What do you build for clients who don't want something as big as a 20-by-40-foot pool or as small as a traditional spa, but do want a body of water that's a little bit of both. Marshall Foote, general manager and partner at Colorado Poolscapes, suggested a 15-foot round pool without jets for this site in Grand Junction.
"The whole idea was: Give me something that's large enough where you don't feel like you're in a spa, so you can actually go out and tread water in a deep end, and if you've got six people in there, you're not all cramped together.
"He's also got it so he can put it up to 104 degrees to have it be like a soaking spa," says the Glenwood Springs builder. "But it doesn't eat up all of his deck space."
This blend of pool and spa is becoming more popular, says Foote, "because land in our area is very expensive." Another reason smaller vessels work well there is the cold weather, which creates energy-cost concerns. "We have to run the infinity edge four times a day for 15 minutes just to take the trough water that's cooler and basically turn it over into the body of water that's maintaining about 79 degrees. So it's a large energy concern."
Foote always tells clients about these costs before they commit to a project. "Our whole philosophy is customer service from beginning to end, and we make sure that when they buy into a project, we're not throwing them curve balls at the end of it," he says.
