You should ask your kids what they like. Some kids like to dive for coins and stuff in the deep end and others may be quite happy with five to six feet deep. My daughter likes a deep end so we built one. It is true that the deeper you go the more of a slant the pool generally will have and that does take away from the shallow end. However if you are not interested in making the pool comply with requirements for diving you may be able to have a cliff where the water goes from five feet to eight feet in one spot. I'm not sure what code requires - you're may only be permitted to drop one foot every three feet of slope.
Before you build your pool, Size matters
- Thread starter merl
- Start date
One of my thoughts before reading all this was, well to build a pool you need to build a pool first. Then I read Merl's first entry that this is his third pool build. Yikes. Maybe building a pool will teach you a thing or two but maybe not everything. Our yard could accommodate a larger pool so we went with that. Flounder32, I don't know what the right answer is. As you can see, some people have smaller pools and are very happy. I think I would be happy with many size and depth variations, my goal is to have a backyard where I can forget it all and just relax. As for hot, our neighbor has a water feature that shoots a spout of water into the pool, he claims it will cool the pool by several degrees.
Thanks for the thoughts. I'm going to ask the PB about a drop off in the deep end to try and get just a little more depth. I just don't know if I'll be happy with 5.5 ft.
Determining the most appropriate pool depths have been one of my challenges in designing a 13.5' x 30' rectangular indoor IG concrete swimming pool for a new house in the Philippines where it seems 95% of my relatives (who will of course visit and use the pool occasionally) are closer to an average height of 4'10" whereas I'm almost 6' tall. My primary use will be for therapeutic exercise (not really laps or hardcore swimming) and everyone else will just splash around for fun. You may think I'm joking, but there is not a single relative that can actually swim. There will be no diving or cannonballs allowed but not to worry because there are plenty of nearby beach resorts where the relative's kiddies can go wild. Thus, I'm thinking the shallow end of the pool will be 4'0" actual water depth and the deep end will be 4'6" water depth then 4'3" at the middle. Anything less than 4'0" water depth at the shallow end will make the pool less useful for the primary owner. I cannot go any deeper than 4'6" and have been "encouraged" by the spouse to make it much more shallow, since here they are more accustomed to the 3' deep kiddie pools as the norm. Would a 4'0" shallow end with a 4'3" deep end (actual water depths) provide enough slope or does floor slope really matter very much for main drains ? Advice is welcome. Thanks