Bluepools

CASE STUDIES

All the owners of the Case Study pools can be contacted for a reference

Case Study A

Client - Retired office fitting-out contractor

Location - 15 kms south of St Jean d'Angely in Charente-Maritime

Pool specification - 7 x 5 m concrete block infill reinforced concrete walls with hopper

Built - Spring 2005

The issues

The weather was very wet throughout the construction of this pool and this delayed completion.

An existing pig sty needed to be demolished and the pool was to be built very close to the existing barn. The client wanted to keep the stone for future extension work. There is a slope of 700 mm across the site and this required the erection of a retaining wall. The pool paving has to slope away from the pool so that rainwater is not shed into it. This creates a potential problem of damp in the barn wall - this was avoided by the installation of a land drain along the foot of the wall. The drain from the kitchen sink also crossed the site and this was diverted into a new fosse around the back of the barn in the pictures - this was also built by us

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The site before we started - note the small barn to be demolished
The trees, hedges and barn have gone
The pool has been set out and excavation has commenced
Most of the pool has been excavated down to level and the concrete blocks for the walls have been delivered
Part of the wall foundation has now been cast - note the starter bars for the wall reinforcement
The foundation is complete and the erection of the walls has commenced
Erection of the wall continues with the first layer filled with concrete down one side of the pool
Erection of the wall continues - note that the main drain has been installed and surrounded in concrete
The walls are just about complete
The pool floor is ready for screeding - note that the pool is being built on quite solid limestone rock - this allows the use of a non-reinforced screed floor
The Roman end has been installed and concreted in
The narrow reinforced concrete slab on the right hand side of the pool is ready for concreting - note that the reinforced concrete slab will span the gap between the pool wall and the edge of the excavation that has been backfilled
The slab is concreted around two sides of the pool - this will support the paving slabs and ensure that there is no settlement of the slabs. Note the land drain that protects the existing wall from getting damp - the paving will shed rain towards this drain
The screed to the floor is just being finished - this is always a key task as it has to be done without rain falling on it - we now cover the pools when we do this to avoid rapid drying under the hot sun or rain damage
All the concrete work around the pool is now complete
As this pool has concrete block walls they need to be rendered. This is a three stage process, the screed rails, the scratch coat and the finish coat - here the scratch coat has been completed
We are nearing completion - note that the margelles (coping stones) and the dalles (paving flags) are of the same make and have a common joint pattern - the pool needs to be built exactly to the right size to allow this
The paving has been grouted and the alarm installed
The pool is totally complete with the heat pump installed. The client will install his spa on this side of the heat pump to hide the pipework.
A view from the other end looking at the heat pump. The pool users will be able to stand in front of the fan to cool themselves down on hot days
Case Study B Client - Retired bank manager Location - About 20 kms to the east of Nontron in the northern Dordogne Pool specification - 11 x 5.5 m concrete block infill reinforced concrete walls with hopper Built - Late Spring 2005 The issues The weather was awful during the construction of this pool - as can be seen from some of the photographs. Access to this pool site was difficult and the wet weather made the ground so soft that we could not get heavy materials delivered to pool area - so everthing had to be barrowed into the site. We knew that there were various drains crossing the site and that a new soakaway would be required. The most significant issue was that there is a 1 metre slope from one corner of the pool to the opposite corner and a 0.5 m slope across the short end containing the Roman Steps - hence the finished level of the pool needed to be carefully considered so that the garden looked good and all the future grass slopes are mowable. During the course of the work the weather was so bad that we had to build butresses to support the decking around the pool because we had no suitable material to backfill with.
The site - note that it looks quite level - but there is a slope from the top left hand to the bottom right of nearly a metre
The wall foundation excavated down to level with some shutters installed - we were already knee deep in mud. We decided to cast the foundation before we excavated the pool to level
The weather just got worse and worse - we cut through the drain that you see and just afterwards the heavens opened - and the drain was from the property roof!. In the end we had to dig and put blinding concrete down straightaway - just to get a solid base to work on
Part of the wall foundation has now been concreted - this site was very difficult because of the silty sandy clay sub-soil - if it had been limestone rock the rain would not have been much of a problem
The foundation is complete!! - this has taken us two weeks - in a normal circumstance the entire pool structure would now be finsished and ready to fill with water
The walls are up and ready to fill with concrete
We had to build these butresses to support the outside wall of the pool and the decking - purely because of the terrible ground conditions - we worked right through whether it was raining or not - I have never been so cold and wet!
