July 2003

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Because the project’s three waterfalls symbolize the best in innovative vinyl-liner pool design: functionality, sophistication and beauty. Because the secret, cave-like seating area beneath the main waterfall is the stuff of romance. Because a real wooden bridge takes you to the eight-person, cedar-decked, inground spa. Because the main waterfall springs from a spillover pool. Because the project provides guests with seven activities for each day of the week: spillover pool, Grecian lazy “L” pool, underwater bar stools, cave, spa, diving board and stroll-worthy wooden bridge. Because the faux tile border of purple, pink and dark blue diamonds with the dark vinyl liner fools you into thinking it’s a gunite project. Because the deck’s interlocking paving stone is as nice to look at as it is to walk on.

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hen installer Paul A. Como Jr. renovated his own vinyl-liner pool in 2001, he wanted to create a Hawaiian vacation in his backyard.

He succeeded by building three waterfalls, a cave underneath the main waterfall, underwater bar stools and a wooden bridge that leads to an inground spa. Hula dancers are about the only things missing.

“Everybody wants to be at my house,” says Como, president of Pool Doctor in East Northport, N.Y. “It brings everybody closer together.”

Paradise presented a few challenges, though. “I wanted a big waterfall, so I had to have steel girders welded together to be able to create the cave,” Como says. “We also had to bring in a crane to lift the two stones, which hold up the main part of the waterfall, and then cement them in place.”

The spillover pool or “trough,” as Como calls it, feeds the main waterfall, which serves as a covering for the cave. “You sit in the trough and bake in the sun while the water flows around you and down the falls,” he says. “It’s also a good feature for the kids.”

The cave underneath the 8-foot waterfall provides a secret hideaway. “There’s no water back there, but you can sit on a stone bench behind the waterfall and look out at the house,” Como says. “We even have fiberoptic lighting inside the cave.”

— Rhonda J. Wilson