Episode Transcript
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Intro (00:00):
Hello everybody.
Welcome to the poolsideperspectives podcast.
I am Kevin Woodhurst and with me is mygood friend, Mike Farley, and we're so
glad you found this podcast together.
We have been homeowner advocatesand outdoor living and the pool
industry for over 30 years.
So we understand the challenges youface creating your backyard paradise.
We know your curiosity is notenough to ensure your success.
(00:21):
So on this podcast, we're going to talkabout the design process and practical
steps to help you create that space.
We'll have some fun mixed in with it.
Some aha moments.
And this is no fluff.
No one has time for that.
So we're going to get serious and getvery particular about all of these topics.
Whether you are a new homeowner with yourfirst remodel or a seasoned homeowner
(00:41):
competing your last dream home, we arehere to help you end up with what you
dreamed of from pools to patios, pizza,ovens, to pergolas, porcelain, to pumps.
Pool Party to Permits, Ping Pong Tablesto the Processes to your Paradise.
This is Straight Talk and Action Steps.
Let's get started.
Mike (01:04):
good afternoon.
This is Mike Farley poolsideperspective podcast.
I hope you are having a great dayand thank you for joining us here.
Hopefully we can give you lots ofinformation to inspire you on your
outdoor living and pool journey.
Oh yeah.
Trey (01:18):
I'm Trey Farley.
Oh yeah, exciting week.
And it's getting festive, man.
Christmas is around the corner.
It's time's moving quicker and quicker.
So, Yeah, I'm excitedto have that downtime.
But, we just did the tree lightingat my fiancé's dad's house.
I've set up two Christmas trees already.
And it's probably gonna bethree here soon with yours.
Spider (01:37):
Yeah,
Mike (01:38):
been busy with puppies and
haven't got the Christmas tree up yet.
So
Trey (01:42):
you've had your
hands full with 15 of them.
Mike (01:44):
Yeah, so it's puppies
started going home this week.
So people are like, aren'tyou sad to see them leave?
And I, Like you know howmuch 15 puppies eat and poop.
Trey (01:56):
Yeah, they just roll
around and it's crazy, man
Mike (01:58):
So a great ball of fun.
So if you really want to know aboutpuppies and water and swimming pools
and dogs, you know Check out the lastpodcast because we covered dogs and water.
Trey (02:10):
Yeah, we went
very detailed into it So
Mike (02:12):
there's a lot of fun things that
you can do with your dog regardless
of what kind of breed that you have
Trey (02:18):
Yeah, we're not
talking about dogs today.
Mike (02:20):
No, no dogs today.
You could like, yes, a dogmight enjoy this topic.
Trey (02:25):
I've seen actually a couple
of Goldens go down a slide in
the pool a couple of times.
Some of the videos, I felt badfor the dog because the dog
was like terrified looking.
Some of them look likethey'd done it like a lot.
I mean, We
Mike (02:36):
test our puppies out on the slide.
In
Trey (02:39):
the backyard, the
Mike (02:40):
little one.
They don't look scared
Trey (02:41):
when they go down
Mike (02:42):
that.
No, I think they have fun, yeah.
Anyway we don't have a slidein the pool to test them on.
Trey (02:46):
No we do not.
But hey we've put in a lotof slides on a lot of pools.
A lot of slides.
For a huge amount of different people.
Variety.
Lots of variety.
Mike (02:56):
So we're going to talk with
Dolphin Slides today who we use
predominantly for our slides on ourprojects and creating a lot of fun.
So I guess we'll jump on with them.
Trey (03:06):
Let's
Mike (03:07):
get
Trey (03:07):
it.
Mike (03:07):
Good evening.
Spider (03:08):
Howdy.
Hey, how you doing?
. Mike (03:10):
Welcome to poolside
perspective podcast.
Guest 1 (03:13):
Thank you for having us.
Mike (03:15):
Thank y'all.
So you guys have the productthat's probably the most fun that
we get to deal with on a process.
And so there's a lot of questionspeople have about slides.
And so we wanted to providesome information today.
tell us a little bit about the history.
So several people were askingme, how did dolphin slide start?
And I'm like, I don't evenknow the whole story here.
(03:37):
So how did this come about?
Guest 1 (03:39):
I'll take that one.
We actually started out working.
All of us worked for a commercial waterslide company we did that for a few years.
Each one of us.
That's how we were introducedto water slides in general.
And it only took us about what, Andrew,maybe 6 years to find each other.
(03:59):
Yeah, something like that.
Yeah, we just went from there.
Mike (04:03):
how long has dolphin
slides been in existence?
Guest 2 (04:05):
I think it's about 15 years now.
Guest 1 (04:08):
Yeah, we started
the company back in 2006.
Okay.
Lisa and myself had worked fora commercial company together.
Andrea had later worked for that samecompany, and he just tended to overlook
the residential division quite a bit.
And so we took that over from him.
(04:29):
He sold that out to us in 2006.
So The same people haveowned the company since then
Mike (04:34):
Okay, but the product
was available before 2006.
It was just with a different vendor
Guest 1 (04:40):
Yep.
That's right.
Mike (04:41):
Okay.
Cause I can't remember thevery first project that I did.
I want to say it was about 2003or four and it was a yellow
slide that I did with Matt Golke.
Guest 1 (04:55):
Yes.
I remember that.
Cause
Mike (04:58):
everybody was like, you
sure you want to do that color?
Guest 1 (05:01):
Yes.
Mike (05:02):
And it was in y'all's
brochure for a while.
Guest 1 (05:04):
It was, it turned out beautiful.
You did well with that color.
Mike (05:07):
Yeah, so it was because
of the masonry color that
was all used was the reason.
But if you first look at it, itwas like, man, that's yellow.
We'll be sure you want to do that.
And the clients were like, yeah.
So actually I drove by that housejust the other day and it's for sale.
Oh,
Spider (05:21):
really?
Yeah,
Mike (05:22):
but they've lived there a long time.
That was the first one that I did.
then I went to work with claffy andwe've done a whole lot of slides them.
okay.
do y'all do commercial slides ordo you do just residential slides?
Guest 1 (05:35):
We try to stick with.
residential as much as possible.
That's what we startedthe company focusing on.
That's where 99 percentof our attention goes.
We will do a commercial andmunicipal type project for some
customers, but we like residential.
We like dealing one onone with the homeowners.
(05:57):
We like dealing with poolbuilders that we deal with we get
to talk to you about every job
Commercial you would have So manyfewer projects, It's not the same
type of industry, so we try tokeep it as separate as we can.
Mike (06:11):
understand that people all the
time are like, do you do commercial work?
And I'm like, not a chance in the world.
Guest 1 (06:15):
you know, We
don't like it either.
It's just,
Mike (06:18):
it's a totally different niche.
So
Guest 1 (06:20):
it is.
Trey (06:20):
It'd be interesting though,
because I feel like after 2020,
were saying that the slides.
Are getting higher insome residential jobs.
So like they're requesting bigger slides.
So definitely.
So have you seen that change a lot?
This, the height, then the lengthof the slide increase after
like maybe 2020, the pandemic.
Guest 2 (06:36):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
Trey (06:38):
Okay.
Guest 2 (06:38):
Lots of really big slides.
Mike (06:41):
Yeah.
So for a decade, I would say from earlytwo thousands to, 2012, actually all the
way through, almost COVID, my standardslide was a 15 foot one piece slide.
. I put that slide in all the time.
I can think of a handful of times beforethat I did anything other than that.
(07:01):
That's what most people wanted.
And then.
It was right before actually cove it iswhen the trend started to change me, but
Guest 2 (07:10):
when I come up with balconies
now a lot, you know, balconies and
yeah, we get a lot of that now.
Mike (07:17):
That request has always come
up, but it never got sold a whole lot.
I mean, I've seen some of yoursocial media posts with them
coming off the second floor.
So
Guest 2 (07:26):
yeah, we get a lot of calls
coming off a second story balcony.
It's very popular these days.
Mike (07:31):
Yeah.
It's a lot of fun.
