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Centaur Spa Journal

Independent Guides to Pool, Spa and Wellness Design

Planning a pool and spa without settling levels, cover travel and equipment access can leave gaps in the project brief. Use the design, cover and safety checklists to record those decisions before choosing finishes.

Outdoor residential pool with an automatic safety cover half retracted along a limestone deck.
Automatic covers are a planning decision, not a catalog photo. Outdoor water only.

How to use this journal

Choose the hub for your next decision: covers for opening and drive requirements; design for the pool–spa layout; safety for barrier questions; commercial planning for hours and staffing; energy for the assumptions behind a savings claim. Copy the relevant matrix into your project notes and mark what remains to be confirmed.

Start with these hubs

Use these hubs to compare layouts, prepare cover inputs, record safety checks and plan operation. Their matrices are editorial briefing tools, not engineering approvals.

  1. Automatic Pool Covers

    Types, tracks, retrofit versus new-build, spa covers, safety, and energy for specifying an automatic pool cover.

  2. In-Ground Spa Design

    Outdoor built-in spa seating, depth, jets, heating, and insulation for pools and standalone spas.

  3. Commercial Pool and Spa Design

    Hotel, resort, and commercial aquatic planning for developers, consultants, contractors, and operators.

  4. Pool and Spa Safety

    Safety covers, barriers, inspection, and why the local authority decides what counts.

  5. Pool Energy Efficiency

    Evaporation, heat loss, covers, solar heating, and water conservation with stated assumptions.

Recessed automatic pool cover housing and track along a stone deck.

Automatic pool covers

Compare opening geometry, track position, drive documentation and operating conditions. Record the product-specific limits before committing a cover box or deck edge.

Automatic Pool Covers
Outdoor built-in spa with stone benches and coping at dusk.

Spa and wellness design

In-ground outdoor spas, seating, jets, and insulation. Not salon interiors. Pool-and-spa combination layout stays on the design hub.

In-Ground Spa Design
Hotel aquatic deck with a long pool, raised spa, and cabanas.

Commercial and resort aquatics

Hotel and resort planning for developers, landscape architects, MEP, and facility managers. Specification and coordination, not construction warranties.

Commercial Pool and Spa Design
Backyard pool behind a glass barrier with the water closed under a cover.

Safety and standards

Barrier versus cover, inspection, and jurisdiction. Standard numbers are checked against PHTA, ASTM, ICC, and the local official. These pages are not legal advice.

Pool and Spa Safety
Pool closed under an automatic cover at dusk beside a low roof of solar thermal panels.

Energy and water

Record climate, water temperature, wind and hours uncovered before using an energy estimate. Keep the equipment schedule with the measurement record.

Pool Energy Efficiency

Checks to copy into your project notes

The hubs contain on-page records for layout, cover requirements, equipment coordination, safety inspection, energy inputs and maintenance. Copy the relevant fields and fill in the project details; no download or calculator is required.

How we publish

This is an independent planning journal. Read the cited documents alongside each checklist and confirm the applicable product manual and local requirements. The authors and editorial policy pages explain responsibility and corrections.