How To Prepare Your Backyard For Swimming Pool
There is arguably nothing that feels better than going for a swim in your backyard after a stressful day! The fresh, soothing water on your skin and the refreshing calmness that comes after, makes having a swimming pool in your garden a compulsory luxury. Having a swimming pool in your backyard is not as hard as you think. That’s why we made this guide on how to easily prepare your backyard for swimming pool.
Here are a few things you need to put in place as you prepare your yard for the construction of an outdoor swimming pool.
Determine the type of backyard swimming pool that you desire
Most people don’t know that there are different types of swimming pools. They vary significantly in shape, structure, and depth. They can also be made up of concrete, plastic, metal, and even fiberglass designed to hold water. The preparations you make when constructing a pool depends on the type of resources available to you and what you love and consider as beautiful. So, first thing first, you have to determine the type of pool you want in your backyard before you start to prepare your backyard for swimming pool!
Land digging and fillings (Dimension and width)
This point should go without saying, having a pool would require some depth in the ground. You will have to hire professionals here to help you with the ideal standard dimensions that would perfectly fit your needs. You don’t want a pool that is too deep as that can lead to accidents, and you don’t want a pool that is too shallow. Your private pool should, on average, should be around 3ft on the shallow end and 8ft on the deep end. Once again, you would need to engage the service of a professional for this.
Funds
Backyard swimming pools are solely for luxury and will, and therefore, will require a considerable amount of money to construct and maintain. It is advisable to set out a contracted account strictly for the construction and maintenance of your soon to be built pool. This account will be designated for all the expenses that will be needed for the periodical sanitizing of the pool, which will keep the pool in a state that is usable all year round. Don’t overlook this part so that you won’t have to wake up one day and discover that your pool has become a pond for various microorganisms and animals.
Temporary pools
Here is good news for you in case you don’t want to go through the stress of contacting professionals. You can walk right into a supermarket and walk out with a packaged swimming pool in your hand. There are inexpensive temporary polyvinyl chloride pools that you can easily set up at your backyard solely for your kids to enjoy. The good news is that they are usually shallow, so you don’t have to worry about your kids drowning in them. Their maintenance is also easy. All you need to do is to let the water and the air out, then fold back into storage. Some often call them temporary pools splashers, because they are meant only for kids to splash water around and have fun. It is a cool way to relax for children.
Sanitation
You will also have to plan a strategy to keep your pool healthy before, during, and after construction. You don’t want to fall sick right after taking a swim because of the unhygienic content of the swimming pool. Whatever method of sanitation you adopt for the pool should have the ability to keep the population of the bacteria, viruses, and germs that cause diseases at a minimum. To achieve healthy water, you may have to continually pump and treat your water or recycle treated water into your pool.
Therefore, you would need to have ground pump for swimming pool, mechanical sand filters, and disinfectants to sanitize the water. Chlorine or bromine are chemicals you may look into for water treatment. Well-sanitized water should appear green in the background when from a distance, though it should be colorless in reality. So, don’t let the color worry you; it only shows the presence of some iron salts or the copper chloride present in the water.
Pool cover
Lastly, a pool cover is an often-overlooked part of a swimming pool. However, having a pool cover will save you allot of impromptu expenses as you get to cover up your pool when it is not going to be in use for a while. You can leave the house with peace of mind knowing that you won’t meet a foreign object that accidentally fell into your pool. A swimming pool cover also helps to reduce the rate of evaporation for your pool water by lowering the heat. Most pools absorb about 75% to 80% of the solar energy striking their surface, which causes a lot of evaporation. Using a pool cover will also help you reduce the amount you spend on chemicals like chlorine over the months. There are several types of pool cover you can go for, there is the transparent bubble cover (which is the most effective), thermal bubble cover and vinyl bubble cover.
Conclusion
It is an excellent idea to want to have a backyard pool, but before getting one, it is necessary to prepare the backyard for swimming pool and consider few factors such as the type and size of the swimming pool, cost, maintenance, etc. Putting these factors into consideration will not only help you prepare yourself for the eventuality, but it will also guide you in choosing the best option that perfectly meets your needs. If you want to find out more about swimming pools simply browse through our Handyman tips because we have guide about everything from building a pool, maintaining pool water to building a pool deck.
We’ve been planning to add a pool to one of our vacation homes, this was very helpful for us in deciding whether we want a pool where we have to do some digging or an over the ground pool setup.