Landscaping - Swimming pool removal?

Caporegime
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Llaneirwg
Just seen you are keeping it. What a fab thing to have.

I remember tipping barrels of hypochlorite into that pool. It was 8ft deep too so a lot of water.

I actually annoyingly do not know the cost to keep it heated, my grandparents pool.

In UK I'm not sure if I'd want a pool. (for myself)
Personally it would have to be big enough to swim. 10m is very annoying to swim in. You are always turning!
I'd have to earn enough to keep it heated/pumped etc.
Use it enough to warrant it.


Hope you do keep it cause it will look fab. But I know for myself as I'm a swimmer. I just wouldn't get use out of it.
(nor could I afford it! )

If you have kids however. It's amazing. It's absolutely worth it for kids. As said. It basically gave me my love of watersports. And now, at 35 I am so thankful I was fortunate enough to grow up with that!
Without that I wouldn't have got into swimming, kayaking, scuba etc.
 
Associate
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15 Nov 2005
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Newcastle
Does it actually work? What kind of temperature can you expect it to heat the pool to?
ASHPs definitely work and can heat pools to 35°c +, providing they are spec'd correctly. I've fitted a good number to domestic pools over the last few years as they become a lot more efficient and compact.
 
Soldato
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Just a small update - but we have a loose date in the diary of late October for the following;

Air source heat pump install
New coping stones fitted
New tile band
Steps re-profiled - rounded edge with the same tile as used on the band covering the round

The stone for the coping is yet to be chosen, but the options are pretty endless. We may go natural stone rather than porcelain for their through colouring and being easier to shape, however I do like the idea of porcelain for ease of maintenance and more uniform finish.

Current pool state, and the mosaics for the band which we've chosen - the top middle one.

ybyr3Fe.jpg

https://imgur.com/a/BNfZVk5
 
Soldato
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After the eye watering quote to have the whole patio re-done, yes we've started to clean up the existing as a temporary "fix" to get the pool up area up and running :p

We've been told that the reason they're in such poor shape is that they've been dot and dabbed in place, with inadequate drainage in place too - allowing pooling, freezing and then subsiding. Eventually we'll ditch the existing slabs, take out a few inches of what's under them and re concrete the whole pad - all in we're looking at £25k+ due to the 200sq/m of concrete and new slabs required.
 
Associate
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I'm glad you've decided to reinstate the pool, it can't be any more expensive than removing it and who doesn't want a pool in their garden? :D

On a smaller scale, I was in a similar position with an abandoned pond in our garden that would have cost more to remove than fix. I love it now, it's become a proper little fun project :)
 
Soldato
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Looks good, thought about painting the pool render?

Yes, we've had discussions with our pool guy - basically painting the render is great as a short term fix only. The correct way to paint the pool is very labour intensive, and takes weeks in curing time before you're allowed to fill the pool with water and use it, he said to go that route it if we were selling the property within the next year as it'll look great. But because it's not a long term fix, and needs to be repainted regularly it's not an economical option for us as long term owners. We'll be looking at tiling the whole pool, when funds permit.

He's confident that with an acid wash, and the standard chlorine and other water chemicals, the marbelite pool render should come up nice and white again.
 
Caporegime
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Buckinghamshire
Considering the cost to heat a hot tub, I can’t even imagine the cost to heat a pool to any reasonable level, even if using gas. I’ve seen pools with a length of solar panels next to them, but have no idea how effective those are.

It doesn't actually cost that much to heat a hot tub. Particularly if you keep it at temperature.
 
Soldato
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Have they chopped part of the garden off before selling or something? There seems to be an exit from the pool area to another bit of garden that isn't outlined as being yours above?

We tore out that door last night, and took out the lintel too - ready to be blocked off soon! This thread is seemingly going to turn in to a complete house renovation log :p


x6PAITw.jpg

tehecjJ.jpg
 
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Soldato
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We've put many more hours in to the outside pool area, still waiting for final drawings from the architect so nothing can be done indoors which means this has still been our primary focus. A digger came in to take out the flowerbeds and any tree roots which were in and around the pool area, and then we moved on to removing all the patio slabs ourselves by hand. We've binned 2 skip loads of wastage slabs, the rest have been taken off our hands via Facebook market place which made our lives easier.

We've now ordered 260sq/m :)eek:) of 20mm porcelain tiles to be laid out here, but still have an awful lot of prep work left!

5Hcb1wV.jpg

Underneath the slabs the concrete base appears to only to be roughly an inch thick on top of soil which seems surprisingly soft! This weekend we'll get in a digger to smash this concrete, and dig out a fair few inches of soil, allowing us a decent base to lay our new porcelains on. When lifting the existing slabs the whole floor which they were laid on was shifting underneath us.

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Serious amounts of dot and dab going on!

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Lighting cables directly under the patio stuck down with the dot and dab too.

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The thin concrete over the soil is cracked all over the place!

gkptl0z.jpg
 
Soldato
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As far as we know the patio was installed a good 30 years ago, and it was an extremely common method back then to just dot a dab like crazy!

We need to dig out 8 inch of depth of the surrounding earth, lay 4 inches of 40mm down hardcore and then a 4 inch reinforced concrete bed on top of all that - like I say, we've got plenty more prep work to be doing :p
 
Caporegime
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Buckinghamshire
Do we think the dot and dab was a poor decision or the right decision at the time?

Dot and dab works just it will allow crackage to occur to slabs if too much pressure is applied, it can also allow seepage to come through and leave blots on top of the slabs.

Just take the extra time and lay a proper mix down and be done with it tbh :D
 
Caporegime
Joined
7 Nov 2004
Posts
30,194
Location
Buckinghamshire
As far as we know the patio was installed a good 30 years ago, and it was an extremely common method back then to just dot a dab like crazy!

We need to dig out 8 inch of depth of the surrounding earth, lay 4 inches of 40mm down hardcore and then a 4 inch reinforced concrete bed on top of all that - like I say, we've got plenty more prep work to be doing :p

Ouch.

I'm hoping you're getting a lorry mixer in
 
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