SWIMMING POOL INSTALLATION - ISSUES AND COSTS

How do you make sure that the pool structure will be durable and not affected by adverse ground conditions?

Bluepools has now completed an intensive three year long research project into the best type of swimming pool for its primary market in South West France.

Because the firm is managed by qualified civil engineers it is uniquely capable of analysing the soil conditions at each different sites where it has installed swimming pools and other works. The research has shown that at 8 out of the 10 sites the subsoil consists of filled ground or alluvial clay. The limestone rock that dominates the geology of SW France only occured at 2 of the sites. The rock is always there - but invariably at a deeper depth than the foundation of the pool

The proponderance of the fill and clay subsoil has serious implications for the suppliers and installers of kit and liner pools. (Click here for a more detailed comparison of the various options for the pool structure)

Pool kits are not suitable in filled ground because of the highly variable weak soil conditions. They are also not suitable for clay soil condition because of the clays tendency to expand when wet and shrink when dry. When a large hole is dug in clay subsoil and a pool is installed, the void around the pool that is normally back filled with gravel by kit installers, will inevitably fill up with water in winter like a buried ditch. The combined swelling clay and water pressure can cause the liner to lift off the pool wall and perhaps even the collapse of the pool walls.

Bluepools now provides a lifetime unqualified structural guarantee on its polystyrene block reinforced concrete pools. There are now a variety of dense polystyrene blocks available in France that are used for the construction of swimming pool walls . The blocks are normally between 1m and 1.5m long, 250 mm wide and 250 mm deep. This allows the construction of pool walls either 1m, 1.25m or 1.5m deep with greater depths provided by a hopper at one end that can provide up to an extra 1m of depth. The blocks are erected on a reinforced concrete footing and then filled with reinforced concrete to provide a very stiff and rigid wall that is very quick and easy to install and is suitable for all ground conditions. But even with these very strong walls Bluepools always installs both sub-pool and wall perimeter drainage in every pool that it builds.

It was a happy co-incidence that the blocks not only provide a very flat and true surface for the liner to lie against but also 100 mm of insulation that makes the pool water warmer and cheaper to heat - see below.

In order to optimise the quality of our pools we now only install polystyrene block and liner pools and we provide a lifetime unqualified guarantee of structural integrity on every pool that we build - and to validate this gurantee we now carry out a free site investigation by mini-digger

How do you make sure that the pool can be used for 6 months of the year without costing a fortune to heat

Pool insulation and water evaporation are important elements in pool running costs. If the pool walls are insulated (as with our polystyrene block pools) the water temperature can be 4 to 5 degrees C higher without heating. Furthermore a floating summer cover will substantially reduce water evaporation and the heat loss that occurs during the evaporation process.

One of the myths of pool heating is that solar power will heat the pool at zero cost once you have installed it. This is not true, because you have no control on when the sun shines and so the pool may or may not be useable.

In terms of reliability and running cost

• Solar power is unreliable and costs nothing to run - and the collectors may require quite a lot of maintenance

• A heat pump is far more reliable because it relies on ambient temperature and would cost about 1 to 1.5 euros per day during "heures creuses" - probable cost 30 - 50 euros per month in spring and autumn depending on how often you over-ride the time-clock

• An electric heater is totally reliable and costs between 10 and 12 euros per day to run

The installation costs of solar and a heat pump will be very similar and cost between 3500 and 5000 euros depending on pool size. Electric heaters will cost between 1000 and 2000 euros and probably require the EDF supply to be upgraded.

If budget is not a concern, the optimum approach is to have both an electric heater and a heat pump or solar panels so that you have the capacity to occasionally heat the pool up very quickly when the weather changes suddenly or when you have surprise visitors.

Heat exchangers using your existing boiler are also viable but will probably cost much the same as an electric heater to run.

How can you ensure that the water is always healthy - and not green with algae or under-chlorinated

This is difficult because it depends entirely on the equipment that is installed by the pool builder and the thoroughness of your maintenance schedule.

The pool builder can skimp by:

• Not installing the right number of skimmers or water return inlets

• Not installing a large enough pump

• Installing a cartridge filter (needs constant cleaning) and not a sand filter

• Using undersized pipework between pool and the filtration system

You can make sure that the pool builder does not make the above mistakes by ensuring that the contract document states that the pool turnover rate should be between 6 and 8 hours. You can check this by running the pool water to waste and by timing how long it takes the pool to drop say 100 mm - a simply calculation will then give you the pool turnover rate.

