Services
Custom Features
Water features are structural work wearing a decorative finish. A raised spa is a bond beam. A waterfall is a wall that has to hold water and its own weight.
The features that last are the ones designed into the shell rather than attached to it later. A raised spa shares steel and concrete with the pool. A sheer descent needs its plumbing and its penetration set before the wall is sprayed. Retrofitting either one means cutting into finished work.
Stacked stone veneer over a raised wall, sandstone coping, a glass tile band at the waterline and LED lighting are the pieces most often combined. Each one is a different trade meeting at the same edge, which is where the quality of the result is actually decided.
Lighting is worth planning early. Conduit is trivial to run before the shell is sprayed and disruptive to add afterwards.
How it goes
- 01
Design into the shell
Features are laid out with the steel, so the structure and the feature are one piece of work.
- 02
Rough the services
Feature plumbing, conduit and penetrations are set before concrete is applied.
- 03
Build and clad
The structure is built, then clad in stone, tile or coping to the chosen finish.
- 04
Commission
Flow is balanced and lighting is set so the feature looks right at night as well as at noon.
Questions we get asked
Yes, but it is structural work rather than an accessory. A raised spa needs its own bond beam tied into the existing shell and its own plumbing run. It is significantly easier and less expensive during a renovation, while the pool is already drained.
A sheer descent is a fitting built into a raised wall that releases a flat, continuous sheet of water into the pool. The plumbing and the wall penetration have to be set before the wall is sprayed, which is why it is designed in rather than added on.
Before the shell is sprayed. Running conduit at the steel stage costs very little. Adding lighting to a finished pool means cutting into the shell and the deck, so the same result costs considerably more.