Residential swimming pools

How to design and build them

nce a luxury enjoyed only by

the wealthy, the at-home
swimming pool has become an increasingly common backyard facility in the past decade. Homeowners
have found that a swimming pool
is as easily attainable as a second
car. In-the-ground pools are readily
financed by banks and other lending institutions because a modern
concrete pool adds considerably to
property value. Not only is the pool
a place for beneficial, healthful exercise but also it often becomes a
focus of family entertainment and
social activity.
Concrete is the material of choice
for a properly designed and constructed in-ground pool. No other
material offers the same desirable
combination of plasticity and
strength together with needed durability.
There are several ways to build
concrete pools: cast-in-place concrete, shotcrete (also called gunite),
precast concrete and concrete masonry. The two most popular methods are cast-in-place concrete and
shotcrete. Each method has certain
advantages and experienced pool
designers and builders can determine the method best suited for local site conditions. This article outlines some of the basic factors that
must be considered by the builder
and owner if the pool is to be a continuing source of pride and satisfaction.

Planning the pool

The first step in planning a pool
is selecting a site and then deciding
on the shape and size. Local zoning
and code requirements should be
checked since they may have an important bearing on pool location
and total cost of facilities.
Provision must be made for the

floor and walls of the pool and a

paved area around it. For the latter,
a minimum width of 3 feet (5 feet is
preferable) is needed to provide access to the water and pre ve n t
splashes from waterlogging the surrounding lawn or ground. The position of existing water lines, sewers
and drains must be established so
that they can be avoided or relocated when excavation begins.
Most swimmers prefer a sunny
area sheltered from the wind but
some shade may also be desired to
protect nonswimmers from the sun.
If a natural windbreak is not available, a screen wall of concrete masonry can be used to provide shelter and pri va c y. The same wall may
also serve to meet code requirements for fencing the pool.
A level site is preferred to a sloping one in order to avoid having to
backfill sloping ground or to support the floor and walls of the pool
in some other way. A site with
ground that offers uniform bearing
support is also desirable. Sandy soils
are most satisfactory because they
are easy to excavate and provide
good support. Although rock offers
excellent support it is costly to excavate.
Heavy clays or waterlogged
ground call for special design treatment. Clays tend to expand when
wet and can exert pressure on pool
sides and floor. Groundwater also
exerts pressure and may tend to uplift or float the pool when it is empty.
Pool shape and size are matters of
personal preference for selection
within the constraints imposed by
the site, construction method and
budget. Some common shapes are
shown in the box with brief notes on
their problems and advantages.
In general, 10 by 25 feet is consid-

Figure 1. One of many possible layouts to serve divers, swimmers and

nonswimmers with one moderate-size pool. The slope of the floor may be
adjusted to fit individual requirements.
ered a minimum pool size. However, a size of 20 by 40 feetthe size
chosen for Figure 1is popular
since it allows ample room for semiserious swimming and is not overly
large.
Pools vary in depth from a few
inches to 9 or 10 feet. A depth of at
least 2 1/2 to 3 feet is necessary (to
permit swimming from one end to
the other) but most swimmers prefer 4 to 5 feet. For divers 8 or 9 feet is
required. Di ve r s, swimmers and
nonswimmers can all be accommodated in one pool by sloping the
floor of the pool gently at first and
then sharply at one end, as shown in
Figure 1.

Design considerations
Fundamentally the pool must be
both watertight and stru c t u ra l l y
sound. These conditions will exist
only if the concrete is of good quality and the pool has been properly
designed for the unique set of local
site conditions and load. A pool entirely below ground must be capable
of resisting internal water pressure
when full and external earth pressure when empty. Generally the

earth pressure should not be considered as aiding in resisting the water pressure, except perhaps for a
shotcrete lining placed against
undisturbed earth.
External pressure depends on the
type and condition of the surrounding soil. If groundwater is close to
the surface it may be necessary to
consider external water pressure as
well as soil pressure. Groundwater
outside the pool not only demands
greater wall and floor thickness but
may also create pressure sufficient
to lift the pool out of the ground
when empty. This possibility and
various methods of overcoming it
must be considered by the designer.
Se ve re conditions may dictate locating the pool above ground.
In large expanses of concrete,
t e m p e ra t u re changes and drying
shrinkage may cause cracking. This
problem is overcome by providing
sufficient reinforcing steel to keep
crack openings negligible and by using carefully designed and properly
spaced joints. Use of a high-quality
concrete with good moist curing also reduces the tendency to crack.
Since loss of water by leakage is

