Installing swimming pools

[cornburn]

Hey guys

How much experience have you had with installing swimming pools? It's something we're looking at expanding into and wanted to see if anyone had any useful info / experiences they're willing to share? There's a bit of competition out there and work seems quiet so not sure atm if there's any money in it but would be nice work for the summer.

Cheers

 

[malcolmsanford]

I think to be really competetive in this market you would need to look at supplying a complete service, and that would mean offering a maintenance contract. After all the clients your aiming at are not going to be the type to want to clean pools, do water sampling for testing, change chemical drums or change filter.

A very good knowledge of panels work is essential also. Gone are the days of manual dosing of the chemicals and manual back flushing a filter. This is done now by dosing pumps and electric valves.

Also you should also look at spas. hot tubs, jacuzzis etc etc, as most swimmimg pool companies will offer this type of installation as well. Therefore a very good working knowledge of section 702 of the Regs is vital.

 

[cornburn]

Thanks a lot, very helpful It would be a complete service with installation from start to finish plus servicing afterwards (included for 12 months). Technology seems to have moved on quickly so it might be a steep learning curve. Spas, saunas etc are easy enough to import and install but the pools are obviously a much bigger job. The major downside I can see at the moment is the possible need for a store front, as many installers have shop fronts for visitors. That would add quite an expense each year. I suppose dressing up a warehouse would suffice, it would hardly need to be in the centre of town.

 

[Marvo]

There's a surprisingly big difference between small domestic swimming pool equipment and large commercial. The domestic stuff (up to around 100 m³ ) is a cakewalk with small pumps, sand filters, a couple of timers and contactors and maybe a chlorinator if it's a salt pool. The large pools have far more complex sensing equipment, variable frequency drives on the pumps and large heating systems. They're two different markets entirely.

 

[cornburn]

Yes, talking domestic only here, 100m max probably as you say. Just gauging what the work would be like really as we'd be looking at importing and supplying the pools as well as fitting and maintaining. The Market seems fairly competitive but some UK companies seem to be charging a lot for this sort of work