Swimming Pools

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Determining Size and Shape

Swimming Pool to the Users Needs

Swimming Pool Size and Shape

Space around the swimming pool

The Shell that holds the Water

You can have a Spa, too

You can have a Spa, too

Whether you're planning a pool or you already have one, you may want to contemplate the pleasures and benefits of therapeutic or hot water bathing.

Including a spa when you're building your pool is economically sound, especially when you build the spa integrally with a gunite, vinyl-lined, or hybrid fiberglass swimming pool. Even installing a separate spa adjoining a pool can cost less than installing a spa by itself. You can use the same support system that heats and filters your pool water; piping, valves, and the fiberglass or gunite shell itself are additional expenses.

Concrete Spas

Concrete spas started as adjuncts to swimming pools, and that still is how most come into being.

Concrete's principal advantage is great durability coupled with the fairly easy maintenance of a hard cement finish. Concrete spas should have a ceramic tile ring at water level, since mineral scale forms there and is easier to remove from ceramic tile than from plaster.

Four methods can be used to build a concrete spa: gunite, masonry block, hand-packed concrete, and poured concrete. Gunite, though requiring specialized equipment, is the most common method.

Integral Concrete Spa

If you already have a concrete pool, you can add a concrete spa, but at significantly more expense than if spa and pool had been built at the same time. A portion of the pool wall must be broken out and the steel reinforcing rods for the new spa tied into the existing frame-work.

Fiberglass Spas

Though gunite spas once were about the only residential type sold, fiberglass spas now proliferate in the marketplace. They are found in every size, shape, and color imaginable. Most, though, are about 1.5 meter deep and about 2 meters across.

If you already own a swimming pool or are planning a swimming pool that is not made of concrete, a fiberglass spa adjoining it and using the same support system is your most economical approach. And at least one manufacturer is offering a fiberglass shell that can be built in as part of your vinyl-lined pool when it is constructed.

Fiberglass spas are manufactured in the same way as fiberglass pools and enjoy the same characteristics, including easy maintenance.

The Lining

Most fiberglass shells have either an acrylic or gelcoat inner lining. The relative merits of acrylic versus gelcoat linings are the subject of some debate.

Acrylic, a harder material, is more resistant to abrasion damage than is gelcoat. It also withstands chemical damage and high temperatures more readily.

Gelcoat performs well in all these departments, is less expensive, and is a good deal easier and less expensive to repair if time or accident should damage the finish.