Above ground swimming pools

[VenusClapTrap]

Has anyone installed an above ground swimming pool? I was planning to buy one of those cheapo above ground kits; the kit is approx £3K, plus another £1K for a heating system. I was planning to install it on a flat area of lawn.

I’ve just had a quote from a trusted landscaper who I’ve used before, to level the ground and install a concrete and wooden sleeper perimeter for it to sit on. Quote was £4K!

This no longer feels like a cheapo pool option and I’m very disappointed. Just wondering if it might be cheaper or not much different to get a ‘proper’ one after all.

Anyone with above ground pool experience?

So it's going to cost you £8k in total? I would have a hot tub installed instead - we have one and the DC use it as a splash pool in the summer. We use it as a hot tub with a glass of wine on summer evenings. It's a plumbed in one, not ain inflatable one and cost us about £6k including installation of plumbing, electrics and lighting.

Join the above ground pools group on Facebook. Would be far cheaper doing it yourself if you can. We've got a secondhand 22ft one for £50 off fb marketplace. We got Halfords mats for underneath and a decent heater for £ 180. It doesn't have to be expensive but depends what you are after.

Hot tub no good - I want to swim.

I’ll have a look for that FB group, thanks

Does it need a 4K concrete base

No, landscaper is proposing to concrete in a perimeter rectangle and sit wooden sleepers on it. Then fill the inside of it with earth to make it properly level.

Are you sure you’ll be able to swim in it? My neighbours have a massive one, but you still can’t really swim - if you push off you’re on the other side. I’d check that before spending mega bucks

You can't really swim properly in those. You can kind of tread water and float but not swim lengths. Unless you got an absolutely huge one but I think logistically they only go up to a certain size.

I think skip this fancy landscaping thing for starters. And try and go for second hand?

I was planning to get a massive one - 32ft.

I am rethinking the groundwork.

The trouble is neither I nor DH are remotely good at DIY and have various back/tendonitis issues which make doing this stuff ourselves not an option.

It seemed like a nice cheap way to get a pool, but clearly isn’t.

I bought a big long rectangular one a couple of summers ago, with a similar idea to you, OP. I was going to install it on grass and it was all going to be amazing. But the more I looked into it, the more nervous it made me. For a start, it turned out the ground had to be totally flat, because the structure of it depends on the water weighing it down level. If not level, it could collapse, and I could picture hundreds of gallons of water flooding into the foundations of my neighbour’s house. Long story short, I sold it unused on Facebook. Swimming pools aren’t for me (we’re also shit at DIY. No health issues, just not good at it).

This is exactly the learning curve I’m on. I thought the ground was flat, but it’s not flat enough.

Gutted.

How uneven is it? We laid a layer of sand then the mats ours still isn't completely flat and we have a deeper end to the pool. We do tethered swimming in ours.

We have had above ground pools for years. It is absolutely essential to have a level base. Our original one was a circular one 15 ft diameter. One year the ground wasn’t quite level and it rolled over and emptied itself overnight.

It took days to prepare the ground each year (we used underlay as otherwise the tiniest bump could be felt) and days to warm up. You could swim in a circle but to be honest it was more of a footling about experience. They aren’t deep enough for proper swimming.

When we moved and no longer had room for a circular pool we got a 4.5 x 2.5 rectangular pool. It’s good for about four strokes from end to end, but it is much easier to set up and pack away than the circular one and needs half the amount of water.

When it’s really hot I love it but each year I wonder if it’s worth the faff. Putting it away is also a load of work as it has to be bone dry and clean or it will go mouldy.

You can actually swim in a hot tub, probably as much as you can in an above ground pool. Admittedly you’d be swimming in circles not doing lengths, but it doesn’t sound like that’s possible in a pool anyway.

So that’s what 9.5 ish m? You’re not going to do much swimming in that. I always think of them as giant paddling pools tbh.