It was impossible to finish the landscaping - we had to come back a month afterwards when it had dried out. Note the land drain that runs around the outside of the pool wall and through the butresses
What a mess!! - compare this with the shot of the garden before we started - it is impossible not to make a mess like this when it rains so much
Its dried out a bit and we are managing to excavate for the sub-pool drainage under the hopper
The sub-pool drainage under the hopper - note the suction pipe is inserted into black slotted pipe wrapped in geotextile so that it does not get clogged up. The whole drain is also wrapped in geotextile for the same reason
We had to put a drain under the flat end of the pool because of the very poor ground conditions
The drains are in place and covered with concrete
The pool floor has been screeded and the Roman End is now being installed
Note that the vertical screed rails for the scratch coat have been completed
The Roman End has been concreted in and the scratch coat to the wall render has been completed
The render to the walls is complete and the liner lock is in place
The underlay on the floor is in place and the joints taped up
The liner being installed
Water is going into the pool - note the vacuum cleaner that sucks the air out from under the liner to get rid of the trapped air that causes creases
This shows how the liner is supported across the Roman End before being cut to shape - and it is still raining!!!!
The summer cover is on - client was heating the pool water up and the margelles are being installed. Note the white tube that is connected to the under pool drainage - if this pool is ever emptied a pump will need to be connected to this tube and run until no water emerges
It is just about finished and we have managed to do the landscaping at last
It is finished at last - what a saga
Another view with the summer cover in place
Another view with the winter cover in place
Ready for a party!!
Another view
Our client was very patient with us throughout the trials and tribulations of this project - it took as three times as long as we said it would and the only extra that we charged was for the butresses and the sub-pool drainage and a new soakaway for the roof drainage
Case Study C Client - Investment banker Location - In Argenton-sur-Creuse in Limousin Pool specification - 12 x 5.5 m polystyrene block infill reinforced concrete 1 m high walls with 1.3m deep hopper Built - Summer 2005 The issues The client was very concerned that we should minimise damage to his parkland style garden. The site of this pool sloped about 600 mm from one corner to the other. We knew that there was a drain crossing the site to the sewer in the road, but we did not know that the roof drainage from the large house also crossed the site and discharged into a large concrete lined pond. The client wanted the pond to be filled in and the mairie was happy for us to do so. Hence the landscaping included filling the pond, getting the slopes across the parkland to look gradual and natural and to build a large soakaway in the filling to the old pond to receive the roof drainage. When we excavated for the pool we found that the entire pool area consisted of filled ground and when we excavated for the hopper the hole immediately began to fill with water even though the weather had been very dry for weeks. We installed sub-pool drainage as normal and also built hopper area of the pool - where the ground was worst - in reinforced concrete.
Start of the topsoil strip - this was a beautiful garden at the bottom of a big hill-side
The house was fantastic as well - I think the pool may have been better if much closer to the house - but the client wanted the location because it maximised sunlight on the pool in a quite heavily wooded garden
Getting down into the ground - the fall across this site was about 800 mm from the top right to the bottom left side of the pool
Ugh!! - the ground is fill and not natural soil
The wall foundations were reinforced with plenty of bars because they are on fill
This is all fill as well - and even worse there is water seeping in the middle of June
Sub-pool drainage is required with the whole lot wrapped in geotextile all as in Case Study B above
Concrete has now been placed over the drain to stabilise the excavation
Shaping the bottom of the pool and the hopper
The hopper had to be formed in reinforced concrete because of the filled ground
Reinforced concrete hopper complete and polystyrene block walls erected
Detail of the polystyrene block walls with reinforcement and ready for concreting
This is me fixing the return pipes through the Roman End
Screed is complete and ready for the liner
The liner is installed and the pool is being filled - note the wide reinforced concrete slab in the foreground ready to receive the dalles (paving slabs)
Margelles and some slabs installed - not the matching joints
It is finished - but not full up - we had a big problem getting the seal around the Roman End installed properly - and had to drain down a couple of times!!
The paving around the Roman End
The decking - the mixture of paving and decking works well when the pool is away from the house in the garden because the visual impact is softened
The decking again - not that it is lifted up above the ground so that it does not rot (the timber is treated as well and we use special non-rust screws)
Heat pump and buried pump and filtration unit. This will need some planting around it to hide the visual impact.The client is delighted with his pool and the only extras were for, the reinforced concrete hopper and the construction of a new soakaway for the roof drainage that was cut off by the pool installation

SWIMMING POOL INSTALLATION

If you want a pool for use in the summer of 2007 please contact us as soon as possible as our installation slots for this autumn and next spring are now filling up rapidly

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