Advantages:

• A space to escape away from the home
• Typically most cost efficient
• Can be a focal point of a garden design
• Can be easy to build under permitted development rights
• Reduced disruption to your household over the course of the build
• Separate social hub

Disadvantages:

• Distance from the house in poor weather

Advantages:

• Your indoor pool becomes another recreational area of your main home
• Convenient way to incorporate swimming into your everyday life and daily routine
• Ease of access when the weather is poor

Disadvantages:

• Typically increased cost due to materials selection and additional work to existing property
• More advanced dehumidification systems are essential
• More disruption during construction
• Usually requires a formal planning application

For a pool house in your garden it’s more than likely that you won’t need planning permission. In the majority of cases as long as the building you are going to house the pool within is freestanding, complies to the permitted development design criteria and your permitted development rights are in tact - you won’t need it.

Almost without exception, a pool house extension to your home will need planning permission. At Origin, we have a wealth of experience in gaining planning approval for indoor pools in listed buildings, areas of outstanding natural beauty, conservation areas and we’ll also manage the whole process for you so, no need to panic!

We are fortunate in the UK to have some of the best architects in the world. But specialist architects with working knowledge of an indoor pool environment are very rare. Architects are extremely well versed with domestic construction details, but unfortunately an indoor pool is very different. An architect can provide you with an outline design for an indoor pool, this may cost you anywhere between £1,500 to £3,000 however, many don’t have the knowledge or insurances needed to take that design further. As part of our feasibility study we provide initial design sketches and a budgetary proposal free of charge.

Size is an obvious one, setting your heart on a 25m pool will be a significant investment. The most popular size for an indoor pool is between 8m to 10m, there are also some excellent counter current devices that you swim against making the size of the pool less important.

Covers are an important part of a pool design as they retain heat, reduce running costs and some provide a level of safety. As an example based on a 8m x 4m indoor pool, the following cost comparisons would apply:

Manual Solar Bubble Cover - £1,000 -£1,430 - Poor safety, good heat retention, manual operation.
Semi Automatic Foam Cover - £3,500-£6,000 - Average safety, excellent heat retention, easy to use.
Automatic Slatted Surface Mount Cover - £8,300-£10,700 - Good safety properties, excellent heat retention, very easy to use.
Hidden Automatic Slatted Cover - £18,000-£20,000 - Good safety properties, excellent heat retention, amazing aesthetics, extremely easy to use.
Automatic Safety Cover - £21,400-£23,800 - Highest level of safety properties, excellent heat retention, very easy to use

Condensation occurs when the temperature of an object (e.g. glass, metal, or even grass) falls below what is known as the dew point temperature for a given relative humidity. This causes water vapour from the atmosphere to condense into water droplets on its surface.

We are all familiar with condensation on a bathroom mirror or a cold drink outdoors in the summer. Now imagine the challenge of 30m² to 40m² of warm water in a pool building on a cold winters day, if your pool company or builder doesn’t understand the effect that water temperature and humidity can have on your pool and pool building, the consequences can be disastrous.

The consequences of high humidity in poorly designed pool rooms are well documented;

Health issues - High humidity can contribute to health issues, it facilitates the growth of mould and mildew which can irritate respiratory infections. Inhaling or touching mould spores may cause an allergic reaction, such as sneezing, red eyes and skin rash as well as asthma attacks.

Building issues - Humidity can also have effect on the pool building, and if left can have catastrophic results including roof collapse, destructive condensation within the building structure and deterioration of the internal finishes.

Building design - The design of your building structure is critical and your architect & builder should be familiar with how a building will perform in such high levels of humidity. The important aspects to remember are:

• Construction methods – avoid steel structures and cavity walls, timber framed structures are much better suited to a pool environment
• Roof design - a warm deck roof is essential. If your architects design incorporates a cold deck roof then alarm bells should be ringing!
• Cold bridging is critical on an indoor pool, this can include extra insulation around the lintels/posts or solid structural members
• A bespoke design will be needed for dehumidification, air circulation and distribution
• Material selection for internal finishes - there is a long list of do’s and don’t’s, the right company will guide you through and make the right decisions.