All Bluepools are designed to have a turnover rate of between 6 and 8 hours - depending on the characteristics of each particular installation.

The addition of an automatic PH balancing system and salt water chlorination to the pool set up will also substantially reduce the effort that you have to put into the maintenance.

Bluepools can be fitted with these systems - and many people love the salt water chlorination because it reduces the nasal and throat irritation that many people suffer from when bathing in chlorinated water.

How can you ensure that the pool is built to budget and schedule and the cost is not affected by adverse ground conditions ?

The short answer is that you can't - no one can control the weather!

Having said that there are ways of minimising your risk.

You can:

• Get your pool installer to dig a test pit before the pool installation commences - this may cost 500 euros, but will considerably reduce the "below ground" risk (please note that this is included in the Bluepools price - see below)

• Get references from your pool builders recent customers

• Make sure that the contract document includes everything that the pool installer has said that he will do

• Make sure that the contract document includes rates for any extra work that may be required

• Make sure that your pool builder has a sufficient labour resource and does not rely on "in-demand" artisans

Bluepools includes a site investigation by mini-digger in all its pool prices - no other pool installer offer this as far as we know.

You may think that we just increase our price to cover the cost - but we do not need to because the information from the site investigation will allows us to save the cost during the execution of the project works through better planning. Of course finding very adverse ground conditions may increase our standard price in a limited number of cases but it is much better to know the facts before the project starts rather than have a nasty surprise in the middle of it.

How do you make sure that the pool is built in an optimum location in your garden.

This is a tricky one - but please do not fight with your partner over it!

In broad terms, the closer the pool is to your kitchen / living area the more likely it is to enhance your summer life style and not be a blot on the landscape that is barely used. You should think about having to walk down the garden with a tray of drinks wobbling in your hands.

Remember that a pool is a very hard form of landscaping and will very rarely look out of place if it is very close to the house.

On the other hand if it is in the middle of the front garden or in a beautifully landscaped park area it must be carefully designed or other people may think that it is an eyesore and the value of your property will immediately be discounted. A white or sandy coloured liner will help in this instance because the pool water will look green and not blue.

If you have an L shaped building its a good idea to put the pool in the L - as pools always sit well in a large corner - can you create one by using one wall of the house / barn and build another wall at right angles?

Or perhaps you could put the pool in an existing barn and take part of the roof off?

How do you make sure that the top level of the pool walls and the adjacent paving / decking around the pool is at the right level to optimise the integration of pool and your living areas?

You will need to rely on the skill and expertise of your pool installer to get this right but make absolutely sure that the drawings are marked up with the paving and pool levels and that you understand what is proposed.

Never let your pool installer arrive on site and start without getting this resolved because as soon as the excavation is complete and the digger has gone the alternative options will no longer be available.

Get your pool installer to put up some visual guides so that you can see what it will look like when it is finished.

Unless the site is totally level - and this is unusual - you may end up with steps and walls where you did not expect them.

Remember - the surround paving must slope away from the pool at a slope of 1 in 40 so that dirt is not washed into the pool and that any adjacent bank above the pool will need a drain at its foot.

If it is proposed to fill and lift the levels near the walls of the property land-drains will be required to make sure that the house/barn walls do not become damp

How do you make sure that the pool installation does not damage your existing drains and services?

Unfortunately existing drains and services such as water, power and telephone are often located beneath the pool site.

The services that are most often disrupted are existing fosse septique installations (see below) and soakaways from your roof drainage pipes.

When your pool is installed in the summer months the pool builder can quite easily break through these pipes and assume that they are unused (they are often partially blocked with dirt and moss washed off the roof). This can have a disastrous effect on the pool structure - especially if it is empty when a heavy storm occurs.

Where you have rainwater pipes that discharge into the area of the pool installation make sure that your pool builders quote includes for tracing the route of all buried services and pipe-runs and identifying the soakaway extent and location. You may have to pay him extra to relocate the soakaways.

How do you make sure that the pool installation does not stop you from complying with the new laws on domestic drainage that are going to bite increasingly hard on French property owners in the near future

Many gardens are just a bit too small to easily accommodate both a pool and one of the new fosse toutes eaux installations that requires quite a substantial area of land for the filter bed.