Trey (07:33):
How tall can they get
in a residential backyard?
I mean, If there's no limits on theHOA and the city how big do y'all go?
Guest 1 (07:41):
We personally won't go
over 20 feet without speaking
with our own insurance company.
Trey (07:47):
Okay, that makes sense.
Guest 1 (07:48):
And then we just decide from
there if it's something that we would
take the risk for that, we think thatthis homeowner would, is actually going
to move forward with the project, thatthey're going to use somebody that will
install it like it needs to be installed.
But yeah, we don't mindas long as it's safe.
And we've been doing this for all ofus over 20 years now So as long as it's
(08:12):
safe, we're down to try anything, you know
Trey (08:16):
Is is that 35 feet long
typically like a 20 footer?
Guest 1 (08:20):
Oh, no, when you get into
20 feet of slide length or 20 foot of
elevation Unless it's a speed slide.
You're talking about 100,100 20 foot 130 foot slides.
Spider (08:32):
Okay.
Guest 1 (08:32):
And they're more common
than people feel like they are.
the same people that would spendthe money on, the extra side by
sides for the family, they'll spendit on a water slide for the family.
Spider (08:43):
Yeah.
Guest 1 (08:43):
It's just what they've got.
And like you said coming out ofCOVID, the balconies the tree
houses, people just started gettingcreative with the elevations that
were already in their backyard.
That's a lot of why.
we started seeing these elevationscreep up because people were stay
in their, balcony as their platform.
(09:05):
Now, all of a sudden, they wereshifting stairways around and we're
going to be able to come out of thepool and not enter the house anymore.
So I think that's been a lot of it.
Mike (09:15):
So a 20 foot, a one
story house can be 10 feet.
That's all got 10.
So you're coming off likea second story balcony.
I mean,
Trey (09:24):
We
Guest 1 (09:25):
we're working with architects
and engineers right now on a project
that we're actually coming off ofthe third floor and we're keeping
the whole thing inside the house.
Oh,
Spider (09:37):
wow.
Guest 1 (09:37):
Yeah.
That's cool.
It's fun.
It's sometimes, Mike, you and I'veworked together on a lot of designs.
They can get frustrating, the fun part ofit is when you figure it out, everybody,
they get what they want in the endand they're like, yeah, we did that.
Mike (09:52):
Oh yeah.
Okay.
You just opened up a can of worms that howmany of your slides don't go into pools?
Or do they all go into pools?
Guest 2 (10:01):
Some of them go into lakes.
But they've got to gointo some body of water.
Mike (10:05):
Okay.
So they're not building aslide in the house just to go
from one floor to the next.
Guest 2 (10:09):
No.
He has a pool in his,what is it, his basement?
Mike (10:13):
Yes.
Guest 1 (10:14):
The whole house has
been redesigned around his desire
for now it's two water slides.
It was one water slide going fromthe third floor to his basement pool.
It's a beautiful project.
I believe it's going to close.
So maybe you'll see that onsocial media pretty soon.
We're still working the kinksout in it, but we're close.
Mike (10:37):
So when someone approaches
you, have an idea of something.
You then have an engineer that.
We work with in conjunction tocome up with something that's safe.
That's not a stupid solution.
Guest 1 (10:51):
And our experience, we
work with structural engineers.
We work with architects and designers,and we work with your engineers.
So whatever specifications we haveto have, we'll work through that.
But a lot of this isbased on our experience.
This is what we've done for our entirecareer, is put water slides together.
(11:14):
We know when one's going to be too fast.
We know when a homeowner'sasking for something that's
little more than it needs to be
Mike (11:21):
right.
I know where you are, but for peoplethat don't know, where are y'all located?
Guest 2 (11:26):
Adamsville, Tennessee.
And then our manufacturing plant isjust over into north Mississippi.
Mike (11:32):
Okay.
someone orders a slide.
long does that process take?
Guest 2 (11:37):
It depends on
the time of the year.
Obviously, like spring,we're quite a bit more busy.
Right now, I've been telling everybodyto just plan on four to six weeks.
Right now, the closer we get to spring,I hope that it stays that way, know,
it does tend to get a little longerlead times once it gets warm and people
(11:58):
start thinking about water slides.
Mike (12:00):
Do you have many homeowners
that reach out and contact you
Guest 2 (12:04):
Yes, absolutely.
We've got a lot of very handy homeownersthat Feel like they can put it together
and then they put it together orthey'll find an installer, you know
That's willing to install it for them.
Mike (12:16):
Okay, What's the farthest
that you've actually shipped one?
Guest 2 (12:20):
We've shipped
slides to Washington State.
We ship a lot of slidesto Utah these days.
It is really booming there.
But we ship slides all over the country.
What we try to do, we shipthem on a flatbed trailer.
And we try to group multiple slidesthat are going in the same general
direction, and that way we cansplit the freight up, among all
(12:42):
the customers who are on that load.
It makes it a little bit easier because,shipping is high if you're shipping
all the way to Utah or California.
So we try to group others onthere to make it a little better.
Trey (12:54):
I'm curious just because there
might be some people that listen
to this podcast and they don'tknow much about dolphin in general.
If we just talk about the materialsand features of the slide for a second.
So what is the slide even made of?
Guest 2 (13:04):
It is hand laid
gel coat fiberglass.
So it's just like the big water parks, youknow, the slides, it's the same materials.
Mike (13:13):
Okay.
That's good quality.
And are they an open flumeor are some of them enclosed?
Guest 2 (13:18):
We have open and enclosed.
You can start it as an enclosed andhave it lead into an open flume.
You just can't go from open to enclosed.
Mike (13:28):
Okay.
can your enclosed be put in the ground?
Guest 2 (13:32):
It can be buried.
And that's what mostpeople do with the tubes.
However, you can't just putthe dirt directly on the tube.
You've got to build like a rebarand the wire mesh cage to hold most
of the weight up off of this slide.
But yeah, that's very popular.
Mike (13:50):
So there has to be some type
of structure to carry the dirt load.
You just can't put the tubein the ground and bury it.
Okay.
Excellent.
Some
Guest 1 (13:59):
of the parts,
yeah, they're just so long.
They don't have thestrength to handle that.
Mike (14:04):
No, it makes total sense.
Okay, cool.
I've done designs itwasn't a dolphin slide.
It was before when I worked for MattGolke, he had a slide that went under
two slides that went underground.
So the pool
Trey (14:18):
was underground too?
Mike (14:19):
No, I was going from the upper
level to a lower level pool, double level.
I got you.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
So I took it actually underground.
So you couldn't see it at all.
Trey (14:28):
That's wow.
That'd be really cool.
Yeah.
Guest 1 (14:30):
And a lot of people, even if
they don't bury the slide, they hide
it, they, they'll backfill around it.
They don't want to see it.
we don't run across that as muchanymore, but that used to be a big thing.
It was like, we don'twant to see this slide.
And that's what they would do.
They would just bury it and youknow, you've got it, it's fun
and you don't have to look at it.
Mike (14:51):
Yeah.
Actually, that's probably the numberone thing that people talk to us about
is they don't want to see the slide.
Trey (14:57):
It depends on the customer.
Some people don't mind seeing it.
You have jobs where it's right there.
It's not buried.
it falls seamlessly intothe architecture itself.
But there are those customers that it'slike, okay, can we do like some kind
of fencing or screening cover it up?
They want the featurethough, but they just
Mike (15:12):
oh 100 they want the feature
But they want me to creatively come
up with something to camouflage it.
So I come up with some fun ones overthe years So yes Anyway the big green
wall is probably the most popular onetoday because it's still a modern look
Trey (15:26):
Yeah, it's pretty flat.
It's typically pretty hard tohide it with a flat yard You
Mike (15:31):
That was a single level pool,
looks like a big box with hedge.
So the slide comes out of it.
BBQ Intro (15:38):
We're going to
take a break here for a second
and get into outdoor living.
So with outdoor living, we liketo go to barbecue bits here.
We're going to share some informationof everything that you may want to
consider in your outdoor living space.
