Private pool: blue water at personal disposal

Recommendation points

• Pool classification
• Basin bowl material
• Swimming pool concrete bowls
• Coque-polyester pool bowl
• Pool water circulation type
• Overflow pools
• Skimmer Pools
• Seasonality of the pool

They say rightly: “It’s good where we are not.” Here is a frosty, snowy winter, we dream of a hot summer and a hot sun. One wants to plunge into cool, refreshing water on a hot day, splash around, relieve stress and fatigue. Indeed, water is the best antidepressant, water relaxes after a hard and stressful day at work and tones up in the morning, when you need to cheer up and pull yourself together. So we need water. Shower? Perfectly! Natural body of water at home? Wonderful! Jacuzzi? Good too.

What if the pool? Let’s make a reservation right away, this is not so impossible. Today, many construction companies offer customized pools. Moreover, these firms already have serious experience in such work. Individual pools are being built and put into operation, which means that it makes sense to consider this issue in more detail. It is quite possible that it will turn out that one day at any time you will be able to swim in a brisk crawl in your pool or dive into it after leaving the steam room. Well, maybe not at any moment, but only in the summer. It depends on what type of pool you decide to build on your site.

There are many different types of pools. We will not touch on purely visual features: the shape of the pool, its decoration are mainly determined by the personal tastes of the owner and are very diverse. Let’s talk about the functional differences between individual pools.

Pool classification

So, what kind of pools are there? What could be their classification? All pools are divided into different types for several reasons..

The purpose of the pools:

• public
• treatment-and-prophylactic
• SPA-pools
• training
• individual, etc.

Seasonality:

• used all year round
• used only in the warm season

Design, type of water circulation:

• skrimmer pools
• overflow pools

The material from which the pool bowl is made:

• concrete
• kok-polyester

In this article, we will not consider public pools, as well as pools intended for professional medical and cosmetic procedures. Let’s talk about the construction and features of individual pools. And we will start the conversation not from the beginning of the list, but from its last item..

Basin bowl material

Any pool, in fact, is a kind of container that is filled with water. Naturally, the durability, performance and reliability of the entire structure depend on the quality of the bowl itself. Pool construction is not a cheap issue, so it is important to find the most reliable option that meets strict quality requirements.

Swimming pool concrete bowls

Pools with a bowl made of reinforced concrete are the most traditional option. Such bowls are used both in the construction of large facilities and for the construction of small individual pools and artificial reservoirs. The construction of such a pool will require not only cash costs, but also quite a lot of time. If you decide to build a traditional concrete pool, get ready for the fact that work on its device will take two to three months at best. Such terms are explained by a fairly large number of different stages. How is a concrete pool built??

1 Waterproof latex grout. 2 Waterproof adhesives. 3 Reinforcing mesh made of fiberglass. 4 Elastic polymer-cement waterproofing coating. 5 Cement-sand mortar. 6 Sealing tape 12 cm wide. 7 Sealing bentonite cord for “cold” joints and embedded elements in concrete. 8 Waterproofing additives for concrete and plasticizer

Concrete pool construction stages

1. The construction of such a pool begins with marking the pit.
2. The next stage of work is actually making a pit for the pool. The excavation is carried out using an excavator, and then it is finished manually. Often, the work is complicated by the complex shape of the future pool, because the pit must exactly repeat it, but its dimensions must exceed the final by 50 cm on each side.
3. After the foundation pit is dug and adjusted to the required shape and size, the base for the pool bowl is prepared. It can be either a fifteen-centimeter cushion made of rubble, or a concrete screed, ten centimeters thick..
4. For the reinforcement of the pool bowl, various types of fittings are used, depending on what shape and size the pool will have. As a rule, the following types of fittings are used: 8-A-III GOST5781-82, 10-A-III GOST5781-82, 12-A-III GOST5781-82 or 14-A-III GOST5781-82. The bottom is subject to reinforcement first, and then the walls of the pool. The armature is installed in two rows and tied with a wire with a pitch of 20×20 cm.
5. After the installation of the reinforcement is completed, the formwork is exposed. For this purpose, both special reusable formwork and disposable formwork made of waterproof plywood or boards can be used..
6. And only after the implementation of all these works, builders proceed directly to concreting. For pouring the bowl, hydroconcrete (V25P4 W-6) is used. An important condition is the continuity of the pouring process. Only in pools with a very complex shape, when it is not possible to expose the entire formwork at the same time, it is possible to separately fill the bottom and walls with concrete.
7. After pouring the concrete and its hardening, the formwork is removed.
8. If the pool is being built on wet ground, after removing the formwork, external waterproofing of the walls of the bowl is performed.
9. And finally, the very last stage is filling and compacting the earth around the finished pool bowl..

