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River Pools & Spas Blog
The most educational swimming pool blog in the country, providing fiberglass pool articles and videos, as well as information on inground concrete and liner pools.
Fiberglass Pool Information | Installation & Construction
Ok folks, today we’re going to discuss what causes blemishes, marks, and defects on the surface layer of a fiberglass pool. There are typically two types of ‘blems’ we see:
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Cost and Pricing | Finding A Pool Contractor | Installation & Construction
Ok, pools and cars are both seen as status symbols…they’re both relatively expensive…and they both come with a wide array of bells and whistles. There’s a lot in common there. So you should go about purchasing them the same way right?...Nope!
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Don't blindly wonder if a fiberglass, concrete, or vinyl liner pool is right for you. Our educational ebook does a deep-dive comparison of the 3 types, all while noting the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Cost and Pricing | Installation & Construction | Patio and Coping | Pool Design Guides
One of the most under-utilized options for fiberglass pools (in my opinion) is the coping material. Many people assume that cantilevered concrete coping is the only alternative…simply not so. The purpose of this article is to outline the two most popular types of coping on fiberglass pools (at least in our area). These are paver coping, or what could be considered brick coping, and cantilevered concrete coping. We’ll look at the advantages and disadvantages of each.
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Fiberglass Pool Information | Installation & Construction | Pool Design Guides
It’s hard to go wrong with fiberglass pools. They’re easy to maintain, they use very few chemicals, and they have the lowest lifetime cost of any type of pool. However, there is one way fiberglass pool owners can screw all that up: by draining the pool without professional help.
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Fiberglass Pool Information | Installation & Construction
How long does it take to install a pool? Now, that depends on what type of pool we’re talking. Doing a search for “how long does it take to install an inground pool from start to finish” will likely yield some wide ranges of answers if you don’t specify which type of inground pool. A little fun fact about us (or maybe a big one): we at River Pools manufacture inground fiberglass pools, but our time in the pool industry has helped us learn tons about inground pool types far and wide. So that brings us to the main focus of today’s article and let me say it’s one of the most mistaken and sometimes misunderstood parts of having a fiberglass inground pool installed in your backyard. Though fiberglass is where our expertise lies, we’ll also briefly go over some facts for concrete (gunite) and vinyl liner pools, just so you have all your options laid out in front of you. Let’s start with the ever-familiar concrete pools. These bad boys are built from scratch in your backyard, so they can be practically any shape and size you dream of (folks dreaming about a never-before-seen pool shape – we’re talking to you). With the excavating, rebar placement, plumbing, concrete-shooting, curing, coping and plastering, installing an inground concrete pool may take three to six months on average. Vinyl liner pools, also often referred to as just “liner” pools, also offer customization options and can be appealing due to their lower upfront costs and smooth texture. Keep in mind that the more custom the design, the more money you’ll likely have to pay. This goes for concrete, as well. These pools also require excavation, along with lining with metal wall panels, plumbing, creating the pool base/floor (this is often done with vermiculite or grout) and installing the liner itself. This process can take six to eight weeks on average. I find it a little funny when I look online and I see companies with the headline ‘We will install your pool in one day!’. Actually, I’m a little bothered by these statements because the task of installing a fiberglass pool in one day is nearly impossible. Why? Well here are the different phases of an actual complete installation:
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DIY Fiberglass Pools | Finding A Pool Contractor | Installation & Construction | Retaining Walls, Fence, and Landscaping
Lately it seems that a lot of homeowners I am meeting with have slopes in their backyards. Some of these slopes range in a grade difference of 1’ to 6’ from where the pool deck starts and finishes. What this means is that your fiberglass pool, when set in the ground, may be even with the ground on one end or side and 1 to 6 feet out of the ground on the other end or side. In such occasions, retaining walls are often the necessary solution, although moving the pool to another more flat location can at times work as well. I had one customer who could have moved their pool to an area in the backyard that would have alleviated any walls, but they wanted the added visual effect the walls would give them.
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DIY Fiberglass Pools | Finding A Pool Contractor | Installation & Construction
This article is going to be short and sweet, but it’s the result of a disturbing email I received the other day that made me realize we hadn’t covered the following subject in our blog. The email read: Hi Marcus, my builder says it’s OK to build a fiberglass pool on top of fill dirt, is this true? As you can very well imagine, any pool, whether it’s concrete, vinyl, or fiberglass, needs to be built on solid, undisturbed soil (concrete pools can use pillars, but that’s another article for another day). Why?
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Fiberglass Pool Information | Installation & Construction | Pool Design Guides
I had an interesting experience last week with a gentleman who was considering a pool. As we were standing in his backyard and doing a general lay-off of the pool, he quickly dismissed the idea of fiberglass because it simply wasn’t wide enough. After a few minutes of Q & A though, the customer decided he really just needed to talk to some of our existing clients who own a pool and get their take on the matter.
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Cost and Pricing | Fiberglass Pool Information | Installation & Construction
One advantage of being a pool guy working at a Home Show is the opportunity to answer literally hundreds of questions about fiberglass pools. It just so happens that most people have the same questions. After attending dozens of such shows and fairs over the past ten years and answering literally thousands of these pool questions, I figured it would be beneficial to take a moment and cover the basics for those just beginning their quest for the perfect inground swimming pool.
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Fiberglass Pool Information | Fiberglass Pool Manufacturers | Installation & Construction | Pool Design Guides
As most of you are very well aware, the entire purpose of this blog is to educate, and at the same time elevate, the fiberglass pool industry. And because the popularity of fiberglass pools has exploded throughout North America in the past 10 years, it’s critical to us, the writers of this blog, that such a growth curve continues to happen as consumers become more and more informed as to the beauties of fiberglass pool ownership.
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