As far as features,especially for the kitchen.
Hope you enjoy this.
Mike (15:58):
Filling up a pot
that's sitting on a burner.
One of the nice things aboutthis burner too, I'm just going
to point out is it's recessed.
Yes.
It's not up on top.
So if this is up here, me cookingup here is much harder than if
the, this is lower and we're goingto, cook in something like that.
So if you're going to do somethingwith a burner, a lot of times
(16:18):
that's a nice feature to lookat that you've got set up there.
explain this feature.
Cause I think this is really nice to have.
Bobby (16:24):
We were specifying
these in the early 80s.
It, not that it took a dive.
We see trends that reenter the market again.
The pot filler faucet, here we go again.
They want to bring everythingfrom the indoors to outdoors.
We don't have to bringgallons of water out there.
Water is right there at your command.
You can fill it up withouthaving to lift the pot up there.
(16:46):
You're exactly right.
This burner recess does a lot of things.
It provides a wind wall.
I can see inside of it.
It's not too high where I don't burn myforearms, but also if you're doing soups.
Any type of tortilla soups orchilies, it's always nice to have
this feature here if you need that.
Also it serves other purposes.
If I need a wipe down a counter andthings like that I can take when
(17:09):
I'm done and I'm doing my cleanup, Ican have my Dawn dishwashing liquid,
fill that up and then do a wipe downof all my equipment after the cook.
Mike (17:16):
Okay, so is there issues
with this with the cold weather?
Bobby (17:21):
There is not and it's just
like any other faucet, but with the
creation of PEX instead of copper.
It's now value added.
We're seeing a lot more water andice machines in outdoor kitchens
because that PEX line, which isa polyvinyl line, doesn't expand
and contract like copper does.
(17:41):
I will mention this though, whenyou terminate your water, you want
to make sure that you have a watertermination under here and then
you open up the valve on this.
So the ice or water, if it freezes duringcold months, it doesn't expand the line.
We want to do that.
So a lot of people will terminate thewater, but they'll forget to release
this that opens up an airspace.
(18:03):
So if the ice does, the waterdoes expand after it freezes,
it will not break the unit.
So
Mike (18:10):
who's this made
Bobby (18:11):
by?
It's made by alfresco.
This is their pot filler tower.
Mike (18:14):
Okay.
Bobby (18:14):
304 stainless 304 tower.
What does stainless, what does304 mean to you as a consumer?
Has a lot of nickel and chromium in it.
So if I have a salt water system thenthis is not going to pit or rust.
Mike (18:28):
Very good.
Thanks.
Thanks.
BBQ Outro (18:30):
So I hope you enjoyed the
barbecue bits that we just featured today
and we'll have more coming up next week.
If there's something in particular thatyou're interested for, let us know and
we'll get back into the episode now.
Mike (18:44):
when you Have a slide, a lot
of times people they put it in the
same thought processes, like a divingboard and a diving board has to have
a safety envelope that certain widthand certain length and certain depth.
I know the answer to this, but I'mgoing to ask you what is required from
a safety standpoint for your product?
Guest 1 (19:04):
For ours, we've got
multiple versions of slides.
We've talked a lot about ourcustom slides, when you opened
up with the show today, we weretalking about the one pieces,
Spider (19:16):
right?
Guest 1 (19:16):
You can pretty much do
anything that you want to with them.
Guest 2 (19:20):
When you come out of this
slide 1 piece slides, like the 10
foot and the 15 and a half foot?
Spider (19:26):
Yes,
Guest 2 (19:26):
they got was it 13 foot?
Yeah,
Guest 1 (19:29):
they've got a
three and a half foot.
Mike (19:32):
Either draw a
Guest 1 (19:33):
center line on each side that
you've got to have clear and open.
you've got to have three anda half foot left or right.
For a total of 15 foot out in frontof the slide, and then for the larger
custom slides that envelope is 10foot wide by 15 to 20 foot long.
It depends on the project.
(19:53):
A lot of commercial slide companiesrequire that 20 foot and we figure if
a commercial code is good that willstick with that with residential too if
it's getting into that big of a slide.
Mike (20:07):
So is there a certain depth?
Does it have to be 8 feet deep or?
No, it's
Guest 1 (20:11):
we've only got to
have 4 feet of water depth.
And that changes if you've gotmore water, we can go in at a
different angle with the slide.
There are multiple ways to approach it.
I think.
One of the best water dips thatwe terminate into is that four
foot water dip It's good foreverybody swimmers and non swimmers
Trey (20:34):
You mentioned, speed slides earlier.
Do y'all do those by any chance or no?
Guest 2 (20:37):
Yes That was actually my
favorite Because really, we price
these like per foot so you can do likea speed slide And it just looks like
this massive, 10, 12 foot elevation, butthe actual slide footage is straight.
So it's just straight down.
And the slide doesn't cost as muchas like a longer slide, but the
(21:02):
look of it is just very impressive,
Trey (21:04):
that change the.
For lack of better words, thediving envelope on the pool.
No, it's the same.
Okay.
Guest 2 (21:10):
Now people will have a
certain elevation that they want this
slide to start at and the length ofthe slide is just not quite there.
So we can have it enter the pool alittle bit higher above the coping.
But once you go like 20 inches above thecoping, then you need to start having,
the water depth has to increase too.
Mike (21:28):
That's cool.
when we come in and specify, ifwe say, we want the slide to enter
12 inches higher than pool, Thenwe would add depth to the pool.
So we'd probably need more likefive feet instead of four feet.
So
Guest 2 (21:44):
over 20 inches above the
pool coping that's when you need to
start, having a little more water
Guest 1 (21:49):
Okay,
Guest 2 (21:50):
but yeah,
Guest 1 (21:50):
just 12 inches.
That's fine you can still terminatein four foot of water with that
Guest 2 (21:55):
Okay, and a lot of people have
like automatic pool covers, as long
as you let us know that In the design,part, we can accommodate those as well.
Mike (22:04):
So Dr.
Ford wanted his up a little bit higher.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking about.
His was eight feet deep,so there was no problem
Spider (22:11):
at all.
Yeah.
Mike (22:13):
That's going to be a cool picture.
We just plastered that pool.
Trey (22:17):
That's also something you need
to know, like in the design process.
Do you want your kids to have thatfree fall into the pool, or do they
want to go right into the pool?
Yeah.
Guest 1 (22:24):
that is a lot, when we do
work with the homeowners, there are
people that's what they're looking for.
I want that drop into the pool.
Make sure you don'teliminate that in the design.
We'll work around that.
Mike (22:36):
We've got the one piece
slides and the speed slides a
one piece slide as well, right?
Yeah.
Guest 2 (22:41):
We do have a solid
piece, 19 foot long speed slide.
But we do speed slides with oursectional flume parts as well.
those are the ones that look really cool.
Guest 1 (22:53):
We
Guest 2 (22:54):
like those better than
Guest 1 (22:55):
the single pace slide.
Mike (22:57):
Okay.
So what is your most popular slide?
The
Guest 2 (23:00):
15 and a half foot.
Mike (23:02):
Okay.
Guest 2 (23:03):
Yeah,
Mike (23:04):
the one that I've
been using forever.
So,
Guest 2 (23:06):
Yeah, and also like for
homeowners the solid piece slides, the
10, the 15 and a half, and even the 19foot, we've got support systems that we
sell with those, everything with thesectional flume slides, you would need
to do either concrete sauna tubes orhave steel posts or something like that.
But the solid piece slides, we've gotthat support system that we sell with it.
(23:29):
So really, all you've got to do is, getsome stairs to get up to it, basically.
Mike (23:33):
You guys leave the stairs up to the
people that are doing the installation.
Is that correct?
Guest 2 (23:39):
Which I'll take.
Mike (23:41):
but you've seen
different types of stairs.
What are, it's everything from stonesteps, the wood steps, the metal steps.
It's all over the place,
Guest 1 (23:49):
yeah.
