Gloria Gale

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• Water World
• Heated Retreats
• Making Waves
• Poolside Pleasures
• Vacationing at Home

Once merely a blue box surrounded by blazing concrete, the swimming pool of yesterday is fast becoming as big a relic as bathing caps and Bermuda shorts.

“Finally, technology and design for today’s backyard pool has merged in very creative ways,” says Jason Cupp, CLP, owner of Highland Outdoor. “What people want is more than a pool; they want to create a resort feeling in their own backyard…a slice of ‘the good life,’ reflecting original design and their own personality.”

It must be contagious. According to the National Spa and Pool Institute, more than 8 million people worldwide are eager to shell out a considerable amount of money to sculpt a backyard into an outdoor living space with the swimming pool as the focal point.

Contouring a pool into fantastic designs is a given these days. Matt Alberts, owner of Land Art Inc., a full-service landscape design service, has clientele that set a very high bar to create a unique setting.

“The homeowners may have just returned from an exotic vacation and they want to continue that look in their backyard. That doesn’t always mean they’re going to get wet, they may just want to float and dip,” he explains.

And they’re willing to spend what it takes to craft not only a pool, but a range of accoutrements from a beach, a grotto, fountains and waterfalls, to spas, arches, fire pits and detailed kitchens. Elaborate add-ons can vault the price into the tens of thousands.

Janice McClain added a 1,300-square-foot pool house complete with kitchen, bathroom and lounge to complement her Harrisonville home.

Kristopher Dabner, owner of The Greensman, created a 12- by 20-foot oval reflecting pool set in the middle of a lawn featuring a bubbling fountain. He also created a large naturalistic pool in Lee’s Summit, utilizing a sun deck, a pergola, a renovated fireplace and a flagstone patio.

“In a sense, you’re moving your living room outside,” Cupp summarizes. Sometimes the lines are actually blurred between inside and out. “We are currently constructing an indoor/outdoor pool. Since it will be visible from nearly all of the public rooms, it will be the focal point of the entire house.”

Photo courtesy of Highland Outdoor

A Pretty Penny
Even as people ask for beautiful designs, they don’t always know what they want initially. People frequently don’t realize gunite, like vinyl, can be contoured into nearly any shape imaginable. “Primarily, people either want a swim pool for the kids or a free-form/naturalistic pool,” Cupp notes.

Budgeting for a basic 15- by 30-foot vinyl pool can start around $25,000; gunite, $45,000 to $50,000. Add features like natural rock formations, ornamental sculptures or water features, garden structures, landscaping and hardscaping, and the price climbs.

Gradual or Vanishing?
Lynn Banks, owner of Banks Blue Valley Pool & Spa surmises that about 50 percent of her customers know what they want for their design. “We will introduce them to unique innovations, like a vanishing edge, which creates an optical illusion of water flowing off into infinity. In reality, the water is actually spilling over one wall into a catch basin and re-circulated. The overall effect is outstanding.”

The zero or beach entry is yet another fashionable feature. A gently sloping entrance allows bathers to wade into the water, just as if at the beach. With the addition of a semi-submerged bathing area or wet deck for sun worshippers, an embankment slide for the kids, and lanai or open porch area complete with kitchen, you’ve created a total backyard environment.

Bottoms Up
Once the shape of the pool is constructed, enhancing the deck and bottom of the pool goes hand-in-hand with the overall design.

Sun and Swim Pools’ Operation Manager Dennis Strobel says the variations for pool surfaces go far beyond the rough concrete of the past. “Glass mosaic tiles in custom designs are currently very popular, as is the use of all types of decking surfaces, from ribbons of plaster blended with iridescent chips that glow in the dark, to terra cotta tile, aggregates incorporated with smooth stones or a (colored) coating to make the deck cool underfoot.”

Glass or acrylic fiber-optic cable lighting using high-tech color wheels on the bottom of the pool and/or along the perimeter adds another dimension. “It’s a cool trend. I saw an entire floor of a pool that looked like a starry night sky. Using LED lighting, you can also get changing colors within the water and around the edging of the pool,” Strobel adds.

Deanna Dinkel, office manager at Sun and Swim Pools, continues, “People also want music. We will incorporate it into their smart-home computer system so it’s very user-friendly. Waterproof two-way cone speakers are constructed into the walls of the pool. It may sound garbled out of the water, but underwater it sounds great.”

