Today's pool design and construction offer endless possibities
Modern Pool Trends
By Jeff Brewer

In decades past, a family pool was divine merely if it existed as a simple swimming hole with a pump and a filter to clear it up, with a simple deck on four sides.

In fact, the farm pond was just as good. A haven where family could escape the heat of summer and imbibe in the joy of the cool weightlessness of water and family.

Today, those simplicities have for the most part evaporated.

The most basic in-ground swimming pool today, at the very least, has walk-in steps, underwater lights, a heater, a chlorination system, an automatic cleaner, and some form of dressed up landscaping.

Concrete pools with a marbelite finish can be designed to meet any shape or design that a particular application demands. On the other hand, the cost of installation and maintenance can be prohibitive.

Vinyl lined in-ground pools have made leaps and bounds in the area of design where almost anything is possible. One of the benefits of a vinyl pool is that maintenance and repair are nominal compared to that of a concrete pool. Shape and form are virtually unlimited in either a vinyl lined or concrete pool.

Fiberglass drop-in pools have resurfaced as an option in recent years, obviously design is limited to stock. While long and short term maintenance is reasonable, improper installation or poor drainage can be disastrous, since repair requires an entire disassembly and reassembly of a back yard.

Walk-in steps for vinyl lined pools, once a choice of one colour and two sizes, now offer several hundred shapes, sizes and colour variations to meet current design demands. One of the preferred design innovations of this builder is the blue granite texture steps, which allow the step to meld into the lagoonlike feel of a deeply coloured pool. Walk-in beach entries, while space consuming, can be created for concrete pools and interfaced with a vinyl pool. Ledges, benches, seats with jets and pool wide stairs are all possible in today's market.

Water features have become very popular in recent years.Waterfalls can range from simple little trickles to add to that backyard oasis feel, to raging torrents inviting the wilds into the back yard and drowning out any neighborhood noise pollution. Laminar Jets arcing out of the deck and into the pool and sheer decent sheets of water create one of many available "mini water park" atmospheres.

Negative and vanishing edge pools are a new area of interest which is available in both concrete and vinyl pools. This effect simplifies the view so that the background vista meets the surface of the pool water, virtually eliminating a cluttered landscape.

Pool side Spillover Spa's allow the warm water lovers to enjoy any desired temperature at the touch of a button, while maintaining the pool at a refreshing (and economical) temperature. Likewise, an enjoyable water feature is introduced as a pleasant side effect.

Water Treatment, has shifted towards saltwater chlorination, which reuses the chlorine latent within salt to continually apply limited amounts of chlorine to the pool. For the most part, this eliminates the disastrous 'green' pool, creates a softer water environment, and eliminates the need to go out to the local supplier and haul bulky corrosive chlorine into the car and the back yard.

Salt water chlorination can be combined with automation and control systems which allow timer's, rate of chlorination, heat, lights and water features to all be controlled via remote panels or hand held modules.

Heat traditionally comes from a relatively inefficient gas boiler. Solar heat and heat pumps both offer effective and efficient means of maintaining a warmer pool at a lower cost, thus expanding the envelope of time where the pool can get use.

Efficient pools contain highly efficiency pumps, filters, cleaners, timers, lights, heat and covers - making it possible to design a more energy efficient creation in the back yard.

Lighting once was a choice of white or none, but now entertainment by light shows provided by waves of multicoloured 'LED' lights or synchronized Fiber optic perimeter lighting create an entire cornucopia of night time design. Linked with lighted water features and landscape lighting the options are endless for 'nightscaping'.

All aspects of swimming pool construction and design have evolved to meet an ever growing demand for that homespun, readily available, and convenient personal oasis. In fact, decision making in that unbounded field of choices has become downright taunting.

For more information, contact Jeff Brewer at Riptide Custom Pools in Pottageville by phoning (905) 939-7787.