Reducing depth of our 20 year old pool

[BobKat]

The house we moved into a couple years ago has a 20ish year old gunite pool, 20x40, 9 feet at deep end. We been getting quotes to make the pool shallower (water depth of 5 or 5 1/2 feet at the deepest), add a Baja ledge, and new coating and tile.
The PB we are leaning toward has a lot of experience in shallowing pools. He uses Diamond Brite for the finish, which I hadn't heard of before (we had Pebble Tec on a previous pool; not actually sure what our current finish is.)
I'd love to hear any thoughts about slope/depth, Baja shelf size (or if it's even a good idea at all), finish/tile, anything at all that I might not have thought of.
I'll mention that the main reason for shallowing the pool is that the current slope/depth makes most of the pool unusable for me, as I am a very poor swimmer (despite multiple rounds of lessons in adulthood). I just want our pool to be useful for cooling off and for water aerobics.
Thanks!

 

[kimkats]

I will take a stab at this:
5' is too deep to really enjoy if you are trying to stand in it. I am 5'5" and a 5' water depth hits me right under my mouth if the water is calm. Not much fun. IF you want a "play" pool for all around enjoyment I say 4'5" all the way around. Then get a "watermelon" ball for the best pool game out there!

Baja shelf-what do you see your self doing on this shelf? Sitting on your bum on the shelf? sitting on a chair or lounger? do you want your bum in the water while sitting on the chair or lounger?

All of these questions are to help you dial in if you want a shelf AND how deep you might want it. Me? I would like to have one I can sit on on my bum and the water hit me in the middle of my torso.

Finish-as smooth as you can find and get would be my go to. A light color so it does not show imperfections in the plaster as much.

 

[BobKat]

I will take a stab at this:
5' is too deep to really enjoy if you are trying to stand in it. I am 5'5" and a 5' water depth hits me right under my mouth if the water is calm. Not much fun. IF you want a "play" pool for all around enjoyment I say 4'5" all the way around. Then get a "watermelon" ball for the best pool game out there!

Baja shelf-what do you see your self doing on this shelf? Sitting on your bum on the shelf? sitting on a chair or lounger? do you want your bum in the water while sitting on the chair or lounger?

All of these questions are to help you dial in if you want a shelf AND how deep you might want it. Me? I would like to have one I can sit on on my bum and the water hit me in the middle of my torso.

Finish-as smooth as you can find and get would be my go to. A light color so it does not show imperfections in the plaster as much.

Thanks! What you said about depth makes a lot of sense. My husband and pool builder were both leaning toward 6 ft (at the deepest end, not for most of the pool) so I was compromising at 5 or 5 1/2'. But after reading your reply, and thinking about it more, even 5' is too deep to hold my grandchild, hold a drink comfortably, do water aerobics, or any of the things I want to do. I think if we had the deepest part at 5', people would stand around in the more shallow part, and once again, we'd have a big section of our pool that went unused.
Do you think a completely flat bottom is better than a slight slope?

 

[kimkats]

Do you think a completely flat bottom is better than a slight slope?

For what you are wanting to do in your pool yes!