Latham Pool Builder Academy Wings of Steel

Latham International, the largest manufacturer of in ground swimming pool components, has once again hosted the Pool Builder Academy.  The pool builder academy was organized to give pool builders from around the country an opportunity to receive hands on experience and instruction as they participate in the entire process of building a vinyl liner pool.  The academy begins with the excavation of the hole and concludes with the installation of a Coverstar Automatic Cover System. 

When Latham International first introduced the Pool Builder Academy, it was held in the yard of a homeowner that had purchased a pool and agreed to have the academy at their home.  A few years ago, Latham decided that the Pool Builder Academy provided the perfect opportunity to give back to the community.  Now, Latham works to identify charitable organizations that would really benefit from having a pool. 

This most recent academy was held April 10-14 in Sicklerville NJ.  The recipient of the pool was a home called Wings of Steel.  The homeowners, Chuck and Dorothy Beck, who raised two children of their own, are now the proud parents of 10 special needs children they have adopted.  These children range from 20 months to 20 years of age.  Some of the challenges that the children are faced with day to day are spina bifida, cerebral palsy, heart defects and spinal cord injuries.  Despite these challenges, the Beck family is happy and excited for the water therapy their new pool will provide their children.

At the conclusion of the academy, the Beck family was absolutely thrilled with the pool and very appreciative that we, along with the other companies involved, donated the pool and cover system. 

Coverstar LLC, is proud to have participated in 5 Pool Builder Academy’s.  Each of these academy’s has given Coverstar the opportunity to give back to the community as well as  meet many new pool builders and introduce them to our Coverstar Automatic Cover System. 

The Pool Builder Academy began with measuring and marking the location for the pool. We then watched as the excavator did a fantastic job on excavating for the pool. When the hole was ready, the pool walls were positioned in the hole, bolted together, squared and leveled. The pool was completely plumbed and the concrete collar was poured around the base of the pool walls to end off the day.

Day two began with us dividing the attendees into smaller groups. While working with our group, we installed our polymer housing, one piece rounded vinyl liner encapsulation with 2 ft radius corners and our flush deck lid. While we were installing our components, another group worked on applying a sand/concrete mix to the bottom of the pool. We all worked very quickly on this day as we were working on beating the rain that had been threatening all morning. We all worked together to drop the liner in place then watched as water trucks filled the pool.

We started day three at the hotel going over product presentations. We had the first hour to discuss the benefits of automatic covers, and why they should buy a Coverstar automatic cover. Latham then did a presentation on their products. They also gave instruction on how to measure for a new liner. We then went to the job site to see the progress of the pouring of the concrete deck.

The morning of day 4 was spent installing our system. We worked with the attendees and completed the full cover system installation. All of the attendees were impressed when they saw the cover operate. Some of the attendees had some prior experience working on some of our competitors systems, and after seeing our system, recognized that it is a high quality product.