Designing your swimming pool
By now I am sure that you have mentally decided on the size and shape of your swimming pool, but as a friend I have some pearls of wisdom to share. So if I may, before you completely make up your mind, please list: How you are going to use the pool. Really think about this question. If your answer is to have friends and family over, retain as much deck space as you can from the area you have designated as pool area. I cannot over state this, even though you have a pool, people need ample space to hang out. Where are your fountains, hot tub, grill, table and lounge chairs going to go? Are you building a pool house or cabana w/ changing room? Where is the storage you’re going to need for the “pool stuff”? What are your neighborhood covenants? What are your counties’s building codes. Note: By the way neighborhoods covenants are sometimes more restrictive on property line easements than your county, get this out of the way first. Where are the drip lines for the trees I wish to save? Does my neighborhood allow me to cut down whatever trees I want to? All of these questions are often a surprise and in some cases affect the shape and size of your pool.
After these questions above have been answered, go to your garage and take out your garden hoses as many as many as you can find. Create the shape and size of your pool on the lawn in the designated pool area. Then do the same for what would be your decking—all of it. Note: The outline of the swimming pool will appear smaller than the actual pool (the outline is missing the 3-D effect).
Please allow for at least 4 ft of decking around the perimeter of the pool and at least 20 feet from your back door—the further the better. Study this outline for a week, make the necessary adjustments, then trace the lines with bright blue spray paint and study that for one more week. By that time you should feel comfortable with your decisions.
If you find that you pool has had to get a little smaller, that is OK. This leaves more money for the upgrades and features you may want to add. I tell my clients when decorating the powder room you can afford to buy the very best, because your guests are going to use it and you are working in smaller scale. Make it a jewel box to marvel over.
As for the depth, keep this in mind: ninety percent of your time will be spent in 4 ½ feet or less of water.
