This house is being designed as a ‘down-sized, lock-up-and-leave, low-maintenance home’ so including a swimming pool in the plans hasn’t been an automatic decision. But when summer hits and the highveld sizzles, we know we’ll want one so the debate has moved on from whether or not to have a pool to what size and shape it should be. This will be our fourth home in Johannesburg and our fourth pool but it’s the first time we’ll be having one built. The others were already there.
Although we have discussed the fact that it is probably best to do most of the pool construction while the rest of the building is underway, but, with the property still looking like little more than a bomb site, we haven’t up to now, given pool details too much thought. But now our contractor has asked us for specific plans as to the position and size of the pool and we are having to make some decisions.
Here is a drawing showing the position of the house, garden and pool: The building closest to the street boundary is going to be the cottage which could be used either for guests or let out to tenants. The driveway can be seen on the left of the cottage, curving in to the next building which is the double garage. The garage is linked directly to the house via a scullery or ‘mud room’ which leads into the kitchen. The house itself, is set quite far forward on the site and the garden, coloured in green, is going to be small and – hopefully – manageable. We are taking the attitude that ball games to exercise dogs etc will take place in the park to which we’ll have direct access. After considerable thought, we’ve decided to run the pool along the width of the garden, at the bottom, rather than at right angles to the house as I like the idea of a stretch of unbroken lawn sloping very gradually towards the pool.
Position of Pool and Garden in relation to the buildings.
Agreeing on the position of the pool was easy. Agreeing on the style of the pool has been more interesting.
We are definitely going to move away from this look:
The pool we have now. Probably build sometime in the 70ties.
There are all sorts of interesting options available and we’ve narrowed them down to two: I am very taken with the idea and the look of pools that could almost double up as ponds, but it seems there is some hope that I might take to ‘proper’ swimming rather than simply cooling off and I have been persuaded to go the route of putting in a ‘lap pool’. I’m not making any promises and have actually managed to find a picture of a pool that could almost fill both briefs….
I love this one.
… but in the end, I think we’re going to end up with something more like this:
A lap pool with dark coloured lining. I particularly like the pool surround on this one. It has the look of a farm reservoir.
(This photo was published in the June 2013 edition of South African Garden and Home magazine.)
Apparently 10m in length can suffice for a lap pool. We plan to make it only 2m wide with a cut-out bit where there’ll be a shallow step to sit on and which will also allow for getting in and out with a modicum of grace.
home-in-the-making 
Hi Jacqui
To pool or not to pool – that is the question for a lock-up-and-go establishment
Here are some of my thoughts re pools:
• Splash pool will be easiest but need to consider the resale of the house in the future.
• Recommend you get the salt chlorinator rather than the std chlorine pool
• Ensure storm water does not wash into pool – have substantial level difference
• Make sure you provide services for the pool even if you do not build it now e.g. power, discharge
• Plan your ‘backwash’ location / discharge
• Does legislation allow for direct access to the pool or do you need to spoil the look with a pool fence. If so a glass barrier is best.
• Consider the shape of the pool re the function of the pool cleaner i.e. it should not constantly get stuck
• Position of pool filter – noise whilst having a quiet evening cocktail / sleeping at night. Place in sound proof filter box, well hidden
• Consider types of trees you plant around the pool re leaves, seeds etc.
Good luck with your decision making
Cheers
Fred
Thanks so much for all these pointers, Fred It’s great to have an off-shore consulting engineer! Our choice of trees is going to be dictated by the (small) size of the garden. At this stage I’m thinking one tree to provide suitable branches for all my bird feeders… Our current pool has a Pride of India hanging over it one side and is almost bordered on another by a row of enormous 100 year-old conifers. Needless to say this does not make for a particularly happy man-of-the- house… I have had to fend off several suggestions over the last 19 years to have the Pride of India removed but as you probably know by now, aesthetics are more important to me than a struggling pool vacuum. And every January, when that tree is smothered in pink blossom, all is forgiven. But the creepy is also forever choking on funny little pine cone things. We changed to a salt water chlorinator here quite a few years back and it was a good move. In CT we have problems with a very noisy motor and have tried various ways to quieten it, including having a housing built over and above the original one. Because of the slope we will have on one side of this new pool, we will have a place to build a pool motor room that is almost underground. Hopefully this will help with noise. (You may have noticed comments on this site from Johanne Marais who has a blog called ‘House by the Water’? She is building in Western Australia on a marina development and I have found her blog very interesting. You might find it so too.)
The last picture looks really great. Is it fibreglass? I like your idea of a dark liner. My sensible side is leaning towards fibreglass for us.
I don’t think it’s fibreglass. I’m not sure what pools are finished with these days if it’s not fibreglass but imagine it’s some sort of cement mix. I think the colour is sometimes mixed into the cement, rather than just painted on afterwards. I need to track down the pool company that installed it to ask all those questions. I think fibreglass is probably a good option, especially on a site with difficult access. We might go that route but I want to know what the colour options are.
Hi again, This picture made me think of you. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/537054324285136367/
Now, I’m wondering if we call our pool a pond and include a few reedy plants if we can avoid all the Australian pool fencing regulations! This pool looks lovely.
It is lovely but a little too big for our needs! Would be nice to think you could get around your fencing regulations with a bit of planting, but from what I hear, your planning officials are a very diligent lot. Do you spend a lot of time browsing through the Houzz site? I find it positively addictive.