Cold Plunges, Pool Inspections, and Where the Industry Is Headed

Show Notes

This week, Steve and Wayne tackle two timely topics affecting the swimming pool industry.

First, Steve discusses a growing number of calls from homeowners who find themselves trapped in construction projects with missed deadlines, questionable workmanship, and uncertainty about what to do next. The conversation explores the challenges of residential pool inspections, the gray areas of building codes, and why hiring an independent expert isn't always as straightforward as it sounds.

The second half of the episode takes a deep dive into the newly released Model Aquatic Health Code (MAHC) Cold Water Venue Guidance. With cold plunges becoming increasingly popular in homes, gyms, spas, and athletic facilities, Steve and Wayne explain why industry guidance is needed, how it is developed, and what pool professionals should understand about water quality, sanitation, filtration, and safety.

In This Episode

• Why homeowners are increasingly seeking independent pool inspections during construction.
• The challenges of enforcing residential pool codes compared to commercial pools.
• What homeowners should expect before pursuing construction disputes.
• Understanding the role—and limitations—of expert inspections.
• The new Model Aquatic Health Code Cold Water Venue Guidance explained.
• How MAHC guidance is developed through industry collaboration and scientific review.
• Why "guidance" is different from law or regulation.
• Safety recommendations for cold plunge users, including age and health considerations.
• Why colder water changes the speed of chemical reactions.
• Challenges of maintaining proper sanitizer levels in very small cold-water vessels.
• Why many professional athletic organizations simply dump and refill cold plunge water rather than attempting to filter it.
• Lessons learned from servicing cold plunge systems used by professional sports teams.
• The importance of proper maintenance as cold plunges become more common in homes.
• The growing need for practical standards as cold-water therapy enters the mainstream.

Key Takeaways

• Residential pool inspections often involve significant gray areas compared to commercial construction.
• Expert opinions can identify deficiencies, but correcting them may still require negotiation or litigation.
• Cold plunges present unique operational challenges because of their small water volume and low temperatures.
• Lower water temperatures slow chemical reactions, making sanitation more complicated than many people realize.
• Proper water management is just as important in a cold plunge as it is in a swimming pool.
• As cold-water therapy grows in popularity, industry guidance will play an increasingly important role in protecting public health.

Featured Discussion

The MAHC's New Cold Water Guidance

Steve and Wayne explain why the Council for the Model Aquatic Health Code developed guidance for cold plunge facilities, how recommendations are reviewed by subject-matter experts, and why science—not social media trends—should drive industry best practices.

Behind the Scenes with Professional Sports

Drawing from firsthand experience servicing facilities for NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLS organizations, Steve shares how professional teams maintain therapy pools, cold plunges, and rehabilitation equipment—and why sanitation protocols are often much more aggressive than many people expect.

Sponsored By

A special thank you to the Council for the Model Aquatic Health Code (CMAHC) for supporting this episode and their continued work advancing science-based aquatic health guidance.

