Why Do You Have to Retrofit Your Commercial Pool?
Willard Michlin
When politicians pass a law without thinking of the consequences, the American businessman is left holding the bag. The price of non-compliance or un-permitted compliance is even more costly. Newer technology saves the day.
At seven years old, Virginia Graeme Baker (VGB) got caught in a spa intake suction drain and drowned. Such incidents are very rare, but she was a relative of a politician who then decided he had to take responsibility for making sure that no other child suffered the same fate. With no research to substantiate the claims, he crafted a congressional bill saying that the cost of compliance would be less than fifty dollars per pool and sold the idea to Congress, No research was done to reveal the true cost of compliance or the frequency of such pool accidents. The true cost of compliance being between $1,000-$2,000 and the frequency being about one per year across the whole US.
US Consumer Product Safety Commission revealed its latest figures on child drowning injuries and deaths. According to the CPSC, almost 300 children under age 5 drown in spas and pools annually, while 3,000 young kids sustain injuries that require emergency medical attention. But that is not the real picture as regarding the VGB Mandate:
• 2/3rds of the victims killed or injured in pools and spas are toddlers, ages 1-2.
• 80% of drowning deaths take place in residential settings, not commercial.
• Between 1999 to 2008, 69 injuries and 11 deaths occurred due to spa and pool entrapment accidents.
Last month pool suction from the old-style drain trapped a child underwater in Florida…
While every life is important, every possible accident, even with all the money in the world, cannot be prevented.
The final draft of the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act required only commercial pools and spas to be retrofitted with a new twin drain cover, despite this accident happening in her backyard spa. Technology at the time, did not exist to affordably make the correction to the over 200,000 commercial pools covered in the mandate. Less than 5% of commercial pools had met compliance by the original May 2009, deadline. The economic costs were too high, the technology was still too expensive and most county health departments, charged with enforcing the law had been under staffed because of government budget cuts.
Last month pool suction from the old-style drain trapped a child underwater in Florida, but the family got the child loose in time. In September 2009 in Southern California, another child was not as lucky. These are the only two occurrences reported in over a year across the whole country. Regardless of whether the new law applied to these probable residential incidents, they made headlines. Because the news media looks for tragedies to promote, these incidents hit the news with commentary on the new law.
Luckily things have changed recently. By December 19, 2008 the first practical approved drain cover came out. God bless technology, for developing more affordable retrofits. Depending on the county (Ventura said no, Los Angeles said yes) you may be able to do the retrofit with a licensed scuba diver if he is also a pool contractor. Before December 2008, the pool had to be emptied and the pool contractor had to dig out a channel along the bottom, re-pipe the drains, and re-plaster the area of the repair. Unfortunately sometimes plaster in an empty pool starts to peel. When that happens, the owner must re-plaster the whole pool! The channel drain cut out all that work. The installation technology has been getting simpler and quicker. Prior to the technology allowing scuba diving retrofits,
Technology did not exist to affordably make the correction to the over 200,000 commercial pools…the required pool draining wasted over 17,000 gallons of water while most of the country was in drought. To make matters worse, refilling the pool sometimes incurred a fine for using too much water. One San Fernando Valley City fined a motel owner $1,500. for water wastage.
Today the newer retrofits cut labor costs in half. However by October 2009, the state-of-the-art retrofit drain made in San Diego, California, was not even available in pool supply houses anywhere in Southern California. Doug Watkins, a licensed pool contractor and licensed scuba diver, has been bringing them from his Utah location. Utah has totally retrofitted all the commercial pools in the state, and Doug Watkins was showing me the latest and best technology.
Interestingly enough, Southern California is neither up-to-date nor compliant. In an attempt to save money some pool owners hired illegal alien contractors to install the new drain covers. These Non-licensed contractors are still digging a trench to retrofit the drainpipes manually, because they do not even know there is a simpler way. Owners think they are saving money and instead pay much more than necessary as well as incur future difficulties.
In October, the State of California decided to issue its own law regarding the VGB mandate. They gave us an extension until July 1, 2010 to have our pools fully compliant and signed off. They specified which contractors could do the work. See Doug Watkins’ website www.Services4Pools.com for the exact rules as to who in addition to licensed pool contractors can do some or all of the work.
The Health Departments will most likely be doing inspections of every one of the 200,000 commercial pools at some time, in order to catch those pools retrofitted without a permit and by unlicensed pool contractors. Permits can only be pulled by approved contractors. It will be very interesting to see what happens when the owner tells the health department that they have complied, and the inspector does not see a retrofit permit on file. Then the Health Department will issue a citation with a fine and demand the job be redone and signed off by a licensed pool contractor. Believe it or not, a general contractor will not do. Is this crazy?
Crazier still, in Arizona the Health Department indicated they do not have the funds to hire inspectors to enforce the mandate. So Arizona motels think they can postpone doing the work. Not so. Even though the county cannot enforce the code; we have our legal eagles —the litigation attorneys— looking for a lawsuit waiting to happen. The pool owner in Southern California where that child died in September 2009 might be turning over the deed to his property to that child’s family. There is not enough insurance in the world to cover non-compliance with a Federal mandate when inaction takes the life of a child. The insurance company might refuse to pay the claim because of that non-compliance with the law.
What is the solution? First, if you have a commercial pool: Beg or borrow (but please do not steal) the few thousand dollars needed to comply with the law. Second, do not hire anyone but a licensed pool contractor. Find out what your options are so you do not pay for a completely rebuilt pool when you can comply with the law for a minor cost. Third, make sure you have a permit. Lastly, vote out of office every politician who votes to spend, spend, spend your money in any manner you are not in total agreement with.
For the actual laws and more information you can go to www.services4pools.com. Doug Watkins can be reached for questions at 800-864-0420 or by email at info@Services4Pools.com
About the author
Willard Michlin is a California real estate broker, landlord, property manager and author. He can be contacted in his Moorpark office at kismetrei@earthlink.net or by phone at 800-864-0420
June 15th, 2010 at 2:13 am
Nice work and very informative …I thank you!
But no where in Riverside county Ca. does it state unless I missed it.
that a general contractor cannot do the work!
Where does it state in writing from the state of California that only a c53 or and a c36??? help please court case pending soon!!
October 29th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Well I had to figure this out by myself.
A general contractor cannot work on pools.
only a licensed pool contractor can.