Chemistry 101
Light, music, color…all upgrades if the water is sparkling clean, but the chemistry and cleaning systems must be in order to avoid the dreaded lagoon-look that periodically plagues pools. “If you’ve discussed the type of filtration system with your pool company, you’re going to be knowledgeable from the beginning to keep your pool in balance,” Dinkel assures.

She explains, “Basically, there are sand, cartridge, DE, and salt generator 02 filtration systems. Each system filters out the particulates in the water, leaving you with balanced, clear water. Personally, I have a three-year-old sand filter in my own pool and it does a great job of keeping the pool in balance. Like the DE (Diatomaceous Earth) filter, it’s a ‘green’ or a natural filtration system. Similarly, the salt 02 system is also green and is becoming more popular. Adding salt to the water converts it to natural chlorine — it’s easier on hair, eyes and skin. We used this salt system in the pool we completed for One Park Place.”

Keeping It Clean
A sparkling pool through chemistry is just one facet, another is the cleaning system. Today’s pools have state-of-the-art automated jets on the bottom of the pool that effectively pop up and sweep flotsam and jetsam toward the drain. “Couple this with manually fishing out debris and the pool will stay clean,” Dinkel says.

Just as you flip a switch for filtration and cleaning, automation rolls out a vinyl canvas type of cover for symmetrically shaped pools. A naturalistic or free-form pool may need a mesh or lighter-weight cover anchored with brass cleats. “The anchors lie flush with the deck during swim season then pop up to secure the cover,” Dinkel says. Other options include thermal and solar blankets that are lightweight and relatively inexpensive.

Photo courtesy of Land Art

Come on In, the Water’s Fine
Using your pool throughout the year is becoming a trend. “Now that heaters have become more efficient, and radiant heat is incorporated into the deck, increasingly we are seeing people who want to use their pool year-round. If you’ve ever been to a thermal hot spring and soaked when it’s snowing, you know what a delightful experience is in store,” Cupp says.

There’s little doubt a swimming pool can boost the pleasure principle in your own backyard. With advances in technology and innovation, the pool beckons as a more attractive and carefree way to spend your time and money. Why spend money on a heavenly beach vacation when you can step outside your back door and find nirvana?

Before you slip on your suit, here are a few tips, according to Pam Drummond of Banks Blue Valley Pool & Spa:

• Decide what type and size of pool you want: vinyl, gunite or fiberglass. Once you have the basic dimensions, carefully review your budget. Basic in-ground gunite pools can start around $45,000 to $50,000 while vinyl and fiberglass begin around $25,000.

• Once a design has been developed between you and your pool professional, take a look at options: pool houses, lighting, decking material, water and fire features, entry, edging designs and landscaping. Your pool may not look integrated into your environment unless you’ve carefully planned for patios, plantings and other garden structures as accompaniments.

• Plan on including safety features into your overall pool plans. A good-quality fence, a pool cover and other security features will give you peace of mind. Familiarize yourself with city safety and building codes.

Safety First!
Underscoring all of the aesthetics balanced to form and function is safety. Holly Davidson of Highland Outdoor comments, “There is still no substitute for good supervision and teaching children how to swim. Supplementing that critical step are barriers such as self-locking gates, fencing and in-pool motion detectors.” Here are two new products from Safety Turtle (www.safetyturtle.com) to check out:

Wireless Wristband Alarm
This product is an ingenious combination of wireless signal-outfitted wristbands and a wireless base station receiver that sounds an alarm the instant a child falls or ventures into water. The base station can be positioned anywhere between 200 and 1,500 feet away from the pool (depending on model desired). Safety Turtle retails for $235 and can be purchased online or at Swim Things, 3010 SW Hwy 40 in Blue Springs, Mo.

Wireless Gate Alarm
The Terrapin Wireless Gate Alarm warns parents the instant a child opens the gate to a pool fence without adult assistance, as well as if the pool fence gate fails to latch closed within 11 seconds of an adult entry. A base station located as far as 200 feet away from a pool sounds an alarm. An adult bypass switch attaches near the gate latch so that an adult can enter without setting off the alarm. The Terrapin Wireless Gate Alarm retails for $100 and can be purchased online and at Swim Things, 3010 SW Hwy 40 in Blue Springs, Mo.