I’m going to be adding an interior lap pool to my house and would like to gather opinions on construction methods. The pool will be in a room added to the house for that purpose. The pool will be in-ground and to the extent possible, solar heated. Living in Las Vegas, this is readily possible. I’m planning to connect the pool room to the bedroom through the bathroom. My wife and I are the only folks who will be using the pool, so it isn’t being set up for entertaining, nor will the noise of use be a factor.
The room enclosing the pool is being planned with an opaque lower portion, glass block above with opening clear story windows for venting execess heat in the summer. The existing house is stick built with exterior stucco and a metal roof.
What I’m wondering about is of what type of material should the pool be built? Concrete, concrete in an insulating form with a plaster interior, tile interior? Suggestions and opinions will be welcome.
Replies
Been dealing with concrete pools for years up here in Canada/Montreal. They have been all outdoor community pools. 25 meter "L" shaped. As yours will be indoors and no freezing problems in the winter, a concrete with tile along the scum line would work well. The tiles up here just fall off due to the freezing. But are easier to keep clean around the scum line. Also looks good. As for painting, use a good quality rubberized paint for the concrete and you will only have to paint every 3or4 years.
If it's only for laps, have you looked in to the endless pool design?http://www.endlesspools.com/index.html
I would love to be able to do what you are doing.
A lot of pools are formed with shotcrete or gunnite. A lot are finished with a special plaster.
Careful with GUNNITE. I now have to replace about 12 to 18" of the top edge of the pool in our community due to gunnite. Around the skimmers they use the over spray to form this and it is mostly sand. after a few years it lets go. Now I have a $70,000 repair to do to replace the bull nose and skimmers.
Isn't it more like, "careful with anyone who used the overspray for anything but backfill?" Sounds like a failing of the contractor, rather than the material.
More than likely was the contractor. But I still have to fix and beg the city to help with the bill. $70,000 is no small matter.
I still would love to have this guys problem with what and how to install an indoor pool. With my tiny property all I could put in would be the endless pool. Been dreaming about it for a while.
And with my lack of flat land, all I could put in is a water slide. It'd be fun going down, but coming uphill, I'd look like a slamon returning to spawn.
For an indoor lap/exercise pol, my first choice would be an endless/recirculating-type pool. Fairly easy to install, not too invasive, easy to maintain, and doesn't wreak havok with the house's climate.
If you do go with a traditional lap pool, I'd recommend gunnite over shotcrete for several reasons.
>I'd recommend gunnite over shotcrete for several reasons.
Can you ennumerate, pls? I'd guess one is that it can be drier. And the mix is easier to precisely control for an experienced nozzleman.
Jim,
I think the main reason is better control of the mix.
I much prefer to have the gunnite truck control the mix at the jobsite vs hoping that the redi-mix driver/company hasn't messed too much with the mix spec'd for shotcrete.
Better control over the mix gives better control over wall thickness...less slumping from a watery mix.
Better water control gives more consistent strength to the concrete used in the job. Less chance for drying cracks as well.
Better water control allows the nozzleman to shoot to the required thickness...not resulting in excessive slumping, which requires more concrete...which can result in running out of a batch before the job is completed. Time to call in another truck. Oy.
How about delays between truck...or a breakdown of equipment? Shotcrete will form a cold seam if too much time passes between shooting batch "A" and batch "B". Gunnite doesn't form cold joints. You don't suffer the loss in strength with gunnite that you would when a shorcrete job is interrupted. Plus...granted, it was a few years ago...but we took core samples and had them tested for strength. The strength of the gunnite was much more consistent, and higher in general, than the shotcrete.
With the shotcrete delivered by truck, you get what they deliver. Too little to finish the job, you're screwed. Too much left over, where are you going to dump it? With gunnite, you get what you need. No under, no over, no worries. I realize that there are concrete batch trucks that mix on-site, but around here they're not used for shotcrete. We've had minor changes in pools as the gunnite was being shot. It's easy to make these modifications when not worried about having enough mix to accomodate said change.
