Depth and placement of spa

[ShoZie]

We are building a freeform 28x14 pool. The shallow end is planned to be 3’6”. We would like the deep end to be 7’ to allow for jumping in safely. We have kids and will soon have one teen and some tall family members but we are only 5’4” and 5’10”. The PB is encouraging us to stick to 6’ depth. Is that deep enough? Our kids love jumping in and swimming under water.
Also, right now the raised spa is planned to be facing away from the house to allow for easy access, it will be next to the Baja shelf and existing patio. Am I going to regret that? It seems to make the most sense space wise but not aesthetically.
Thanks for your input.

 

[SchubeyDew]

My previous pool had a 6’ deep end and it was fine for everyone. You couldn’t dive head first, but I wouldn’t recommend that for a 7’ depth either. One other thing to consider is the drop off you’ll have. At 28’ your transition with a 7’ depth will be more drastic than with a 6’ depth.
For the spa, I’ve seen a lot of pools with the sun shelf and steps next to the spa. My steps will be next to the spa, but the sun shelf is off the front of the pool. It didn’t cost a lot more to do it that way but it does take away from the paver area. The main benefit for me doing it that way is to allow the kids playing on the sun shelf or the adults sunning on the sun shelf from having people stepping over them to get into he pool.

 

[ajw22]

Are the depths you are discussing water depth with water at the middle of the skimmer or pool structure depth to the top of the bond beam? There can be a 6” difference between those depths.

Be specific about which depth is being specified to the builder. We have seen some folks end up shallower water then they expected getting pool depth instead of water depth.

 

[march2012]

3' 6" is pretty shallow to swim in. We ended up going with 4 ft of water (4' 6" depth of the shell) in the shallow end.

Our raised spa faces away from the house, but faces a view so it doesnt seem weird. I tend to feel that the spa should be closer to where you will be socializing and to the house.

For our last pool we used the shelf a lot because we had one kid under 5. For our new pool we didnt install one because our kids are all > 5. A baja shelf takes up a lot of space, and is mainly good for the young kids. We never had adults use it.

 

[ShoZie]

Are the depths you are discussing water depth with water at the middle of the skimmer or pool structure depth to the top of the bond beam? There can be a 6” difference between those depths.

Be specific about which depth is being specified to the builder. We have seen some folks end up shallower water then they expected getting pool depth instead of water depth.

I don’t know. I will definitely discuss that with him to make sure we are speaking the same language.

 

[ShoZie]

3' 6" is pretty shallow to swim in. We ended up going with 4 ft of water (4' 6" depth of the shell) in the shallow end.

Our raised spa faces away from the house, but faces a view so it doesnt seem weird. I tend to feel that the spa should be closer to where you will be socializing and to the house.

For our last pool we used the shelf a lot because we had one kid under 5. For our new pool we didnt install one because our kids are all > 5. A baja shelf takes up a lot of space, and is mainly good for the young kids. We never had adults use it.

I had mentioned that to my husband and he was concerned 4’ was too deep for the young nieces and nephews that we are likely to always have (our kids are 9+). I think it’s fine considering we are getting the Baja shelf, which is for me and my waterproof kindle. Thanks for the input, he really wants to be able to do laps.

 

[ShoZie]

My previous pool had a 6’ deep end and it was fine for everyone. You couldn’t dive head first, but I wouldn’t recommend that for a 7’ depth either. One other thing to consider is the drop off you’ll have. At 28’ your transition with a 7’ depth will be more drastic than with a 6’ depth.
For the spa, I’ve seen a lot of pools with the sun shelf and steps next to the spa. My steps will be next to the spa, but the sun shelf is off the front of the pool. It didn’t cost a lot more to do it that way but it does take away from the paver area. The main benefit for me doing it that way is to allow the kids playing on the sun shelf or the adults sunning on the sun shelf from having people stepping over them to get into he pool.

The transition is the concern of of the PB also. Maybe we will reconsider going so deep. We do have a great view from the direction the spa. I hadn’t thought about that, but now I am excited about the idea of looking at the view from the spa. Thanks!!!

 

[Nikilyn]

Sounds like you are describing our pool. Ours is 30' long though. Ours goes to 7'. My kids, who are mostly grown, wanted it deeper. Kids like to swim deep no matter how tall they are. Our spa faces away from the house. I kind of wish it was on the other side to see the pretty tile and spillway but it fits best where it is. We love our Baja step. In our last pool our son hung out there because he was scared of the rest of the pool. We now have grandkids who will use it but, more importantly, I use it. I like sitting on it while the kids swim. I'm in the pool but am relaxing.

 

[ShoZie]

That is just like our pool design except the Baja step is a little more to the side to allow for a full swim lap and the deep end bench is on the same side as the spa. I have debating which side to put it on. Thanks for the input on the depth. Does it feel like to slopes down to harshly? My kids do live to swim deep and so does my husband.

 

[Nikilyn]

I haven't been in it with water yet so I can't tell you. We did make it fairly steep though because once it gets to a certain depth it doesn't matter how steep because you can't touch anyway. We also have a bench on the other side of the spa. We had another pool with this design and really liked it so we did it again. The last one only had the bench by the spa (but it wasn't a spa in that pool) and when I'd swim out there I always wished we had a bench on the other side too so I fixed it this time.

 

[ShoZie]

I haven't been in it with water yet so I can't tell you. We did make it fairly steep though because once it gets to a certain depth it doesn't matter how steep because you can't touch anyway. We also have a bench on the other side of the spa. We had another pool with this design and really liked it so we did it again. The last one only had the bench by the spa (but it wasn't a spa in that pool) and when I'd swim out there I always wished we had a bench on the other side too so I fixed it this time.

Hi! I am wondering how you feel about the slope now that you have hopefully had a chance to swim? We waited all these months for permits and are breaking ground in two weeks.

 

[Nikilyn]

Hi! I am wondering how you feel about the slope now that you have hopefully had a chance to swim? We waited all these months for permits and are breaking ground in two weeks.

We don’t mind the slope. I wish we had gone a little bit deeper in the shallow end though. The plans were supposed to be 3.5 to 5’ before the deep end slope. The layout guy talked me into 4’. Right now I’m wishing it was 4.5’. Reason being is because I’ve been doing water aerobics and I wish it was a tad deeper for that. Otherwise it‘s been fine. There’s a nice place to play basketball and then the deep end. I still like the idea of the drop off.

 

[ShoZie]

Thank you!!!