Standards • Science • Solutions

Where Standards
Meet the Field

A personal industry resource applying emerging technology and decades of field experience to pool and spa standards, codes, and compliance.

See What This Is About

The Mission

Builders, service professionals, inspectors, and health departments all depend on the same body of standards and codes — yet finding clear, connected answers when you need them shouldn't be harder than the work itself. This project exists to make that easier.

If a requirement affects how a pool is built, maintained, or inspected, it should be straightforward to find and understand. That's the standard this project holds itself to.

PHTA
Standards & codes
at the foundation
ICC
Code development
& compliance
VGBA
Education
& field application
50+
State pool codes
researched & cataloged

What You'll Find Here

Explainers, practical guidance, reference tools, and field-application insights — organized around three areas.

Standards & Compliance

Explainers and reference material covering PHTA/ICC standards, the VGBA, and evolving building codes — written to help professionals understand requirements and apply them correctly in the field.

Emerging Technology

Practical digital tools — including a searchable directory of public pool codes for all 50 states — designed to put standards and compliance information where professionals need it: in the field, on any device.

Industry Education

Educational resources — from field-application insights to presentation materials — designed to help professionals understand not just what the standards require, but why.

Steve Barnes teaching VGBA compliance at the PSP Expo demo area
A Living Project

Why This Exists

A Personal Project • Not a Business

Pool Geek Guide grew out of my day-to-day work in the pool and spa industry. After years of working with standards, codes, and compliance, I kept seeing the same problem: the information professionals need most is often the hardest to find, spread across documents and systems that do not naturally connect.

This site is my effort to make that information more usable.

It is a personal project, not a business. I built it to help make complex technical and compliance topics more practical, more connected, and more useful in the real world. It is also part of my own commitment to continuous learning and to exploring how modern tools can make this industry better informed and better equipped.

Nothing here is truly finished, and that is by design. The resources, tools, and educational content will continue to grow over time. If something here helps a pool professional better understand a requirement or do better work in the field, then it is serving its purpose.

Transparency & Disclaimer

Pool Geek Guide is not a consulting firm, not a product, and not a business venture. It is a personal project. What follows is the professional context behind it, shared here so visitors can judge the content with full knowledge of where it comes from.

My name is Steve Barnes. I'm the Director of Science and Compliance at AquaStar Pool Products, where I work on product compliance, safety standards research, and the development of products designed to make pools safer and more efficient. That role is my professional home and the foundation for everything I do in this industry.

Through AquaStar, I'm also involved in work that extends well beyond the company itself. I serve as Chairman of the PHTA Standards Process Committee, Chair of the PHTA-16 (VGBA) Standard Writing Committee, and Chair of the PHTA Commercial Council. I'm a voting member on ANSI/PHTA/ICC-2 and participate in most of the industry's drowning and injury prevention standards. I've had the privilege of conducting grant-funded VGBA compliance training through the DuPage County Health Department's Pool Safely program, and I teach at Pool Nation Boot Camps alongside my AquaStar colleagues. In 2025, the PHTA recognized this work with the Volunteer of the Year award.

The same standards knowledge, field experience, and commitment to swimmer safety that I bring to AquaStar and the PHTA is what informs this site. The way my volunteer work and Pool Nation involvement complement my professional role rather than conflict with it, Pool Geek Guide is one more way to put what I've learned to work for the industry.

Please note: The information provided on this site is for educational purposes only. While grounded in established industry standards and professional field experience, nothing here replaces the requirement for site-specific engineering, on-site verification by a qualified professional, or compliance certification per PHTA/ICC and VGBA standards.