Nothing says class like a beautiful vinyl liner in ground swimming pool in your backyard. It is a symbol of social standing and not to mention the object of attention from all of your neighbors. There are a few ways in which your in ground pool can look and depending on what you are willing to spend on it you can achieve a very elegant resort style pool.
The possibilities go on and on. You can get a basic pool or with a plain white rectangular concrete deck or you can step it up a notch and get a free form pool with elegant curves and a stamped boarder that compliments the rest of the concrete deck. Really it comes down to what you want in the design of your pool. The basic rectangle is still nice and certainly serves its purpose but in my opinion they usually lack that certain flare that other styles of pools have. There are quite a few things that can be done to bring out that aw factor in a pool.
There is the infinity edge that can create the illusion that the pool goes on and on. If you have an ocean or lake view then the infinity edge can make the pool look as if it is a part of the ocean. There are also water features such as water falls, deck jets, sheer descents and so on. These are all things that can add that extra level of aw to your pool. Another thing that I feel is important to the overall look of the pool is the liner itself.
There are many different patterns available to choose from and with the right one your pool can look phenomenal. I find that the best looking pools utilize the colors on the liner in their concrete decking. Most often the concrete is stamped rather than brushed and color can be added to the concrete which gives it a really awesome look. I also really like the look of a stamped boarder around the perimeter of the pool in a darker color than the rest of the concrete. This will give some contrast to the overall look of the pool which most people find very aesthetically appealing. I would caution anyone from getting a solid color liner, unless it is black or a dark grey. For some reason those two colors seem to look okay, but a solid light blue color for a liner is in my opinion not a very good look. I have only seen one in my years of pool work but it definitely made an impression that will last a very long time. I understand that when looking at a small sample it doesn’t look too bad but believe me when the entire interior of the pool is covered in it then you will see that it doesn’t look quite as good.
Lets go back to the concrete for a minute. Regardless of which style you go with, brushed or stamped, the concrete will have to get sawed up. This means that someone will come out with a concrete saw and strategically place saw cuts throughout the concrete in an effort to control where it will crack. You must understand that concrete will almost inevitably crack. Rather that having a long jagged crack going across the deck the builder will put in the saw cuts so that when it does crack the crack will be in the saw cut and remain hidden. However this does not always work the way that it is supposed to. I have seen concrete decks with saw cuts crack elsewhere. I know that once you see the look of the stamped concrete right after they pour it you will not want to see it sawed up. Please realize thought that it is for the best. The concrete can be poured in any shape around the pool. Typically folks with rectangular pools and white concrete will go with a basic rectangular deck around the pool. Keep in mind that this is not your only option. You can get the stamped concrete in whatever color, and form it in any shape around the pool. This can look really nice but be careful not to add too many curves otherwise you may not like the look of the straight lines of the pool with a lot of curving deck around it. Most times people will curve the corners and just have it flow in and out toward and away from the pool while maintaining the rectangular look. On the other hand with a free form pool that already has a lot of curves to it, you could compliment those curves by adding a deck with similar curves. It is all up to you. I would suggest researching pools online and find out what you like. There are many images of finished pools available to reference.
So far I have gone over the liner, concrete, and water features. Now I want to briefly touch on the different things that can be done as far as automation. You can have you pool basically run itself. There are some products available that will allow you to make significant changes to your pool at the touch of the button. You can adjust the water temperature, or the chlorine level without having to leave the pool area. There are products that will allow you to operate your pool similarly to the way you operate you air conditioning system in your home. This option is something that will take your neighbors from the point of envy to the point of drooling.
I know that many people live by the old adage “KISS” or keep it simple stupid. This basically means that the more you have going on with something the more like it is for something to fail. For the most part this is true, but with the proper installation and maintenance any of the things I wrote about today will work just fine. As with anything when it first comes out there will be a few bugs, but rest assured these items have been fine tuned over time to ensure their reliability.
