Working in the custom swimming pool market requires a keen understanding of how shotcrete can be adapted to complex and challenging structures. The work necessitates creativity on one hand and adherence to ACI and ASA standards and practices on the other. It means being inventive and disciplined at the same time.
The Sherwood water shape project is something special. It’s one of the more creative and challenging residential swimming pool environments we’ve ever created and I’ve been humbled by the recognition it’s received. Looking back, I now see it as a prime example of the importance of understanding how all the phases of pool building fit together and support each other. There is a healthy list of takeaways from this challenging and award winning project. Topping that list stands the importance of understanding shotcrete and the techniques used to place it.
IN SITU
Located on the Connecticut coast overlooking Long Island Sound, the water feature drew its contemporary design from the architecture of the new house, a modern version of the old coastal mansions once built and adorned by the Rockefellers, Morgans, and Vanderbilts. The house and surrounding architecture and landscape architecture incorporate a contemporary yet strict linear version of hillside old-world construction. It’s a spectacular property that warranted an equally eye-catching water shape design.
The house and all its features, including the pool, blend into the modernist property overlooking the ocean. The pool is a reflection of the architecture and the spectacular setting. It’s a three-tiered pool, spa, vanishing edge, slot overflow and acrylic panel design with a German Grando cover that rolls out from an automatic shotcrete floor vault and sits onto a shotcrete ledge along both long walls of the pool.
All of this is set on a dramatic slope – there’s a 20-ft (6.1 m) drop from the top of the pool area to the bottom of the equipment vault. The soil conditions vary wildly on the property due to the site’s many uses dating back to colonial days, meaning the structural design relied heavily on soils analysis and geotechnical engineering.
To effectively execute a project of this complexity, every step in the process is aimed at setting the stage for the next, from the excavation up to the finish materials. The topography and spacing of construction required marrying proven shotcrete methodology into and on top of, a form-and-pour filter vault and supporting lower wall foundation.
The structure’s footprint and position were first established with rock and ledge removal down to a workable and competent substrate. We then cast the supporting foundational walls, footings, and locking mechanisms into the steep vertical slope of the pool area.
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