The following was featured in the Litchfield County Times

In Woodbury, a Firm Is Passionate About Pools

Is it too early to start thinking about pool season? Not if you're Bill Drakeley, Jr., the president of Drakeley Pools LLC, which considers itself the region's premier pool installation and maintenance business.

To hear Mr. Drakeley tell it, his professional life is devoted to learning all there is to know about summer's ultimate accessory. This includes studying the latest techniques for designing and installing pools, acquiring the latest technologies for maintenance and familiarizing himself with the latest science concerning soil types and rocks.

While sitting in the front parlor of the Main Street home in Woodbury he shares with his wife, Christine, and their four children one recent morning, Mr. Drakeley explained that his dedication to education helps differentiate his firm from its competitors.

"The way pool companies are run in general is not really conducive to today's client, in our opinion," he said, referring to company vice president Jeffery Boucher, who, along with Mr. Drakeley's wife, a designer with the business, was present for the interview.

Mr. Drakeley and Mr. Boucher both cut their teeth working at a local pool company, and were surprised to learn just how little training was required in order to perform what was essentially heavy, landscape-altering construction.

"It's one of the most uneducated and unregulated industries in the country," Mr. Drakeley noted, adding, "I just knew that there was a different way to approach building pools."

Mr. Drakeley began contemplating starting his own business in the late 1990s, and found this idea reinforced by a trip to Paris with his wife.

"It was a time to reflect, and when you're there, going to the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay, you see that everything is based off of good design and built to last, and I thought you could [translate] some of those same principles to pool design and pool building," he explained.

Inspired by his trip to Paris, Mr. Drakeley decided to start his own business in 2000, with the help of Mr. Boucher, who quickly came on board as the company's vice president. Both men knew that they wanted their business to present customers with an alternative to the "just get in, get out and get the paycheck" ethos that prevails in the industry.

To do this, the first thing they needed to do was to educate themselves.

Both men began taking classes with the accredited, high-end pool builders educational group Genesis 3.

According to the group's Web site, www.genesis3.com, it "offers an intensive educational program for those interested in watershape design and construction," including short-term, concentrated courses in measured perspective drawing and color theory.

"Without such resources, as well as increased awareness and understanding of products, their application and installation," the Web site remarks, "the industry as a whole will continue to be jeopardized by substandard practices."

Mr. Drakeley said he takes one to two classes a year through the Genesis 3 program, and encourages every one of the company's approximately 20 employees to do the same.

This approach has paid off, as Mr. Drakeley and his staff, which consists of designers, builders, site managers, a structural engineer, a soil scientist and maintenance specialists, have increasingly been trusted with high-profile jobs.

Among recent projects include a municipal pool in Falls Village and the Milford/Orange YMCA pool. There are also the 100 or so pools the company has designed and installed at private properties throughout Litchfield, Fairfield, Dutchess and Westchester Counties.

One of the projects recently won the company the Outstanding Pool Project of the Year for 2005 from the American Shotcrete Association.

The pool, a vanishing-edge pool built into the side of a cliff with stunning westerly views on an estate in Kent, was, like every entry, submitted anonymously to a panel of engineers who selected a winner based on aesthetics, structural soundness and quality of workmanship.

Mr. Drakeley said he was especially gratified to win the award from the American Shotcrete Association.

Shotcrete, as Mr. Drakeley pointed out, is the correct term for the process of spraying concrete into the steel frame of a pool. He said it is commonly, if mistakenly, referred to as Gunite.

One of only about 500 certified Shotcrete nozzlemen nationwide, Mr. Drakeley said receiving the award was validation that the education he's invested in is manifest in the company's work.

"When we were at the awards ceremony, I had to get up and give a Power Point presentation on the project, and I had [the judges] tell me, 'This is great work,'" Mr. Drakeley related.

One judge, Mr. Drakeley continued, went on to say that the panel had been hesitant about "recognizing someone in the pool industry for the Shotcrete work that they do because it's been so bad in so many places."

The fact that the panel was able to overcome that bias in order to award Drakeley Pools the top prize was the ultimate vote of confidence for Mr. Drakeley.

Other references are just as important to Mr. Drakeley, though. Mrs. Drakeley said she will often run into clients in the grocery store and have them inquire, by name, about the company's employees. Mr. Drakeley said that kind of bond between client and company is invaluable.

"Like I said, the pool industry in general goes in, puts a pool in, gets out and collects as much money as possible," he remarked. "We go in, form a friendship and relationship, build a quality pool, which is not the cheapest ... but is going to last for a long time and now we have a new friend and relationship that we're going to have for the next 50 years."

©Litchfield County Times 2006