Video Library

Free teaching videos by Randy Beard on swimming pool construction defects, code compliance (Title 24 and NEC Article 680) and design. Each page has the video, a short summary and the full transcript. Attorneys, plan checkers and builders are welcome to cite or share them.

Construction Defects & Forensic Analysis

The failure patterns behind a large share of pool and aquatic construction disputes — what went wrong, and the written standard it violated.

• The Wheelbarrow Problem: Why Concrete Pool Repairs Fail
  Jackhammer out the shotcrete, epoxy in new steel with no deputy inspector, then mix concrete in a wheelbarrow and hand-pack the wall. It happens constantly — and it violates ACI 562, ACI 506, and CBC Chapter 17 special inspection at every step.
• The Anatomy of a Hidden Defect
  When a pool is re-plastered, the demolition method quietly decides how long the new finish lives. Impact tools drive interconnected micro-cracks — “bruising” — into the shell. You can’t see it, tapping can’t find it, and the new finish bonds to it anyway.
• The $20,000 Pool Waterproofing Mistake
  A $4 million home, a custom perimeter-overflow pool, and within one year: glass tile delaminating and efflorescence bleeding through. The root cause is almost always waterproofing treated as a product instead of a system.
• The Nano-Silica Deception
  Liquid densifiers and colloidal silicate waterproofers are everywhere in pool work, and the safety data tells a different story than the marketing — respirable mist, nano-silica dust, and particles small enough to pass a standard dust mask.
• The House Burned. Is the Pool Still Good?
  A pool full of water acts as a heat sink, so after a wildfire the shell below the waterline often survives while the bond beam, coping, tile and deck take the heat. What to look at, and what testing tells you whether the pool can be saved.

Code Compliance — Title 24 & NEC Article 680

Written for the people who check the work: building officials, plan checkers, inspectors, and the attorneys who litigate what they missed.

• The Inspector’s Guide to Title 24 & NEC 680
  An inspector’s-eye walkthrough of the 2026 California code cycle for pools: the new Title 24 requirements, NEC 680’s expanded bonding rules, what a compliant submittal looks like, and the field pushback patterns — with the sections that settle them.
• One Wire or a Full Grid? Bonding Under NEC 680.26
  One of the most misapplied sections in pool construction. Get it right and nobody thinks about it again; get it wrong and a step-and-touch voltage hazard is sealed under concrete where no one can check it.
• The Invisible Shield Beneath Your Feet
  How the equipotential bonding grid beneath pool decks protects swimmers from electrical hazards — and exactly what inspectors look for under NEC Article 680.
• The Invisible Danger — Pool Electrical Safety
  Electric shock hazards in and around swimming pools: stray voltage, faulty bonding, and the code requirements written specifically to prevent electrocution.
• Pool Heaters in 2026 — The Title 24 Contractor’s Guide
  California’s pool-heating rules changed on December 31, 2025. What changed, which projects are captured, what plan checkers are flagging, and how to build a submittal that clears the counter the first time.
• The 2026 Aquatic Decarbonization Mandate
  Logic gates and enforcement under the 2026 aquatic decarbonization requirements — what every California pool permit now has to satisfy.

Design & Engineering

The engineering you never notice is the engineering that matters most — vanishing edges, hydraulics, and the tolerances that separate craftsmen from concrete crews.

• Where the Water Disappears (Vanishing Edge, Ep. 1)
  How the illusion actually works: the weir, the water in transit, and the hidden journey every gallon makes on a vanishing-edge pool.
• The Edge and the Hidden Tank (Ep. 2)
  The weir — knife-edge, rolled, or tilted, all demanding dead-level precision — and the catch basin that has to swallow everything, never flood, and never run dry. Size it wrong and the first power flicker sends water down the hillside.
• Moving Water, Quietly (Ep. 3)
  The hydraulics episode: the dedicated plumbing loop, why the edge is the biggest skimmer ever put on a pool, and why fast water in a skinny pipe roars while slow water in a generous pipe whispers.
• The Invisible Blueprint — Engineering the Vanishing Edge
  Thousands of gallons in constant motion, a weir built to cabinet-maker tolerances, a hidden basin sized by calculation, and the dead-level precision behind water that appears to fuse with the sky.
• Anatomy of an Oasis — Deconstructing the 2026 Mega-Pool
  A breakdown of what actually goes into the current generation of large-scale residential aquatic projects, system by system.

Industry & Practice

How large aquatic projects are actually bought, sold, and taught.

• The Psychology of the $100,000 Decision
  After forty years on the builder’s side of the table: what is actually happening in a buyer’s mind between the first daydream and the signed contract, and why visual evidence eliminates risk better than any sales pitch.