Have a topic you'd like Steve and Wayne to cover? Send your suggestions to talkingpools@gmail.com. If your idea is featured on the show, you might even receive a special thank-you gift!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Happy Thursday, everybody, and welcome to Talking Pools with Steve and Wayne. It's uh Thursday. That's why we're here. That's our job. That's our time. And uh hope you all had a great, wonderful week, safe week, uh healthy week. Uh Steve, I know you got a couple things you want to jump on right away that kind of really pertinent for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Yeah, so it's not so much that it's really pertinent, it's just in the last few months, Wayne, I've gotten a lot of the same types of calls that I haven't gotten in uh in a long time, you know. And people have called me and they said, hey, like we're working with this construction person, and like we don't really like them, you know, like they're not really good. And uh, you know, they sent us this proposal. We already signed this contract, we already sent them, you know, a good chunk of money. So like we're kind of in bed with these people now. And now they're like missing deadlines, they're you know, they're not doing what they're supposed to do. They're saying that they're gonna show up on Monday, you know, they don't call, they don't show, they don't pick up their phone. So they were like, we really want to hire some sort of an expert to come out here and you know take a look at you know, X amount of steps. And like, uh, you know, they don't really know what they what they need done, or they're just kind of putting out feelers, and I kind of have to step them through. Like, what do you what do you really want to do with this? You know, as long as it's really trying to go to litigation or something like that, then I'm fine to come out and look at it for you. But at the same time, like what happens then? Oh, okay. I come out and I say, All right, the plumbing, I don't, I don't like the way that this is, or this isn't to code, um, fix it. You know, like now they got to go back to some guy that's gonna be like, you know, screw this guy, right? Who's this guy coming out? Um, but I had one yesterday where I actually sent it to the group. Um, and someone called and they had said, hey, like uh this guy that we're working with, they just finished the you know, building the pool, and uh the steps are like uh over 18 inches on like the top step, you know. And he was like, What what's really the the code with this, right? Right, and the the part of the problem now wait when when you say code, okay, which code? Exactly, and that's part of that's part of the problem, right? Where with commercial, you know, there is a definitive if you go make a plan check and you go have the health department come out, there is like a a list and a plan and a code that they are looking at, right? Right with residential, there's some of them adopt the model aquatic health code, some of them adopt um you know other states' codes. So it's really hard. Like if you looked at the LA County Municipal Code and you went to swimming pools, like that talks about fencing, and that's it. You know, like I've I've tried to search it out, so it's a really weird gray area that they have, and it was kind of hard for me to figure out. Like uh, you know, I had to go to a few different codes that people had sent me, and I was like, okay, cool, like you can kind of figure it out from here. But again, at the end of the day, there's really no recourse to go back to them and say, like, oh, you didn't. And the reason why is because whoever came out passed the inspection. And again, I didn't get too far into it to figure out like if it was a pool inspector, because there's usually no pool inspectors that come out, it's usually like a city or a town inspector that comes out and does the whole kit and caboodle at once, right?

