In order to wed a pool’s piping system to an equipment package, calculations should be preformed that allow a true understanding to be gained for the hydraulic conditions that will prevail and that will become the marriage (good or bad) between you and your pool’s thrist for power. A final step to design after commitments to the shapes, elevations and special features have been concluded is to determine how the water will flow. This is the most overlooked detail associated with the greatest long term cost to the Owner than with any other oversight in the pool industry today. Every swimming pool proposal can include a “True Design” performed by Earth Dynamics Poolscapes reflecting the accurate intentions of the infrastructure.

This information is vital today if, your pool is to be build will a clear understanding for the energy efficiency demands of tomorrow!

Swimming Pool Plumbing Schematic

 We can provide a complete plumbing schematic with all operational hydraulic calculations performed for the entire piping network. Our CAD design format will convert piping distances, equipment restriction, fittings, elevation changes and flow rates into piping size requirements. This imagery will correspond to “Best Selection” of your pump and motor. Operational durations will be expressed in hours to complete a filtering cycle using the least electricity on plan and programs can be set with this information with a high degree of energy efficiency confidence.

By specifying the pipe distances, pump sizes and equipment selection directed at electrical efficiency it takes the guesswork out of the cost estimate analyses. The bidding game of smoke and mirrors are eliminated and you have a build-able plan that will provide an easily delegate-able format in which installation crews can perform per the clear and concise graphically expressed instructions.

Swimming Pool Electrical Layout

 After determining the “Best Selection” for the pump, motor and pipe sizing our design will express the most efficient power runs considering both conductors size, conduit network and operational power load demands. Breakers, switching, controls, deck boxes, lights, low voltage, yard power, and all the electrical requirements necessary will be graphically expressed so they can be easily measured, accounted for and clearly presented as a requirement.

Swimming Pool Equipment Pad Layout

 Our CAD design includes a scaled “Top View” expression of a accurately dimensioned equipment pad layout will all of the selected equipment positioned. This allows rough-in plumbing considerations to mirror the exact position of actual equipment in a fashion that reduces double work and reconfigurations at “equipment set”. Details such as Multi-port Valves, Straight Through Valves, Check Valves, Feeders, Solar Systems, Low Voltage, Flex Conduit, etc. will be exhibited on plan easily identifiable and quantifiable. A nuts and bolts quote for the entire equipment pad can additionally be provided at “no charge” upon request!

Swimming Pool Installation Details

 Together with our CAD plumbing, electrical & equipment layouts we combine this information with a complete volume of construction details which highlight accepted industry practices, procedures and manufacturers recommendations. These accumulations of both pictorial reproductions and verbiage step by step directions leave nothing to the imagination, nothing to fall through the cracks.

Swimming Pool Specifcations

 We have combined the ANSI, NSPI, UBC & NEC recommendations and building code requirements to project the most detailed listing of the appropriate manufactured components that meet or exceed the specified requirements. This information is combined with each set of plans allowing a  organized and anticipatable transition to take place through the building permit inspection process.

We have the perfect post for writing your pool specifications.

Swimming Pool Building Permit Assistance

If desired we can provide “permit companionship” issuing ready made plans for permit depicting jurisdictional building set-backs, vicinity maps, utility easements, plot plan-property lines together with all the necessary assisted completion of the procedural documentation necessary for being issued a building permit!

Best Regards,

Michael Chaffee CIM, CPO
Earth Dynamics Poolscapes Inc.

“WHY START WITH A PLAN”

MEASURING DIFFERENCES

In today’s outdoor environment construction world all too often people hire inexperience under the guise of receiving a good price.

“Experience is what you get, when you didn’t get what you paid for”

The purpose of putting together your plans and specifications is to allow you to establish uniform standards, which should apply to estimated pricing. When you put those plans out for bid what should be happening is an intelligible deciphering for the requirements by those solicited and their responses for a commitment to pricing for the work described. If you are receiving wide variables in pricing estimates from your returned quotations, it would be wise to evaluate those responses and determine the origin for those differences.

By asking the question; are the plans and specifications clear and concise enough to derive a good understanding for the requirements? If the answer is yes to this (as we believe it is) then the next question is: do those providing quotations possess the required knowledge for constructing the plans as called out?

The key here is the required knowledge, one must understand the information provided in order to commit to a firm price for constructing the plans or one must deviate from that plan and concoct a new meaning.

When large differences result in pricing by those you have solicited after the issuance of a clear and concise bid package, you are left with only two meanings; a.) They have deviated from the plan directions detailed and gravitated toward a preferred practice. or b.) They don’t understand the plans well enough to build them as described.

In either case, the results negate the purpose of the plans in the first place by eliminating the possibilities for you to conclude a fair comparison. The value in the plans is weighed in the effectiveness at corralling the variable approaches by the solicited participants into a committed defined work scope. Only in this way can you derive a meaningful comparative conclusion as to any fair value.

There will always be differences in understandings but, it is in those differences that a reflection of intent is often exhibited for the approaches and application to the work scope. In the conveyance of competence for these required understandings, be sure to view the layers beneath these quotations in that of the representations reflected in the exhibits organizing a complete itemized, categorical estimate.

In attaining a great plan for comparative analysis, you’ll make those potential performers responsible for providing proposals that are fully accountable. By becoming familiar with the nuts and bolts and the processes in applying performers to those requirements you will become aware of the depth of understanding that is necessary to reach satisfactory completion.

Additionally, if you make all potential performers accountable to your plans and your specifications you’ll have a more factual result for comparison.

Whatever technology or manufacturer you may ultimately gravitate toward isn’t important at this stage. What is most important is to narrow the field of selection by eliminating those unqualified and incapable. If solicitors can’t follow your instruction on a plan, then a greater potential exists that their performances would also be inclined to be redefined.

Apple for Apples shouldn’t deviate when you are assessing comparative quantifications. The submissions of quotations for your considerations should stick to the plans and specifications so that you have a yardstick in which to evaluate each potential performer as being equal.
If you are interested in entertaining alternate suggestions, then those suggestions should be submitted as an alternate performance introduced as “Value Engineering Suggestions” aimed at lowering costs, not confusing the process.

Use an identical format to solicit bids and insist on receiving back the requested information per that form. Evaluate the validity of each proposal by the values projected for each category. View the individual line items and make sure that the complete “Billing of Quantities” is committed to fully.

Only in this way can you separate fact from fiction, knowledge from hype and arrive at a fair picture for the level of commitment being made for the work required.

What we are providing in this instruction are the benefits of a developed weighted knowledge. This knowledge is anchored upon rock solid historical evidence attained over many years of estimating the costs for performances. In this generational span of time and while performing such duties, we have been immersed in the dissection of thousands of designs, estimates and construction projects. In all cases developing an understanding for the planned intentions required an appreciation for the importance of detailed accountability through the expression of a straight forward easily digestible format.
We are hopeful that you too will become the beneficiary of such disciplines by demanding an adherence to your plans and specifications and the “Billing of Quantities” as a basis for comparative analysis.

If such an approach to your construction project prevails and you would like assistance in developing your individual specifications together with a definitive plan for bidding purposes please contact us @ (916) 630-7665.

Best Regards,

Michael Chaffee CIM, CPO
Earth Dynamics Poolscapes Inc.