one of the primary concerns of

swimming pool owners it is particularly important to provide joints
that will retain water under pressure. The best method is to use waterstops cast in the concrete and
joint sealants located on the water
side so that the head of water tends
to force the sealants into the joint
instead of out of it. For more information on joint location, types and
installation methods see Reference
1.
Some smaller pools are designed
to give good service without joints.
The pool illustrated in Figure 1 has
no expansion or contraction joints
but does have construction joints at
the base of the wall. The layout
shown, one of an infinite number of
possibilities, was chosen as a preliminary guide to the designer for
several reasons:
The size of 20 by 40 feet is ample,
although many residential pools
are even smaller. Larger pools require special joints in walls and
floor as well as more elaborate
water filtration and circulation
equipment

 The hopper-shaped floor at the

deep end effectively reduces the
maximum wall height. Even on a
slope like this, floor slabs are usually cheaper to build than vertical
walls. Low walls are subjected to
lower pressures and thus can be
smaller in cross section than high
walIs.
A rectangular shape and prismatic slab arrangement generally afford economy in layout, design
and construction. Howe ve r,
rounded corners and gently
curved surfaces are better for
shotcrete pool construction.

Concrete quality
An early decision should be made
on quality concrete specifications
for the pool. Recommendations of
ACI Committee 350 for watertight,
chemical-resistant concrete (Reference 2) offer some good guidelines.
The 28day compressive strength
should be at least 3500 psi where
concrete is not exposed to severe
and frequent freezing and thawing
or 4000 psi where severe and frequent freezing and thawing are anticipated. Structural considerations
may require greater strength. The
water-cement ratio should not be
greater than 0.45 and slump should
be between 1 and 4 inches.
Air-entrained concrete is recommended for all pools. Air entrainment improves the workability of
fresh concrete and the watertightness of hardened concrete as well as
its resistance to freezing and thawing. Air content should be between
4 and 7 percent, the optimum
amount depending on grading of
the coarse aggregate.
Impermeability of the concrete is
improved by slow moist curing. This
should be specified to obtain best
quality.

Excavation and subgrade

preparation
Once the necessary permits have
been secured or the plans approved
locally, construction can proceed.
Layout for rectangular pools is simple, requiring only stakes at corners

and perhaps along the pool center

line. Oval or irregular pools will require stakes at frequent intervals
around the perimeter. There should
be some bench marks outside the
e xc a vation to serve as permanent
reference points from which locations and excavation depths can be
measured.
Excavation in rock is costly but, if
rock exists over the entire site, the
foundation will be extremely solid
and satisfactory. If rock exists over
only part of the pool site, the site
should be excavated to at least 6
inches below the desired pool bottom level and then backfilled with at
least 6 inches of well-compacted
granular material to act as a cushion. This is necessary to reduce the
possibility of a crack occurring in
the floor slab due to uneven settlement.
O ve re xc a vation of pool sides does
not present a problem when walls
are cast in place. It must definitely
be avoided when they are shotcreted since the excavated surface will
not only support the freshly placed
shotcrete but also determine the
pool contours. Since overexcavation
of the pool bottom is undesirable regardless of the type of construction
(because the bottom slab can be
placed best on solid, undisturbed
soil), final excavation and shaping of
the invert by hand are recommended. In the event of ove re xc a va t i o n ,
the cavity should be backfilled with
controlied density fill (Reference 3),
a well-compacted granular material
or lean concrete.
Adequate subsurface drainage is
essential, particularly in clay subject
to a seasonally fluctuating groundwater level. Where subsoil drains
very slowly it is advisable to place
the pool on a compacted bed of
crushed rock or sand and gravel.
Minimum subsoil drainage would
be a line of drain tile around the
outside of the wall footing and a line
under the deepest portion of the
pool. Larger pools require lines laid
under other parts of the slab. Construction for these lines is similar to
that for drain tile laid around the

foundation of a housewith open

joints, a minimum slope of 1 in 50
and trenches backfilled with
crushed stone or gravel. This
drainage is relatively easy and economical to install early in construction. Experienced designers provide
it even in pools which do not demand it because it provides lowcost insurance against future
buildup of water pressures and consequent permanent damage to the
pool.

