I have a 15' x 32' inground concrete pool which is 4.1/4' (1.30m) deep. It does not have a deep end, it is just flat. Sometimes, I wish I could be able to float in an upright position without having to bend the knees. That would require a depth of at least 7'.

How deep is the deep end of your pool?
If you were to build another one, would you build it deeper?
Would you shallow dive into a 4' deep pool?

I've never actually measured my deep end. It seems to be 8 feet. It might even be 9. I wouldn't have a deep end if I were starting from scratch.

I recently built mine from scratch. I went from 4 1/2 to 5 1/2. I wanted a social pool, and not a rowdy diving pool.

I don't think there is a correct answer. Being a taller guy myself at 6'2" I had similar concerns so we went with a 4.5' shallow and a 7ft deep end. I couldn't imagine having an inground pool that was barely chest high but that's my personal preference. Different strokes I guess.

As deep as you need to please you. That's kinda tongue in cheek, I feel it's personal decision. Our pool had a diving board before we purchased it, so our deep end is about 8 to 9 feet deep. Most people stay in the shallow end except when we're on floaties or jumping in. Really depends. I agree with those who've posted earlier.

NO!!!

Ours goes from 3.5 ft to about 4ft 8inches and is perfect for us. The wife has a metal knee and it is great for walking. I will never build a pool where I could not stand all round. We wanted a Spool ( Social Pool)

Just to disagree with everyone, I would build a deep end, and make it as deep as I could afford and had space for; 12' sounds nice! It just depends on what you want.

I like having a deep end, but mine gets deep too quickly, and I wish my shallow end was a little more shallow. I even think we'd like beach entry.

Glass by the pool makes me shiver by the way!

I'm not certain how deep it gets (maybe 8 or 9ft?), but it starts at 3 1/2 feet. If I were to build it from scratch, I'd still go with a deep end. But I'd ditch the diving board and go a bit shallower, I don't need 8 or 9 feet to be able to float around upright or jump in.

4 1/2ft to dive into? You are about the same depth as many above ground pools. I'd consider some of their guidelines. Regardless that's pretty shallow for people to dive into. I'd say, no don't dive into that depth its probably pretty dangerous.

If I remember right, in high school, the diving blocks were in the shallow end and that was about 4 - 4 1/2 (I could be wrong that was like 20 years ago). However we were taught to dive for distance not depth for competition swimming.

In the end, I'd recommend against it. Its just not worth the risks. Either way, people should always be careful when diving regardless of depth. Even at 8 or 9 feet you get to the bottom pretty quick when diving.

I'm happy mine is 8', even though with the diving board 9' /10' would have been better. Shallow end is smaller the deeper you go though.

Unless you are 8' tall, you don't need a 7' deep end to be able to float without touching the bottom. My pool goes from 3' to 6'. I'm around 5'11" and can no longer touch the bottom somewhere around 5' depth assuming my head is staying out of the water. For the purposes of being able to tread water without touching the bottom, 6' is fine unless you are very tall (i.e. 7' or taller). For diving, you would want a greater depth, usually around 8'.

Thank you for the recommendations regarding safe diving. I was thinking about diving for distance, not depth, as Puffin pointed out. If I were to build it from scratch, I would build a 6' deep end so as to be able to float without touching the bottom (I am 5'10" tall).

I think the answer depends on who is going to use the pool....if its just adults and no one is big on diving, than 4ft shallow end and 6ft deep end seems to meet most needs. If you're taller, make the shallow end deeper if you really want. If you have kids, I would think a real deep end of some kind is needed because honestly...when you're not watching, they're going to jump in and not always safely...and the older they get, the deeper the pool will need to be but you shouldn't need to go beyond 7.5ft, unless you have a diving board - in which case, you'll probably want 10ft+ for liability purposes. If you have young kids...or friends with young kids that will be swimming....4ft will be too high for the shallow end unless you're very carefully and ensure that anyone going in the pool is a good swimmer. Pools with young kids have 3-3.5ft shallow ends.

We are building ours now as 4' 5' 4'. 17X35. While jumping in is entertaining, it is only fun for a short time. What is fun for hours is when you start doing things like playing sports. So we designed ours so we can play volleyball and basketball and have the whole pool to do it. Also we found that most people stay in the shallow end of pools so they can just hang out. This way people can "hang out" in the whole pool.

If we could have made a bigger pool we would have done both, a 35ft shallow plus an L for the deep end for diving, but we didnt have enough room in the yard.

The builder said you can safely jump into 5 feet. Just no diving.

Our pool has a shallow end around 3.5-4 feet and a 10-11 ft deep end. I am very happy that the deep in is that deep because there is a large rock waterfall next to the deep end. Since we have kids who like to jump off the rocks (regardless of our admonitions), the depth of the water allays at least some concerns. If there is an opportunity to dive or jump, kids will do it. It's best that there is a place for them to do it with relative safety. Diving head first into a shallow pool could be very dangerous and I'm sure this has caused numerous serious injuries. Yes, we should warn children to use the pool properly, but allowing them to dive into the deep end will minimize their urge to do something really dangerous.

Ours is 3-6 ft. I can touch at every point and people use the entire pool. It is just deep enough to be eitirely in the water with just your head out and still touch the bottom.

Our is 9-1/2' deep. Dimensions are 42'x 18'. 28,000 gallon swg. We had a diving board until our insurance company threatened to cancel us when they came out and inspected our house.

Weird, Before I put in my pool / diving board I called my home owners insurance (farmers) to ask if it would affect my rate. They said as long as it was installed in a pool that had the correct "diving profile" for a board that there would be no increase in my rates.

Me and the kids love to dive, so I would never have a pool without a deep end. When teens get together they're going to dive into the pool, and if there is no deep end, that could mean trouble. But I never wanted a social pool, nust one for diving, doing laps, volleyball, and other pool games. We were kind of lucky cause my wife insisted on an L shaped pool, so we have a 16' by 40' shallow arm, and a 20' by 40' deeper end, goes to about 9' I think. But different strokes...

Tom