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

So the reason that I, you know, I was talking about that is because and I I think that you were involved in this a bit, Wayne, but obviously you can shed some more light on that. But the you know, the model aquatic health code, they came out with a new um thing, I guess, right? And it it has to do with uh cold water bodies and cold plunges.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Right. So, you know, what where are we at with it? Where do they want to go with it? And you know, really, like what's what's the point of this? And I wanted to, you know, we wanted to talk about this a bit on the show because obviously, um, you know, the Council for the Commodore Aquatic Health Code is one of our sponsors. So thank you guys so much for that. Um, and we really do love the work that you're doing. It's just a lot of times, um, it's usually like behind behind behind the scenes, you know, and I think that that is sometimes purposeful, right? Because like you can't go out and put your neck out there and say, Oh, this is the way that it is. And then someone comes back and they're like, Well, actually, this says something totally different than that, you know, and that's exactly what happens. I mean, that's what happens all the time, right? There's people that are out there that as soon as they read this thing, they're gonna be like, Oh, wow, that doesn't sound right. And then they're gonna like uh their next five days, their mission is gonna be to go source information to you know to basically prove them wrong, right? So, I mean, and this isn't like uh a law by any means. I mean, it's the model aquatic health called cold water venue guidance, right? Right? So, guidance does not mean that it's a law, it does not mean that that's you know how you have to practice it. It means that they have done a shit ton of research and they have looked into this in many different ways, and these are the things that they are saying, hey, this is how we propose to do this. So again, where are we at with this, Wayne? How does this become like uh in ingrained in part of people's health codes, you know, and like uh because obviously there's like multiple layers and you know, multiple steps, and this isn't something that I'm not gonna say new so many layers as long as you normal pool guys, right? Because you know, I don't use the normal, but like your everyday guy like me that's going out and running a pool company or doing something like that, like when you know, I reference it when it comes up, but I'm not like usually seeking out this information, right? So let's talk a little bit about the the processes of this.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Well, here's the this really didn't become a thing, the cold water situation, till about maybe a year and a half, maybe two years ago, when everybody started doing the cold plunge thing, and it just wasn't sports teams, for example, football players with soccer, whatever, um, would use it. And that that's been around for a long time. The the therapy people for for sports therapy knew the benefits, not only the benefits, but the reason behind having a cold plunge situation. Great. A lot of spas, lot, a lot of high-end spas knew it too. That's kind of thing. I did it one time, my wife and I did it at a um at a uh spa at a resort in Mexico one time. And uh before I stepped in, I I asked the attendant, is this a cold water plunge? And you said, Oh yeah, it is. And it was. It was very it woke you up. But um beyond all that, then once it started to become a thing, um, the monoquatic health code, the the the the big players thought, well, it was important to um get some information out there to pop into the monoquatic health code so that the various health departments in the country that follow it can have it, because most of them don't. Um I can probably safely say none of them really did have anything about cold water plunges because it was so new. So the process is, and without getting into a lot of detail, uh without exposing any secrets or whatever, but the but the process is um uh a new verbiage is created by someone or a team of people um to address generic situations, like for example, how long should you spend in there? What's the age recommendations, what's the chemistry like, that kind of thing. And then it's sent out to all the Model Aquatic Health Code members for review. And this can take months, uh, years in a couple cases, but you have all different viewpoints of um uh of whatever it was that was originally written. Like, no, that's too cold, no, that's not cold enough, no, your age range is wrong, you know, the chemistries should be off, that kind of thing. And you have this back and forth between people in the industry, most of which really know what they're doing, some of which don't. I'm trying to be delicate here. Um, but um it's it's a whole process. And so you you send back comments, um they're reviewed at their uh meetings whenever they happen to be, which is usually once a quarter. Um and it it's they're they're dealt with um um uh they're dealt with uh per area, per section. I'm trying to use the right words here. So that for example, somebody who has um expertise in water chemistry, hello, you know, uh that my comments about it are going to be more uh seen than somebody who isn't, who somebody is into hydraulics, you know, because because they don't know, they don't care.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Right, and everybody's gonna kind of gonna stick to their lane a little bit too. Like you're not gonna go and talk about construction and the way that the steps should be, you know. I don't know. Yeah, that's what I mean. You would have to look that shit up where you know, for you the chemistry is in the back of your, you know, ingrained in the back of your mind, like uh, you know, like a like an old school tablet, right? So it's like uh it's one of those things where like definitely with that, you you know, obviously people are gonna stay stay in their lanes, right? But I think right, you know, what I got out of it was just like you said, you know, they basically said like what is a cold plunge? And obviously a cold plunge is a cold body of water that you either throw ice into or you use a chiller or you use like um a heat pump, right, that can go down and you know and do reverse and whatever. Right. Um and then age-wise, they were saying like 14, which is like uh, you know, regular kid, right? Usually that's the age. Um third, you know, it's somewhere between 13 and 15, they say. Um and then they said 60, which I thought was a bit, a bit young, but obviously at that point, you know, um a lot of people start having uh cardiovascular issues and just just health issues in general, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Like we live in a give you let me give you a perfect example. I'm 70, I just turned 70, okay? And like you know, and a lot of the people who who listen to us know, I went through a cardiac thing back in November. Okay, so I was told by my cardiologist, don't get in a cold plunge. And I asked her, why? Right, you don't want to die. Yeah, yeah, it's just a shock to your body system and to your heart and things like that. And said, okay, well, that makes sense, but okay, that's me. Okay. What if you were 70? Okay, and you still are doing what you're doing, you know, with with the kitzer, you know, this stuff. You're athletic, okay? I'm not by any stretch of the imagination. But my version of 70 would be different than yours because your your body is accustomed to to training, to to sports, to being athletic. You know, you keep in good shape, that kind of thing. It's a 70-year-old who does that. I mean, senior Olympics alone, you know, kind of tells you.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Yeah, I mean, there's guys that are out there that are 70 that are doing fucking Iron Man.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

80, 90.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Yeah. So, and that's what I mean. My dad, God bless his soul. I just went home last week. He just retired. He's he's you know, in his 80s, his early 80s. And uh he was super athletic growing up, though, you know, and like he still has like a pretty, he's got a little bit of a belly, but he's got he's you know, he's still pretty good looking for for 80, you know. When people when I tell him when I tell people oh, he's 81, that they almost fall over. They're like, oh my god. But you know, at the same time, like, yeah, he does have high blood pressure and he does take cholesterol pills, and you know, so I think that that is more of the denominator that would tell you, like, uh, you know, if you've gone through your whole life and everything is great, you know. Can you jump into a cold plunge? Obviously, we are not medical doctors, go go seek medical advice for this. But I would say, like, if you've if you haven't had any serious health issues, then yeah, you could probably try that out.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

And let's do the reverse.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Okay. You've got a 14 to 18-year-old, a 14 to 17-year-old guy, again, who is super athletic, you know, um, and takes care of his body. Uh uh uh he's he's just athletic. That's the only way I can put it, you know. Are they saying, well, no, because you're 14, you know, bad boy, don't get in there. Hell, I know some 14-year-olds that, you know, sports-wise and athleticism could could beat up any guy, you know, and I don't mean beat up by fighting.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

