Entering The World Of Fiberglass

Long before renovation work became a primary revenue stream for the pool industry, Sherri Fowler saw the segment’s potential. Since introducing the 6-step fiberglass process to Austin in 1998, Sherri has served her clients professionally and economically. The services are available to industrial, commercial, and residential communities.

Premier Fiberglass, a subsidiary of Leisure Pools of Austin offers permanent solution seals to almost any surface, enabling you to spend less time and money maintaining your property and more time enjoying its benefits. Certified technicians professionally apply our services to the following surfaces: wave pools, gunite/plaster pools, concrete pools, pre-fabricated fiberglass units, spas, slides, tanks, ponds, newly-constructed self-serve and automatic car washes, car wash renovations, acid tanks, waste water holding tanks, and all flooring surfaces.

The quality of their work is unbelievable. The warranty their workmanship and stand by their word.

Backyard Pool Main Drain Safety

Take precautions to prevent main drain entrapment. Replacing your main drain cover is easy and inexpensive. Usually the main drain cover is held on with two screws.

Almost all pools have suction drains on the bottom for circulation reasons. These drains connect to pipes that run directly to the pool circulation pump. Typical flow rate through a residential is anywhere from 40-80 gallons per minute. That’s a lot of suction. If a seal is made on a pool drain, while the pump is running, the suction force is enough to hold a man under water, or pull in hair.

The suction drain grate in swimming pools, spas, and hot tubs can become brittle and crack over time. In addition, the drain cover may be loose or missing. When a person stands or sits on the damaged, loose, or missing drain grate, the suction can hold you to the bottom. And not let go. So, it’s easy to make your pool safer, with the installation of a SVRS or a anti entrapment main drain cover.

SVRS stands for Safety Vacuum Release Systems that will disable the pump and or sound an alarm if the flow is blocked. Sensors on the pump detect vacuum and pressure and when thresholds are reached, the pump shuts off immediately to prevent main drain entrapment.

Excavating For A Pool – Hitting Rock

In the Austin area, limestone is the biggest problem when excavating for a pool. After being in business for more than 15 years, we’re aware of the expense it can be to excavate in a heavily limestone ridden area. The main thing with the excavation issue is to be prepared for worst case scenario, so your budget will not be maxed out. 

As a pool installer, you never know the extent of rock until you actually start the excavation of the hole because not all rock is the same and some may be broken out in layers and others have to be hammered out with a machine.  We at Leisure Pools of Austin try to educate our customers beforehand of the expenses that can be associated with hitting rock during excavation, and the cost associated with the worst case scenario.  Please enjoy the installation video to better understand the process involved with dealing with rock during installation.

We found a great video on YouTube that explains what happens when you hit rock.

Is Gravel The Best Base To Set and Backfill A Pool?

Leisure Pools of Austin has been installing pools for the more than fifteen years and have used many different types of materials with the construction process.  The last decade we have used gravel as our source of backfill with all of the pools that we install.  Here are a few reasons we prefer gravel above all others.

1. 89 stone is used as the base to set the pool on and backfilling the step and seating areas of the pool.  It’s smaller size is great for filling in those tight areas that may try to leave a void area of material during installation, and a solid base for the pool to be placed on.
2. 57 stone is used to backfill the side walls of the pool during installation.  The size of this stone is about half an inch in size, which works well locking together for greater compaction when it is dropped into the over-dig area around the pool.

Gravel itself compacts really well, and it is far greater than sand or dirt that may be used in place of it.  Gravel is a permeable material, so pretty much what you are doing by using gravel around a pool is installing a french drain system.  Gravel helps in this area to relieve water pressure that may build up behind the pool.  Gravel also speeds up the installation process drastically because you don’t have to wash it in behind the pool like you would sand or let dirt sit for weeks or months until it may reach a desired compaction rate.

Leisure Pools of Austin feel that gravel is the best choice when backfilling a pool.

The Truth Behind Colored Fiberglass Pools

One of the biggest differences with the Leisure Pools product is explained in the video The Truth Behind Colored Fiberglass Pools on YouTube.  Leisure Pools has a patent on aquaguard, which is marine grade. This product is 3 times more expensive than what the typical fiberglass manufacturer uses.

Retaining Walls Have Changed

StoneMakers retaining walls have changed the industry, that’s a fact! Here are 5 examples of things that retaining walls can do now that were unthinkable before StoneMakers hit the market.

SPEED – Build a 75′ long by 4′ tall retaining wall in 5.5 hours. That’s not an exaggeration, it’s actually an understatement. Just so you understand what used to take me THREE DAYS now takes 5.5 HOURS. You know what this means for the consumer – BETTER PRICES!

VALUE – Make a retaining wall that looks like natural stone, but is stronger than stacked stone or stacked block for that matter. Put simply – you cannot get a stronger or better looking wall for the money.

COLOR THEORY - Block retaining walls come in few colors. Some companies have more than others but the reality of it folks is that most companies hover around 6-7 color choices. StoneMakers has 33 colors! And to top it all off you never use just one, which would not look natural. To make our retainer walls look like natural stone we blend the StoneMakers colors. In the end we have an infinite number of colors to choose from.

MONOLITHIC - Back in the day – say 2009 – If I wanted to make a wall look like natural stone I had two choices. Buy natural stone or use cultured stone as a veneer over some type of concrete wall. This wall could be block or poured but the outcome was the same. Sure cultured stone looks fine if done right. Done wrong it looks like the wall has zits. Either way it’s nowhere near as strong as a monolithic (one continuous piece) wall is. And Natural stone is flat out expensive.

ENVIORNMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE - No forms mean no waste. Even if every contractor recycled their forms the wood wasted is staggering. A small retaining wall may have a few hundred pounds of wood used as forms. Multiply that times the number of jobs that contractor does a year and you can see how that ads up. With StoneMakers there is ZERO wood to throw away.

Stonemakers provides unique hands-on trainings, seminars, videos, detailed manuals, tutorials and live phone support that empowers you and your team to create masterpieces from concrete of all types and styles no matter what the demographics your targeting. From the assortment of our StoneMakers Perma-Stainä which captures most of natures selective colors, we make matching existing concrete that much simpler and more affordable.

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To learn about our unique dealership opportunity and find out what it takes to become a StoneMakers Licensed Dealer, visit  dealer program page, fill out the request information form, or call 1-603-621-2844.

Source: Albert Group Landscaping, StoneMakers