When it comes to owning a yard, one of the greatest luxuries is the ability to have your own personal swimming pool. Your own sanctuary to cool off or warm up in and somewhere for friends and family to enjoy quality time together. While these additions to the yard make for the perfect oasis, many homeowners feel overwhelmed at the prospect of enduring months of time-consuming, expensive, and invasive construction. The typical swimming pool takes, on average, between 8 to 12 weeks to build onsite. For some perspective, that covers the entirety of the summer months. Not to mention, this lengthy construction process means paying daily contractor fees for the entire duration of the installation.
Certain materials make for a quicker build than others, for example, a vinyl pool is quicker to install than a concrete, or, gunite pool. With that said, if you seek the ultra-luxurious, spa-like quality, vinyl isn’t going to cut it. While they provide a beautiful end result, the process of building and installing concrete pools onsite is incredibly laborious. This process involves expertly excavating, cleaning, and installing rebar at the site, and then spraying the periphery of the excavated site with the concrete mixture, gunite, five times a day for a week. Once the surface has been sufficiently coated, the concrete is left to cure for at least 28 days. For smooth surfaces, beautiful colors, and added luxury, the next step is adding tiling to the inside of the pool. This process can take anywhere between several days and weeks, and is entirely weather permitting. Given that this entire structure is constructed and installed outdoors, projects are typically delayed due to the unpredictability of rain, humidity, and cold.
Many homeowners are looking elsewhere for a different way to install a pool in their homes. One of the best options to cut the installation time and cost in half is to purchase a precast pool.
Typically, full-sized pools are not able to be precast given the large warehouse space that would be required to construct a full-sized pool offsite, the hazards associated with then transporting that enormous structure, and the wildly expensive shipping costs that would be required for structure of that weight class. With that said, precast plunge pools, which can successfully be manufactured and shipped to the home, are becoming increasingly popular. While plunge pools don’t offer the square footage of a large pool, the amenities can be just as luxurious.
One company delivering precast, pre-tiled plunge pools to homeowners across the country is Soake Pools. The company casts, cures, and tiles every pool within its New Hampshire warehouse. To do so, the rebar is set in the former in the concrete plant, and the concrete is poured in a form there. Then, the pool is brought into a controlled environment and tiled, and the fittings are installed. This is all done offsite and without the labor of any external contractors. In a traditionally built pool, all of these parts of the process would occur on-site, and would take many weeks to several months to complete. Instead, the precast pre-tile pool model means that all of the construction is done when the pool arrives on site, saving time and labor. Additionally, the precast, pre-tiled model means that once the site is excavated prior to the pool’s arrival, installation takes just a few days.
In the end, precast, pre-tiled pools make the luxury of taking a dip at home more accessible, and allow each customer to tailor their own experience. This process puts the control back into the hands of the homeowner, assures that the final product turns out exactly as intended, and, saves months in construction and reduces costs.
