Engineers carry an almost sacred trust, with watershapers relying on them to design structures and systems that are reliable, science-based and code-compliant. When that trust is broken, the consumer’s investment is at risk -- as is the watershape builder’s reputation.
Engineers are highly trusted. In a recent Gallup poll asking which professions are the most trusted, nurses were number one and engineers came in second. Engineers placed above medical doctors, police, psychiatrists and clergy. Not surprisingly, used-car salesmen and members of Congress were at the bottom of the polls!
That high level of public trust begs the question of whether or not engineers truly warrant such rock-solid credibility? Engineers are not all the same and certainly when considering the profession, most are trustworthy, practicing ethically and responsibly. However, there are some that most assuredly are not. Unfortunately, a clear and compelling example of less than responsible engineering can be found here in the pool industry.
When you obtain a set of plans from a consulting engineer – a structural design, for example – you have every right to believe that their calculations, specifications and plans are properly prepared and correct for the project at hand. In most cases, that trust is well-founded; but there are some glaring exceptions.
You run into problems with what we call “mail order” or “off the shelf” plans developed and sold by a few engineering firms. By packaging generic plans, these firms enhance their profits while dumbing down their specifications and allow builders to cut corners.
Some people refer to these as “standard plans,” which is a euphemism and misnomer. No two pools are exactly alike. The soils are never exactly the same, nor the property, the environmental conditions, and certainly not the homeowners. Therefore, there really is no such thing as a standard plan. We believe engineers that market plans as such are not meeting the standards required of true professional engineers.
PERPETUATING MYTHS
The unfortunate fact is, many pool builders will use an engineer’s generic design, plans and specifications if they think it will lower the cost of the pool, when compared to more rigorously engineered plans designed for a specific pool project. Some builders will ask, why should I use #4 (#13M) reinforcing bars when this engineer says I can get away #3 (#10M)? Mail-order engineers give them the answer they want.
In other words, not all engineers should be trusted. Some of the lowered standards you see in mail-order plans do, in point of verifiable fact, lead to failures or produce a final pool structure that is much less durable. The fact that the engineer’s plans and resulting structure was not engineered for the specific conditions of a particular site only becomes known, all too often, in the discovery phase of an expensive and time-consuming lawsuit.
The ugly truth is, there are engineers who will lie to you because they’re more concerned with their bottom line than they are with their responsibility to prepare proper designs as expressed in the integrity of their plans. They may ignore some ethical codes while seeking profits.
The good news is it’s often easy to spot an unscrupulous engineer in the pool construction industry if you know what to look for. Usually, the corners they cut will be obvious in their project deliverables.
In our industry the biggest area of deception is concrete and reinforcement. They cut corners in the compressive strength and permeability of concrete, cover over the embedded reinforcing steel, the size and spacing of reinforcing steel and even the thickness of the concrete. They attempt to get away with it by using clever language that’s meant to confuse builders and authorities having jurisdiction.
One of the arguments, for example, is that it’s okay for concrete to be permeable, because that’s the plasterer’s job. Builders don’t have to worry about water permeating the concrete shell because the plaster is there to stop it. Well, that’s just not true. A properly designed and constructed concrete pool shell should be functionally watertight.
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