Floor construction
Regardless of wall type, the first
step in building the pool is to cast
the floor slab together with any required wall or buttress foundation.
Reinforcing steel is set according to
the engineers drawings and supported the correct distance above
ground on small concrete pads,
pieces of concrete block or conventional bar supports. It is necessary
to maintain the position of the steel
carefully to ensure the designed
structural action and the necessary
amount of concrete cover (over the
bars) preventing corrosion. Vertical
dowels which connect walls or buttresses to the foundation should be
set at the same time as the steel for
the slab.
Concrete should be worked into
position around the reinforcement
and thoroughly compacted. It
should then be floated and troweled
as required to obtain a good finish
in much the same way as for a regular floor slab. The type of finish used
depends on whether the pool is to
be painted or otherwise coated.
Moist curing for 7 days is recommended. Construction of the pool
walls can begin after the floor has
hardened and before final curing is
complete.

Cast-in-place walls
Ca n t i l e ve red cast-in-place walls
are commonly used for small pools.
Figure 2 illustrates such a wall.
Construction of cast-in-place
walls begins with setting the outside
forms. Then the vertical steel is tied
to the dowels projecting from the

Figure 2. One common way of building

a cast-in-place concrete pool makes
use of a cantilevered wall whose base
is cast internally with the pool floor
slab. The same design can be
adapted for continuous placement,
eliminating the construction joint.

footing and the horizontal steel tied

to the vertical bars. Just as for the
slab, correct positioning of the steel
is important for structural action
and corrosion protection. Plastic
spacer devices should be slipped
over the bars at sufficient intervals
to keep the bars at the required distance from the forms.
Next, inside wall forms are erected and either tied to the outside
forms or braced externally on both
form faces. The formwork must be
stiff and strong because plastic concrete exerts considerable pressure,
particularly at the base of the wall,
and if the forms move during concrete placement there is virtually no
way of forcing them back to the correct position. The result will be an
unsightly bulge in the swimming
pool wall.
If form ties are used they should
be of a prefabricated type with water-stops. Ties should not be pulled
from the hardened wall but broken
back or disconnected so that the
ends of tie metal remaining in the
wall are at least 1 1/2 inches back
from the wall face. Also, a good,
well-bonded and carefully cured
patch over the tie ends is essential to

maintaining the watertightness and

durability of the pool.
Concrete should be placed in the
wall forms at or near its final position so that it does not have to flow
laterally into place, causing segregation. According to ACI recommendations (Reference 4) the best results will be obtained by placing the
concrete in horizontal layers not exceeding 2 feet in depth to avoid inclined layers and cold joints. For
monolithic construction each layer
should be placed while the underlying layer is still responsive to vibration; layers should be shallow
enough to knit together when properly vibrated.
Careful compaction by internal
vibration, spading or external vibration is essential to obtaining a goodquality, impervious wall. Ca re f u l
control of the placement rate is also
important to avoid overloading the
forms.

Shotcreting
Shotcrete swimming pools must
be built by contractors who special-

ize in this pneumatic application of

concrete. Skilled equipment operators are needed to produce a shotcrete lining of uniform thickness
with proper cover of reinforcement.
Also, since the reinforcement is supported on the excavated surface
which establishes the desired shape
of the pool, the final excavation requires accuracy. Where the soil can
be shaped readily to the desired
contour and retain its shape until
the concrete has hardened, shotcrete pool construction is satisfactory and economical.
Shotcrete equipment consists of a
c o m p re s s o r, a mechanical feeder,
one or more long hoses and a nozzle. In the dry mix process the cement and aggregate (usually sand)
are mixed dry and put in a pressure
chamber; there the mix is forced
through a hose to a special nozzle in
which water is introduced. The resulting high-velocity jet of fresh
mortar is directed onto the surface
to be concreted. The operator must
know how to locate and direct the
nozzle to achieve complete cover-

Shotcrete pool construction. Mortar is

gunned in a thick coat over previously
positioned steel reinforcement.
Excavating must be shaped carefully to
support the reinforcement and mortar
to the desired contours but little or no
formwork is needed.

