Only Alpha pool products is by far the leader in innovative, technologically advanced in ground vinyl liner swimming pool building materials. They have successfully taken something that has been done one way for decades and flipped in on end opening the door for the next generation of in ground vinyl liner swimming pools. Their cutting edge technology coupled with their dedication to customer service and years of experience in the in ground swimming pool industry leaves the competition behind to try and play catch up. people have been building in ground swimming pools for decades, and they have built them out of a variety of materials. I want to take the time to go over some of these materials and explain some of the downfalls of such materials.
To begin, Lets look at the old way of building in ground swimming pools out of wood. Yes that’s not a typographical error, they actually used to build in ground pools out of wood. In fact if my memory serves me correctly which it usually does there are actually a few builders out there today that still do this. As a builder myself this is shocking to me. I mean seriously! Have you ever seen a piece of wood that has been left outside for a number of years. Just look at an old wooden fence and how after a number of years it starts to deteriorate. Some might say, “well the wood being used in the in ground swimming pools is treated lumber so it lasts longer”. That is all well and good but the fence in my backyard is somewhere around the 15 year old mark and the lumber used to build it was treated and yet it is still falling apart. The other thing about a fence is that while it is exposed to the elements, it is not sitting in a perpetual state of dampness like a pool sitting in the ground would be. In my professional opinion, having a wooden structure in the ground as the “backbone” of a pool is a ridiculous notion that should have passed away along with those long ago that thought a wooden in ground pool was a good idea.
Somewhere along the path of technological advancements somebody came along and decided that concrete was the way to go for the structure of in ground swimming pools. Don’t get me wrong this was a huge step forward from the wooden pool, and is still being used today by hundreds of builders for both residential and commercial purposes. The only problem with a concrete pool is that concrete will crack at some point. Think about how every spring the city sends out road crews to fix cracks and potholes in the roads that appeared in a matter of months over the winter. Or think about how every sidewalk you have ever seen is divided into sections by a worker with a saw. The reason for that is in an effort to try and control where the sidewalk will crack, and yes i said “where the sidewalk WILL crack”. Every Concrete workers know that the concrete will eventually crack. Now what do you suppose will happen if that concrete pool containing a massive volume of water cracks? You guessed it. It will probably leak. Not to mention that it will be an eyesore in the pool for everyone that sees it. The other thing about a concrete pool is that they have become what people consider to be a high end pool. After all every movie star or sports figure out in California with a pool has a concrete pool. That alone is enough to cause the price of a concrete pool to be very high compared to other types of pools. In addition to the initial high cost of installation, you have to understand that all of the plumbing lines and fittings in the pool are now encased in concrete. This means if the is ever a problem with one of the lines or fitting you will have to pay someone to come out and break up the concrete to fix it. That would be a pretty expensive repair. The last thing I want to say about concrete pools is that once you have it there is very little that can be done in terms of changing the look of it. In other words you could look at a thirty year old concrete pool and see that it is a thirty year old pool.
I think that at some point someone realized that concrete is not the best solution for everyone. Considering that the majority of the population in the U.S. that might want a pool are middle class families that actually want to use a pool for recreation rather than to have one to represent their social class standing, there was a need to come up with a way to cut down on cost. Pools started being made using steel. This cut down the cost of swimming pools so more people could enjoy them while still offering superior structural integrity compared to that of a wooden pool. The problem with steel is that it is corrosive. Over time it will rust and lose some of that structural integrity. I have seen steel walls that have have holes rusted right through them. Granted that was on a thirty year old pool. So if you think about it in those terms the cost is relative to the quality. Steel is a widely used material for the building of vinyl liner in ground swimming pools.
However Only Alpha Pool Products had taken that to the next level. They still use the common 14 gauge galvanized steel that has become the cornerstone of steel wall vinyl liner in ground pools, but what they have done is developed a proprietary clear coat that gets put on each panel after the galvanization that actually protects the steel and galvanization by actively repelling water away from the panel.
The other difference that sets their steel panel apart from the rest is their patented “Spert” riveting system. While other manufacturers use toggle locks which can easily be broken to hold their panels together, Only Alpha Pool Products’ “Spert” technology is a superior way of locking the panel flanges together resulting in an unbreakable bond.
One of the newer types of pools on the scene is what is known as a one piece fiber glass pool. This type of pool is just that. It is created by a mold and is all one piece of material that gets put in the ground to give homeowners a pool. The problem with this type is that the structure is not self supportive. That means that it has to be back filled at the same rate that it is being filled with water to equalize the pressure of the water in the pool. Once the pool is finished being built just hope that you don’t ever have to drain it for any reason. Being that the pool is not self supportive, if it needs to be drained then you will lose that equilibrium of pressure. If this happens the the pressure of the earth around the pool pushing inward could very well cause the entire structure to collapse in on itself. In addition to that enormous flaw. This type of pool is limited to its size and versatility. You won’t get a lot of options in regards to personal taste and backyard needs.
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| Only Alpha’s Composite |
Finally, my favorite building material is composite material. Don’t mistake this material for polymer of structural foam because it is far different and far better. This is a material that is only offered by Only Alpha Pool Products and is the envy of other manufacturers. This type of material is 100% non-corrosive and as strong as steel. While polymer or structural foam material is non-corrosive it is greatly lacking in strength. The reason for that is because Only Alpha Pool Products’ composite material is made of a single sheet of SMC (sheet molding compound) that has been in reinforced with the Fused Fiber Matrix which basically means that there are 8″ to 12″ woven fibers throughout the panel giving it a greater tensile strength than steel. Structural foam is made from a bunch of little pieces of material that get melted down and injection molded resulting in a large amount of tiny little voids throughout the panels. In addition to all that Only Alpha Pool Products
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| Structural Foam Material |
panels contain thermosetting properties which means that once the panels are made they won’t bend or warp from heat or cold.
Check out the website at http://www.onlyalpha.com/ for more information and videos demonstrating the strength of their superior building materials.
