Pool builder messed up - need advice on depth

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rlnjones

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Mar 1, 2017
17
Central TX
Hi everyone. This is my first post and I'm excited to be joining the pool owner club :)

Our pool is under construction. It is a free form pool approx 33 x 22. It was supposed to be 3 ft to 4.5 ft to 6 ft deep. After the gunite, I thought that it looked pretty shallow, so asked my pool builder to measure and sure enough, it's 3 ft to 3.5 to 5.25. This is a reputable builder (the largest in our area) and they have good reviews, but this issue slipped though the cracks at several points along the way.

The pool builder is offering two options. 1) blast out the bottom of the pool, redo the rebar, plumbing and gunite to the correct depths, or
2) take a monetary credit and leave it as is. We are still waiting to find out how much money we are talking which will be a big part of the decision.

But, we have kids ages 7 & 8. They want to be able to jump in from the 18" raised beam and I want them to be able to do it safely. If I'm being honest, even my husband wants to be able to do a decent can-opener off the wall. I'm worried that 5 ft, 3 inches of deep end isn't enough for it to be safe. We know it's not safe to dive, we never intended this to be a diving pool, just a jumping pool.

What do y'all think? Is 5'3" enough to jump in? Are there benefits to having a shallow pool that we haven't considered? Should we make them fix it no matter what the monetary credit looks like? Anxious to hear from experienced pool owners and appreciate the feedback.
 
Hey there, sorry that your first post is a problem, but welcome all the same! :handwave:

I like DEEP pools...to me they are safer all around. Folks like to jump, dive and swim and the deeper the water the safer they are.

Where is Liberty Hill? That may play into my answer as hot climates make the water feel more "swampy" in the hottest part of the summer and the deeper the pool the less swampy it feels. Yet if you live in Maine I'd say you might like that more since your season is short and it doesn't tend to get to 100 degrees.

Find out the money aspect... it may be worth a more shallow pool.... I dunno?

Maddie :flower:
 
We are near Austin, so it gets very hot and very humid. We typically have at least 2 months worth of triple digit days.

But our pool is about 75% shaded and we live on a very high hill where the wind is constantly blowing. I didn't even think about the temperature of the water getting too hot. If anything, I've been worried it will be too cold with all our shade
 
I'm down the road in Austin (Brushy Creek/Avery Ranch area) and just had my first pool built over the winter with startup in March. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you went with *pool company name removed*? That's who I went with as they are suppose to be really good but in the end I caught so many issues and errors that were all corrected but if I didn't work from home it would have been much worse. I went with 6.5 in the deep end cause as others have stated people like to jump in. 5.25 is not that deep when you are jumping in IMO. I would have them fix it but I'd also watch them like a hawk. I took pictures every day of all their work to document it.
 
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I personally would want it twice that deep, but that's just me. I can do a cannonball off our diving board and come within a couple feet of the bottom of our 8.5ft pool. A can opener would be borderline risky at 6.5ft off a solid surface. Very much a no-go at 5ft. I'd say have them bust it out and make it at least as deep as originally intended.


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Yep, *pool companies name removed*. I have been pretty happy until this. I'm not mad, just frustrated. I also work from home and check out the work every single day. Seems to be what's necessary on any construction project. Same kinda stuff happened during our home build and our outdoor kitchen build. Hate to say it, but contractors just don't pay attention.
 
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I believe you won't ever be happy with it at that depth. You'll be worried every time your kids jump in and it won't be possible to keep your kids friends from diving head first. My Mom knows someone well who is paralyzed from diving in a shallow pool so I'm I bit sensitive about it.
 

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Yet another vote for deeper. Before I took possession of my house, I investigated making the pool less deep. It's not a dive-friendly pool anyway, so I figured the depth was just extra water I had to heat and maintain. I also figured insurance companies prefer shallow pools. (they don't)

I'm so glad I didn't change it. The depth is one of my favorite features of the pool.
 
I had an above ground that was 54" deep so I have somewhat of a comparison. It was okay for young kids to jump in but when adults did a cannon ball they'd hit bottom (as expected). I wouldn't allow can openers but the kids were very little so not an issue at the time. Finally to my point...when the kids are in adult sized bodies with the mind of a kid still (teenagers) they will jump, do can openers, etc. So think about 10 years from now too. That being said I have a 6 ft depth in my "deep" end and 3/4 of a foot isn't that big a difference but it helps at those depths (9.25 to 10.0 not a big deal at all).
 
n240sxguy said:
I personally would want it twice that deep, but that's just me. I can do a cannonball off our diving board and come within a couple feet of the bottom of our 8.5ft pool. A can opener would be borderline risky at 6.5ft off a solid surface. Very much a no-go at 5ft. I'd say have them bust it out and make it at least as deep as originally intended.


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Click to expand...

I'm 6'0 190ish and can kill a can opener in my pool (6.5 deep) without getting close to the bottom. That's also with me jumping off my back wall



fZNGGZX.jpg
 
So in what depth of water is it safe? Is there some sort of formula or written guidelines somewhere?

- - - Updated - - -

Thank you all so much for the responses. We are 99% sure we are going to make the redo it. Still waiting to hear what the credit would be. Unless its some crazy high number, we probably won't take it.
 
rlnjones said:
So in what depth of water is it safe? Is there some sort of formula or written guidelines somewhere?

- - - Updated - - -

Thank you all so much for the responses. We are 99% sure we are going to make the redo it. Still waiting to hear what the credit would be. Unless its some crazy high number, we probably won't take it.
Click to expand...

Here is THE paper on depth safety for diving and such. You have to take in account the depth AND the wall slope.

http://www.divingboardsafety.net/Standard-inground-pools.pdf

Kim:kim:
 
I'm 4'11" (ish), my pool is 5'6" in the middle. I have to be careful jumping in because I once smacked my foot really hard on the bottom and hurt my ankle. I limped a bit for a few days. I no longer do a straight leg jump in.

You should DEFINATELY go deeper.
 

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