I mean, I started lifting weights when I was like 12, 13, and I, you know, not like super, super heavyweights, but I was doing like uh, you know, thousands of push-ups and thousands of sit-ups and stuff as a kid. So, you know, I knew the benefits of having this. And this just it really wasn't a a thing when I was a kid. So did they have when you went to camp, you know, when you were at football camp and stuff, did they have these garbage cans that were filled up with ice and water that you could go put in? But it was more of a like rest and recovery type thing where like after practice you went, you know, because you had all these bumps and bruises and and all that stuff. And let's just face it, that that makes it, you know, ice and makes that feel feel better. Sure, absolutely. Um, the thing that I I mean and I agree uh 100% on this, it's just you know, when I read through it, um, they talked about two different chemistry things. And one was that they want to keep the chlorine between three and four parts per million, which again, that is my favorite number. That is the number, but like for me, you know, as soon as we leave any sort of document or class, I'm like, all right, but we gotta do what we gotta do, you know. Like uh, you still have to shop the thing every once in a while to 10 parts per million to get rid of some of the viruses and some of the bacteria. Some of them take a really long time to kill. So you you know, and I always say to people that cold water, you know, in the winter time, in January, the pools are open here in California, and it might be 54 degrees the water. Okay, so pretty cold, you know, not cold plunge cold, but like fairly cold. Nobody's swimming, right? So I could test the alkalinity for six weeks straight, and it stays at 80 because the pool is like a hibernating bear, it's not using much chemicals, and Rudy said this before, he shocked the pool in the sun, you know, maybe once every three months or something like that. Where me, I'm shocking every week because they're losing chlorine, like it's going out of style. But he's saying that they're holding chlorine. So with with this, it's just really hard, it's really hard to keep any body of water at three to four parts per million. But the smaller the body of water, the the you know, the hardest or the hardest of all, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:31

That's that and and that's one of the two factors. Uh actually, you you mentioned both of them. First one is size. Okay. I've never seen a 10,000 gallon cold plunge pool.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Not that they may not exist, but the basic ones you see are about the size of a tub, okay, a horse trough kind of thing. Okay. So you're talking what mate maybe 50 gallons?

SPEAKER_01 16:56

I probably like the bigger ones now are probably like 800 gallons. Yeah, I've okay, you know what I mean. But yeah, if you're going into uh a garbage can, those those garbage cans are 50 gallons.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Right, exactly. And then the second factor is cold water. Right. Okay. Chemistry here jumps in, and chemistry says the colder the water, the slower the chemical reactions are. Which means that if you add um enough chlorine to create three to four parts per million, it's gonna take a while for that chlorine to do the job it's supposed to do. And if I remember correctly, I could be wrong that this, somebody correct me if I'm wrong. But for every 10 degree decrease in Fahrenheit in temperature, your chemical reaction lowers 50 to 80 percent time-wise. So getting back to what Rudy mentioned, if you're gonna shock a cold water plunge pool, your standard one now, okay, uh, and you're gonna shock it to 10 parts per million, like you know, 99% of the people do. Okay, how long is it gonna take to do that? Well, it's not a pool, it's not gonna be one turnover. Okay, it's gonna take a couple days maybe for that reaction to to complete and finish and do the job it's supposed to do. Now, can you handle having a cold plunge pool not available for two days? Doubtful. Especially if you're a sports team, okay, and that's part of your standard therapy.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Yeah, and and I think too, like now we get in because all these bodies of water are so small, a lot of them may not have a proper filter. Right. A lot of them may not like I have or filter at all. Well, I had a buddy, and he was like, hey, he's literally using like uh, you know what an ice chest looks like? Yep, right, like your second fridge in your house, like the one that like the the dead box for the dead box freezer that opens up, right? So he's using one of those for his cold plunge. And he actually it's actually a genius idea because it's uh, you know, he he plugs it in and it gets cold. But he was asking me, hey, he's like, how do I filter this thing? And I was like, oh fuck, man. I'm like, Jesus. I'm like, this is not something that I want to play.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

