The Clients :
A young family in Freshwater, Mum, Dad & 4 boys, looking to build a concrete swimming pool.
The Brief :
At the initial consultation the client informed us they were planning to renovate their house, but wanted to build a concrete swimming pool in as soon as possible so their young boys could use up some of that energy. Once the house was renovated access would be lost, so the new concrete swimming pool became the highest priority.
The clients wanted an in-ground concrete swimming pool in the back yard. The pool needed to be as big as possible to suit the entire family.
The challenges :
From our initial design consultation we were able to identify 4 main challenges that we were likely to face.
- Two existing sewer mains. One cutting through the middle of the back yard and the other on a neighbouring property
- Neighbouring trees potentially impacting the excavation zone of the swimming pool, along with an existing privacy hedge, impacting the none climbable zone of the pool fence
- Being a beach side suburb we knew that one challenge would be excavation in a very sandy soil profile
- Christmas deadline
The solutions :
During the design phase of this job we were able to address each of the proposed challenges and come up with workable solutions.
The sewer mains, Using a detailed site survey and Sydney Water tap-in we were able to locate the sewer mains. Once we had the location of the pipes and the calculation of the zone of influence (https://www.sydneywater.com.au/web/groups/publicwebcontent/documents/document/zgrf/mdux/~edisp/dd_051552.pdf ) we were able to design the Swimming pool to its maximum size.
The neighbours tree, We engaged an arborist to map the spread of the structural root zone (SRZ), this determined our extent of the excavation without causing damage to the tree. The new swimming pool fencing was designed to accommodate the existing hedging. The client maintained their privacy while the fence complied with the non-climbable zones safety requirements. (https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-property/building-and-renovating/pools-and-pool-safety/pool-fencing-requirements)
Excavation in sandy soils is always a challenge, the threat of collapsing during excavation and before the concrete pour is constant. Our plan was to line up each specialist as close as possible and get the concrete shell in a quickly without compromising the quality of finishes. The program was to get from starting excavation to the concrete shell poured done in two weeks. We did it and were very lucky that there was no rain during that period.
Christmas deadline, Finishing the project by Christmas was of the highest priority.
The outcome:
The client had a new in-ground concrete swimming pool compliant with all authorities. The kids are now out of the house all summer. Due to the in-depth design process costs were kept down by avoiding concrete incasing the sewer line . All materials were selected before construction began so they could just sit back and watch it come together.
