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Message From IPPCA Senior Vice President

Industry standards in construction and products-No Seconds!”

I’m now entering into my eleventh year as a pond installer, with nearly four hundred projects under my belt, and I still feel the same satisfaction as I did after installing my first pond.  Obviously I have learned many things along the way and I am constantly trying new techniques and products to further challenge myself and my abilities as a professional aquatic artist.  From the artist perspective, the furthest thing now from my mind is not that something costs too much, rather that the client is willing to pay more for the highest quality products offered in our industry.  I work closely with my good friend Jon, a graduate from the University of Kansas with a degree in Fine Arts.  He is the driving force behind innovative designs and attention to the details of line, color and texture that sets our work apart from other installers.

          In a recent discussion, Jon and I were comparing some of the various products we have installed over the years and pointing out the weaknesses that we can find in almost every manufacturer’s design.  This discussion was initiated by a 2 hour bout between us and a Hozelock Cyprio Bio Force pond filter.  The fight ultimately resulted in bloodied knuckles, damaged pride and a filter that leaked just slightly less than when we began.  Over the years I have removed and discarded numerous filters similar to this one because of high maintenance and failures.  But, as a professional, it never crossed my mind to install one until a conversation with a local supplier of pond products lead me to believe that I could save money on the install by using a “beginners do-it-yourself” product as opposed to a professional pressurized filter.  The initial savings were fairly substantial, but the countless hours spent trying to re-align gaskets and replacement of cracked and broken parts (all under my workmanship guarantee) have now made this the most expensive small filter I/we have ever installed.

          Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there.  I trusted this local supplier on numerous other occasions and took his advice when installing “cheaper” or “bulk” products (factory seconds).  The list is as follows……

1.       Kink free tubing-leaky fittings, crushed and cracked pipe, replaced with flex pipe within one year.

2.     Inexpensive poly plastic fittings- used these as bottom drains and through the liner connections; all but one has failed within 2 years and been replaced.

3.     Custom manufactured UV’s; both required new ballast’s after installation, one required “jump-starting” with a screwdriver to get it turned on, and they have been replaced.

4.     Discount Flex PVC (200-500ft worth) (factory seconds) this seemed a no brainier, it is a product I know and trust, why not buy it at a lower price and make a little more on the bottom line? The initial problems seemed mundane, the rolls were slightly crushed or twisted making it impossible to glue fittings properly, but some forethought could minimize the inherent difficulties of this.  A pond I installed with this bulk flex pvc pipe some six months later developed a pond drainer leak.  After the initial inspection, with nothing found, I discovered two pinholes (invisible at installation) in the pvc had become gaping wounds under the constant pressure of water moving through it.  The question remains, how may of these time bombs I have buried under 1-2 feet of heavy soil and clay will explode? This material should be recycled instead of sold.

As business owners, we are all constantly monitoring our profit margins. It is a never-ending task to ensure that what we do as a professional hobby is also a viable means to make money.  But as professionals, it is also our responsibility to provide our clients with the best products and service at a fair price, regardless of the particular brand of products installed, any job that is bid properly will generate profits.

All of this ties into one basic problem, an issue that so far only the IPPCA seems willing to face.  Our industry is flooded with products, some good, some bad and some that are a complete waste of money.  Determining where a product will work or fail is left up to us as installers to determine, then sharing that information will help others avoid some mistakes and pit falls.

In short, keep it professional, and keep it fun!  If you have any suggestions of what to use and what to avoid, always be willing to share your information with the rest of us and together we can begin to influence our suppliers and manufacturers to step up and provide only quality products to the industry.

 

 

Jake Bright, CPPC

Senior V.P. IPPCA

I Want A Koi Pond?

Have you gotten a call and the person on the other end says “I want a Koi Pond?”

What do you do? (Panic?)

First off you want to find out what they envision their pond to look like.  Start asking questions.

• Do you want fish?
• Do you want plants?
• Do you have small children or animals?
• Is this your first “POND”?

Ok, now you have some idea of what they are looking for.  Now what you have to decide is are you capable of building what they want.

What is the difference between a pond with fish and plants and a pond with just fish in it?  What is the difference of a pond with bare liner and a pond with rocks and gravel covering the liner?  If you answered “nothing”.  Then take a seat and open your mind.

A koi pond is defined in the Merriam Webster Dictionary as:

So now that we have the definition of both “Koi” and “Pond” let’s put them together.  A carp bred especially in Japan, a body of water usually smaller than a lake.