Like I said, one of the bigger projectsthat we did this year that we've closed
up was off of a treehouse, was avery nice treehouse, but they built
a treehouse and they're like, wewant to water slide from this too.
Mike (24:03):
I designed one several years
ago that the client was like, we
want the coolest backyard or possible
so we designed a treehouse with two slides.
They wanted a speed slide and then one,one and more that was curly, around
and a lazy river and all these things.
And then the price tag came in.
(24:24):
And the husband came in and saidmy wife, I told her to do something
neat, but I told her she couldspend 400, 000 and your pools at 1.
4 million.
Can you shave a million dollars off this?
yeah, that would have beenhelpful to know at the beginning.
Cause a lot of people spend a lot of timefiguring out this and he's like, yes, I
(24:45):
understand y'all did this and I apologize.
And so that was my only treehouse that I've designed so far.
Trey (24:51):
I did see some interesting steps
into the slide, because one of the
builders we work with, he had his personalpool done, and he took forever on the
stairs, remember he had that wood littleladder, he had a wood ladder that was
like jerry rigged together so they couldget into the slide it was hilarious.
Mike (25:08):
He was like, yeah, I'm
going to take care of the stairs.
And I was like, we're going to putthis slide up and your kids are going
to demand to go down this thing.
Just wait and see.
Yeah.
Less than a week later.
I people
Guest 2 (25:19):
using that
spiral staircases also.
Yeah.
Mike (25:22):
No spiral staircase
would look nice work well.
Guest 2 (25:26):
Platform is big enough.
Mike (25:28):
Yeah.
Trey (25:30):
Sorry for this interruption,
but we're going to talk about
a design concept real quick.
So we're talking about water slides.
Is there a specific job that you wantto talk about that comes to mind?
Mike (25:40):
one of the coolest places slides
work is in what I call double pool.
over the years, we did poolswith a vanishing edge basin.
And one of the things when you'relooking at family use and how this
space uses is typical vanishing edgebasin was three or four feet wide.
So it's not a functionalpool, swim in at all.
(26:03):
we started looking at projects andsaying if we made this lower pool
bigger, could it become functional?
And so now we've done pools that there's athousand square feet on the upper pool and
a thousand square feet on the lower pool.
They're massive lower pools and usuallythere's two different functions.
(26:24):
So we'll have the top pool.
Has the big tanning ledge.
It has the shallow area forplaying water volleyball.
It's got places where people can hangout, lots of places to gather and sit.
And then the lower poolis the active pool.
Other than volleyball and basketballbeing in the upper pool because
it's shallow the lower one's deeper.
(26:45):
It usually has the slide going into itand it has a diving board going into it.
So that's a very common scenario solution.
With that concept, I had a pool recentlywhere they wanted a sunken fire pit
in the pool, which was really coolby putting the sunken fire pit in the
pool and having it surrounded by water.
(27:07):
The top pool wasn't real functional.
Trey (27:10):
Yeah, you weren't like
swimming laps in that pool.
Mike (27:12):
No, it was a big pool,
but there wasn't a lot of space
to move around and everything.
So we initially were talkingabout just a vanishing edge basin.
What came up also is we want to slide.
This house was extremely contemporary.
All glass everywhere.
So a lot of sightlines were in the world.
(27:32):
Are we going to hide a slide here?
And they're like we need it look good.
So it turned out there was onlyreally one spot that we could put it.
And that spot was in the primarysightline from the front door.
Oh, geez.
Looking through the living room throughall the glass and everything like that.
So how'd you hide it?
What we ended up doing was.
(27:53):
Talk to them and I'm like,how big a slide do I need?
And they're like, we just wantto have a fun little slide.
So dolphin made a.
10 foot long slide.
It's only four foot tall.
And so what I did is incorporatedit with a really wide staircase
that was going down from theupper level to the lower level.
(28:14):
And basically the slide becamealmost like a handrail on one side.
And so when you were going down the steps,it just followed the steps going down.
So what ended up happening isthat masonry was very fluid.
Fit in with the slide very well.
So it seemed like the slide just grew outof the steps going down into lower basin.
(28:36):
And then from the house, as youlooked out, you could barely even
see that there was a slide there.
So it didn't mess upany of the sight lines.
It didn't become somethingthat was, Award out there.
Not at all.
It just flowed as itflowed down the steps.
You flowed down the slide into the pool.
We ended up making the lower poolbigger so they could have more
(28:59):
activity space just for playing around.
Cause with the sunken fire pit inthe upper pool, it was difficult
to have a lot of activity space.
There was a tanning ledge, therewas a spa and you float around a
little bit, but so they wanted place.
Their kids were very active and thatbuilt in basketball court on the property.
So they wanted to play,ball and stuff like that.
(29:20):
So the lower basin became the activityspace as well as accommodated the slide.
So you can look at.
Different solutions to come up withdifferent things and different ways to
hide things But that was probably oneof the funner more modern solutions.
We've come up with recently.
Trey (29:37):
Yeah, shown that job to a couple
new Customers that are trying to figure
out how to hide a slide and what looksgood and it's funny when you show them the
image Not like the great image from theLord Basin area and you show that to them
or any picture really of the pool You Andthey're like, what are you talking about?
I don't see a slide on this job at all.
And it's like, where'sWaldo just blends right in.
It's beautiful.
Mike (29:57):
I always, if you're looking
for it, I always know where it's at,
so it's pretty obvious to me, butyes, it is probably one of the most
fluid situations and the masons dida great job of doing the work on it.
Trey (30:08):
And it helps that there's a
sunken fire pit and the upper pool.
That's an eye catcher, right?
Sure.
So it takes your attention awayfrom where the slide might be.
Mike (30:16):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
All right.
We can come do fun ones for you.
So let us know.
Trey (30:20):
All right.
You enjoy the rest of this podcast.
Mike (30:26):
Is there a particular design
that you think your slides go best
into or You can put them in just aboutany type of style or design a pool
Guest 1 (30:36):
I guess the only thing that we
tend to run into problems with it's hard
for us to get our slides Inside poolsthat have the enclosures over them.
That's really difficult becausewe don't have that tight little
footprint that people are used tothat these are designed around.
we've made that work.
We've got them in there, but that'sprobably one of the harder things to do.
(31:00):
Just making sure that you have the roomfor our slides because a lot of architects
that haven't worked with us personally.
I know they know what they're doing,but they're dropping water slides in
plans left and right that are four foot.
You know what I'm talking about?
Oh, 100 percent four foot radiuses.
(31:20):
And then they're bringingthe design to us.
And wondering why our slide won't fitWe've got a six foot center line radius.
That's a very large slide compared tothose spiral slides that you can see water
on some, you can't see water on some.
I'm not knocking them.
(31:40):
Everything has its place.
But that's probably the hardestthing is trying to go back in and
fit a slide that's made to fitthe kids and dad that paid for it.
We want dad to be ableto ride this too, right?
Mom, the aunts, the uncles.
So that's one of the reasonsour slides are bigger.
The curves are bigger.
We do need a little more room for them.
(32:02):
That's probably one of the hardestthings about designing them.
Mike (32:06):
one of the things that I've Told
clients over the years is there's some
other manufacturers that the problemI have with their slides is as a
large adult, you don't fit comfortablyin them they're designed for kids.
Okay, I tell them, everybodycan go down this slide.
I've seen grandmas go down the slide.
seen little children go down the slide.
(32:27):
I've seen everything inbetween go down the slide.
Jay was talking aboutdogs going down the slide
Trey (32:33):
you had customers that didn't
have kids they wanted a slide.
Mike (32:35):
Oh, yeah, had a client and I
remember this was Quite a while ago and
I was like, so how old are your kids andthey're like, we don't have any kids And
Okay, so what do you want to slide for?
They were like, fun,
Spider (32:49):
right?
Mike (32:50):
I was like, oh, okay.
You know, Adults can have fun.
Yeah, that's cool.
And it was funny because within ayear of us building the pool as like,
you going to have kids anytime soon?
No, they had their firstchild like a year later.
Guest 1 (33:05):
They've
Mike (33:05):
got three now that I know of.