You don't filter that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

No, I'm like, just keep dumping it. It's like you know, it's like 30, 40 gallons. Like, we'll just dump it once a week. And he was like, No, he's like, I'm just it's in his house. So now it's like water is going in and out in his house and stuff. So like he just really wants to filter it. So he bought like uh an aquarium filter, and I was like, dude, I don't think this is gonna work. Like, I don't think this is the right one. So I was like, let me know how it shakes out. But I was like, I don't, you know, my professional advice is to if you really want a filter to get some sort of an above-ground, you know, combo filter that has uh you know a little sand filter in it or a little cartridge filter in it and uh has a tiny pump.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

And I know for I know for a fact, okay, stepping back just a little bit, that when this thing first came around, um I have a really, really good friend who works with the Ravens in therapy. Uh he works at the same hospital that my wife is an ER nurse at, and my daughter is a nurse practitioner at. So, and this particular hospital, Uni Memorial Hospital, shout out to Uni Memorial, yay, thank you. Uh, they helped me. Um what they do, what the sports people do is that they'll have what do you see? Five five cold plunge tub tubs, okay, after every game. So that five players at one time can get into these, individually get into these tubs, okay? Then another set of ten gets in. Then another set of ten gets in. Oh, yeah. And my question was to him okay, you've got 30, 40 guys using this thing, you know, post-game. What do you do with the water? And the first thing he told me says we dump it, we drink it, we get rid of it. Oh yeah. Yeah, you don't you don't filter it at all.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

You know, when I was in New Jersey, we did the New York Jets, the New York Giants, the New Jersey Devils, and the Brooklyn Nets.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

So, and it's funny. And then I actually out here in Los Angeles, we did the LA Football Club, right? We trained their guys, so we got to see. And it's really funny because like the Jets and the Giants, they make the most amount of money, right? Like, there's there's no doubt that like they're bringing in the most amount of revenue. And don't get me wrong, basketball brings in a lot too, but football is is is king, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

So they had like a therapy pool, they had a cold plunge, like they had like a spa that was like a 12-person hot hot tub, then they had a cold plunge that was like a 12-person cold plunge, and then they had like a therapy pool that where the it was like a treadmill on it ingrained in the floor, and it actually started the floor started moving, and then you could go on it and like you get wheelbone to it, and then there's like 10 cameras all around, and it would show you your range of and all these like weird apps would like grab your range of motion and like your shoulder movement and your leg movement to see like how your progression was coming. Like, oh, you're at 34%, you're at 37%. So that's like the the football teams, right? And those guys, we used to go there twice a week, and they would dump the tubs two to three times a week. And then for their home games, we would have to go to what now is MetLife Stadium, old giant stadium. Um, we would go set the tub up. Like if they had a game on Sunday, we would come on like a Friday. Or like a Thursday and go there, and the tubs would be completely empty. We would we would fill them up and then they would drain them when they left. So like you have to have like an active participant, and these guys were like um physicians' assistants, and people that were like um physical therapy people. So they were ingrained with the team. The team has three or four doctors, they have a head doctor and a couple assistants, and then there's like a few guys under there. Those are the guys that would like work with us, and you know, but there was a lot of problems all the time, right? So like we were constantly getting called out to come fix this or whatever, and then we would go and clean the the filters twice a month. So it was it was a pretty good, pretty good thing, you know. And then, but then as you look at like the the Nets, right? Um they had like a smaller room, you know, and like we went there once a week. Same type of deal, right? And then like with the Devils, even though the Devils have won like multiple championships and stuff, um, you know, and they do have a state-of-the-art room, it's just they have a lot less guys, so like they got like uh 25, 27, 29 guys on the team, right? Like, I don't know exactly how many people have an NHL team, but it's not 53, right? You know, I I know that for a fact that there's a lot of guys that are at this football team. So you could have theoretically 40 guys during practice using these hot tubs, where the Devils they just had two little hot tubs and then one little cold plunge. And then the LA football club, they had one little hot tub, one little cold plunge. Because, like again, soccer team, pretty, pretty small as far as the amount of people. Um, but we did less for them and they did more, if that makes sense. Yeah, you know, they didn't have as much staff and stuff, and those guys were doing multiple things. So we would come in and uh you know, service the pool maybe once every other week, and then we would come in and like you know, we would actually drain and clean it. And those were the the the the hockey ones were the worst because they just I mean these guys are slipping in and out of their equipment and stuff, and like you know, uh it's wild. Like I came in and like some guy was sewing socks together, and I'm like, What what are you doing? And he's like, I'm fixing everybody's equipment, you know. Like they'll actually, if you get a rip in your sock, like they won't buy you a new sock, they'll actually like have somebody like fix your sock. But you can't like disinfect. You ever I mean, I don't know if you've ever played hockey before or you know, been around someone who even played like uh Beer League Tuesday hockey and they come home and they just stink like shit. Because there's just you know, there's only so much Fabriz and stuff that you could you know put into these gloves, and like people are real superstitious, right? So they're like, these are my fucking gloves, I've had them for 10 years, and man, like if some other person looked and smelled into this glove, like they would vomit because this the wretched smell that comes off of some of this equipment is just ridiculous. And these guys are in this equipment every day, right? They're doing practices and then games and stuff, and uh the tubs were just nasty. Oh, I'm sure like we would get in and like you know, drain the tub, and as we were draining the tub, we would take like uh we used to actually take Mr. Clean Magic Erasers because we were draining it and then we were washing it, chlorine washing it, and then washing that again and stuff. But like uh there was a bunch of different things that we would use. I don't recommend the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. Andrea had a whole thing on that. I know that they used to hide in it. Um, but again, like we were it was so grimy that like there was we were using stuff that we were using, like acid, we were using chlorine mixes, we were using all types of stuff because like this grime just wouldn't come off, you know. Um, but it just goes to show you that like uh these teams have been using this stuff for 20, 30, sometimes 40 years. Like this, this cold plunge stuff. I like there's pictures of guys smoking cigarettes, you know, from baseball with their you know, I think it started a lot with baseball because these guys used to get their um you know, all these Tommy John surgeries and all these elbow and shoulder injuries and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

