DIY concrete swimming pool

[moparrob]

Hey kids-

After a year of on and off planning and prep work, i broke ground on an 18x36 swimming pool. Wife wants a 9' deep end and a 4' shallow end with a tanning ledge or baja shelf next to the stairs at the shallow end. Plan is to use CMUs for the vertical surfaces and a slab at the bottom, all tied together with rebar.

For anyone who has similar experience, do I:

A) pour the footing for the CMU walls first with rebar extending into the slab, then pour the slab using the cured footing as a form or

B)form it all up and pour it at the same time, screeding and floating around the zillion pieces vertical rebar.

I have an electric mixer and ready mix trailers are 30 minutes from home. Concrete trucks are an option, but harder to conceal from the nosy neighbors.

I dont have a crew besides my wife and kids, and nobody likes dad after he tries to be the foreman on home projects. This will probably be my biggest and one of my last. I may get some quotes from the pros after the hole is dug, but my wife married a Feller, not a Rockefeller which is why I DIY most things.

 

[CH4Ohio]

I think it’s called a “cement pond” on this website.

 

[moparrob]

Yes. Im fixin to dig me a ceement pond.

 

[oldnslo]

Helped do a cement pond about 50 years ago and never again. Trying to work concrete with zero slump is no fun. If and I repeat IF memory is correct the pool floor and walls was done in one pour but don’t remember depth on deep end.

Wish you the best.

 

[paulsharvey]

No way I would do a footer, then slab, then CMU, unless your doing a liner of some sort. Thats a big cold joint that shifts over the years.

By the time you fill all the CMU cells, have you considered cast in place walls? 18x36 with the deep end, is a big pour, then walls, and the slopes.

Ive done a small-medium ammount of concrete, but that size, seems to me either gunite/shotcrete or pump, will be needed.

 

[moparrob]

No plans for a liner other than plaster or tile. I've read about several brands of concrete waterproofing that would go down under the tile. If we go plaster I'll probably have it done by pros but the tile I can do myself. Might even use the large plank "wood grain" porcelain tiles to speed things along and add some visual interest.

 

[paulsharvey]

No plans for a liner other than plaster or tile. I've read about several brands of concrete waterproofing that would go down under the tile. If we go plaster I'll probably have it done by pros but the tile I can do myself. Might even use the large plank "wood grain" porcelain tiles to speed things along and add some visual interest.

I have seen pools from the 1950s build with cast bottom, and cmu walls, that held water, when properly sealed/water proofed, but i haven't seen anyone do it in modern times. Its a big project, share some pictures as you go.

Grandmother-in-law had one, and the CMU wall came to about 24" above the pool deck, to get the depth. Think hers was like 8 ft in the deep end; but only 6 ft of excavation.