As you can see, the construction of a concrete basin for a pool is a rather laborious and long process. Plus it’s not cheap. But, nevertheless, it is concrete pool bowls that are currently used most often, although there is already an alternative. In order to form a definite opinion about the advisability of using this type of material for the construction of a pool, one should consider its advantages and disadvantages.

Benefits of a concrete pool bowl

Why are concrete pools so popular? In addition to the fact that this method of constructing an artificial reservoir has established itself for quite a long time, the technology for its manufacture has been worked out to the smallest detail, it also has a number of other advantages.

• This type of pool can be finished with any kind of finishing materials. The most popular finishing methods are tiles and mosaics. Such pools look very decorative. Tile and mosaic materials are durable and very diverse. However, it should be noted that this kind of finishing takes a very long time and is more expensive than other types of pool finishing. In addition, once every few years, it will need to be restored: re-processing the seams, gluing the fallen off mosaic elements. Precisely due to the fact that with sudden changes in temperature, the mosaic can come off, it is less often used when decorating outdoor pools.
• The device of a concrete bowl allows you to build pools according to individual projects, having a complex shape and a variety of sizes.

However, along with these serious advantages, there are a number of disadvantages inherent in concrete bowls. You also need to know about them in order to make the right choice..

Disadvantages of a bowl made of concrete

• Perhaps one of the most serious drawbacks of this type of pool is their high price..
• Long production times are also quite a significant disadvantage..
• All work on the construction of such a pool requires strict adherence to rather complex technologies, and this, in turn, again significantly increases the final price.
• When the soil freezes in winter, the concrete bowl of an outdoor pool can be seriously damaged – the soil begins to squeeze the walls of the bowl, as a result of which cracks appear and tightness suffers.
• With insufficient waterproofing of the concrete bowl, the reinforcement rusts, rust begins to deform the concrete, which also leads to its cracking.
• If the groundwater is located high, then the bowl over time may begin to sag under its own weight and may even crack over time..
• Finally, concrete has a sufficiently high thermal conductivity, which means that a significant part of the heat water will give to the surrounding soil..

When we got to know the traditional concrete pool bowl, it will be interesting to find out what its alternative is..

Coque-polyester pool bowl

If a concrete bowl is a well-known, already traditional design, bowls made of kok-polyester appeared in Russia not so long ago, although in the West they have been used for a long time and have already proved themselves well. The history of using polyester spinning pools in the USA goes back fifty years, and in Germany and France thirty years. This is quite a sufficient period to speak about the reliability and durability of this material. The rather active distribution of this type of bowls in our country is associated with the development of the necessary technology by domestic manufacturers. Prior to this, polyester spinner bowls were imported from overseas, which, given their oversized dimensions, was a very difficult task and made such pools incredibly expensive. Today this problem has been partially resolved – domestically produced kok-polyester bowls are presented on the market..

What is polyester spinner

Polyester itself is known to everyone. A huge number of consumer goods are made from it. The prefix “kok-” means “shell”, “shell”, “shell”. Thus, we are talking about a one-piece product with the highest strength, which is due to its structure. The structure of the polyester spinner bowl is composed of several layers of modern composite materials.

• The top layer of the bowl is made of sturdy plastic. According to manufacturers, in terms of its strength, it can be compared with granite. This layer can have any color, depending on the wishes of the customer..
• Under the outer layer of plastic, there is a layer of a special patented material that provides elasticity to the structure. Thanks to him, shrinkage and subsidence of the soil are not afraid of such a bowl..
• Six layers of fiberglass reinforced plastic form the outer shell of the bowl.
• A special system of ribs reinforces the entire structure.

According to the manufacturers, such a bowl has an 8 micron safety margin and is free from the disadvantages inherent in traditional concrete bowls. And, nevertheless, this option also has a number of disadvantages, although it has enough advantages.

