Swimming Pool History
There have been many advancements in pool construction and design techniques over the past 100 years. Many of these advancements have been made by Paddock Pools, a leader among swimming pool design and construction companies.
During the middle of the nineteen thirties, Paddock developed a new way to construct pools called guiniting. Gunite is a mixture of sand and cement and is blasted onto the exterior walls of pools through a hose that is under pressure. Gunite was a big improvement over traditional pool construction methods, which used pour in concrete to form the pool exterior. Gunite allowed builders to design pools in a wider variety of shapes. Gunite also produced pools that were more durable and resistant to stress.
Seventy years ago, the surface water of pools commonly held a lot of floating debris including bugs and leaves. There was not an effective way to clean surface water back then. The top water was sometimes sent to waste in order to clean the pool surface. Otherwise, lifeguards would have to manually clean the water’s surface using a pole and net. Paddock revolutionized surface water cleaning with the invention of the recurculting overflow system. The recurculating overflow system allowed water to be taken from the top of the pool, ran through the pool’s filter system, and returned after being removed of debris.
The recurculating system revolutionized surface water cleaning, but there were still drawbacks with the method. These systems required the installation of piping underground the entire perimeter of the pool. This piping would brake and need to be replaced. It was very costly and time consuming to do this. Paddock overcame the limitations of this system by inventing the pipeless perimeter system. The new system required a stainless steel gutter to be installed around the perimeter of the pool. The durable and long lasting gutter system replaced the need for perimeter piping in many commercial swimming pool construction jobs.