bluepools

Swimming pool complete. Lot et Garonne, France.

The swimming pool at Monteton, Lot et Garonne (between Duras and Eymet) is now complete.

The photos show the pool just before grouting of the margelles. The liner is a uniform sand colour with matching roman end. Installation of the paving has been deferred until spring to allow for settlement of the backfill around the pool.

The pool has been fitted with a temporary alarm which will remain in place until the safety fencing is installed next spring.

In the pool house you can see the 1CV pump, 600 dia sand filter, saltwater chlorinator, pH  regulator, control valves and pool filtration/light control box. A 12kW heat pump has been installed adjacent to the pump house.

Pool near Cognac

Last week I promised that I would keep you updated on the pool that we are installing near Cognac in very difficult ground conditions. The first picture shows what happened when we started to excavate for the main drain under the hopper that we installed last week. The water eventually rose to the top of the trench - see the fourth picture.

The second picture shows the drain excavated down to 500 mm below the bottom of the hopper. The geotextile that will stop any fine material from clogging the drain and the 300 mm pipe that will act as the pumping chamber have been installed.

The third picture shows the drain filled with stone.

The fourth shows the foundation to the walls of the pool ready for concrete - we managed to pour the entire wall foundation on Friday despite a day of rain. It also shows that the groundwater table is at about the top of the hopper.

To build the hopper we will need to run a submersible pump at the bottom of the concrete pipe pumping chamber continuously until the liner is installed and the hopper is full of water.

The moral is - if you live in a valley - especially near a river or stream - you need professionals to build your pool.

Until next week.

Will Witt

Bad ground conditions

We have just started a new installation in the Cognac area. The land is quite low lying and beside a stream - so we anticipated that it might be quite problematic.

And it is!

The top metre is filled ground, underlain by very soft clay with running water at the bottom of the fill. We are contracted to install a 1 metre deep hopper.

We have already decided that the pool floor will need to be in reinforced concrete, and we are now working out how to build it underwater!.

Joking aside we will install an underpool drain with a submersible pump to allow us to dewater the excavation and this will be left in place for the client to dewater the surrounding strata whenever he needs to empty the pool.

This is just another saga in a long list of installations where a kit type pool would either be impossible to install - or would fail during the first time that it is emptied.

We will let you know how we get on with this project next week.