Back then it was just a limb. They wouldn't get their whole body in. They have a small, small ball.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

Well, I specifically remember, I specifically remember a major league. You remember the you remember the movie Major League? Yeah, yeah. With Charlie Sheen. Yeah, um a lot of the movie, they're in the fucking, you know, they're in the in the the clubhouse, right? And they're all in like the cold tubs, and they got their like their elbows wrapped up and their shoulders wrapped up and stuff, right? So, you know, they've been doing it for a while. It's just it's a lot more mainstream now. And you know, I always say this on the show, but like it's never a problem until there's a problem, right? And now the more companies that are out there using these cold plunges, um, also with like the the sensory deprivation tanks, you know, you're started on those. You're allowing these companies, you know, to and Jen and I are really into like our you know health and fitness in that in that aspect. So like we love saunas and we love hot tubs and we love cold plunges, and there's actually places like here in Long Beach that you could get like a subscription to, and uh, you know, all their stuff is open team. Oh, sweet. To me, you know, like uh I always tell everybody like it's uh a blessing and a curse to be a pool guy because you know you get to go away to all these places and all this pools, and you're like, man, this is like a six-star hotel, and the pool is disgusting, you know, and it's gross. Um, so yeah, you just know too much at that at that point. But I think really the foundation of this model aquatic health code guidance coming out is because now anybody can do this. This isn't a you know just for the division one football teams and you know the NFL teams and stuff like uh you could go online and you can literally buy a cold plunge for $75. Yep. Now, is it gonna come with a filter? Is it no? Like you're gonna have to go and buy your own ice, it's just a tub that you blow up and it's it holds water, and that's about it. So those ones you're dumping. But you know, I want to see with and I'd love to have like, you know, some one of the people that that's ingrained in it come on the show and you know, where did you get this guidance from? Why are we, you know, why are we only talking about chlorine and not pH? And you know, the only other thing that I saw in there was don't use cyanuric acid in it. Um, but I guess you could assume that a lot of these are gonna be indoor and stuff. Um, but I do love the chemistry aspect of it, so I'd love to find out a little bit more about that. But again, I just think that a lot more people are have access to this. And the more people have access to something, the more uh accidents are gonna happen. So, you know, that's why I think that this is just gonna be a nice guide for uh you know everybody to kind of follow and and look through and uh you know kind of go with. So I do appreciate them coming out with that, and we always uh appreciate their sponsorship.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

So absolutely, absolutely. Okay. And did you wanna you had something else you wanted to talk about?

