Rickik new and Building a DIY Swimming Pool/Pond

[rickik]

Howdy all! Great Forum and lotsa info.

Tomorrow morning I will be starting the excavation on an unusual hybrid swimming pool/pond. Everything will be DIY. It will look like a somewhat "natural" pond since it's on my little 14 acre pine forest but is strictly for swimming/playing - powered by pool equipment not the pond stuff. BBB sanitation of course. No fish or water plants.

Well, I'll probably end up with some frogs and I guess the deer and other animals may stop by for a drink every now and then. Approx 10-12k gallons IG. I already have most of the materials: Hayward Tristar 3/4hp pump and C1200 Cart Filter, Widemouth Skimmer and dual main drains.

I will be using my little Kubota BX25 w/backhoe for the hard digging. 2" PVC throughout w/3 way valves (only 2 to start off with). I have a 30x40 Firestone EPDM (45mil) Pond Liner with underlayment that goes in the hole. No structural walls - just dirt and liner. Finished size will be 16x25x3-5.

Return will be by waterfall and some over the side jetting. Flagstone or similar will edge the pool/pond to hold the liner in place. This (I hope) will work out the way I've planned it. Spent all winter working out the details.

Oh yea, I'm no contractor or anything. Just a retired guy who wants a pool. So this is my first attempt at anything like this. Everything was learned from research on the web. Wish me luck and if ya'll have any comments or suggestions please send them my way. Oh yea the total cost - less than $3000.00

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP. Very interesting idea. I would be concerned with mounting the drain and skimmers, and with the fact that you probably won't be able to vacuum the pool. Please take pictures and let us know how it goes.

 

[PoolGuyNJ]

I would be more concerned with bio-baddies.

Scott

 

[rickik]

My plan on mounting the main drains (with hydrostatic valve) and skimmer is to do a lotta dirt compacting then stabalized sand and concrete. Finally a sheet of marine grade plywood to hold everything in place. Since I will be sanitizing and filtering this just like a regular IG pool I don't think I'll have any issues in that area. Please let me know if ya see any problems I may encounter. I plan on taking photos of everything as work progresses.

 

[duraleigh]

Hey,

Welcome to the forum!!

Never say never 'cause there's always a way to figure something out but, as JohnT says, sanitation is going to be an issue.

You will have to figure some way to vacuum and brush that pool. Simply circulating chlorine will not be enough......you must physically touch the surfaces with something to keep them clean and sanitary and then figure out a way to get the dirt and junk out of the pool.

 

[rickik]

Oh, I see what your concern is now. My thinking was to vacuum and brush just as you would a regular IG vinyl lined pool. I have plenty of time so this would all be done by hand (no auto vac) on a regular basis. Do you see any problems that I may encounter?

 

[JohnT]

Since your liner isn't custom fit to your hole, it won't lay flat like a pool liner does. Even a small wrinkle is a pain when trying to vacuum. I think your liner material will be more "grabby" on the vacuum head as well, making it difficult or impossible to slide it along the bottom when there is suction from the pump.

 

[Bama Rambler]

I applaude you for your effort! I've seen lots of small lined holding ponds that would make great swimming pools. The only real issue I can think of is that if the liner winds up with any folds in it that'll be a breeding ground for algae. That liner will stretch good so I'd try and keep it as smooth as I could.

With that EPDM liner I don't see why you couldn't use a vinyl liner manual vacuum head and a vinyl liner brush to keep it vacuumed and brushed.

 

[rickik]

Great point on the liner. Initially I had planned to do a natural looking, kinda kidney shaped design but for the reasons you just mentioned I decided to make it pretty much rectangular with gentle radius corners. This I hope will keep it very smooth with minimum wrinkles. During the dig, I'm gonna try to keep everything as smooth as possible. I had planned to start this morning but the weather is not cooperating. Maybe this afternoon?

 

[cobra46]

I would think that having all your filtered water return via a waterfall or over the top jetting will be a source of massive aeration which will tend to cause your pH to always creep up.

 

[rickik]

I think you are right. I didn't even consider that until I read about it here (Pool School) last night. I have also heard somewhere that aeration causes a faster loss of chlorine. Is that true?
Well since all my returns (3) are "over the edge" I can do a little piping modification and run 2 of them underwater easily. That would just leave the waterfall which I could adjust with the 3way valve. Sound like a workable solution? Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[catpuff]

Rickik-- hope u are still building successfully. I'm wondering why u chose to do the natural poolscape with the traditional filtration and chemicals. I had thot of the same thing recently, like a regular pool with more character. I looked online and its mostly about actual biofriendly pools, where the plants filter for you. I've had a chlorine filtered pool for 3 years, no problems. Gueass I need to talk to a specialist, but it worries me leaving nature to run its course here in TX where the West Nile thing is a concern. I read that you'd been doin some internet research-- can u tell me how you made your decision to do it that way? I'm looking at everyones stories