Summer vacations in a country house equipped with a swimming pool become several times more pleasant and healthier. However, not everyone can afford to install such a design, because the services of qualified specialists are not cheap. That is why most homeowners are used to being content with a simple summer shower, resigned to the fact that having the opportunity to swim in their own yard is a pipe dream.
In fact, building a pool of concrete with your own hands is quite simple, you just need to purchase all the necessary materials and have a couple of helpers, which you can not do without in the process of digging a foundation pit and pouring concrete. But how and in what sequence such work is carried out, we will consider in our article.
Preparatory work
Before you begin to build a pool of concrete with your own hands, you need to decide on its location and dimensions of the structure. At this stage, one should take into account the fact that the greater its depth and width, the more finance will be required for construction.
If you want the rest in the pool to be as comfortable as possible, it is recommended to do the excavation calculations based on the following facts:
- In order for an adult to swim normally, the minimum depth of the pool should be 1.5 meters, and the length should be about 5 meters. How many tracks will be in this case - the owner decides, but their minimum width should be 1.5 meters.
- The arrangement of the side walls and the bottom of the structure will take about 0.5 meters of the width and depth of the pit, so it is recommended that calculations be done taking into account this margin.
For those who do not even know how to build a pool of concrete with their own hands, step-by-step instructions will help determine the sequence of work.
You should decide in advance on the type of location of the pool. It can be fully recessed or protrude slightly above ground level.
If you have little experience in building, it is better to equip the pool with simple and regular shapes. A rectangular bowl in this case will be the best solution.
Do not forget that, in addition to a place for swimming, it is necessary to equip a place for the outlet of the drain and the installation of equipment (filters, heaters, etc.). To do this, dig a small pit (a little deeper than the main bowl).
When choosing a place for a pool, pay attention to the depth of the groundwater. The bowl should be installed in the driest place on the site where there are fewer trees (so that the falling leaves do not pollute the water).
Necessary materials and tools
So, when the project of the future pool has been drawn up and the place for its construction has been determined, it is time to start purchasing materials and preparing all the necessary tools.
To make a pool with your own hands (concrete) you will need:
- cement (for these purposes, products with markings 500 and 600 are used);
- crushed stone (middle fraction);
- sand;
- waterproofing materials;
- geotextiles;
- fittings and metal mesh;
- wooden boards and timber (to create formwork);
- Sander;
- concrete mixer;
- tool for binding reinforcement.
When all the materials have been delivered to the construction site, you can begin work.
Roy pit
Earthwork is the first and most labor-intensive stage, without which it is impossible to build a pool with concrete from concrete. A step-by-step instruction for this period is as follows:
- Marking on the ground. Along the perimeter of the future foundation pit, pegs are placed on which the twine is pulled.
- When marking the perimeter of the pool, about 80 cm should be added to the width and length of the bowl. This stock is useful when installing formwork with spacers.
- When the contours are marked, you can begin to excavate. So that during the work the walls of the pit do not crumble, they are made with a slight slope (about 5 degrees).
- If specialized equipment was used for land work, the final cleaning of the bottom should be carried out manually (with a shovel).
Foundation preparation
The bottom plate is one of the most important elements of the entire structure, which is subjected to maximum load. Therefore, pay special attention to its arrangement, creating a pool with your own hands (made of concrete). Waterproofing and bedding give the bottom plate extra strength and extend the life of the bowl itself.
At this stage, the following work is performed:
- At the bottom of the pit, a trench is excavated leading to a pit. A drain pipe is installed in it. If the pool area is large enough, one pipe may not be enough, so it’s better to consider several sinks at once. They are installed with a slope towards the pit (a slope of 10 mm per meter of pipe length).
- The bottom of the pit is leveled and rammed.
- To prevent cracking of the bottom plate, the bottom of the future pool is covered with a geotextile. The rolled material is laid with an overlap of about 20 cm.
- A waterproofing material is placed on top of the geotissue . For these purposes, roofing material or a plastic film can be used. The waterproofing is laid in 2 layers, the overlap of adjacent strips is 15 cm. The edges of the roofing material should lie on the side walls by 20 cm.
- The prepared bottom of the pit is covered with a sand and gravel drainage pillow. Its width should be at least 20 cm. Instead of gravel, gravel can be used. The bedding is leveled, carefully packed and spilled with water.
Reinforcing mesh manufacturing
The bottom plate is recommended to be made oversized (20-40 cm wider than the bowl). This will create resistance to moving soil and make a high-quality and durable pool of concrete with your own hands. Stages of work:
- Around the perimeter of the bottom of the pit, formwork of a small height is installed, after which they begin to knit reinforcement. To create reinforcing stacks, metal rods with a diameter of 12-14 mm should be used. For deep pools you can take thicker material. The distance between the rods can vary between 10-50 cm (with a horizontal arrangement).
- In places of turns and in curved sections, reinforcement with a diameter of 10 mm is used. In this case, the step should be reduced in order to give the structure sufficient strength.
- If the plate thickness is within 20 cm, then the height of the reinforcing frame should be at least 10 cm.