Just say
Guest 1 (33:07):
no one time.
Anyway.
Mike (33:09):
when you're doing a slide
is there a range of colors
that they are available in?
Or is there
Guest 2 (33:17):
so many colors?
We have so many colors.
We have a set of solid colors.
It's just solid colors andthen we have another line.
It's the shimmer line That havelittle tiny speckles and like a fine
shimmer we can even color match.
So I think we're workingon a pink one right now.
(33:37):
Is that right?
Guest 1 (33:39):
We are we're
working on bubblegum paint
Mike (33:42):
the barbie
Guest 1 (33:43):
set on it.
Mike (33:45):
I did yellow.
So I can't complain.
So,
Guest 1 (33:48):
Yeah, you never know.
Mike (33:51):
Purple.
Yeah.
Oh,
Spider (33:52):
really?
Mike (33:53):
as these colors are out
there over a period of time, are
they going to hold their color?
Do they fade a lot?
Or is there things that you can do from amaintenance standpoint to help with them?
So there's things like that.
Definitely.
Guest 2 (34:07):
Yes there is
definitely maintenance.
All of the colorseventually will fade some.
It's just the nature of gel coat.
But we do recommend at least twicea year that you wax these slides.
If you live like, Arizona or somewherewhere it's very sunny all the time you
might even want to wax it three times.
(34:30):
If it were me, I would use a cleanerwax for one of those because eventually
it's going to start to get oxidation.
That's like chalky, cloudy, dry.
You've seen it on boats and thatcleaner wax will get rid of that
before you can even feel it or see it.
Because if you deal with it.
(34:50):
Before it spreads, it's alot easier to get rid of.
And I've seen, 10 year old slides thathad not been taken care of at all and
brought back to just almost brand new,
Trey (35:02):
that leads me into a question.
Cause I remember we want to photoshoot a couple of months ago.
And unfortunately.
Tree limb fell and,broke the slide partly.
So how's the warranty deal have arepair team or anything like that?
Or is that outsourced to someone else?
Guest 2 (35:17):
We have a map of repotix that
we've come across, over the years,
we can usually put you in touch withone of those that are fairly close.
Most of the time it can be repaired.
Now if, like you said, like a treelimb fail, we have seen people, run
into them with backhoes where thepart completely breaks usually
(35:39):
those parts have to be replaced.
But yeah, most things likescratches, gouges things like that
can be repaired pretty easily.
And we do warranty them for a year.
Against any manufacturing defects.
But if something ever does happen,you have a storm or something like
that, definitely give us a call.
We can put you in touchwith someone that can help.
Mike (36:00):
as we go down the slide.
There's water, okay, that's goingdown the slide to help us slide down.
I'd hope so.
It'd be probably hard toslide without the water.
So how much water do you want inthese slides to make them work?
Well,
Guest 1 (36:18):
For the one pieces that
we were talking about either one of
those, don't need but about 60 gallonsper minute of water going down them.
Whenever you start getting into theopen flume slides, you're looking
at around 120 gallons per minute.
And with the tube slides, itjust depends on the slide itself,
(36:39):
how big it is, how long it is.
Sometimes we will go up to 240gallons per minute on those.
That's a pretty big slide though.
Okay.
Spider (36:49):
Perfect.
Guest 1 (36:49):
we do have to have a
lot more than just a water hose.
We've seen people tryand it just doesn't work.
ours need water.
Mike (36:57):
what slide do you think is really
neat that people aren't aware of as much,
or you think that if people knew about itas more that they would be really popular?
Guest 2 (37:09):
the sectional flame speed
slides, because we've got a lot
of what we call pre designed slidemodels on our website, which is just
a lot of popular slide designs there.
It's handy to pick from butwe don't have any sectional.
Speed slide designs on our website.
Yeah, but we are working on gettingsome new models based on like popular
(37:33):
requests like requests that we keepgetting for the same slide paths
and stuff So we're getting ready torevamp the website and offer more
models and some of those speed slides
Mike (37:43):
Okay.
I have designed one speed slide.
That's all which is amazingand it got built, not by me.
They took my plans and
Guest 1 (37:54):
got
Mike (37:55):
someone else to build
it, but it was a dolphin slide.
So it did end up with y'all.
I always wanted to geta picture of that one.
Haven't got it yet.
So
Trey (38:04):
I'm wondering do
y'all do custom paths?
Have y'all ever had a customer request,like a certain path and they're just
set on that path and y'all did that?
Or is that oh, really?
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Oh, yeah.
Mike (38:14):
don't use any of their templates.
Yeah.
I create havoc foranother email for Megan.
Oh, no.
What is my gun?
Now
Guest 1 (38:28):
we are grinning air to air
when we say your designs, because
your team does know our, product.
Spider (38:35):
Yeah.
Guest 1 (38:35):
As far as what making a custom
design, everybody does, they want,
they draw in like this completely 100percent custom slide that we can't do.
We would have to build a part andthen build a mold and then pull
it, and it's just not feasible.
But we take that idea andwe show them what we can do.
Mike (38:57):
What I found out years
ago is here's their part sizes.
Okay, that's smart.
So when I design a slide, I'mlike, okay, I need this many
straights and then I got the curveshere and that so I can build it.
So I know that I'm somewhat close towhat they actually can manufacture.
Trey (39:16):
Is there a certain degree that you
can't go past, like a real sharp turn or?
Is it pretty much just the rightangles, like the hardest you can turn?
Mike (39:24):
No, like she said, their radius
is was it's a six foot radius, right?
Oh, yeah.
Guest 2 (39:30):
Yeah.
Mike (39:32):
So you can't go
any tighter than that.
Yeah.
And that's where some architectsI'm sure draw stuff all the
time, tighter than that.
And it's like, no, that won't work.
Guest 1 (39:42):
Yeah,
Mike (39:43):
quite honestly, it wouldn't
be a comfortable ride either at
all you're hitting a corner and,slammed or up against the wall and
that type thing you want it to flow.
Trey (39:53):
Yeah, I've seen viral videos of
people going down like slides at parks
and it's like, oh, they're testing outto see how safe it is and they're just
hitting back and forth constantly.
It's loud.
Yeah.
Mike (40:03):
one of the things that we did on a
slide this year, which I had never done
before, is we actually put a railing onit because it was a really long run it had
a degree corner on the Smith project,and originally had a design that was a
little more fluid, but the city requiredus to be a certain distance off the fence.
(40:24):
And so we had to straighten the run out.
And so we ended up putting the what's it?
High walls.
Guest 1 (40:30):
Yeah.
Mike (40:31):
What's it called?
Guest 1 (40:32):
High walls.
Mike (40:32):
High walls.
Yes.
So can you explain topeople what those are?
Guest 1 (40:37):
So because everything that we
do is custom, we do know that sometimes
the slides are going to be a little fast.
And if that happens and you get outthere and you've got one installed,
we've got 12 extensions that we cansend out, if you do get a little
nervous about a curve, that we canbring that whole wall up another foot.
(41:00):
And we can do that around anycurves where we feel like you
might need a little extra safety.
Trey (41:04):
Sorry, is that textured like
the same as the rest of the slide
or does it have like a grip to it?
Guest 1 (41:09):
No it's just like
the rest of the slide.
Okay.
Mike (41:12):
It looks identical.
Trey (41:13):
Yeah, that's good.
Mike (41:14):
It's color coded the same.
Everything looks the same.
So the one comment I remember whenyou mentioned it to me was you
said that when you have biggerpeople going down the slide, that's
a bigger issue than like kids.
So like big adults is that'swhere that becomes helpful.
Guest 1 (41:30):
Yeah, the heavier masked guys,
mass in general, He'll ride that curve
higher and it's typically the dad Thatwinds up, you know saying, we're getting
a little high in this sometimes I meanmoms will call and they'll say that
the kids are but Usually if somebody'sgetting too fast, it's going to be daddy.
Yeah the bigger people
Mike (41:52):
those crazy dads Yeah,
Isaac Newton has a couple of rules
Guest 2 (41:56):
about that.
the kids, the older they get andthe bigger they get, the slide will
be more fun, it grows with them.
