CREJ - Building Dialogue - June 2017
So your beautiful recreation center is open for business, and it’s a huge success. You opened on time and on budget. Your guests love the design and you’ve got great construction quality. Of course, you deserve a pat on the back. You did everything right: You got community input; you hired a reputable architect and contractor; you allowed ample time for design and construction; and your budget control was first rate. What could have gone wrong? Unfortunately, quite a bit may have already gone wrong and you don’t even know it. Recreation center projects – and swimming pools especially – are complex and delicate construction types that, if not done correctly, can lead to huge headaches and unexpected costs down the road. Take, for example, that great value engineering savings your contractor found for your mechanical system. A few years down the road, you may find that your natatorium ceiling soffits have begun to rot, and mold is forming due to incorrect air pressure in your pool area. Hopefully you are not already noticing a strong chlorine smell; or rapid rusting and corrosion. When chlorine interacts with water, chloramines form in and just above the water surface. Chloramines give off a strong chlorine odor, are powerful lung irritants and are the cause of corrosion. Several years ago, chloramine toxicity caused the temporary closure of a major Denver metro-area swimming pool. Pools and pool decks are especially susceptible to water table issues. Without careful attention to soil types and compaction specs, pools and decks can shift and tilt. So how can these issues be prevented? During the project planning phase, due diligence must include a careful vetting of architects and contractors to find a team that is experienced with your exact project type – especially when constructing a pool. Colorado is full of reputable and ethical contractors who produce outstanding projects. However, without specific pool and recreation center experience, a well-meaning owner/architect/contractor team can fall prey to these many pitfalls, turning your amazing project into one big set of “lessons learned.” “With the complex systems and delicate tuning necessary for a successful recreation project, pool designers need to think like contractors, contractors need to think like pool designers – and they need to think together – working toward a common solution,” said Rick Converse, chief estimator at Pinkard Construction. Converse and his team have provided preconstruction and estimating services on more than 20 pools and rec centers over the past 18 years, and four in the past two years. On a recent Denver metro family aquatics park project, an important program upgrade to add a lap pool disproportionately increased the budget by almost 25 percent. During an in-depth design charrette to discuss the issue, Pinkard realized that if the team reassessed bather-load calculations within the context of water-use type, the main-pool size could be reduced to eliminate the budget overrun without compromising the program or violating bather-load specifications. This teaming solution illustrates the importance of hiring an experienced and collaborative team. “We found the aquatics park solution by thinking like a designer, and our designers are continually keeping us up to date on how changing water technologies affect our construction practices,” added Converse. Learning to think like a designer has allowed us to develop a pool and recreation construction checklist of lessons learned and owner operational and maintenance priorities, which are incorporated into every pool and recreation project. The checklist covers major issues like avoiding vapor drive, which “drives” undesirable moisture into your natatorium’s walls; using creative mechanical system tuning to eliminate chloramines; advising on pool gutter vs. skimmer systems, locker room drainage strategies, pool shell construction techniques based upon soil types; and implementing simple construction sequencing approaches to doing ceiling work over your pool or the timing of your pool finish. While this all may seem daunting to a prospective recreation center owner, an experienced and collaborative project team can act as an owner’s advocate, taking on the majority of the problem solving and creative responsibilities, and eliminating many headaches to guide the project to success. Jim.Adams@pinkardcc.com