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Property/DIY

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Original poster

Converting indoor pool to usable room - any advice?

16 replies

Housemum · 15/05/2018 07:06

We are buying a property which has a swimming pool in the garden, indoor pool (wooden building I think with corrugated roof). We have no intention of keeping a pool - far too expensive when there is a gym down the road. Our idea is to cover it over with a floor and make a games room/entertaining space. Anyone have any advice, or any idea on the sort of cost we would be looking at? I’ve factored a budget of 20k for home improvements when we move - does that sound feasible to cover the cost of draining/supporting/covering a pool to make a usable room? We have had mixed advise on whether we have to leave the water in or not until it is supported

OP posts:

Costacoffeeplease · 15/05/2018 07:08

You do need to keep Water in it until it’s filled in or it could collapse (we live abroad and have a pool)

Original poster

Housemum · 15/05/2018 11:03

Thank you - I thought that would be the case. Hoping someone on here knows about the sort of costs involved - I’m guessing there must be some way of bracing/supporting the hole then flooring over the top

OP posts:

Costacoffeeplease · 15/05/2018 11:15

How big is it, can you just fill it in?

babyboyHarrison · 15/05/2018 11:45

Giant pall pit??!?

Original poster

Housemum · 15/05/2018 13:10

Pretty big - about 10 metres! like The giant ball pit idea!!!

OP posts:

serfandterf101 · 15/05/2018 17:20

We demolished our house a couple of years ago and filled in our outdoor pool with the bricks/roof/patio from the house. It's surprising how much stuff fits into a hole in the ground!

I recommend scouting around your neighbourhood to see if anyone's knocking down a shed/barn/house and could get the rubble to your hole. It will save them a fortune in disposal fees and save you the cost of buying hardcore.

Trilllllian · 15/05/2018 17:24

Don’t put rubble in - it could be toxic or contain asbestos etc!

My son ha as fantasy about making a skateboard park in an old swimming pool since we went toe The Source in Hastings - which is an art deco pool by the seafront that has skate ramps in it now - hoiglenit - it’s amazing and hey have a film of how they did it (computer engineered cutting of plywood to make curves and ramps exactly fitting)

Sure you could do something imaginative

BubblesBuddy · 15/05/2018 19:00

A well constructed pool will not collapse without water! They are empty before they are filled up!!!

You need to drain it. Clean it out. Then cover it with a floor. The old pool was used for a hall at DDs school after a floor was constructed over it. No idea of costs but you need a good builder to work out how to do it, or an engineer.

babyboyHarrison · 15/05/2018 20:04

Swimming pools are used to having all the weight of the water sitting in them so I would suggest building some sleeper walls up in blockwork with concrete beam and block floor spanning between the walls. With a10m length of pool probably only need a couple of intermediate walls and one around the internal perimeter. You could use timber but beam and block will be more durable and you won't need to worry so much about ventilation below it. The other option would be to fill it with a polystyrene like corded and cast a concrete slab over the top. Both options could be done in such a way that they could be removed in the future without too much making good of the pool.

Racecardriver · 15/05/2018 20:08

We had a swimming pool filled in. It cost the equivalent of £3k including the engineers certificate. This was in Australia. They did it all in one day. House have now been built on top of where it used to be.

4mogirl · 15/05/2018 20:09

Wondered if you could strengthen the edges of the pool, if it needed it, and then cover with flooring, but maybe leave a hatch/trapdoor, so that it could be used for storage? A bit like a mini basement. I have found that you can never have enough storage space. And with it being inside the house, there shouldn’t be any mice/etc to get into what you have stored.
You can then just put a rug over the top of the hatch and no one would know!

rslsys · 15/05/2018 20:21

Watching with interest - spent the last 23 years trying to decide what to do with the one we inherited with this house.

Costacoffeeplease · 15/05/2018 21:18

New pools are empty for a very short time, and supported while the cement dries out and tiles are laid

Motherof3Dragons · 15/05/2018 21:37

Get a civil engineer to look at it and go from there. If it is well constructed, it shouldn’t collapse when empty!

IceBearRocks · 15/05/2018 21:40

Keep it and hire it out to swimming teachers, schools, SEN schools!!!

AvoidingDM · 15/05/2018 21:49

The walls will not collapse. Pools do get emptied now and again for maintenance. You need to drain them slowly thought to stop the tiles poping off the walls.

An architect or structural engineer should be able to draw up how to fill it in.

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