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.

Thanks for the extra comments since I last posted. Still mulling it over. I can’t quite let it go.

Why not get one of those large rectangular hot tubs that you can swim against the current in, if the swimming is for exercise.

The smallest pool I've used for swimming was a 15m one, which is about 45ft. That was getting to the point where you didn't need many strokes after pushing off. I reckon my glide uses about 5m at the beginning of a length. So do have a think about whether it would be satisfactory, even at 32ft, which I do totally recognise is very big for a home pool.

Ground works especially concrete is very expensive now, we had a concrete base laid for garden office £1000, in 2021. We asked about having another very small base laid in 2024, about a third of the size, quoted £1200!! Materials are so expensive now. Not read the whole thread, but have you considered hiring a local private hire pool? They are quite a few around us that hired by the hour. A lot less expensive, no maintenance or paying to heat the pool.

No matter the size the only swimming you’ll be doing is on a tether - but i was amazed how well that actually worked tbh! £10 off amazon and much better than the current ones. Get a pool thats deep and as long as possib and over ground is as good as any small pool for swimming.
you dont need a concrete base - ours is on sand and mats. You can have a bit of movement within the length of it just as long as its not putting too much pressure on any side. Having said that the overground pools are getting really expensive and now is the most ecoensive time to buy of course - im hoping ours lasts another couple of years cos theyve gone up in price so much

We have ours on slabs (properly levelled like a patio) and do tethered swimming - it’s lovely! As long as it’s deep enough to swim in the length isn’t such a problem if you are tethered

Thanks all. I’ve spent the last two days down a swimming pool rabbit hole, considering fancy wooden ones, different locations, excavating ground, full concrete bases, and ended up coming full circle back to the original plan.

The groundwork required isn’t that fancy, despite being expensive - it appears to be the most straightforward way of getting a level base within the constraints of the site (walled garden, access tricky). The contractors I plan to use are, admittedly, overkill - they normally do multi million pound high end landscaping stuff, but they are local, our kids were at school together so I know them well, have used them previously and know that their work is excellent.

DH is now on board due to a surprising ally in MIL, who used to have a (proper) pool in her holiday home and spent twenty years telling DH to never get a pool because they’re such a pain. He whinged at her that I wanted to blow £8K on this project, expecting her to back his reservations, but instead she said “That’s pretty reasonable, the kids will love it, Venus will be in it every day, why wouldn’t you do it?”

So I think I’m about ready to pull the trigger! Yikes.

I will probably end up getting a tether. Everyone seems to really rate them.

I was going to suggest a small lap pool thing with a jet at one end and you swim against the current- rather than needing a massive pool. We looked into these a few years ago. We then went down rabbit hole of stainless steel pools, which from memory don't need chemicals. We live near the sea and go year round, but still don't have a pool in the garden.

We did have an above ground pool when I lived abroad in a hot country. The pool wasn't heated and always felt freezing, so I'm glad you are considering warming yours.

I would love one also, I've had a look at the FB group but it's all too much calculating how to keep the chemicals at the right level too complicated for me.
I really would love to find a conpany that installs one and gives me a daily plan of what to do so I could follow it easily, does anyone know of such a buisness?

My in-laws have an above ground pool which was already installed when they bought their house.

They rarely use it; they find it a faff getting the right balance of chemicals in the pool. They have solar panels to heat the water and have a protective cover, but the water takes an age to heat up to their comfort level.

Worse…..they get rats in the garden (under the pool decking) and my in-laws think they are enjoying the warmth around the base of the pool, and are seriously considering having it taken out.