The popular kidney-shaped pool can be modified to make good use of available
space.

brant colors for the poolscape.

Painting is the most economical initially but involves periodic renewal.
Vinyl, chlorinated rubber, epoxy
and portland cement paint as well
as other coatings can be used.
Portland cement plaster is another common pool finish which, if
properly applied, will result in a
smooth, waterproof, nonskid surface finish with practically unlimited life. Although white portland cement plaster is very popular, a wide
range of permanent colors is available, using either colored cements
or added pigments in the plaster
mix.
Since tile is costly its use in residential pools is frequently limited to
a band around the pool above the
water line with either paint or plaster below. Tile joints must be carefully sealed to keep water from getting between the tile and the wall.
Both tile and plaster require a
roughened wall surface for good
bond.

Pool surroundings and

other aspects

This small free-form pool was built within a modest budget. The surrounding
exposed-aggregate concrete deck was carried to the edge, eliminating the need
for precast coping.

age of the reinforcement. He must

also clear away all rebound (aggregate particles that ricochet off the
surface) before it is covered with
mortar to prevent undesirable sand
pockets.
In the wet mix process water is
mixed with the cement and aggregate before the mix is introduced into the pressure chamber. Compressed air is used to force the mix
through the hose and additional
compressed air is introduced at the
nozzle to boost velocity.
Typical shotcrete pool construction is shown in Figure 3 and the

photo. Generally the wall thickness

is built up by shotcreting several layers. Also, shotcrete linings have a
roughtextured surface that usually
must be smoothed with a hand float
before the concrete hardens. Comp re h e n s i ve recommendations regarding good materials and workmanship for shotcreting will be
found in Reference 5.

Pool finishes
Paint, portland cement plaster
and tile are the three most common
finishes for swimming pools, each
offering the owner a selection of vi-

For full enjoyment, since people

usually spend as much time around
the pool as in the water, the surrounding area should be paved and
landscaped. Cast-in-place concrete
paving can be given decorative exposed-aggregate or textured finishes such as those described in Reference 6.
The coping around the top of the
pool is usually precast from white or
suitably colored concrete and
shaped so that water will flow away
from the edge of the pool. The top
surface should be nonskid.
A nonskid flatwork strip 3 to 5 feet
wide around the edge of the pool is
necessary to keep the pool clean
and serve for walking and diving. Also, flagstones, patio block or whatever materials are used to pave the
surrounding deck may be carried to
the pool edge with an overlap of
about 3/4 inch, thus eliminating the
need for a standard coping.
The systems necessary for filtering, purifying, recirculating and, in
some locations, heating the pool

water are beyond the scope of this

article. Howe ve r, Reference 7 offers
indepth information on all aspects
of layout, design and construction,
including water treatment and other services, for both large and small
pools. Reference 8 is also very usefuland was a primary source of information for this article along with
the referenced ACI documents.
REFERENCES
1. Leakproof Joints in Swimming
Pools, Concrete Construction, July
1972, pages 329331 .
2. ACI Committee 350, Concrete
Sanitary Engineering Structures,
Journal of the American Concrete Institute, August 1971, pages 560577;
reprinted in ACI Manual of Practice,
Part 2, 1974.

3. Brewer, William E., The End of the

Backfill Problem, Concrete Construction, October 1975, page 448.
4. Recommended Practice for Measuring, Mixing, Transporting and Placing Concrete (ACI 304-73), American
Concrete Institute, Detroit, Michigan,
1973, 40 pages.
5. Recommended Practice for Shotcreting (ACI 506-66; reaffirmed 1972),
American Concrete Institute, Detroit,
Michigan, 1972, 26 pages.
6. Panarese, William C., Cement Masons Guide to Building Concrete
Walks, Drives, Patios and Steps, Portland Cement Association Skokie, Illinois, 1973, 64 pages.
7. Perkins, Philip H., Swimming Pools,
Applied Science Publishers Limited,
London, England, 1971, 358 pages.
8. Small Swimming Pools, Cement
and Concrete Association of Australia,

PUBLICATION #C770313
Copyright 1977, The Aberdeen Group
All rights reserved

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia,

1963, 16 pages.