At first sight, to build a swimming pool may appear to be pretty straight forward. Dig a hole, make it water tight, fill it with water, heat it and jump in – simple!
It’s only once you’ve got an expensive hole filled with green water, damaging the fabric of your building and posing a danger to bathers that you will have to reconsider.
As much preparation and planning needs to be taken into consideration when building a pool, as it would if you were building a house.
Some key factors to be taken into account with a pool build are:
WHO
Who will use the pool?
The intended use of a pool impacts on all aspects of the swimming pool’s design. Is it a domestic or commercial pool? What will it’s usage be? and by who:
- General Domestic
- Light use Commercial – Holiday Lets etc
- Medium Use Commercial – Hotels etc
- Heavy Use Commercial – Schools, Local Authority etc
- Hydrotherapy – Disabled, Rehabilitation
- Animals – Horses, Dogs, Aquarium Inhabitants etc
LOCATION
The Location
Chalet pool
The location in which your pool is situated has big implications to the equipment required to maintain a pleasant environment. A large volume of heated water will have damaging consequences to your building if it’s not correctly designed. The correct air and water handling, dehumidification, heating, and energy efficiency are vital to the wellbeing of your pool and associated building/pool hall.
Will it be Ground Floor, Basement, or Upstairs? How will the pool integrate with the remainder of the building? Where will the swimming pool plant be located, what about changing rooms and shower areas. Can part of the main building’s walls be used as pool wall(s) to save expense and space within the pool hall?
TYPE
Type of Pool
Indoor pool with slatted cover
Swimming pools come in many shapes and sizes, the first priority of any pool project is deciding on the size, shape and type of filtration system employed by the pool.
The manner in which the pool surface water is drawn through the filtration system is crucial – Over 80% of the pollution, including harmful bacteria is found in the highest 6″ or 150mm of pool water.
Three types of pool construction are widely employed:
Skimmer Pool
Traditional style of construction where the pool’s surface water is drawn from the pool via one or more skimmers by the filtration pump.
Overflow Pool (Deck Level)
Luxury Infinity Pool & Spa
Modern construction where the pool surface water flows over the pool edge into a collection (overflow) channel on at least one side of the pool. The amount of overflow channel is dependent on the likely usage of the pool – domestic or commercial and it’s bather load.
Infinity Pool
Another modern construction where some of the pool surface water flows over a raised edge, giving the pool a mirrored appearance when viewed from the opposite end. Infinity pools can combine elements of skimmer and overflow pools into their design.
PLANT ROOM
The Plant Room Equipment
Commercial Plantroom
The circulation, filtration and treatment of pool water are critical to maintaining the wellbeing of your pool and the bathers using it. The style, volume, usage and bather load will affect the plantroom circulation equipment.
The humidity of a pool hall must me kept within set parameters to ensure a pleasant environment. High humidity will cause, in the short-term cosmetic damage to your pool hall finishes (condensation, damp, mould and staining). And in the long-term serious rot/rusting to structural elements.
We work with the top dehumidification and ducting specialists to ensure that all pool halls are designed within these parameters.
We have been supplying pool equipment from the best UK and International suppliers for the past 15 years building relationships, which guarantee their support on any of the equipment, which we specify. We only specify equipment which have been tried an tested for reliability throughout their lifetime, at highly competitive prices. We have learnt over the years that more often than not specifying cheaper alternatives can work out more costly in the long term.
EQUIPMENT
The Pool Shell Equipment
Counter Current
Equipment, which goes through the pool shell (pool water suction and return fittings, counter current units, lighting etc), can be manufactured out of plastic (eg ABS or PVC) or Bronze and Stainless Steel.
Typically indoor pool projects require a high specification finish and stainless steel finished equipment will be installed.
Shell equipment is available from Brookforge, engineered in our workshops, as an assembly for installation directly into the pool walls’ construction.
PIPEWORK
Pool Pipework
Traditional rigid ABS pipework has become a thing of the past, we install flexible, reinforced PVC pipework (PoolFlex), wherever possible underground. Above ground, we install and specify commercial grade PVC pipework and fittings.
With PoolFlex, our shell equipment has independent, uninterrupted pipe runs, from the shell to the plant room.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Energy Efficiency
Pool Insulation
With the advent of huge increases in energy prices and concerns regarding our Carbon Footprint and CO2 emissions, insulating the swimming pool shell and slab has become vital.
Quad-Lock Pool has been developed to ensure a far greater amount of heat stays within your pool, rather than lost to the ground on traditional builds.
Quad-Lock Pool can be used on virtually all types of pool build – indeed the entire pool hall can be built using Quad-Lock panels.
Pool Covers
Preventing heat losses through the pool surface will dramatically cut down on energy being wasted to re-heat the pool water. A swimming pool heat retaining cover is essential for any outdoor pool and strongly advised on all internal pools.
There are many different types of swimming pool covers, from thermal foam and solar covers, which are solely for, heat retention through to full slatted covers and Vinyl safety covers. Regular use of a cover cuts energy consumption by at least 22% and total costs by 15%
LIGHTING
Lighting
Lighting your pool can have stunning results, there are many different ways in which you can you light your pool. From colour changing LED’s through to stunning full Fibre Optic systems deciding how your pool is lit must be made at the design stage. Lights are powered by electricity which is not ideally suited to being submerged in water, cheaper alternatives can quickly become more expensive over time if pool water enters your lights.
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12V Halogen Lamps (50/100/300 watt par56) are the classic way to light a pool. They are fix in a niche within the pool wall which is fitted during the pool wall construction and provide a strong bright light.
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LED under water lights consume allot less energy, have a longer lifespan and can be colour changing. They are fix in a conduit within the pool wall which is fitted during the pool wall construction.
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Fibre optics are one way to guarentee pool water cannot damage your pool lighting system, the light source is kept a distance from the pool and the light is carried to the pool via the fibre optic cable. The fibre optic cables can output the light through a wide range of lenses and effect filters to have dramatic effects. Fibre Optics can be made colour changing.
POOL SURROUND
Pool Surround
The area around your pool also needs to be considered at the design stage. The comfort and safety of bathers in and out of the pool must be taken into considerstion. The surround floor surface needs to ensure that the possibility of slipping is minimised, many floor tiles have antislip versions and there are many matting and floor products which help minimise slip. Many people like to install poolside showers and even sauna or steam rooms to enhance a bathers experience.
The Brookforge way
Every pool project has a budget; over the years we have concluded that traditional swimming pool companies waste huge sums of customers’ money employing myriad sub-contractors.
Our innovative response has taken the market by storm; we can reduce swimming pool project costs by thousands of pounds.
Our method? We simply do not provide any general building services required for the project, be it general building works, electrics or standard plumbing.
We work alongside the Customer’s chosen Contractors providing all of the information that they require to perform their part of the project, including custom construction drawings and product installation packs.
Please be assured that none of the duties required by your Contractors will be outside of the capabilities of reputable tradesmen.
A great deal of costs can be eliminated from the total project cost – most traditional pool companies do not employ all of the tradesmen required, so, the Customer is charged a substantial mark-up on all of these services.
Our engineers will install all of the specialist swimming pool plant and equipment, and can provide finishing services such as tiling to ensure your pool becomes the pool of your dreams.
