Four Reasons Why You Need a Swimming Pool Builder
Thinking about DIYing your own pool? Building an in-ground pool is a lot harder than you think. Several things could go wrong, and since this would be your first attempt at pool construction, you would not know how to fix issues that come up. Here are four solid reasons you need to hire a swimming pool builder instead of attempting to construct your pool yourself.
Excavation Depth and Leveling
Putting a pool in the ground means you will need to rent an excavator or a backhoe, two types of construction machines that tear up the soil to get down into the ground. It is vital to the pool's construction that this hole in the ground is perfectly made, and that all soil surfaces are level. Otherwise, you end up with a lopsided pool that does not fit and can easily crack, fracture, or sink on one or more sides. Additionally, when you dig all of this dirt up, you have to have a way to get in and out of the hole, or you will be sleeping with the worms until someone helps you out. Having a pool contractor means that you can avoid all of this beginner mishaps.
Concrete vs. Drop-In
Do you want a concrete-poured pool, or a fiberglass drop-in? Either way, you have to know how to pour concrete in vertical forms to make walls and/or provide a sealing surface for the drop-in. Most homeowners are very fortunate if they know how to pour a concrete sidewalk or driveway, which is a long and messy job in and of itself. Those jobs are at least horizontal, and you are less likely to make a mistake you cannot fix.
When you are pouring vertical walls of concrete and you need these walls to stay in place and not run with gravity, there are tons of errors to be made. A contractor already has pre-built forms for making vertical concrete walls. The forms and technique result in perfect concrete walls every time.
Smoothing and Sealing
Next, all concrete has to be smoothed, cured, and sealed. If you wanted a drop-in fiberglass pool, you also have to install it during the latter phases of the concrete processes to get the pool to stay firmly in place. Additionally, the fiberglass pool has to be sanded and sealed to a glossy finish, which indicates that the pool is ready to use and cannot crack for many years to come. This involves a lot of tools that pool contractors have, but for which you may only have rental access. If the rental store does not carry the tools and machines you need, you are stuck at this stage of the pool-building process.
Tiling
Whether you want to add tiles for decorative purposes, or you want to add tiles to make the bottom of the pool less slippery, tiling can take up even more time. you have to slather on thin layers of construction "mud" and then quickly press tiles into place. Missteps in the tiling process means you have to find a very careful way of chipping the tiles off and scraping the pool surface clean without damaging it.
If you do damage the surface of the fiberglass pool, a pool contractor from companies like Elite Pools can fix it. If the issue is especially bad, you may need to pay for an entire new pool drop-in. Concrete pool people are only slightly more fortunate in that the damage can be fixed by slathering in a little concrete into the surface and sanding the area smooth. However, after all of that, you may just decide to either skip tiling, or hire a pool contractor to do the job.