What Is The Best Kind Of Swimming Pool?
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If you are in the market to have a new swimming pool installed it is normal to find yourself asking "what is the best type of pool"? As a home owner asking this question what I would want you to understand is that there are a lot of factors to consider to determine which is the best pool. The right question to ask here is what is the right pool for you. Every swimming pool is unique, every backyard is unique, and most of all, your priorities for this swimming pool installation will also be unique. This is why it is hard to find a generic answer about what the best swimming pool is.
In one sense you might say that concrete swimming pools are the best swimming pools you can buy...and for the most part I would agree with that statement. For example, if all swimming pools were free and I could pick my next pool completely without a concern for cost or my ability to find and hire a reputable builder, then I almost certainly would choose a concrete pool. Gunite, shotcrete, cast, ICF and tile are all ways of describing concrete pools and for the most part these pools represent the top of the food chain when it comes to quality, longevity, unlimited design options...concrete pools are very hard to beat in this way. So are there times when a concrete pool might not be the best option? You bet. Let's look at some of the factors you will want to consider when deciding what kind of pool to get.
Budget swimming pools - If you are on a very tight budget but you still want to get a swimming pool installed the reality is that concrete pools might not be in your price range. New pools are all expensive but a new concrete pool can be prohibitively expensive especially once you add in all the optional extra that you are looking to have included. There can be a very strong argument to be made that a high quality but "bare bones" concrete pool would be a wiser investment than a lower quality pool with more features for the same price. You can add more features to the pool in the future when you have more budget to allocate. However if you want the total pool package including all the frills, but price is a very important consideration, then this might be a good reason to get prices for a fiberglass pool installation, but especially a vinyl liner swimming pool. Vinyl liner pools represent the entry level for cost in terms of high quality inground pools. Modern installation methods can even allow the liner pool to mimic how a concrete pool looks (with cantilever coping like a concrete pool) so you can eat your cake and have it too. If there is a bad thing I have to say about concrete pools it is that they are expensive to build, expensive to renovate and hard to build requiring a high degree of skill from your installer.
Self built pools - Again, though concrete swimming pools are superior to other styles a concrete pool would be a fairly poor choice if you are planning on building your own pool. Building a concrete pool is quite advanced and would require a high degree of technical proficiency and trades experience. Even subcontracting out the stages to more experienced crews can be an issue since you do not have the experience to adequately oversee their implementation of the build stages. You easily could end up with fatal flaws in the design or a total failure of the shell in a worst case scenario. This is why most people who self install swimming pools will choose a design which lends itself better to being installed by someone with minimal experience. It takes years of experience to learn how to install a concrete pool properly. Conversely, a vinyl liner pool can be installed by a dutiful person following the installation instructions carefully. This makes vinyl liner pools a good option for an installer with some construction trades experience but without the ability to oversee a concrete pool installation. Self installed pools are really where fiberglass pools shine. With a fiberglass pool almost all of the difficulty in building a pool shell is taken care of by the manufacturer of the shell and all you have to do is dig a hole, prep it properly and drop the pool in. Of course it is a little more nuanced than this, but in terms of overall difficulty a fiberglass pool self installed would be orders or magnitude easier than a similar concrete pool installation.
Climate, soil & geographic considerations for pools - Just to complicate our question about which is the best kind of pool further what you should know is that there are a host of additional considerations that will have a big impact on which is the best kind of pool for you. For example, cold climate areas with freezing winter temperatures are not ideal for concrete pools. The pool itself can handle the cold and ice in the winter without problem but the interior surface of concrete pools, most commonly plaster or pebble surfaces, do very poorly in freezing climates. Any plaster that is left exposed to air over the long term will craze, crack and potentially delaminate. What this means is that, in general, concrete pools in cold areas do not look or feel as good and do not last as long as concrete pools in warmer areas that never have to deal with freezing. Fiberglass pools in cold climates can be fine for the temperature itself, but the process of winterizing pools usually requires draining some water to facilitate purging the plumbing lines of water. Fiberglass pools in some areas can not be drained a lot. Some can not be drained at all. These pools would face additional challenges when it comes to the closing and winterizing process. In cold climates is where vinyl liner pools reign king. This pool type handles the extremes of freezing winters better than other pool types and the liner itself is surprisingly robust against ice damage. If you live in an area with freezing winter conditions this alone might be enough of a reason to get a vinyl liner pool. In addition to the temperature differences in different areas you also have to consider things like water tables. High water tables are very bad for fiberglass pools and concrete pools, but less so for vinyl liner pools. Expansive soil conditions is another major concern, as are pests and rodents, proximity to salt water (like near the ocean) and many more things still...as you can see there is an awful lot of moving parts to consider here when you ask which kind of pool is the best. It genuinely does come down to each and every person, what your specific goals and priorities are for this pool build, as well as where you are located in terms of geography.
In summary, you can not really answer what the best kind of pool is unless we take it down to a case by case basis. If you push me in general for an answer still then I will tell you that concrete pools are the best. They are unrivaled in design options, longevity expectations, strength, quality...but you definitely need a healthy budget to buy one, and you must be able to find a high quality installer to boot. Also I might say that vinyl liner is better if you are talking about a location with freezing winter temperatures just because it is so hard to keep a concrete pool looking and feeling good (the interior surface) in these cold climate areas. More than anything else just be sure to be patient and due your due diligence on any pool installers you are looking to hire. If you need some help with this you can look at this new pool hiring guide that I wrote to help home owners ask the right questions when interviewing their potential pool builders.
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Swimming Pool Steve is an award winning, second generation swimming pool and spa specialist from Ontario Canada. With over 10,000,000 views on the Swimming Pool Steve YouTube Channel, winner of the 2018 Pool & Spa Industry Leadership award and author of hundreds of pool and spa articles both online and in print Steve is committed to helping pool and spa owners as well as pool and spa industry workers learn more about the technical side of building, renovating, repairing and maintaining all types of swimming pools and spas. Follow Swimming Pool Steve on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
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