Swimming Pools

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Choosing

Choosing a Swimming Pool Professional

Signing the Contract with the Builder

Guide to Swimming Pool Construction

Swimming Pool Site Preparation and Excavation

Swimming Pool on Problem Soils

Swimming Pool Special Soil Conditions

Swimming Pool on Fill and Rock

How a Contractor Build a Swimming Pool

Swimming Pool Finishes and Trims

Swimming Pool Accessories

Site Preparation and Excavation

Excavating for an in-ground swimming pool or grading a level area for an on-ground swimming pool is the first step in the actual building of your swimming pool. Normally, the excavated material is trucked away, but if you want to use some for landscaping, arrange with the builder beforehand. You may even save some money.

Layout

Working from the plan that's in the contract, the builder will establish the finished grade level, taking into account the thickness of the deck and slopes for drainage.

The outline of the swimming pool is then marked with stakes. A digging line which takes into account the thickness of the walls and any additional space required is indicated on the ground with wood strips staked into place or with flour, lime, or some other white power.

The Rough Excavation

After the digging line has been marked, the rough excavation begins. Excavators normally use a back hoe or a front-end loader with this operation; the equipment needs an 2.5 to 3 meter-wide access. Excavators like to come in at the shallow end of the swimming pool for ease of operation, but if the only reasonable path is through the deep end, this causes no more trouble than extra stacking of sand bags to fill in the hole in the swimming pool wall that's needed to move the back hoe in and out of the deepening excavation.

Finishing

The back hoe or loader can cut only to within 15 centimeters of the swimming pool perimeter; the final shaping and finishing must be done by hand. The finishing should be done while the back hoe is making the rough cut; this way, all the dirt that is cut away in finishing can be moved out of the pool immediately.

There are two general types of excavations: those which follow the exact lines of the swimming pool and must be carefully hand-trimmed (gunite and some fiberglass swimming pools), and those which can be over-excavated on the sides – but not the bottom – and then backfilled after the swimming pool has been installed (poured concrete, masonry block, and vinyl-lined pools).

With the latter type, the first finishing job is to establish the correct depths and slope of the swimming pool. The excavation for a vinyl-lined swimming pool must fit the liner exactly.

For gunite and fiberglass swimming pools, the finishing process is especially important. The shell follows the contours of the follows the contours of the excavation exactly, and errors in the finishing will show up as errors in the finished swimming pool.

With fiberglass, the fitting of the pool into the excavation is the most critical point of the installation. Care must be taken not to over-excavate; if this does happen, a concrete mix rather than loose dirt will probably be required for backfill material.

For steel-reinforced concrete swimming pools, walls are usually vertical for 91 centimeters and then begin to taper into 1.5 meter-radius corners. This gives straight sides to the shallowest part of the swimming pool and a bowl effect to the deep end.