Technology, Tv Influence Pool Designs Local builder says automation, information change game

By Russell Slaton

Swimming pool construction has changed enormously in the past 30 years, says a local pool builder who started in the industry in 1989 at a retail store.

“The retail store has become much more of a convenience store rather than the place to immediately shop due to the rise of online shopping,” says Cedar Creek Pools Owner and President Shannon Wiley. “Having a water lab and experts still gives shoppers a need to actually visit a brickand-mortar store.”

Computers ushered in one of the biggest changes, Wiley says. “When I began designing pools in the early 90s, much of my designs were done by using templates and designing on a portable drafting table at the client’s house. It evolved into more complex drawings being performed at the office with the addition of colored renderings, most all by hand and on vellum paper.”

Wiley says pool builders used blueprint machines to make copies of the drawings, as well. The designs were still uncomplicated, but color added the splash, he adds.

“Pool sizes were larger,” according to Wiley. “Many more diving pools were sold. Salt systems were poorly designed and caused a lot of corrosion at the equipment pad. We could build a small diving pool for $25,000 in the mid-90s. Slides were the old fiberglass versions that would crack and deteriorate if not waxed with carnauba on occasion. On occasion, we would do fiber-optic lighting to add color to a pool. These were cumbersome to install and had poor light quality.”

In 1998, Wiley says he began designing pools in AutoCAD, which he states added an “engineer” look to the design.

“Coincidentally, this was also the onset of HGTV (Home & Garden Television). HGTV was probably the most significant change in swimming pool design and construction. The California and Phoenix builders had always been more progressive with designs than we were here in Dallas. The budgets seemed to be much larger, and terrain in California allowed for some unique designs. Those ideas spread here, and Lew Akins in Central Texas brought in the idea of negative-edge swimming pools (also known as infinite vanishing-edge pools). Folks began seeing more and more evolving designs in the early 2000s. The price of swimming pools went from an average of $45,000 to $85,000 mostly due to design.”

Automated controls became more and more popular and were most assuredly used on pool and spa combinations at this point, Wiley says. “Mineral reservoirs were added to in-line chlorinators for sanitizers. Pebble interiors and quartz became more and more in use to dress these designs up. Colored lighting was more prevalent, and these lights had rotating color built into the units.”

Design software was introduced in the early 2000s that allowed the designer to easily show the client a 3D design and what their pool would actually look like in their yard, Wiley adds. The designer could show color schemes and different interiors and water features, he adds.

“Today, it is rare that a pool isn’t automated and being controlled from an app,” Wiley states. “There are a multitude of different sanitizers on the market, from UV light, ozone, salt, ORP (oxidation reduction potential) automated, minerals and even natural pool cleaning systems. Pebble has become the interior of choice in the Dallas metroplex and glass tile is in abundance to dress up the designs. Nicheless colored LED lights are placed in almost every pool and the colors can be set by the homeowner. Also today, the pumps are almost always variable-speed automated pumps due to government oversight and regulation. Incandescent lights are in their final year and will no longer be sold as an interior pool light, so the evolution to purely LED lighting is also being mandated by the government.”

Rectilinear pool designs are the design of choice because they fit best with the modern designs such as modern farmhouse introduced by Joanna Gaines, according to Wiley

“The recent pandemic dramatically increased the price of labor and materials in pool construction,” Wiley says. “It isn’t uncommon for a swimming pool to be $75,000 and quickly become a $150,000 to $200,000 project. We have several projects under construction that exceed half a million.”

Cedar Creek Pools works with residents around Cedar Creek Lake and in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to help visualize, design and build pools, landscaping, landscape lighting, outdoor kitchens, fencing, arbors and trellises, and more. The company is located at 15821 E. U.S. Highway 175 in Kemp and can be reached at (903) 288-2926.