I'm sure that a properly gunned shotcrete job can perform just as well...maybe even better...than a gunnite job. I haven't seen it, though. In my locale, my safest bet it to gunnite a pool. I had one really bad experience with shotcrete. I'll never have another.<g>
I used to be WEEKENDWARRIOR But because some people get confused I HAD to change my name to JET.
Let's Jet Boys and Girls.
We have an Endless Pool and would highly recommend giving it serious consideration.
Sore thumb,
I don't know diddly about pool construction, but do you plan to use any mechanical ventilation? Even in LV you will need to dehumidify if you want to see through those windows between November to March.
I agree that you would want to provide dehumidification of some sort. While I have an HRV (heat recovery ventilator) in my own house, I can't see going to that extreme for this application. 1) use is short-term. 2) house has little heat demand through the year and 3) there are ways to more quickly dehumidify.
I assume the pool will be well-covered when not in use, so the humiditiy can be minimized during non-use. One or two fans (one in and one out) could move a lot of air while the pool is in use. Or, if you aren't going to have a tight-fitting cover, have one small fan to move air all the time and a large fan (e.g. commercial range-hood) to use while swimming.
Either or both fans could be controlled automatically through a humidistat set to, say, 40% R.H. Humidistats are available for $70-100. In the summer, it can be set higher. In the winter, it can be set lower to eliminate condensation on windows.
David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
Thanks for the info.
Regarding the ventilation question. I'm not planning on having powered ventilation for two reasons. First, the pool room will be added on outside of the existing house envelope, separated by an exterior type door. I'm planning on replacing an existing 4 foot wide window with a glass door with venting sidelight to provide access from the master bedroom. Secondly, the room will have opening windows on 3 sides to vent the excess heat in the summer, so it should handle humidity. The reason for enclosing the pool is to minimize evaporation, which here in Las Vegas can exceed 1 inch of water per day, and to keep the dust from blowing into the water, raising the maintence. The existing exterior wall is cement stucco, not synthetic over 2 inches of foam and a 2x4 wall built in 1972. I haven't decided what to surface that wall with, my wife has mentioned tile, which would be good for the humidity.
I looked at the endless pool, but given the recent rise in electricity prices, that option is not as attractive as it was. I'm planning to use a roof mounted solar array to power the filtration pumping as well as solar heating to extend the season. The pool room will be passively solar heated to the extent possible. I'm willing to use a pretty cold pool for exercise in the winter.
In the dry desert air of Las Vegas, you certainly wouldn't need a full-blown dx type of dehumidification. When the weather is suitable, opening the windows is a good way to ventilate. But in the winter (is the room or the pool heated?) at 30 degF outside the windows will sweat at 70 deg and 50% rh inside if you have single pane windows, 71% rh with double pane. A little ventilation will go along way to improving the comfort of the space. The you have to consider the formation of chloramines as the chlorine in the pool is oxidized. If it were mine, I would put some mechanical ventilation into the space. Have you seen the Cirque du Soleil (sp?) water show in Vegas? The conditions in that space are great. The use the humidity created by all the water to their advantage, and they control it well.
Wasn't there a column in a back issue of Fine Homebuilding about building an indoor lap pool out of aerated or autoclaved concrete block?
Just wanted to re-iterate others mention of the Endless Pool. I installed one two years ago in an addition we built and was highly impressed. It is a well made and well though out product that goes together quickly. I don't know offhand how much more power it uses in relation to a regular pool, but the manufacturer could provide that info. One of the features that works extremely well is the built in cover. It blocks almost all humidity transfer out of the pool when it is closed, and consequently cuts down a lot on the heat transfer as well. You can also insulate the sides of the pool to further cut down heat loss. The cover is also easy to operate, and stores itself out of the way automatically. Last of all, you could take it with you if you ever moved, if you really wanted to.
Not a great picture, but it shows the pool cover when it is closed.
Edited 8/26/2002 4:32:49 PM ET by Nick Pitz