SPEAKER_01 30:21

No, not really. I mean, like uh, like I said, there was uh I do a lot of inspections and I I've had some like weird requests from people lately, and like I especially realtors that like use me multiple times, like if you call me in a three-month span and ask me to do five inspections for you, like uh I'm gonna go further and uh you know, I'm gonna drive further for an inspection for you, you know what I mean? And like uh, I'm gonna be really willing to help you out however I can, you know, if you're using me as your guy. And this real this reality, they started using me as their guy, but like it's really high-end reality. You know, like they're not we're not talking about one million dollar houses, we're talking about 10, 20, 30, you know, in that range, millions, right? So these places that you go to, you walk in, you gotta go through fucking seven doors before you you get to the places like that. So they a lot of them want like a number to it, and I always put a number that I'm comfortable with on it, you know. And the reason that I do it is because I want the buyer and the seller to understand like the things that the but the seller has to fix, and that would fall under bonding and grounding, not having your main drains, you know, situated properly, um, the light not working, um, the hand, the diving board is there, there's a handrail that's like uh you know broken or ladder is broken, you know, that's stuff like hey, pool shouldn't be opened, you know, this is how much it's gonna cost to fix it, fix it. And that's the stuff that the seller can kind of go and be like, yo, I need you to take this off of the house. Yeah, but sometimes you get into these situations where like the buyer is like, I know, you know, my um my grandmother passed away, and they don't know shit about the house. So they're just like, we know that like she didn't update anything, you know, blah blah blah. So sometimes the realtors will come and be like, Oh, like, you know, you need to do this. And I sent out my inspection report, and not the realtor that I'm working with, her partner slash boss called me. And she called me like on Sunday night after the World Cup at like uh, and I was in New Jersey, and like I'm out with my like family, we're like watching the World Cup, I'm like drinking, and like I always try and answer my phone. So I answered my phone and I literally was like, Hey, like I can't talk about this with you right now. I was like, uh, this is not what I was expecting. I'm like, we need to chat about this tomorrow, right? So I I called her the next day and I said, Hey, just want some clarity. And she's like, Oh, she's like, I I already talked to the the seller, and like uh, you know, I told them that they need to blow the pool up. And I was like, Okay, I'm like, why do you say that? And they're like, Well, like from all of our inspections with the house, like it's all the original plumbing, so that's got to be the original plumbing for the pool. So, like, we need to change the plumbing out, and we need to change the decking out. And I was like, Lady, I'm like, do you understand that, like, you know, a normal pool renovation for resurfacing, tile, coping, expansion joint could get up into the 40, 50, 60,000. Easy, you know, depending on how big it is and who you're using and all that stuff, right? And these are all numbers that are kind of whatever, but you easily, if you are going to redo all of the plumbing under the ground and redo all of the concrete around the pool, it easily doubles that number. Like concrete has gone through the roof in the last five years. So jobs that I used to be able to say, okay, $10,000 now can easily be a $60 or $70,000 job. It's such a big job that I don't quote anymore. I don't quote it. I say, Oh, you want to redo the deck? Let me bring you my deck guy. A guy who only does decks.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

Well, it looks like you want me to say how much it costs because it's all based on linear footing.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

I'm assuming that we're still recording. But now when you're talking about concrete, sorry about that, gang. Are you talking about like uh are you doing full concrete? Are you doing pavers? What like what are we doing here?

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

You know, so that number is wildly different every time. And uh, you know, I just told them I was like, we're getting into like a gray, murky area here on like what you want me to do. I was like, I can say that yeah, the decking is pretty bad and it should be you know removed and replaced, but like I I'm not gonna say that the the homeowner needs to do that. That falls under aesthetics. You know, and like there is certain times where like resurfacing the pool, most of the time it falls under aesthetics, but like if there's rebar coming through.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

Um Steve, I have to let you know that you you blanked out for about 10 seconds twice now.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

Yeah, so I see that you're uh you're also going in and out, too.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

Yeah, so okay, so why don't we call it call it it for today? And we can finish this up next one, okay?

SPEAKER_02 35:43

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 35:44

Okay, everybody, thank you again from Talking Pools. We appreciate it. Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions for topics, please send to talkingpools at gmail.com. If we happen to use your um idea, we can send you a little thank you gift. We appreciate it. Uh thanks to all of our sponsors. We greatly appreciate them. You have no idea sometimes how much we appreciate them. Steve, have a have a safe week. Um say hi to Jen for me and uh be safe out there, okay, bud?

SPEAKER_01 36:14

Yeah, you too, Angel. Thanks everybody for sure.