Let's talk depth

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amandahein3

amandahein3

0
Mar 16, 2015
855
rowlett, tx
I see a lot of us newbies doing shallower pools. Let's hear from you all that already have pool and those that are choosing to have deeper pools as to why and the benefits.

Maybe get it all in one place so when people search they can find it in one place.
 
I have a 20x40 that goes from 3.5' to 8.5' with a diving board. I would've liked it even deeper, but I didn't build it. Plan to someday put in a slide also. All the fun stuff is on the deep end; at least to me.


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My pool, as designed, had a diving board and slide. Our experience (in buying and owning this house) with insurance companies over the diving board or the slide has been very adversarial. Consequently, I don't think I would plan for either in a new pool. (If I could afford a diving cliff, grotto, extreme depth, etc., I might reconsider.) We have removed both the slide and the board.

Pool depth over about 5 feet, IMHO, is pretty wasted on the normal pool.... because people tend to congregate near the shallow end. (How long can you tread water?) If you want to host pool games, deep end vs. shallow end is a bit much.

Just my 2¢ ....
 
My insurance company didn't blink when I told them the pool had a diving board. Some freak out about one or the other usually. Hopefully they don't act like a slide is a death trap when I want to install one. If they do I guess I'll be insurance shopping.


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16 x 36, 3.5 - 8 in depth. I plan on staying in this home. Only one grandchild that swims here occasionally. If I had my choice I'd rather have 3.5 - 5 since we spend 90% of time in shallow end....3 senior citizens here! LOL But....you have to think of who will be swimming as well as resale value. My preferred depth may limit buyers especially from families with kids that would be diving, jumping etc.

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n240sxguy said:
My insurance company didn't blink when I told them the pool had a diving board. Some freak out about one or the other usually. Hopefully they don't act like a slide is a death trap when I want to install one. If they do I guess I'll be insurance shopping.


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Click to expand...


Yep,my ins co cancelled me when found out I had a diving board. Had to go with another w higher rate. The thought of removing my diving board wasn't something I looked forward to.
 
If I were to do an inground (hopefully 5 to 7 years :)

I am really liking a "sports" pool type where the deep is the middle of the pool.. like a 4 to 7 to 4 feet

BUT, I am also liking the "lagoon" type kind of the same way 1 part 3.5 feet, 1 at 5 and 1 at 7 or 8
 
I just got my first pool.
It's a fiberglass 16x40 with an 8' deep end.

I have 15 grandkids (all from 1 household) and 9 year old daughter, so when the kids get in, it's about 18-22 kids in the pool at once.
Kits play games in the shallow part, but tend to go to deep water to escape from the smaller kids and to use the slide and diving board.

Wife likes to do laps as it helps her with her bad back.

I'm a swimmer, and find the shallower end annoying while doing laps.

I would have hated not having deep end.

Allstate didn't blink when I told them I was adding pool with diving board and a slide. My insurance premium was not affected one penny.
 
My insurance didn't change with or without the board (the previous owner didn't take care of it, and it broke my first year here).
I agree with n240sxguy (Nissan owner?), I would have built it as a big L. A big shallow area for playing volleyball/basketball etc and then a big deep end for diving, sliding and such.
 
kimdurg said:
My insurance didn't change with or without the board (the previous owner didn't take care of it, and it broke my first year here).
I agree with n240sxguy (Nissan owner?), I would have built it as a big L. A big shallow area for playing volleyball/basketball etc and then a big deep end for diving, sliding and such.
Click to expand...

Former owner. It was my first nice car. :) The name just stuck.


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I have a relatively small pool. The depth goes from 3.5ft to 8.5ft. I have to tell you that when my ex's daughter lived here, she loved the deeper end. It was a game for us to see who could dive to the bottom and stay down there the longest. (We both were into abalone diving/free diving) If I had to build a new bigger pool, I would probably would go 10+ feet deep. But I would also have a much larger shallow area for the little kiddies.

My vote: go deep. great when they are older.
 
Ours goes all the way to 10, although i think its more like eleven. At our house everyone congegates at the deep end doing underwater laps. Once the pump house is done, which is at the deep end, there will be a platform off the side of the roof, so people can jump in.

They are crazy.......
 
You're in Texas. All the "sky is falling/instant policy cancellation" stories you hear about people wanting slides/diving boards are from people who live in other, horrible states.

If you live in Texas and hear insurance co. threats about the above mentioned, drop them immediately. There are tons of other insurance co's that want your business and don't give a **** about them.
 
We really struggled with the depth decision too. My son and husband love the diving for toys at the bottom, so 8' deep in the deep end was a must for them. However, after I started reading here, I heard over and over that people congregate in the shallow end. After really thinking about pools I had been to (never had my own) I realized that adults tend to sit in the pool if there is space, or on the deck if there isn't. The other thing I remembered from my experience in pools is that little ones, that can't stand up in a shallow end tend to get tired, or adults have to constantly hold them up or they get frustrated with the life jackets or arm flotation things. Although I have never been in a pool with a sun ledge, I decided I really wanted one, a large one. It seems that adults can sit along the edge, and even the really little ones can sit and play in that area. That said, we still wanted a regular depth shallow end, so we decided on the lagoon shape. We are building now, and I hope that we made the right decisions.
 
cowboycasey said:
If I were to do an inground (hopefully 5 to 7 years :)

I am really liking a "sports" pool type where the deep is the middle of the pool.. like a 4 to 7 to 4 feet

BUT, I am also liking the "lagoon" type kind of the same way 1 part 3.5 feet, 1 at 5 and 1 at 7 or 8
Click to expand...

This was what I really wanted in the beginning as well. However, one builder told me he would not build that pool for me. His comments were that it would have far too much chance of someone diving and hitting the slope with their head than a standard deep end. Essentially unless you are going to have a 50' long pool the SAFE jumping / diving area would be to minimal to be safe. -----------\_/------------

Any person coming from an angle could easily break a leg, back neck ect.

Not too often you have a builder tell you if that's what you want I am not the guy to give your money too!


In the end I went 18 x 36 with 20' of shallow end (8') and couldn't be happier
 
Not too often you have a builder tell you if that's what you want I am not the guy to give your money too!
Click to expand...
No joke! Not sure where you are located, but that builder wouldn't last long around here as a majority of the IG pools are of the "sports pool" design in these parts. I'm one of the rarities with a deep end.

As for the design to go with, it's really a personal preference. I do mostly lap swimming and rarely do I use the diving board, so all that water in the deep end rarely gets touched. I'm very happy with my pool and, over time, a pool with a deep end will likely become a bit of a rarity around here which will make mine stand out, so I'm sure not gonna mess with it.

With that said, if I were building one from scratch, I would go with the sports pool design that would also include a sun ledge. The other advantage of this design is that it will warm up faster in the spring and, given the same footprint of a deep-end pool, it will require smaller doses of chems to maintain. On my current deep-end pool, when we get those first few really warm days of spring, the surface of the water warms up. But when I start swimming laps, that churns up the cooler waters from beneath - sort of a mini-thermocline effect.
 
Depending on your kids (if any) and boy or girl (s) would make a difference for me as well.

I was jumping off of my fathers roof into a 4.5' deep above ground when we were 14 years old until I was caught and threatened for the pool to be torn down.

Having some depth in one area gives me hope that even if my children are dumb enough to do what I did (thankfully I never was hurt), they will have a little more substance to slow them down before they hit bottom!
 

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