Mike (42:02):
So those could be added with any
slide that was done over a period of time?
Guest 1 (42:07):
Oh yeah, at any time.
Mike (42:08):
Okay.
Good to know.
because people do grow intoprojects and stuff like that.
I tell people all the time, especiallyif you entertain a lot, I think when
people come over, they love the slideand so the slide gets used a lot.
And so then the familyuses the slide a lot.
It's a really fun thing to create a lotof memories with in an outdoor space.
(42:30):
So we clients really enjoy it.
Trey (42:34):
I know you mentioned the basement
job that's in the works, which is
awesome, but is there like any standoutcustomer stories or like unique
installations you'd like to share about?
Cause we love stories on this podcast.
Guest 1 (42:45):
I'm going to have to
talk about my buddy, Matt Graves.
What do you think, Andrea?
Yeah, that was a good one.
So we did a slide for, he's a homeownerand he owned his own construction company.
So he knew what he was getting into.
He had his pool already in placeand he wanted a water slide.
We got out there and we designed,it's a beautiful, it's just a
(43:08):
little candy cane shaped slide, but.
He was so thorough with his install.
He wanted it to be perfect for hisfamily, his kids and his parents.
And he actually opened that slideup and sent us an email and told
me that his parents had wrote itfor their 50th wedding anniversary.
(43:32):
They had the party at that houseand they wrote the slide together.
To me, that's very specialbecause it was just a project
that he poured his heart into.
He installed it.
He called every time he had aquestion and he was just so kind.
it's maybe a 50 foot slide.
I don't think it's quite 50 foot, but itwas just the love that he put into it.
(43:54):
It
Trey (43:54):
also shows how smooth
your ride is on the slide.
if my grandma was going down a slide,I'd be like, Whoa, that's crazy.
Yeah,
Guest 2 (44:01):
We get a lot of calls where
people have written like a slide at
a water park and it was a bumpy, whenyou go from one section to the next
and they're concerned about that.
But really, it's all in justlining those parts up in the
install so that they're flush.
As long as you are, carefulabout that and it's very smooth.
(44:22):
And then after you've got the wholething together, you'll come in
and fill the seams with a caulk.
Yeah, it's very smooth.
Trey (44:30):
Yeah, I remember as a kid,
I used to love the water park.
I remember you used to ditch me and justlet me play all day with my cousins.
Well, You wouldn't ditch me, but the worstis always like going down a slide really
fast and then hitting your tailbone onone of those that's not lined up right.
Guest 1 (44:43):
Yes, that's awful.
Mike (44:45):
one of the things that I've done
a lot of slides on, it's what I call
double pools where we've got an upperpool and then we put the slide in that
you enter from the upper pool and thenslide down to the lower pool and basically
you don't see the slide then at all itcreates Usually the lower pools like
(45:06):
the slide and the diving board area.
So it's for all the kidsto hang out and play.
And then the upper pool was morefor hanging out in recreation.
But I don't know how many ofthose we've done like that.
Charlie Claffey, I think did the firstone on his personal home years ago.
That I saw and I was like, okay, Ican steal that idea and and we did
(45:27):
one real modern one just recentlywith one of the 10 foot long
slides, which I don't do many of.
But everybody loved that slide becauseyou looked at where it had to go was
right when you entered their frontdoor and looked out their windows and
this is a multi million dollar homeand the back of the house is all glass
(45:47):
and so they're like, we want to slide.
And this is where it has to goand I'm like, I got to figure
out how to make it where it's notlike a, a wart sticking out here.
And so we use the 10 foot one becausethere was only a four foot drop with
it from an elevation standpoint.
And we built it right intothe set of a staircase.
Anyway, it won quite a few of awards too.
(46:10):
So it looks really good.
Guest 1 (46:12):
Yes, the projects that you guys
have done over the years I felt like
I've overused those pictures so much.
Mike (46:21):
I don't know.
I was going through your social media andI didn't find any of our slides on there.
Guest 1 (46:26):
Dude, are you kidding?
I'm not kidding.
We've reused them for so manyyears because they're the best
looking slides that we had.
Now we've just got somebody elsethat's running our social media.
you know, that 39 that we putin it wasn't even our slide.
Like we went and found you somebodyelse's slide that would work
(46:46):
It was a spiral little tower.
I don't know the name of the job, but
Mike (46:51):
It was a one of mine, so It was a
Guest 1 (46:54):
plaffy job.
Mike (46:56):
Yeah.
Guest 1 (46:56):
And it looked really good.
Mike (46:58):
I know the job you're talking
about, but I don't know the name.
that's the fun is, we all compare notesin the office too, because, lots of
people have done lots of different things.
we have a wealth of slide information.
know Shelly's done a bunch.
Charlie's done a bunch.
I've done a few fun ones too.
So you guys have done a lotof the same things for years.
(47:19):
Do you see branching out into anythingelse or anything new coming with slides?
Guest 2 (47:24):
Well, We would like to like
I said, add some more model slides
to our website, just because thespeed slides, people don't even know
about those, and a lot of people.
They'll be laying everythingout and they think they have to
use one of those model slides.
They don't realize they can be customized.
But some of those slides thatwe continually get requests
(47:46):
for it'd be nice to have thosemodels, available on our website.
So people actually know about them,
you
Mike (47:53):
Yeah, that speed slide to the one
of the things that's cool is it can fit.
Really well with a more contemporarydesign where everything's straight lined.
And
Guest 2 (48:02):
of people don't have, that
much space to put a slide, so they
don't take up a lot of room, you know.
Mike (48:09):
can work in a much smaller footprint
and still work, but be a lot of fun.
Trey (48:14):
I'm wondering do, and this is
probably just like aftermarket stuff or
a builder edits it, but does anyone orhave you seen it where people like maybe
integrate like lighting on the slide,like led lighting or fixtures or does like
some kind of water feature on top of it?
I don't know.
Guest 2 (48:31):
The tube slots we have
people that I don't know how they do
it, but they intend to put the fiberoptic lights in the tube somehow.
And then we'll have some people thatwant open flume slide to go underneath
it, like some sort of waterfall feature.
And we can do that.
we just need seven foot of clearance.
Mike (48:51):
Okay.
So that's the height of clearance that youneed safely from the bottom of the flume
before there's something going across
Trey (48:58):
On the open flumes.
Okay.
Yeah.
Good
to know.
Mike (49:02):
Any advice you have for us
designers to use your product better?
Guest 1 (49:07):
We use it better.
I think you do an amazing job with it.
I think if you've got any questions, thebiggest thing is just to reach out to us.
We don't charge for ourdesigns, you know that.
So I guess we need to make surethat the homeowners know that.
Anybody that's listening to this, likeAndrew was saying, you don't have to pick
(49:29):
a pre design or a one piece just becauseyou don't want to mess with the design.
We can customize anything.
It doesn't cost you, you know,it doesn't cost you anything.
The revisions, none of that stuff.
Charged on the front end.
So just reach out to us inthe beginning of the project.
I think that sets everybody up betterthan adding the slide at the very end.
(49:53):
Definitely don't
Guest 2 (49:54):
build a lot of things
and think you're going to find a
slide that's just magically goingto fit between all those things.
Mike (50:02):
No, that magic doesn't work.
Guest 1 (50:05):
Yeah.
Mike (50:05):
I've done a lot of modifications.
Okay.
How do we get these, sauna tubes to workunderneath this and still make a walkway
work and all those types of things.
So I do have one question.
there's people that go outand build their own slide.
So they take masonry and they constructsomething in somebody's backyard.
(50:28):
Yes, so explain why this is abetter solution than that solution.
Guest 2 (50:35):
I know that we have replaced
a lot of gunite slides, and a lot of
these people don't take the size andthe shape of the human body and into
account when they put these in very,tight angles and just uncomfortable.
And the reason that we're replacingso many gun out slides is people
(50:57):
are tired of you're redoing them.
You've got to come back and reglazethem or whatever the word is.