Advantages and disadvantages of polyester spinning pools

• A polyester spinner pool is built quite quickly – its construction is much simpler and includes fewer technologically complex stages than building a concrete pool. A pit is dug in the shape of a bowl, a base of rubble is prepared, then a bowl is placed on it, and earth is poured and tamped at the edges. That’s all – the pool is ready. All stages can be completed in a few days.
• The polyester spinner bowls have a pleasant touch, smooth surface and streamline shape, they are devoid of corners, which greatly facilitates the maintenance of the pool.
• Pools made of kok-polyester do not require additional stairs, as they already have a beautiful and comfortable Roman staircase with a safe surface.
• The thermal conductivity of kok-polyester is rather low, so the water in such a pool will cool down more slowly than in a concrete one..
• Manufacturers give a guarantee for the operation of such a bowl for up to 50 years..

Among the disadvantages of this seemingly ideal invention, the following points should be mentioned:

• The polyester spinner bowl is a one-piece piece of fairly large dimensions. On the one hand, this is a guarantee of tightness, on the other hand, the transportation of such oversized cargo even within a small territory is not an easy task. The cost of transporting such a bowl to the construction site of the pool can be quite high;
• when ordering a ready-made bowl from the catalog, you will have to choose from those options that the manufacturer offers – it is not always possible to show individuality in this matter.

For public pools, polyester cookware bowls are unlikely to work, but for a private pool, this is more than an acceptable option..

Pool water circulation type

The type of water circulation in it is of great importance for the quality and performance of the pool. Based on this parameter, all pools are divided into two types.

Overflow pools

Pools with an overflow system look more beautiful and respectable than skimmer pools. Water fills overflow pools flush with the edges. An overflow gutter is located along the entire perimeter of such a pool. Water, evenly overflowing over the edge of the pool into the gutter, flows from there into the storage tank. From the storage tank, water is directed to the filtration and disinfection compartment, and after heating it returns to the pool through the nozzles located in the bottom of the bowl. During the construction of the pool, the nozzles are placed evenly over the entire bottom area, this allows for better mixing of the water and avoiding the unevenness of its composition and temperature.

The installation of an overflow basin is a rather complicated and expensive process. Typically, this type of water circulation is used in large public pools or in high-end private projects..

Skimmer Pools

In the private sector, skimmer-type pools are more often used. Water in such pools does not reach the edge by 10-15 cm, and its intake is carried out through special devices designed for water intake – the so-called skimmers located in the pool wall. Skimmers take water from the surface of the mirror, that is, the most polluted layer, however, in order to improve the quality of water purification, it is recommended to supplement the skimmers with a bottom drain. In this way, the deeper layers will also be cleaned. In this case, 2/3 of the water volume will be passed through the skimmers, and 1/3 – by the bottom drain. The float valve keeps the water level in the pool constant.

Filtered, disinfected and heated water is supplied back to the pool through the nozzles located in the side of the bowl opposite the skimmers. The movement of water in the skimmer pool occurs from one wall to another. One skimmer is able to pass water collected from 25 sq. meters. Depending on the area of ​​the pool, it can be equipped with one or more skimmers.

The overflow pool is more expensive than the skimmer. However, this type of water circulation provides better cleaning. Although for a private pool, where a large number of people are not expected, the skimmer option is quite sufficient.

Seasonality of the pool

The choice of an indoor pool or an open-air pool is influenced not so much by the personal wishes and tastes of the owners, as by objective factors.

Outdoor pools can only be used during the warm season. Given our Russian climate, this is only three to four months a year. And during this time, in most of the country, there are not so many sunny days. For the winter, the outdoor pool must be emptied and preserved until the next swimming season. Therefore, from the point of view of expediency, pools located indoors look preferable. However, when designing them, you need to take into account a lot of nuances. Does the house project allow you to add a pool to it? Will the house be able to withstand such a load? What soils are located under the house and will it require additional drainage system and waterproofing?

The task is somewhat simplified if the pool is provided already at the design stage of the future cottage. However, even if your house was built a long time ago and does not have enough space for a swimming pool, experts will help you find a solution. This can, for example, be a detached pool or a pool attached to a building. There are many options for implementation here, up to the construction of a sliding pavilion, which would allow to use the outdoor pool in summer and to swim indoors in winter.