It is probably advisable to bite the bullet on this and get consent for both the pool and the fosse installation at the same time. This will allow you to either get the pool installer to also install the fosse (you should get the fosse a bit cheaper because of the reduced digger mobilisation costs) or get the fosse installed before the pool (pools can really be built anywhere but the assainissement authorities may require the fosse to be in a particular location for very good technical reasons).

How do you make sure that the paving around the pool looks good?

One of the big advantages of rectangular or L shaped pools is that if the pool is built to suit the size of the margelles (pool coping stones) then the same joint pattern can be continued through the dalles (paving flags). This requires careful control of the pool dimensions and it is one of the special aspects of the service that Bluepools will provide for you. Many pool builders will tell you that this is not possible - but it is - look at the pictures in our Case Studies. Click on pool paving to read our short report on one of the most important aspects of pool installation.

And what is it going to cost?

Budget constraints affect most of us but the addition of a swimming pool to any property may be the most important aspect of it as if you get it right it will enhance the property value - and if you get it wrong it will have the opposite affect.

Our advice is to install a smaller high quality pool rather than the cheapest you can find - and perhaps add heating, more paving etc in the future as you can afford it. The costs of our standard pools are shown below - they are not the cheapest on the market but we believe that they offer you the best value at the lowest risk.

Bluepools can also help to arrange the finance for you using a specialised French finance broker.

Just let us know and we will Email you an application form that you will need to fill in sign and return to us.

Standard pool specification

For full details of our comprehensive standard pool specification click here

Unlike most installers we include Roman steps, summer and winter covers, underwater light(s), the best quality "through the wall fittings" and guarantees for all aspects of the pool installation.

The standard Bluepool and its filtration system is designed for private use. Pools that are to be used by more than one family such as a gite complex or where both the gite owner and the gite guests use the pool are designated by the French health laws to be public pools and are subject to more stringent filtration requirements imposed by the local health department - the DDAS.

All the components in a Bluepool are of the best quality on the market and should give many years of completely trouble free life - and when you have bought one of our pools you will have permanent access to our free helpline (during office hours only).

Standard pool costs

These are as follows:

The Roman End can be on the side or the end of the pool. If a Roman end is not required the above prices can be reduced by 1500 euros. If two Roman ends are required - a great way to have a really eye-catching pool - the prices increase by 1500 euros.

We know that the prices advertised by many other pool installers are cheaper than ours.

But when you choose your pool installation contractor just remember that:

• Rectangular pools will always be about 10,000 euros more expensive than circular or linked circular pools
• A rectangular pool will increase the value of your property whereas other cheaper pool types may even reduce the value!
• We will always deliver an absolutely first class pool structure that will last forever - no matter what the ground conditions are
• We will never walk off the site if the pool is too difficult to build
• Our pool prices include for everything - you will not be constantly confronted with demands for more money as soon as installation has commenced
• And lastly and probably most importantly - we can provide a reference from every person that had one of our pools installed in 2005

Other Costs

Paving or decking - this will have to be laid on a 150 mm reinforced concrete slab to ensure that settlement does not occur. Our walls are provided with steel reinforcement connectors to support the end of the slab that abuts the polystyrene block wall. Click on pool paving to see more information on this. Your slab installer must build the slab in accordance with the drawing that Bluepools will provide if we do not do the work.

Our standard paving consists of 35mm Ardoise slabs by Cara Terra. These provide a beautiful finish to any pool that blends in perfectly with the limestone buildings of SW France. These slabs will not crack during the hard winter frosts of this region - most 25mm slabs will crack and break up in a few years. We also ensure that the joints in the paving and the coping stones line up - most pool installers never bother to even try and do this - click on paving photo to see the paving on one of our 2005 built pools.

Our paving it will cost between 100 and 110 euros per square metre and remember a pool is a hole in the ground surrounded by paving - the better the paving looks - the better the pool looks!

Pool heating

The installation costs of solar heating or a heat pump will be similar and cost between 3500 and 5000 euros depending on pool size. Electric heaters will cost between 1000 and 2000 euros and probably require the EDF supply to be upgraded

Optional Extras

For salt water filtration and automatic PH control add 2,500 euros to the standard pool prices.

We can also install:

• Built-in motorised covers

• Weir pools

• Interior pools

• Pool enclosures

We have never built an horizon pool but are examining the design of these at the moment - please contact us if you want more details.