New swimming pool
Having found a leak on our swimming pool that turned out to be caused by the bottom of the pool degrading, going hard, and then splitting, it was time to go and buy a new pool.
Ideally would have just bought a new pool liner as that was the failing part, but there was no time for that as we wanted to get the pool up and running as soon as we could do, especially with guests arriving a week later immediately after our own Gite holiday.
So it was off in the car to Ploermel where I knew there were several large supermarkets that were sure to sell suitable swimming pools. It was a bit of a race against time as we decided at 5pm on Saturday that the pool was dead, Ploermel is 30 minute drive away, and the supermarkets shut between 7 and 8pm.
Although several supermarkets did have pools in stock they were either of the "inflatable supporting ring" type, or they were absolutely tiny and were little more than a glorified paddling pool. Our (now dead) frame pool is 15 foot in diameter and 36 inches in depth and we really wanted something similar.
After driving round E Leclerc, Weldom, Super U, Intermarche, Bricomarche, Centakor and Max Plus all in Ploermel with limited success, we sped down to the autoroute to Super U in Josselin and was able to find the kind of frame pool we were looking for. €400 lighter and a lot of straining to carry the massive box out of the supermarket to the car, we set off for home with a new 15 foot Intex frame pool in the car boot.
Our swimming pool is on the gravel driveway in front of the patio; obviously with all the pipework for the sand filter now being in place we needed to put the new pool in the same place, but we wanted to try to get it more level than its predecessor so we spent ages with long pieces of wood and a spirit level trying to rake the gravel up to level the pool base off.
We then laid 3 tarpaulins down over the gravel to protect the pool base and started assembling the topmost ring of the pool. This is quite difficult as carries a lot of weight and the metal ring segments are a a very tight fit:
Next the legs slot into the top-ring it was then that we started to realise that the new pool wasn't the same size as the old pool. Although the top ring was the same 15 feet diameter, the new pool legs were considerably bigger than the old one.
It was also starting to get quite dark ...
Toby then assembled the ladder for the new pool and we started the slow job of filling the pool up. The ladder has a safety feature, for small children you can remove the ladder steps so that they can't so easily climb into the pool.
Our two dogs (Dexter and Whitey) are not interested at all !
With just a 15mm supply pipe to the Gite it took most of the next day to fill the pool up, but it didn't prevent our two boys jumping in pretty quickly ...
It turns out that the Intex frame pool is 48 inches in depth so our kids loved that they could splash around and dive around even more than its predecessor.
Despite our best efforts to level the gravel out and put flat stones under the legs of the pool so that it didn't shift to one side, the pool did settle and shift slightly so leans a little downhill by probably about the same amount as the old one was. At least with the extra depth this makes it less noticeable.
The sand filter is continuing to keep the water extra sparkly clean, and if my schoolboy maths still holds true I calculated there's some 16 cubic metres, or 16 metric tons of water in the new pool.
Ideally would have just bought a new pool liner as that was the failing part, but there was no time for that as we wanted to get the pool up and running as soon as we could do, especially with guests arriving a week later immediately after our own Gite holiday.
So it was off in the car to Ploermel where I knew there were several large supermarkets that were sure to sell suitable swimming pools. It was a bit of a race against time as we decided at 5pm on Saturday that the pool was dead, Ploermel is 30 minute drive away, and the supermarkets shut between 7 and 8pm.
Although several supermarkets did have pools in stock they were either of the "inflatable supporting ring" type, or they were absolutely tiny and were little more than a glorified paddling pool. Our (now dead) frame pool is 15 foot in diameter and 36 inches in depth and we really wanted something similar.
After driving round E Leclerc, Weldom, Super U, Intermarche, Bricomarche, Centakor and Max Plus all in Ploermel with limited success, we sped down to the autoroute to Super U in Josselin and was able to find the kind of frame pool we were looking for. €400 lighter and a lot of straining to carry the massive box out of the supermarket to the car, we set off for home with a new 15 foot Intex frame pool in the car boot.
Our swimming pool is on the gravel driveway in front of the patio; obviously with all the pipework for the sand filter now being in place we needed to put the new pool in the same place, but we wanted to try to get it more level than its predecessor so we spent ages with long pieces of wood and a spirit level trying to rake the gravel up to level the pool base off.
We then laid 3 tarpaulins down over the gravel to protect the pool base and started assembling the topmost ring of the pool. This is quite difficult as carries a lot of weight and the metal ring segments are a a very tight fit:
It was also starting to get quite dark ...
Our two dogs (Dexter and Whitey) are not interested at all !
Despite our best efforts to level the gravel out and put flat stones under the legs of the pool so that it didn't shift to one side, the pool did settle and shift slightly so leans a little downhill by probably about the same amount as the old one was. At least with the extra depth this makes it less noticeable.
The sand filter is continuing to keep the water extra sparkly clean, and if my schoolboy maths still holds true I calculated there's some 16 cubic metres, or 16 metric tons of water in the new pool.
Labels: Gite, Renovations
posted by Geoffrey at 12:02 am Permalink
4 Comments:
Nothing beats the experience of having a family pool time with the new and fully furnished pool. It is a priceless time.
By
plumbing, at August 12, 2012
Great job on the new pool! You’re right – it actually would take a lot less time to assemble a whole new pool than to repair or replace the damaged pool lining of the former. It’s a good thing that the pool is a lot deeper than the previous one because that depth does make the slight shift barely noticeable. Here’s hoping this one is a lot more durable than its predecessor!
By
Cathy Newman, at August 30, 2012
Your post is really good providing good information.. I liked it and enjoyed reading it. Keep sharing such important posts.
By
Swimming pool supplies, at September 07, 2012
Hello Geof! =) It’s so sweet to have everyone in the family involved in building a new pool. I bet it was equally enjoyable as the old one. I am glad you added depth to the pool. How is the pool now? It’s awesome to see pictures of your family enjoying the swimming pool during the previous summer. =)
Dylan Mallory
By
Unknown, at March 26, 2013
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