The Florida industry’s government relations specialists ended 2025 on a high note, as its work to preserve the allowance of single-wire bonding proved fruitful. Going into the 2026 legislative session, advocates are looking for bills that could redefine who can perform certain pool- and spa-related services, as well as those affecting how codes and licensing are implemented.
First of all, the Florida Building Commission added language to its pool code that explicitly allows single No. 8 wires for pool and spa bonding. The Florida Swimming Pool Association proposed this change in light of efforts to remove that option from the National Electrical Code, which the code previously cited.
“The Florida Building Commission took a stand and affirmed that single-wire equipotential bonding is an efficacious method and [the FBC] will preserve it for the 2026 Florida Building Code and beyond,” said Dallas Thiesen, chief government relations officer for FSPA.
Of the 20 proposals that FSPA presented to the Florida Building Commission in 2025, 19 passed, he added. Highlights include a change that expands the range of colors that can be used on finish materials to create enough visual contrast for safety in commercial installations.
On the residential side, language was cleaned up and harmonized with other codes and standards, to help avoid misunderstandings with government officials. The Commission also voted to remove language specifying pool-equipment elevations in flood zones. Now, equipment must be “elevated to the extent practical,” rather than to a prescribed height.
“Elevation of the equipment is a conversation for the engineers, pool builder and homeowner,” Thiesen said. “Pool equipment is not covered by flood insurance, so the risk calculation is completely with the homeowner.”
The 2026 code will exempt manufactured cold plunges from its language. Builders and installers had been facing inspectors who wanted to hold the factory-made units to standards meant for site12 | POOL AND SPA NEWS | January 12, 2026 constructed vessels. Cold plunges constructed on site will continue to be held to the building code. However, manufactured cold plunges are allowed if they meet UL standards.
The Sunshine State’s legislative session begins in January, but some behind-the-scenes work has taken place before the official start.
FSPA’s team has worked to delay introduction of a bill that would allow HVAC professionals to replace and repair pool and spa heaters in residential and commercial applications. FSPA’s government relations team and FSPA members lobbied against it.
“[We explained] why it is a bad idea to allow HVAC contractors to cut into pool hydraulics systems,” Thiesen said. “It’s not a question of whether they know how to work on a heater — they do. But they don’t understand moving water.”
The bill’s sponsor has decided not to introduce it and requested that it be temporarily postponed. “That is a positive for our industry to protect our scope of work,” Thiesen said.
FSPA expects more scope-of-work bills in the upcoming session. Besides thwarting those, the organization has another goal: to reinforce transparency and accountability in rulemaking. To that end, it plans to oppose a bill that would remove licensing boards and eliminate continuing education requirements for virtually all professions. The organization lobbied against a similar bill last year.
“The sponsors say, ‘We want more efficiency and transparency,'” Thiesen said. “But these boards have open public meetings, so there’s always transparency and access. Eliminating the boards would put licensing behind a bureaucratic wall.”
In fact, FSPA is pushing for a bill that would reorganize the state Department of Health’s Commercial Pool Program to more closely resemble such licensing boards, holding public meetings and taking comments before making changes. “We want to … take the Advisory Committee and turn it into a technical committee where we have the option of public comments, so the process is very transparent to the industry and Floridians that the code affects,” Thiesen said.