So everyone is building a “Koi Pond”.  But how many of your customers want a water feature; a Koi Pond with plants as well as fish.  Or did they want a ”Traditional Koi Pond” a sterile environment built especially for the health and growth of the Fish.  A ”Traditional Koi Pond” normally does not have plants, rocks (except for waterfall) or multiple shelves. A water feature or water garden has all three.

You are the professional; you are the one that should know the difference between a water feature/water garden and a ”Traditional Koi Pond”.  How many of you will admit that you have come to a job that you have never done before?  How many of you have admitted maybe not to the client but to yourself, that you are way over your head?  What do you do when this happens?  Do you build them something that you are familiar with or do you go in search of information to be able to take care of this customer.

       A Water Feature or Water Garden                               A ”Traditional Koi Pond”

Photos compliment of “The Pond Professional”, Woodstock, Georgia

Do You See a Difference?

The IPPCA has professional members that will be glad to help you in your design, installation and broadening your horizon in the art of building what your customer wants, not what you may have only built in the past.

Come to INFOTANZA 07 and learn the art of building a ”Traditional Koi Pond”

October 25-27

“Meaningful Messages”

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind

With an open one.”

By Malcolm Forbes

The Views of an Installer

            As I start this article, let me first preface my remarks by stating that my views and opinions are influenced by the environmental, political and economic factors I face daily in the operation of my business.  I clearly recognize that others face a different set of challenges and that may render my comments less applicable to your situation.  But I do feel the topic I will address has validity for any water garden installer, no matter what part of the country you work in or regardless of the differing economic and political situations your businesses face.

As water gardening continues to gain popularity among the general public, it seems our “hobby” can no longer fly under the radar as it has for so long in the past.  Cities are adapting zoning regulations for safety reasons, insurance companies are taking a closer look at liability on the part of both water garden owners and installation companies and consumers are becoming more discriminating in regard to products and services.  While this has both positive and negative outcomes for consumers and commercial firms alike, increased scrutiny can be a good thing if it yields better informed buyers and  properly insured and trained installers eager to competently meet demand.

But one issue that we collectively seem to be missing the boat on centers around a big selling point of water gardens.  Almost every water garden installer and equipment manufacturer in the marketplace today talks about how natural a water garden is and the benefits of having a little piece of nature in the landscape.  The song and dance continues with descriptions of the pond ecosystem, the whole nitrogen cycle, and interactions between fish, plants and microscopic life until the consumer is convinced that Mother Nature herself might stop in and take part in the installation.

Now don’t get me wrong..... I am not arguing against properly educating consumers about the processes that operate in a healthy water garden.  Nor am I denigrating essential closing techniques required to seal the deal with a customer.  What I am talking about is how much we talk about and focus on the natural characteristics of water gardens but then turn around and install a product that is far from eco-friendly in one critical aspect.  So what is this critical factor I refer to?  Very simple.... water conservation.

Water conservation? I wasted your time to talk about that?  Maybe you are wondering if I have ignored the research studies that show an established water garden uses less water per year than a similarly sized (square footage) patch of irrigated turf grass?  Or could I be proposing eliminating periodic water changes or only relying on rainfall to top off ponds?  Well..... the answer is no.  My intention is to discuss how we clean water gardens and more specifically   how pond construction influences water consumption via the cleaning process.

For those of you working in the West and Southwest, you are obviously more in tune to the issue of water conservation.  From reading articles in Water Garden News , online content and visiting ponding forums, it seems some cities and states in water deficient areas take a dim view of water gardening.  Understandably, it does not look good  when a pond company shows up to perform spring cleaning and thousands of gallons of water are drained  so that it can be pressure washed or “boiled”, depending on the cleaning procedure used.  Here in the Midwest we have not been confronted with water rationing concerns yet but I still wince every time I  fire up the drain pump to empty out a water garden in full view of the neighbors.

So what makes this style of cleaning necessary?  Simple...in the quest to make water gardens appear natural, installers heap piles of rocks and gravel on the pond bottom.  When I joined IPPCA and took the entrance exam, I ended up having a lengthy conversation with Dave Jones about this construction practice and the merits and downfalls it produces.  Our conversation was productive and amicable but so many others I have had on this subject inevitably lead to flaring tempers.  Some people think I am picking on a particular manufacturer (is anyone an Aquascapes installer?) while others question my own experience and knowledge of pond construction.

