February 2005

alifornia Polytechnic State University sits high atop a desolate stretch of Highway 1. It overlooks a craggy landscape dotted with volcanic plugs. If it weren’t for the road signs, you’d never know it was there.

Last October, under an azure autumn sky, a rented minivan led a procession of vehicles filled with journalists and industry professionals up the steep hill that led to the college. The serpentine road wound the caravan past dormitories, outbuildings and ball fields to a remote area of the campus, where the visitors were greeted by a large, imposing chain-link fence.

Inside was the National Plasterers Council’s new Pool Industry Research Center. “Press Day” was about to begin.

The gates to the facility swung slowly open, revealing a dozen small pools, several inground spas and two anxious members of the Cal Poly faculty. The tour was officially under way.

Fulfilling a goal
Approximately six years ago, the results of several controversial research projects were presented at the NPC’s annual conference. One of them claimed to have gotten to the bottom of the cause behind spot etching. It was, the researchers said, due to myriad factors, all of which had to do with the plasterers’ application techniques — from hard troweling to retempering to calcium chloride misuse.

The plasterers were angry with these contentions and insisted the research was flawed.

Since then, etching issues have been debated again and again within the industry, with each side presenting research to support its point of view. It seemed as if the debate would go on forever.

Then, two years ago, NPC brought in Mitch Brooks and his Visioneering Consultants Inc., a Port Charles, Fla.-based consulting firm, to work with the organization. As the new executive director of NPC, Brooks immediately began setting new goals.

One of his ideas was to develop independent research that would be accepted and embraced by the entire industry. About a year later, NPC began working on research with Cal Poly professors and construction for a research facility began soon thereafter.

“We never dreamed it would happen this quickly,” Brooks says. “When we first started [the research] program, we didn’t have an invitation from Cal Poly. We were actually using a piece of property in Modesto that wasn’t even conducive to what we wanted to do.

“Plus, we had to drive the professors back and forth,” he adds. “So, when the university eventually came to us and said they would like to have the research center there, we were blown away.”

Two members of Cal Poly’s Engineering Department, Damian Kachlakev, Ph.D., and Nirupam Pal, Ph.D., were assigned to work with NPC officials. “It’s an honor as an engineer and a scientist to be involved in a project like this,” Pal says. “To find a solution to [plaster problems] would be professionally satisfying, but we must be realistic.

“Remember, engineering is not a science. It’s engineering.”

The first study performed by the Cal Poly professors focused on the causes behind spot etching. With the cooperation of APSP, IPSSA and UPA, the research was completed last fall at the Modesto pool, just in time to introduce follow-up protocols at the new facility on the Cal Poly campus.

“The biggest thing has been the cooperation of the rest of the industry. Getting IPSSA involved was critical because we didn’t want anyone to think we were pulling a fast one [with the research],” says Alan Smith, chairman of NPC’s Research Committee.

The facility
The research facility at Cal Poly, the first of its kind in the pool industry, features 12 small inground pools (two with negative-edge basins), two attached spas and two stand-alone spas (all heated). It cost about $850,000, though much of the product, material and labor were donated by industry members.

The facility’s most recent study focused on the cause of spot etching on plaster. It concluded that aggressive water is responsible for the phenomenon. Now the researchers want to look at how different sanitizers — everything from tri-chlor to bleach to biguanides — react with plaster. They hope to have the results sometime this year.

NPC officials say they want to not only find causes, but solutions as well. “Who knows? We could begin looking for superior materials that we can coat swimming pools with,” Cal Poly’s Kachlakev says.

In fact, before the end of the year, Cal Poly may make the research facility a department within the university. “It would be part of the curriculum and you’d be able to get a degree [in materials engineering],” NPC’s Smith says. “Maybe, eventually, we can get together with APSP and do some hydraulic or structural [engineering] classes as well.”

The original intent of the research facility was to study plaster finishes and how they interact with pool water. However, it will hold a more far-reaching meaning for the industry at large, NPC officials point out.

“For example, I can see manufacturers using it to test their products,” says Dana Anderson, chairman of the NPC Board of Directors. “It’s perfect for that sort of thing because it is a controlled environment.”

An objective eye
One of the most important things for NPC officials when it comes to the facility and its research is that there are no perceived improprieties. Nothing can taint the conclusions of its studies.

For Dick Dal Pino, former chairman of the APSP Builders Council and the National Board’s appointed liaison to NPC, the project is beyond reproach. “I’ve sat in on some of their meetings, and I was there when they plastered those test pools,” he says. “I’ve learned what the motivations are for these folks and it’s all good.”

Dal Pino says that he has discovered no hidden agenda behind the NPC project. Smith, who heads up the research, says this is no surprise. “I was adamant about it from the beginning that the most important thing is, we have to live by what the researchers say,” Smith says. “The [research] is what it is. If [the problem] is our techniques, we have to change them.

“There will be no sacred cows,” he adds. “We need the highest degree of credibility and intellectual honesty.”

Dal Pino also notes that the research protocols are being handled not by NPC or industry members, but by the Cal Poly professors. He believes the research will provide factual guidelines and eventually remove the finger pointing that is so common within the industry.

As a builder, Dal Pino also says that the research coming out of the facility will ultimately help him and other builders sell a better product. Consequently, the entire industry will enjoy an improved image.

“This is going to be a huge enhancement for the industry — not just the plasterers, but for anyone who wants a product tested to see its effects in a pool,” he says.

Those who helped design the facility say they wanted it to be able to examine an array of pool and spa-related questions — not just plaster issues. “I tried to think of any type of scenario we might run across that we could test,” NPC’s Smith says.

“We have floor returns to see how chemicals can affect the surfaces. We have lights in some, so we can test light niches. We have two spas attached to the pools to see if they react differently from the detached ones.

“There is hot water going from spa to pool and we want to see what that does, especially in commercial spas where they get hammered so easily,” he adds.

The infinity edges built into two of the pools feature pebble finishes, Smith says. That will enable researchers to keep track of any delamination that may occur, and then they can work to find a solution. Also, two pools can be flooded from beneath, letting researchers study hydration effects on surfaces, along with hydrostatic pressure.

“The excitement that the [Cal Poly] Engineering Department has shown, along with their vision, has been great,” Smith says. “It’s a feather in the department’s cap.”