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The owners of a home built on a sprawling wooded property in rural Morristown, N.J., were ready to give up on building the backyard of their dreams. Too many landscape designers and pool builders had told them the 15-foot grade change from the back of their home to the end of their lot was too steep to make their vision a reality.
Enter Thomas Flint Landscape Design & Development in Waldwick, N.J.
โThis was an engineering challenge, a site challenge, an entry-of-materials-and-equipment challenge โ it was a challenge all across the board,โ Thomas Flint, the firmโs owner and president, says of the Morristown project. โOther contractors had looked at this job and told the homeowners it wasnโt going to happen in a way that would make the pool the focal point of the backyard, which is what the client wanted. The owners were ready to bail and find a new home more conducive to what they had in mind.โ
The company โ which was founded in 2004 as a landscape construction firm specializing in outdoor living spaces and added pool design and construction to its portfolio three years later โ was referred to the homeowner as a โlast-ditch effort,โ Flint says. โWe get into a lot of challenging projects, because we take on ones that other people donโt think are feasible or arenโt interested in doing, for one reason or another.โ
Photo by Adam Pass Photography
The result is a stunning $750,000 backyard living space, including a pool with 1,100 square feet of water surface and not a single right angle. (A spacious 12-by-14-foot spa with custom lounge seats occupies one corner of the pool.) Stretching 48 feet from end to end โ with sections as wide as 30 feet and as narrow as 16 feet โ the pool won Gold in AQUAโs 2019 Pool & Hot Tub Alliance Awards of Excellence in the Concrete Vanishing Edge category.
Flintโs crews removed 3,500 cubic yards of soil โ โWe had a pile of dirt that was twice as high as the house,โ Flint says โ to eliminate the need for a large flight of stairs leading from the home to the pool. They also built an enormous retaining wall that cuts the property in half and scales the project. That wall became what Flint calls the โbackboneโ of the project. At its tallest, the wall stands about five feet, and it transitions into a shorter raised beam wall after it cuts away from the pool and continues up the perimeter of the backyard.
The majority of the veneer stone on the wall was fabricated from the foundation of a nearby burned-down barn, and it reflects the propertyโs rustic nature. Additionally, the mirror-like water surfaces (thanks to low-velocity pumps) are illuminated with 2,000 fiber-optic twinkling lights.
The backyard living space also includes multiple deck and lounge areas, a large lawn space, an outdoor kitchen, a fireplace and a pizza oven. The entire project, completed in August 2017, took 10 months.
Photo by Adam Pass Photography
Pentair: โPart of Our Teamโ
The pool required reliable equipment to reinforce the confidence Flint and his team had in their vision for this unusual project. Thatโs why they opted for a large suite of Pentair products that includes an ETiยฎ 400 high-efficiency 400,000-BTU heater, three IntelliFloXFยฎ variable speed pumps and one two-horsepower WhisperFloยฎ pump, Clean & Clearยฎ Plus cartridge filters for the main pool and the vanishing-edge catch pool, an IntelliChemยฎ chemical controller, six GloBriteยฎ LED lights, an IntelliTouchยฎ i9+3 system with an expansion board, and a SpaCommandยฎ spa-side remote control.
โPentair is our go-to brand,โ Flint says. โWe consider them part of our team. If we run into any type of issue, we pick the phone up, reach out, and if someone canโt troubleshoot by phone, theyโll be on the job site within a day.โ
Photo by Adam Pass Photography
Although local Pentair reps have accompanied Flintโs crews on several job sites in the past, they were particular interested in this project โ as it was among the first to feature Pentairโs ETi 400 heater. Working together, builder and manufacturer were able to ensure the unit ran at the highest efficiency level possible from Day One.
โWe feel that weโre on the cutting edge, and we keep ourselves sharp by participating in continuing education programs,โ Flint says. โBut weโre smart enough to know we donโt know everything. We're not cocky or egotistical, and when we have the opportunity to learn something new, we take advantage of that. On the flip side, by visiting contractors like us, Pentair can better understand what clients are looking for, which helps them tailor their products to fit those needs.โ
Photo by Adam Pass Photography
โPushing the Envelope a Little Bit Furtherโ
This project involved a high degree of technical difficulty, even though the large-scale outdoor environment blends seamlessly into the backyard. Since its completion, Flintโs design and construction teams have applied elements of this pool to other projects.
โFinishing a project like this gives our designers more freedom to create and come up with ideas that may have not even been thought about in the past,โ he says. โIt opened the door for new challenges, new ideas โ and it allows us to push the envelope a little bit further.โ
The homeowners, once on the verge of giving up and finding a new home in which to make their backyard-living dreams come true, were so pleased with the outcome that they invite Flint and members of his firm back to the property when they host pool parties.
โThis is a big part of our portfolio,โ Flint concludes. โThe most challenging backyards often produce the best results.โ