Private pools came from U.S.

Press, 16 September 1976, Page 12

Private pools came from U.S.

The transition of the private home swimming pool from a privilege of the wealthy to a recreational facility for average families began in the United States in the mid 1930 s and 19405. At that time, the only form of construction available was poured concrete walls and floor. These were generally tiled and because of this, were very expensive. The next method available, and this tended to revolutionise the business, was the sprayed concrete method, known as Gunite today. Through this method, a mixture of sand and cement was sprayed through a gun, at the end

of which a nozzle added water forming a slurry. This method allowed pools of various sizes and shapes to be sprayed without the boxing required in the poured concrete method. This in turn reduced the construction, cost of pools and broqght them within the reach of middle and upper middle class families. In the post-war period, Mr Ed Gorman, an American Engineer, used a newly developed plastic material to produce a pool out of concrete blocks with a sand base and an interior lining of vinyl. After a number of name changes, Mr Gorman

finally incorporated his company in the early 1950 s under the name of Cascade Industries. The company operated from New Jersey, on the East Coast of the United States, and gradually built up an organisation of dealer outlets.

With this type of network, it was obvious that it was not necessary to ship concrete blocks, so the company began to work on various alternative methods of making the walls of pools.

The first alternative was the use of ■••warmanised” timber walls. Warmanising is a process very similar to the “tanalising” treatment of timber.

The system of installing the floor was very similar to the early days, with compacted sand floor being installed. These pools were Constructed with great success for a large number of years. Even today, they account for a great proportion of all vinyl liner pools sold.

Until the late 19505,

vinyl lined pools shapes were restricted to rectangles because the timber could not be bent to form shapes. Mr Gorman’s company finally designed galvanised steel wall panels able to be bent and connected together to give a number of shapes such as kidney, heart, teardrop and oval.

In 1959, the kidney shaped pool constructed by Cascade Industries won five gold medals for design excellence. The principle of making pools of this type has been used by many other companies since. In the early 19605, Cascade Industries began to expand its operations into the export field. Cascade companies now exist in Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, France and Ireland. The Cascade Pacific operation includes Japan, Indonesia and Australia.

Cascade began operations in New Zealand in 1971. The New Zealand company was set up by Mr L. E. Ogden and Mr R. R. Smith,

who had previously worked for Cascade in England.

The New Zealand company now has close ties with Cascade of America Technical staff visit this country to keep Cascad< fully up to date with present methods.

To date, Cascade New Zealand has installed mope than 650 swimming pool*. They are constructed ci the same materials as used in the 'United States and Europe heavy duty galvanised steel in J inch and 3/8 inch.

The Cascade pool liner la the world standard “Krene” material which was developed by the Union Carbide Company. The floor of the pool is constructed from specialty graded sand, which is mixed at a ratio of 12 to 1 with cement to give a firmness and to allow drainage through the pool. The pools are constructed with hydrostatic relief drainage rather than reliance on mechanical devices.