatively inexpensive, they attract the sun’s heat
and can increase a pool’s temperature by as much as 10 degrees.
There’s even a new liquid solar blanket that can be thrown in the
pool to form a layer to attract heat.
10. Safe from the Start. Simple safety is one thing that defies all trends.
There’s no substitution for old-fashioned supervision. And “the
way to protect your children 365 days a year,” says Campbell, “is
to teach them to swim well.”
State and local governments have area-specific barrier requirements and
codes. Beyond that, self-closing and self-latching gates and doors should
surround your pool. Window latches, good lighting and portable telephones
also are easy and excellent protection devices. And pool safety covers
that meet the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM International)
safety standards will provide an added layer of protection -- a horizontal
fence, if you will. (They also will cut down on day-to-day operating
costs by reducing heat loss, chemical usage and water evaporation.) Automation
makes them push-button easy.
Additionally, there are in-pool motion detectors and alarms that will
let you know if anyone is in the water. Other types of wireless-transmission
alarms strap onto children or pets and shriek if they get wet. And main
drain-entrapment problems have been eliminated by either building a pool
without a main drain or using drains with safety technology built right
in. But in the end, common sense, practicality and supervision can be
quite trendy after all.
For more information on pools and pool trends and great ideas visit www.poolpeopleusa.com,
www.nspi.org, www.poolandspaliving.com, or contact NSPI at (800) 323-3996.
Courtesy of ARA Content