And people are tired of having to do that.
Mike (51:06):
Yeah, I've seen it.
Refinish the surface that's there.
Trey (51:10):
What kind of surface do they use?
Mike (51:12):
I've seen all kinds
of different things.
I've seen people use glass tile.
Trey (51:16):
Oh
Mike (51:16):
my goodness, that sounds
Guest 1 (51:17):
terrible.
I've heard of that, yes.
Mike (51:20):
That sounds
Guest 1 (51:20):
right.
There was a glass tile slidethat I mean, I saw it on the
cover of magazines for years,
Mike (51:27):
yeah, a long time ago.
That was the thing.
So, Early in my career, I worked fora company and I asked them about,
Hey, can we build something like this?
And they're like, not a chance in theworld because of the liability issue.
These aren't design.
I mean, I'm going to goout and build something.
And have it at the right anglesand make it so it's steep
(51:50):
enough, but not too steep.
And, a lot of homeownersthink these blend in better.
Guest 2 (51:55):
Bus can be
repaired almost always.
If something happens to it, if you'vegot something that like a, tile, I
don't know what the repair processwould be, if something like chipped,
but it's very easy to get cut ifthere is, some sort of obstruction.
Mike (52:11):
So the other thing that I think a
lot of people don't understand is what
you're talking about is color matching.
You could come in and use a lot ofdifferent colors to create something
that would work better than somemasonry that somebody is going to
build a gunite slide out of anyway.
So you could create something from avisual standpoint that's better and a
(52:33):
performance standpoint that's better.
Guest 2 (52:36):
We cafe it's like a beige color
that used to be our biggest seller.
Now we sell more like platinum, thegrades, and we do a lot of white.
It seems like things aremoving in that direction now.
Mike (52:50):
How about black?
we have charcoal, a
Guest 2 (52:52):
color called midnight sky,
which is totally black, and it's got
tiny speckles and like a shimmer.
It's not glittery like you'd see ona boat, it's just a fine shimmer.
And then a solid color is charcoal,which is a very dark gray,
and that's my favorite color.
It looks beautiful.
Mike (53:10):
I have an opinion on this,
but I've had clients ask me,
is that going to be too hot?
Guest 2 (53:16):
I knew that's
what you were going to say.
I'm
Mike (53:19):
in Texas.
So, you know, that, awesome.
Guest 2 (53:21):
Awesome.
Awesome.
Going to be very hotwithout water on them.
They're all going to be that way.
But once you've got water running down it,it might a dark color might be slightly
warmer but you don't want to touch theslide anywhere without water running down.
If it's been sitting in the sun allday, fiberglass is going to be hot.
But once that water gets onit, to, it's not going to burn
(53:41):
you or anything like that.
Mike (53:43):
that's what I said.
I've got a lot of projects that we'veused a lot of contrasting light, dark,
and we've designed a couple of black ones,but haven't gotten to the finish line.
I will
Guest 2 (53:54):
say this as far as like the color
fading, it does tend to be less noticeable
with a lighter color than it would bewith, like a cafe or a darker color.
Mike (54:02):
Sure.
No, a white slide fades to white.
Guest 1 (54:07):
There you go.
It does.
It does.
Mike (54:09):
Okay, cool.
Guest 1 (54:10):
And I think back
to the gun at slides.
I think that people were buildingthe gun at slides when, maybe
they didn't know about dolphin.
Obviously, there wasn't aresidential slide company other
than SR Smith at the time.
Interfab, those type of slides were out.
I think that they were doing the bestthat they could, but we can replace that.
(54:31):
Now, why would a company, why would hesomebody still want to go in and build
a Gunite slide and take that liabilityon themself when they could come in and
put in a fiberglass slide that if itdoesn't ride the way you want it to, all
you gotta do is replace a part or two.
Spider (54:47):
Yeah,
Guest 1 (54:48):
so that's really the thing.
I think people use the gunout slides when they had to.
But they don't really need to anymore.
I would stay away from them becausewe do, we replace them a lot.
Even if they're designed well,you have to go back over them
every year and re epoxy them.
and if you don't, if you'veever rode one, they wind up
(55:10):
with that algae growing on them.
It's just, I've rode them.
They're slimy.
It's not.
It's gotten
Guest 2 (55:16):
harder to find people
to do that, also, to come and
resurface those gun outsides.
Trey (55:23):
Yeah, if the finish is tile,
I never heard of them until now,
it seems like a nightmare because Iworked on the back end of jobs and
I was dealing with masons finishingup tile work and stuff like that.
Tile pops off so much in Texas, itjust naturally does and then the
patina the algae growth also ontop of that would be just weird.
Guest 2 (55:40):
Yeah.
It seems like it'd bevery easy to get cut,
Mike (55:43):
cracked, y'all slides are a great
solution and there are a lot of fun.
And I just think that a lot oftimes I get comments from other
designers that I certainly do alot of slides and, those are ugly.
And my comment always is, I'm hereto design for the client and a lot
(56:04):
of my clients want fun and theywant a great place for their family
and friends to all be and hang out.
And it's not about somethinglocal, like an art piece.
we can do a lot of thingsto make them look great.
Okay.
But what it boils down to is, are yougoing to have a great memory about.
(56:24):
The view of your pool or you canhave a great memory about the time
you spent with your family in it.
So Yeah, we
Guest 2 (56:30):
get a lot of calls from
homeowners who have no kids and
that is their dream Is to have awater slot in their backyard and
they want it as fast as possible
Mike (56:43):
well when I built my pool, the
comment that was made by my three
children is, where's the slide?
And my comeback was the slide willbe installed for the grandkids.
And the comment was made by myoldest daughter about a year ago.
She said, You got grandkidsnow where's our slide
Guest 1 (57:04):
so
Mike (57:08):
mine was designed so i could do
a tree house it was designed to have
a tree house and slide coming out ofit and when they did my waterfall the
mason ran into the trees that the treehouse was going to be on a kill the
one day you were like supervising.
That's like of all thehouses that you guys did.
This is the only time this has everhappened and it's at my personal house.
(57:35):
but sometimes you're like at leastit was not one of your customers,
but it'd been one of my customers.
It would have been a lot more problems.
but we'll have to figurea slide out there someday.
Guest 1 (57:44):
Yes, we definitely need to
get you a slide for your grandbabies.
Mike (57:47):
Thank you so much for
talking with us tonight.
Is there anything else y'alllike to add that we didn't cover?
Guest 1 (57:54):
don't think so.
I think We're good.
We appreciate the work.
We appreciate the relationship thatwe've built with you guys over the years.
And hope that we continue,forward with great slides for
more families in the future.
Mike (58:08):
Someday I really want to come
see where y'all build everything.
That would be fun.
So
Guest 1 (58:13):
you definitely need to.
Mike (58:15):
So you said the manufacturing
facilities in Mississippi.
Guest 2 (58:18):
They're in the north part
of Mississippi, it's just under
the Tennessee state line basically.
Mike (58:25):
Okay.
And what town are y'all in?
Guest 2 (58:27):
Our sales office
is in Adamsville, Tennessee.
Mike (58:30):
Adamsville.
is that anywhere near Nashville?
As a point of reference?
Guest 2 (58:35):
We're on the very bottom
edge of Tennessee, where Tennessee
meets Mississippi and Alabama.
Mike (58:40):
Okay.
We're
Guest 2 (58:41):
not terribly far from Nashville.
No, it's not.
You could put a Nashville and swing by.
Mike (58:46):
There's discussions of
going possibly to Nashville
and Doing some things.
Yeah.
Oh,
Guest 1 (58:51):
nice.
Mike (58:52):
Come on by.
Guest 1 (58:53):
Okay.
Mike (58:53):
Thank you.
Y'all don't go to pool showsreally much anymore, right?
You're too busy.
Guest 1 (58:59):
We haven't the last few years.
we're trying to balance Like yousaid, do we want to grow more?
What do we want to do in the future?
We have not been attending the shows.
got, we bought a new placeand we've been fixing it up
and things, but we'll be back.
