Help me plan for pool number two - round or rectangular?

[Brett S]

Last year I got an intex 15x48 on clearance at target for $150 on a bit of a whim. I figured I would see how much I liked having a pool and how much work it was to maintain and whether it was worth all the time and effort. If I really hated it then $150 wasn’t too much to waste.

I’ve decided that I definitely like having a pool and (thanks to TFP) it’s not really a lot of trouble to maintain either. Once I decided that I figured that I’d get a few seasons out of this pool and then upgrade to something bigger. But I’m starting to see some rust on the top frame of the pool and I’m getting a bit concerned that it might not last the season. Which frankly is a bit disappointing because it’s less than a year old, but again, given my $150 investment I’m not too upset about it and it does give me an opportunity to upgrade a bit sooner than I was thinking... and upgrading is always fun

So, as I said above, I definitely would like something bigger (and maybe a little deeper). I like to use the pool for exercise and that really just doesn’t work well in a 15 foot round pool. It’s definitely too short for laps and even swimming in tiny little circles isn’t great. I’m having a hard time deciding whether to go with another round pool or with a rectangular (or even oval) pool.

Here’s a somewhat blurry image of my back yard from google earth with the current 15 foot pool:



I feel like might not be able to go much larger with a round pool. The house is about 41 feet from the back fence at the bottom of the picture and about 36 feet from the back fence at the top of the picture.

I think I’d have no trouble fitting an 18x52 round pool in about the same spot where the current pool is, but I’m not sure that would really be big enough to exercise in. I could move up to 24x52, but I think like that might be too big for the yard between the house and the fence.

I’m also considering the 12x24x52 and the 16x36x52 rectangular pools. I think those would both fit in the yard better and give me some decent room to exercise as well. With those I worry a little that the 12 foot dimension of the smaller one might be a little too small for playing around with the kids, but the other one is just huge and I’m not sure I really need that much pool.

I would also like to build a deck for access to the pool at some point too and again with the larger round pools I feel like there would be very little room for a deck given how close it would be to the house and the fence.

So after all that, I guess here are my questions... first, what is the minimum size I should consider for exercise? Nothing too extreme, but the ability to swim laps would be good. Second, for those of you who have had both round and rectangular pools, which did you prefer? And finally, any thoughts about what might best fit into my yard?

 

[kimkats]

Oval or rectangle all of the way! I have a 33' round and I can only get 3 good strokes in before I am at the other side. I can kind of swim around the edge but it is harder.

I am guessing you are going to a more permanent pool for this one but want to know for sure before I throw too many ideas out there. I know we have one member that did the intex rectangle and he loves it AND he built a great deck for it!

Kim

 

[johnnysnok]

We have a 12' x 24' oval and love it. That being said, we do not have children so the size works well for us.
If we did, I would have tried to find another size bigger than 12'x24' but not as big as the 16'x36'.
You can see our pool in the video link in my sig, it may help visualize for your needs for your pool size and deck?

 

[Brett S]

Oval or rectangle all of the way! I have a 33' round and I can only get 3 good strokes in before I am at the other side. I can kind of swim around the edge but it is harder.

I am guessing you are going to a more permanent pool for this one but want to know for sure before I throw too many ideas out there. I know we have one member that did the intex rectangle and he loves it AND he built a great deck for it!

Kim

Wow, a 33’ round pool... that sounds huge, especially as compared to my little 15’ pool

As far as the pool type, I’m not sure I’ve even gotten far enough with my thoughts to consider that yet. But I’ll try, so here are a few random thoughts in no particular order

I would love love love to go with an in ground pool. The house door opens at ground level (there’s not even a single step down), so just being able to open the door and walk out into the pool would be amazing, but unfortunately I just don’t think that’s in the budget any time in the reasonably near future.

I have considered a semi in ground, which might be a good compromise between what I want and my budget, however, I think that also adds a considerable amount of work (if I do it myself) or expense (if I have it installed) and I’m not quite sure I’m ready for either of those.

Going with a regular above ground pool is easier to DYI and for a while I was definitely leaning toward Intex because it’s easy and because that’s what I have now, so I already know and understand what I’m getting into. It’s also one of the least expensive options and that’s a plus too. However, given the rust issues that I’m seeing with my current Intex pool I’m a bit concerned about going with Intex again. However, I did notice that the Intex XTR pools have a two year warranty on both the frame and the liner, compared to the 90 day warranty on all of their other pools. It looks like Intex certainly expects them to last longer, so I might still consider one of the XTR pools.

All that said, the short answer is I really have no idea what pool types I should consider, so if you have any suggestions along those lines I’d be happy to hear them

 

[Brett S]

Oh, one more thing to add, in a perfect world I’d also love to have a deep end. Obviously that would mean no Intex (and also mean a lot more digging), but an option with a deep end would be ideal.

 

[johnnysnok]

Buy a lotto ticket.

 

[bse53]

Your budget will determine the type and size of pool. At the low end the 16X32 intex ultra frame is a good option. While it's listed as 52" deep, you can barely get 48" and that's with some fudging. You can make a swimming lane in the middle (just slope toward the middle 6" or so) which would give you enough depth to swim laps. Looking at your satellite view, you might squeeze a 20-22' round pool, but still not ideal for swimming laps.
We have the 12x24 and I bought a 16x32 last year that's still in the boxes in the garage, which is this years project. The grandkids have fun in it, but a couple of adults and the pool fills up quickly.

Years ago we had a 18x36 Lomart with a deep end, and yes that's ideal. We even stuck it in the ground a couple of feet. I looked at doing it again at our new house, but the cost quickly exceeded $7,000-- so the Intex made more sense, given our swimming season here. We will dig a hole and sink the Intex a couple of feet so it doesn't look to out of place.