- So that the horizontal frame is in the center of the concrete screed, it is installed on bricks (5 cm thick).
- The extreme reinforcement rods located along the perimeter of the mesh are bent 90 degrees in order to further tie the vertical reinforcement rods to them.
- To prevent corrosion, the reinforcement is coated with special protective compounds. Excellent for these purposes is polymer paint, which is applied to the product in several layers.
Pour concrete to the bottom of the pool
To build a pool of concrete with your own hands, you will need a lot of mortar. If finances allow, it is better to order ready-made concrete, which will be brought to your site in a special machine. In order to save money, you can make the right solution yourself, adding special water-repellent additives to it, which will give the product extra strength.
When building a pool of concrete from your own home in the country, you should remember that the foundation must be filled in one day, so that a solid monolithic slab is obtained at the bottom. In the process of filling the bottom plate, the solution should be punctured with a wooden rod in order to release the air accumulated below.
When the concrete is poured to the desired level, the pool bottom is covered with foil and left to dry for 10 days. If the weather is hot outside, the solution is periodically wetted with water to exclude the possibility of cracking.
Creating walls
For small pools, whose capacity does not exceed 15 cubic meters, they equip walls with a thickness of 20 cm. Focusing on this indicator, they begin the construction of formwork and a vertical reinforcing mesh.
Creating a pool with your own hands (from concrete), the reinforcing frame is made in the same way as for the bottom plate. Its planes are poured with concrete 50 cm thick. The rods of the vertical wall frame are attached to the protruding rods of the bottom reinforcing layer.
Next, all the necessary elements are installed in the walls: pipes, sockets for lighting devices and trays for electrical wiring.
On both sides of the resulting frame, formwork is installed. It can be assembled from any wood materials no thinner than 2 cm. Supports are installed on the outside and inside of the wooden structure, which will not allow the walls to bend under the pressure of concrete.
After making sure that the frame for the walls is strong enough, you can start pouring it with concrete. Work is also carried out on the same day. The final hardening time of the walls depends on weather conditions and can be from 10 to 30 days.
Finishing work
As you can see, building a pool of concrete with your own hands is not so difficult. Of course, the process is quite laborious, but it does not require special experience and knowledge.
At this stage, the most difficult work ends. Now you need to do the protective treatment of the bowl.
After removing the formwork, the walls are plastered. To do this, they attach a plaster grid. Work is carried out using a cement-sand mortar (in a ratio of 1: 2) with the addition of latex additives and microfiber. The walls are covered with an even layer of plaster and left to dry.
When they are completely dry, you can proceed with the installation of lighting fixtures, nozzles and a bottom drain.
Finishing the construction process, the inner surface of the walls is impregnated with liquid waterproofing.
If the groundwater is too close, the surfaces are pre-treated with a primer. External waterproofing is carried out using surfaced or liquid materials. At this, the construction of the pool is over, and the owners can proceed to its decorative decoration.
DIY indoor concrete pool
Recently, pools are installed not only on the street, but also inside the houses. A large number of private cottages are equipped with steam rooms, after visiting which I really want to freshen up by jumping into a pool of cool water. That is why I would like to separately consider how to build a pool with your own hands (concrete) in a bathhouse.
In fact, the process of building a pool in a room is no different from the above method. The significant difference lies only in the fact that the foundation pit must be torn out even at the stage of building a house. In this case, the reinforced concrete bowl is installed on the foundation, in a previously prepared pit.
If the base of the house is strong enough and deep, you can tear out the pool already in the finished building, but here you must be extremely careful. If the groundwater is too close to the house, they can erode its foundation, which will lead to big problems.
It should also be remembered that the walls of the pool should in no case be in contact with the walls of the building, since water, which puts a lot of pressure on all surfaces adjacent to the pool, can cause cracks. Therefore, it is better to leave a small gap, which is filled with foam or sand.
Pool decoration
Concluding this topic, we will touch upon the most popular way of decorating pools - ceramic tile lining. This wall covering is considered the most aesthetic, hygienic and practical. Therefore, if you decide to build a pool with your own hands from concrete and tile, you can be sure that the final result will certainly please you.
But is all the tiles suitable for swimming pools? Let's look at exactly what materials should be purchased for this purpose.
- Choosing tiles for the pool, you should give preference to products with high water-repellent qualities.
- Pay particular attention to the back of the product. It should be rough with anti-slip grooves. Such tiles will last longer on the surface.
- For laying tiles in the pool, you should choose only waterproof glue.
- Grouting is done using titanium compounds that are moisture resistant and do not form mold.
Products are laid on a plastered surface. The wall cleaned from dust is smeared with an even layer of glue, after which the tile is pressed tightly against it. Thus, the entire pool is laid out.
After the glue dries, the seams are wiped with a moisture-resistant grout. At this stage, the pool is fully operational.
In this article we tried to tell in detail how to build a pool of concrete with our own hands. Photos of some stages will help you imagine the construction process and assess the degree of complexity of the work.
Please note that during the construction of the pool you should not save on basic materials, since in this case you will waste money, time and own resources. We hope that we have answered all your questions regarding this topic. All the best.