I don't know exactly,We might hit next year's
Mike (59:19):
we all had a tornado to that.
You had to deal with, right?
Guest 1 (59:22):
Yeah.
And that was the last show.
You remember the last time I saw you,I was alone because that had happened.
Yeah we've just been dealing with that.
And our customers, youguys, we're so grateful.
You keep coming back to us.
So we don't have to go out there andreally dig around for a lot of new work.
Guest 2 (59:39):
Yeah.
So it's really hard to getaway from the office to take
the office with us, basically.
Mike (59:45):
So is it helpful for us to
send you more pictures or videos?
Guest 2 (59:48):
Absolutely.
Mike (59:50):
Okay.
We can do that.
We can do that.
That would
Guest 1 (59:52):
be wonderful.
We appreciate you very much.
Mike (59:55):
Certainly.
Guest 1 (59:56):
That's the highlight of our
Guest 2 (59:56):
day.
When someone sends us a photo.
Guest 1 (59:59):
It does.
share it with everybody in the office.
Mike (01:00:03):
We've got a few real cool
ones that just got finished up.
So we'll have photographs come spring.
So anyway, that'll
Guest 1 (01:00:11):
be great.
Mike (01:00:11):
Thank you all again for everything.
Guest 1 (01:00:13):
thank you.
Mike (01:00:14):
Y'all have a happy holiday season.
Guest 1 (01:00:17):
Yes.
Merry Christmas guys.
Merry Christmas.
Y'all have a great holiday season.
You too.
Mike (01:00:22):
Thanks.
Bye.
Bye.
Guest 1 (01:00:23):
Bye.
Bye.
Mike (01:00:24):
That was pretty cool.
Yeah, I've learned quite a bit.
What slide do you want to use next?
Trey (01:00:29):
The speed slide is interesting.
Cause the waterpark I used to goto as a kid had that big yellow one
and they always give people wedgies,but it was the funnest ride because
you're just flying down the slidewhich I think they actually removed
and they replaced it with another one.
It's probably because it wasn'tsafe, but definitely the speed slide.
That's interesting.
Mike (01:00:46):
So it's funny of all the slides
that I see people use the only Jeremy
Noggle has used that speed slideseveral times and with real contemporary
design, because basically you're.
Going straight up, you go straight down,so you don't have to worry about the curve
and how to hide it and all that stuff.
So, You can do a screen wall or awater wall or something like that,
(01:01:09):
and then you just drop out, do a funnybecause don't even think about it
that often, but the pool that we'reworking on right now, it could easily
Trey (01:01:20):
I think the tricky part is
speed slides, they're gonna be a
little higher, you would assume.
Mike (01:01:25):
I don't think so.
They
Trey (01:01:26):
don't have to be.
Mike (01:01:27):
They don't have to
be, depending on the length.
The one That you go up I thinkit's up six and a half feet.
It's 19 feet long.
Trey (01:01:35):
Okay,
this was all a really fun podcast
Mike (01:01:38):
in my opinion.
they make a great product didn't realizethat they the company had switched because
I've been dealing with them for 25 years.
Yeah easy, right about 25 years andthey make some cool stuff You for me
to create some really cool projects,but the one going three fours down
(01:01:59):
into a basement, that's crazy.
that's pretty crazy.
So
Trey (01:02:03):
who needs an elevator
when you have a water slide?
Yeah.
Just make sure you have your swimmingtrunks and your phone's not in your pocket
or toss it right before you hit the water.
I guess.
I don't know.
Probably a bad idea, but yeah.
Anything besides the speed slide and the.
The levels, I didn't realize they gotthat tall, because when she said it was
30 feet tall, no 20 feet, in my headI was like, that's not that big, but
then you realize that's three storieshigh, that's pretty significant.
Mike (01:02:26):
They've done some cool things
that you see over the years yeah
you should check out their Instagramaccount it's Dolphin Slides.
when I first started with them I thoughtit was their templates and that was it.
Trey (01:02:39):
Yeah, that's what I assumed too.
Mike (01:02:40):
And I think a lot of
people assume that I haven't
used one of their templates and.
10 years.
Cause they're like, Oh no,Mike, they explained it to me.
can design it.
And so as long as you work with theright size pieces and they can help
guide you through that, the biggest thingis you can't turn real sharp corners.
Yeah, so it's a gradual curve.
(01:03:01):
It's a 45.
You can put two 45s together and get a90 degree turn, but it's usually better
to have a 45 and then a straight runand then another 45 makes a nicer ride.
Trey (01:03:13):
Well, It's just easier to
design that way too because then
you have a freedom and so you'renot limited to a certain structure.
A certain pathway,
Mike (01:03:20):
right?
But it does take up some spaceif you got a longer slide.
Trey (01:03:24):
Yeah.
But it's perfect for the right client.
Mike (01:03:26):
a hundred percent, but they're
a great resource and they will
work with you and help you come upwith the best solution for them.
But yes, they're a lot more beyond whattheir templates are on their website.
Trey (01:03:38):
I didn't expect them to
deal with a lot of homeowners.
Individually, that was a reallycool aspect too that people go
straight to them and some even tryto build them themselves Which is
I wouldn't do but to each their own
Mike (01:03:49):
right?
The other thing is I forget that they doall these different colors Color matching.
Yeah, so the very first one itwas, there was a lot of people
that are like, are you kidding?
You're gonna do a slide that color?
Trey (01:04:02):
Was it the antique white,
which was like an off white, yellow?
No, it was yellow.
Mike (01:04:05):
Okay.
It was
Trey (01:04:06):
yellow because I looked on their
site and I saw 13 of the matte colors,
and then 12 of the fight finishes.
But on there it says wewill color match anything.
Mike (01:04:14):
we actually got a
piece of the stone and.
Found a color that matched closest to it.
And that's what we use.
So if you're sitting there looking atit, it was like, man, that's yellow.
But then when you put it into theoverall project and it was in the
middle of landscaping, so it was aslide, there was no masonry around it.
It was coming intothrough the landscaping.
(01:04:34):
We did a metal staircase with it andthen it went into the pool and then
all the deck color was that color.
So it worked out really well,they're a great resource.
And.
Their products a lot of fun.
So
Trey (01:04:46):
yeah, make sure if you're
looking into doing it, make sure the
city codes and HOA codes as well,because you can go up 20 feet in the
air, but with their product, but somepeople, some areas don't allow that.
So
Mike (01:04:59):
certainly not.
So yes, like I mentioned, the oneproject in Dallas, we had to be a
certain distance off of, because theysaid it was going to be a view for the
neighbor and actually, We kept the slidebelow the 8 foot masonry fence, so we
argued that there was no view to theneighbor, but they still made us stay
(01:05:21):
a certain distance off the fence line.
But yes, the city codes areimportant to understand.
Trey (01:05:27):
But I think that's pretty much it.
Mike (01:05:28):
Yeah, that was a lot of fun.
So we'll look forward to checkingout some more things next week.
I think we've got a really cool guestWho is well known in the industry and
his specialty is outdoor kitchens.
So
Trey (01:05:43):
it's
Mike (01:05:43):
gonna be
Trey (01:05:43):
a fun
Mike (01:05:43):
one.
We'll talk
Trey (01:05:44):
to y'all later.
Have a good one.
Outro (01:05:51):
This show is all about
helping you become a better
buyer, a better pool owner.
And hopefully you're going to find someinsights into how to enjoy your pool, even
more so how to help your friends, yourfamily, anybody looking to buy a pool in
the future or that want to remodel theirbackyard, add an outdoor fireplace, fire
pit, add an outdoor kitchen area, addsome shade cells or whatever else it is.
(01:06:15):
We want to be that resource for you.
And that's the end goal here.
And we promise.
That there's going tobe a ton of information.
We'll try to go through it, youknow, as relatively quickly, but
also slow so people can understand.
But the intent of the show, thereason Mike and I are doing this
is because we just got a lot inour heads and we want to share it.
So we hope to see youhere every single week.
Thanks for listening.