Folks,
I witness a senseless murder of a swimming pool last week, I felt so helpless. It was a week ago, I was helping my daughter move into her first place. Her apartment unit overlooked a cute courtyard, and in its middle was a beautiful 30,000 gallon swimming pool sitting empty. I asked my daughter when are they going to fill it, and she was told within a couple of days. She commented how excited she was to have the pool so close to her unit, and it was a deciding factor of choosing this apartment over another several blocks away.
Well several days past, I receive a call from Kat expressing frustration about the pool and asked if I could come over and speak to the complex manager. As I arrived, I came upon a work crew finishing up with filling the swimming pool. However there was no one enjoying it because it was filled with mud and flowers.
I spoke to the manager of Kat's building and asked why did they choose to fill in the pool, they said it was " too expensive to bring it up to code concerning suction entrapment. I shared with the manager how much the pool they just destroyed was worth in todays dollars. How in todays dollars it would of cost them conservatively $55,000 to build an similar pool. I continued to elaborate on how there are new technologies that would of been cost effective in bringing their pool up to code. The lessen here is the pool industry needs to get the word out, and fast! or we'll be seeing more swimming pools morphing into planters.
Comments
It is a shame on our profession to overcharge. I don't like at the gas pump, and we shouldn't stand for elswhere.
You can't blame the owner for running from the costs. However, a bit of shopping might still have let Kat enjoy the pool she was so excited about. Well said Paul, "foolish owner, lazy service."
My company specializes in the Unblockable drain covers like
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They are an economical alternative
Minnesota John
The Unblockable Drain Cover Co.
While I feel that close attention to entrapment prevention is critical to the safety of swimming pool users, the approach that has been taken (in my opinion) to "hold hostage" commercial swimming pool owners is ludicrous. Many of the operators (motels, hotels, apartments, etc.) do not have the budget to retrofit drains or comply with the entrapment codes, and have had to resort to this type of action instead. How sad, when the risk is so small of this happening (swimming pools are inherently "dangerous" anyway, so when do they become outlawed altogether?), and yet so many companies made this their revenue stream the last couple years in a slow economy!
Please correct me if I am wrong, but aren't the majority of the entrapment cases on record in pools/spas where there were no drain covers opposed to non compliant covers? In the case of Virginia Graeme Baker, was there a cover on this pool?
God forbid anyone else is entrapped on a main drain, but I still feel that there is more negligence involved than suction concerns. Why doesn't anyone address the dedicated pool cleaner suction line? How many have seen these with the door wedged fully open and the cleaner removed, or no door in place at all? That is a direct suction line, with zero protection, and has every opportunity to be just as dangerous, if not more so, than any covered pool or spa suction line.
Sad to see such cases as mentioned in the article above, where so many will not get to experience and enjoy all that comes from a swimming pool. Flowers are nice, but I have yet to have heard of the fun and family memories created around a flower garden!
-Bruce