Yet it always comes down to one simple fact.  In the area of the country where I work, the overwhelming majority of ponds constructed with stone or gravel covered bottoms need drained, thoroughly cleaned and refilled every spring.  Does every gravel bottomed pond in the country need similar treatment? Well I cannot speak for what happens in other regions but I know what I deal with in my region and it involves thousands upon thousands of gallons of water being wasted every spring to perform pond cleanings. 

Which brings me back to construction techniques and how they influence cleaning tasks.  Just by eliminating the use of gravel or stone on pond bottoms, the amount of ponds requiring yearly draining and refilling would be significantly  reduced.  My company’s installations use no gravel or stone of any kind below the second plant shelf (usually around 2 feet deep) so spring cleaning only entails a thorough vacuuming, netting out large debris and a partial water change in addition to the normal filter maintenance.  Does this make me some kind of eco-hero? No, it just means I have adapted a different approach to pond installation because my focus is on long term environmental health.  To me at least, it makes no sense to trumpet the natural aspect of water gardening while wasting enormous amounts of water each spring cleaning my “natural” creations.

Some of you may point out how much revenue I am bypassing by making pond cleanings less time consuming and therefore involving fewer billable hours.  Others will argue  that a partial water change still involves the dumping of, and by definition, the wasting of water.  But as water garden volumes grow with the advent of bigger and better pumps and filters, I find a partial water change to a 5000 gallon pond preferable to completely draining it every spring.  Finally, there are those customers who demand gravel on the bottom because of the look they desire so how do you make them happy without losing the job?

Well,  remember those sales techniques you exercised to educate consumers about the ecosystem and the nitrogen cycle?  Can’t we start educating consumers about water conservation and environmentally friendly water gardens?  People recycle paper, plastic and glass because of public awareness and education and others specifically purchase environmentally friendly products (organic foods, hybrid cars, green friendly building materials).  So is it  a stretch to think that many potential water gardeners would be receptive to a gravel free pond when informed of the environmental benefits?

It seems to me that the major obstacle we face is us.  As installers we have become accustomed to building a certain way and we are slow to adapt to change.  Furthermore, suppliers have successfully “convinced” installers that their system or techniques are the correct way of doing things.  Yet I will argue non-stop that a system that requires yearly draining and refilling of a water garden is far from correct.  What it does amount to is a successful marketing program driving consumer demand coupled with installation companies looking for the path of least resistance in relation to profit margins. 

As I sum up my thoughts, let me again say that I am not writing this to sit in judgment of companies that install gravel bottom ponds.  Every company has to make a choice regarding how to handle installations and for those of you that have the luxury of only having to completely drain gravel bottom ponds every few years instead of every year, consider yourself fortunate.  But for those of us dealing with annual drainings, we better start thinking about tomorrow.  The not too distant future could have a substantial impact on our industry if we continue current practices regarding water consumption and conservation.  The question we need to ponder is whether we will install an eco friendly product or continue to install natural looking ponds to benefit our own bottom line.

Joel F. Police
Fins & Flowers Water Gardens, LLC

Contractor Of The Month

Casey Sparks, Fort Collins, Colorado

 

Casey is a Colorado native, born and raised in Fort Collins.  He is an avid outdoorsman; hunting, fishing, and anything to do with the outdoors.  This love of nature and the outdoors brought Casey to be very active with the Larimer County Search & Rescue Team for 10 years.  One of his other talents is teaching, so he was a natural for giving Hug-A-Tree Presentations at schools, Back-country Safety and Survival classes, and instructing the Dive Rescue and Search & Rescue Teams in their Ropes and Rigging skills.  Spending so much time in the outdoors Casey learned much from Mother Nature in how streams, waterfalls and lakes formed and the part they played in the surrounding eco-system.  This appreciation has helped Casey create natural looking and healthy environments in the water features he installed.

After installing many ponds and water features, Casey finally acknowledged his inner passion – creating vacation destinations in his customers’ own yards, and teaching them to understand and maintain their little piece of paradise!

 

                Due to the downturn of the electronics industry, in 2001 Casey was laid off and finally had his chance to endeavor to create Alpine Koi & Homescapes, a pond and water gardening specialty center.  Alpine Koi & Homescapes sells to both retail and wholesale customers.  Now Casey does very few installations, so as not to compete with the contractor customers we now serve.     

                                                                                                    

        

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