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Above ground, partly in or fully in: what decides where a plunge pool sits
Most people assume a pool means a hole. With a plunge pool it doesn't have to. The shells we build around stand on their own, so the real question is how far into the ground yours goes.
The site usually answers that before anyone has a preference. Here are three of our recent plunge pool jobs, one in each position, and what decided each one.
Three jobs, three answers
Mission Bay: fully above ground, on a raised slab, with the deck finished before the pool arrived.
One Tree Hill: partly in. Excavation stopped at volcanic rock about a metre down, and the deck picks up the rest.
Herne Bay: fully in the ground, with the shell lifted over the house.
It's the same kind of object each time. What changed was the ground, the access and the levels.
Fully above ground: Mission Bay
The site was flat, with an old broken concrete slab along the back of the house where the family wanted the pool. The pool is an Outback stainless shell, 3.2 m across and 1.3 m high. The work that makes an above-ground pool look built in is the slab it stands on. We formed a round slab about 400 mm high and 3.4 m across, following the shape of the pool: 25 MPa concrete with 665 mesh and D12 rebar, on a compacted GAP20 base. It sits 90 mm below the deck, so the pool stands 1,210 mm above the deck surface.
The 6 × 4 m Kwila deck was built and finished before the pool came. To set out the curve, we bolted a board to the slab to find the exact centre of the pool and drew the circle off it with a tape. We cut the framing first, then the boards. The pool arrived on a flatbed and the crew carried it in by hand, with no crane and no Hiab. Kevin's words: it "fit like a glove".
Pool barrier. On this job the pool wall is the barrier. It stands 1,210 mm above the deck with no permanent access to the rim, so nothing separate was consented. That's the position for this pool, at this height, on this deck. Which applies to your site is settled before we quote.
3 weeks on site
Partly in: One Tree Hill
This was a small front yard with a slight slope, on a busy street. About a metre under the topsoil sits solid volcanic rock, and that's where the excavation stopped. The pool is the largest Outback model: round, 3.4 m across, 1.5 m deep and under 200 kg empty. So it sits partly in the ground and partly proud of it, and the deck makes up the difference.
Powerlines over the street ruled out a large crane, so a small Hiab and a light shell did the job. Some pile holes went in cleanly and others had to be broken out of the rock. A shed sat hard against one side, and a one-metre path had to thread between the pool and the house in a gap of about 2.5 m. The half-moon deck is 140 × 19 smooth Kwila, with about a metre of deck all the way round. We built the frame first, leaving enough room to drop the pool in. The boards went down after the pool was in place, each one scribed to the curve of the shell.
Pool barrier. Frameless glass, finished into the boundary with two custom black aluminium panels. Profit NZ installed and certified it, and it was consented separately. Which applies to your site is settled before we quote.
5 to 6 weeks on site
Fully in: Herne Bay
The Herne Bay back yard was flat, but a solid reinforced-concrete fireplace stood in the middle of it, and the only way in was a gap of less than 850 mm between the garage and the front door, under a 2.2 m ceiling. A 1.2-tonne Takeuchi from Pronto Hire did the digging, and all the spoil went out by barrow, 14 bins of it. The pool is a fibreglass Little Pools Co Plunge 3. It went fully into the ground where the fireplace had been, lifted over the house by a large Hiab truck with a winch.
A new timber retaining wall, 1.4 m high, runs along the back of the house and holds the levels that make room for the pool and a lounge area. Jagas pool pavers and copings finish the edge.
Pool barrier. Aluminium Delta panels, installed by Profit NZ and consented separately. Which applies to your site is settled before we quote.
10 weeks on site
What actually decides it
We look at four things on the first site visit, in roughly this order.
The ground. Rock, stormwater and water table tell you how far down you can go and what it costs to try. At One Tree Hill the rock made the call. At Herne Bay the ground allowed a full dig once the fireplace was gone.
Access. A stainless shell is light enough for a strong crew to carry, which gets it into places a crane can't reach. A fibreglass shell needs a lift, so the question becomes what can reach the site and from where.
Levels. The pool has to meet your deck, your door thresholds and the rest of the yard. At Mission Bay we built the slab to deck height and house level first, and the pool height followed from that.
How you want to use it. Some families want the pool to read as part of the deck, and some want it standing proud as a feature. Both are legitimate. The ground and the levels decide how far each can go.
Barrier height comes out of all four, and it's cheapest decided early rather than found at inspection.
Where we fit
We're not a pool supplier. The pools on these three jobs came from The Pool Distributor, who deal with the client directly and handle delivery and plumbing. We build the ground and everything around it: the slab or the excavation, the deck cut to the pool line, retaining, paving, timber fencing and the equipment box, and we coordinate the pool barrier with the specialist. We're on site on delivery day, because the pool has to fit what we've built. If you're weighing up a plunge pool, the useful first step is a site visit: we'll tell you where the pool can sit on your section and what it'll take, before anyone commits to anything.