When a warm breeze blows in a clear sky, nothing compares to a dip in a crystal clear outdoor pool. The weather is fickle, however, and can turn an idyllic setting into Poseidon’s playground in no time. That is why indoor pools are becoming increasingly popular with new pool buyers.
The best time to plan for an indoor pool is during the design and construction of a new house. With the right architectural help, however, it may be possible to seamlessly add an indoor pool to an existing home.
Whether a pool is destined for indoors or outdoors, most builders will construct it the same way with one major exception: an outdoor pool deck slopes away from the pool to keep debris and runoff from entering the pool, whereas an indoor pool deck slopes toward the pool to keep water away from walls.
Meanwhile, do not underestimate the amount of space you will need for the equipment room. For this, you may want to rely on the pool builder’s expertise, not the architect’s. According to pool builders, architects may tend to undersize equipment rooms, which can make for impossible working conditions down the road if equipment ever needs to be repaired or replaced. Also, if the pool is going to be maintained by a service company, consider having the room accessible from outside so that service techs do not have to go through the home to access the equipment.Any pool that is sanitized with chlorine will emit odorous chloramines, but the smell can be much more pronounced in indoor pools. Though ventilation systems are capable of reducing such odors, there are additional remedies. One is to use a supplement, such as an ozonator or mineral purifier. This will help reduce the production of chloramines and mitigate the YMCA smell, or some manufacturers like Diamond Spas are fabricating pools that are chlorine free and using a two part system composed of an ultraviolet sterilizer and hydrogen peroxide.
An indoor pool allows you to control everything about your aquatic environment-no matter what kind of weather Mother Nature sends your way. So if you are thinking about installing a new pool, consider making it an indoor one. Do not make the mistake of thinking you can easily turn an outdoor pool into a pool room at some future date. If you have an existing pool the cost to convert it to an indoor pool will be as much as it would be to build a new indoor pool from scratch.
