Bouquet Pools

Thanks to Rob at www.aphotofolio.com my website (www.bouquetpools.com) now has a mirror site that is optimized for iPad!!
The announcement from Rob…
“All A Photo Folio websites come packaged with a custom designed iPad site built using HTML5. We are committed to delivering exceptional websites on all platforms, that’s why we were the first and are currently the only portfolio website design company to deliver this for the iPad.”
As if having an awesome site out of the box with a separate site for iPhone wasn’t enough… aPhotoFolio now delivers iPad support – I highly recommend that everyone check out our site from iPad and check out aphotofolio if you are thinking about building a portfolio based website.

By now you must be wondering when I will have some GOOD news to report…
I was just informed by the City of Santa Clarita that they have just adopted portions of the 2007 California Building Code which pertain to swimming pools/spas. I am going to cherry pick and paraphrase – if you are interested in the exact wording, please refer to CBC2007 section 3109 (be careful, everything up to 3109.4.4 deals with State mandates, everything after that refers specifically to single family residences):

Guardian removable fencing is now approved as a barrier.
Swimming pool alarms are now approved (in lieu of door alarms at the house).

Why is this important? For starters, in the past if you wanted to have mesh removable fencing you would also have to comply with the door alarm and fencing requirements. This code change will allow you to install removable fencing without having to shell out the money for door alarms or modifying your existing gates (especially those of you who want RV gates, the current code does not allow gates greater than 48″ wide – install removable fencing around the pool and you won’t have to worry about it!).
This also eases the burden of installing (and maintaining) door alarms inside the house on ALL doors that lead to the pool area. A lot of people take matters into their own hands and remove or disable the door alarms due to the irritation factor – now you can have a little more piece of mind knowing that you are legal in unlikely event of a tragedy.

Contact me if you would like more information!

The City has decided that the demands of the County Health department were ridiculous and we were finally issued the permit.
Let the construction begin…

Still no word from the City Manager or the head of Building and Safety (I don’t think he actually exists) yet I am still optimistic.

Still no resolution from the City –
It’s hard enough to find work in this economy, does the County Health Department really need to make things this difficult???

Well…. The Department of Urban Forestry managed to take time out of their busy day (Santa Clarita is heavily forested) and give me over the phone approval.
I wish I could say the same for the Sanitation inspector who is requiring the following conditions to be met for a swimming pool installation:
1. Homeowner must demo his existing patio to show the inspector the exact location of the septic tank (about $2,000 expense to homeowner).
2. Homeowner must expose the line that runs from the septic tank to the leech field, then expose both ends of the leech field. (about another $2,000 expense to homeowner).
3. Homeowner must remove the existing patio cover which happens to be within 5′ of the septic tank – both of which have been in the same place since 1968 with no problem or violation to pre-existing code (ANOTHER $4,000 to demo and rebuild the cover).
4. Homeowner MAY be required to perform a perc test to make sure the soil will continue to percolate. No idea what that will cost but I am assuming it isn’t cheap.

The moral of the story? The City is now apparently in the position of ordering homeowners to upgrade their yard from pre-existing code to new code while holding new construction hostage. In this market and economic time, you would think that they would be promoting new construction and permit revenue, but that just doesn’t seem to be the case.

***EDIT*** I almost forgot to add the $450 plan check and ‘investigation’ fee that the Sewer inspector informed me I would have to pay before he comes out again. $450 for plan check and inspection and we are not altering, changing, removing, relocating or even working remotely near the septic tank. ***EDIT***