Tanningledge or not?

[exposer]

Hi

Im about to build a new 8x4 "standard" pool, but recently I've been wondering if I want a tanningledge or not..
I like to be in control of the process, therefore I need to check this before I go to the poolcompany with my wishes..

My concerns are the returnjets in the pool. If I build the ledge, the return jets would be pretty unaccessible.. One thing is using a jackhammer on the tiles around the pool to get to the jets/connections, but another is to demolish the whole ledge to get to it.

Where do you normally put the returnjets when you have a bench, corner stairs and a tanningledge?

 

[Jimrahbe]

E,

I am not a fan of tanning ledges, but then I am old as dirt and my life style does not need one.. We have many member that love them for various reasons. One of which is that tanning ledges make a good place for very small children to have fun and you can be close by to supervise them. They also are a good place to install bubblers, which I find a waste of money..

If you add a tanning ledge, I would have at least one, if not two, returns on it.

Over here, we tend to add returns such that it forces the water to swirl around the pool like a toilet bowl flushing, only much, much slower. The idea is that this will help drag any floating debris in front of the skimmers. But, we also do not normally put both skimmers on the same wall.

I suspect that your design above is the standard way to do it in Norway.. Seems to me it would work fine without the tanning ledge.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[RMcGirr83]

Skimmers should be located on the wall across from prevalent wind. The wind will push the stuff toward the skimmer. BTW, we have one return on our tanning ledge, one by a bench that is pointed toward the bench and another by a bench pointed toward the prevalent wind skimmer. Please excuse the stick figure drawing

 

[Poolnerdgrandma]

We love, love, love our tanning ledge. No one tans there. People sit with their feet in the water, and Pookie plays. We didn't have a return in the tanning ledge, but we have a bubbler and a spillover from our spa that both work to circulate the water. Once in a while I brush the ledge toward the main pool when our robot is running, but other than that no other special stuff.

 

[exposer]

E,

I am not a fan of tanning ledges, but then I am old as dirt and my life style does not need one.. We have many member that love them for various reasons. One of which is that tanning ledges make a good place for very small children to have fun and you can be close by to supervise them. They also are a good place to install bubblers, which I find a waste of money..

If you add a tanning ledge, I would have at least one, if not two, returns on it.

Over here, we tend to add returns such that it forces the water to swirl around the pool like a toilet bowl flushing, only much, much slower. The idea is that this will help drag any floating debris in front of the skimmers. But, we also do not normally put both skimmers on the same wall.

I suspect that your design above is the standard way to do it in Norway.. Seems to me it would work fine without the tanning ledge.

Thanks,

Jim R.

I get that not everyone likes the ledges, and thats fine I got two minime's who loves the pool we have here in Norway now. Its not that child friendly with just some steps and a small bench. In this pool I got 2x returns and 2x skimmers. Same as the drawing above. That works really well. The flow from the inlets pushes everything straight over in the skimmers.

The drawing is from my new project in Spain. Building in 2-3 months.
So you're saying it should be fine to put both returns on the end of the ledge/pool? I dont think I'll have more than 2x returns.

 

[exposer]

Could I end up with a circulation problem if I dont have returns on the ledge?

 

[Jimrahbe]

E,

Seems to me that it would be harder to get fresh water up on the ledge in your layout without having at least one return on the ledge..

Are you against adding a return of two??

Thanks

Jim R.

 

[JJ_Tex]

I know this isnt the question you asked, but I have concerns about your steps and where they meet your bench. I'm making the assumption that your bench will be deeper than your first step. If that is the case, you are going to have this elevated triangle of a first step that seem like a good way to get hurt.

If my ramblings above dont make sense, I marked it in yellow below:

 

[Jimrahbe]

JJ,

I thought of the same thing... Ouch!!

Jim R.

 

[GDN]

I am in favor of the tanning ledge. We really like ours. I'll start up front with the one negative - it takes away a lot of the length of the pool if you like to trurly swim strokes for exercise. However, we didn't build the pool for that.

We like and find with a group, it is 1) one of the easiest places to sit on the side of the pool and put your feet in the water. It is easy to get up and stand up. 2) We have two dogs - one of them loves it (The other dog won't get near the pool except to drink). The one that loves it gets in and learned the boundary, he won't step off of it. 3) We like to sit and lay on it. 4) It's great for the occasional time small kids are over 5) We love to be in the pool and swim up and rest our arms on the ledge - easy way to hold your drink and chat talk to those around the pool or sitting on the ledge, but yet you stay fully in the water.

We put one bubbler on the ledge and to do it again we likely would have added two. Our builder did not add a return pushing across the ledge so we do brush it every couple of days. Dirt does tend to settle there more.

Overall we like it and if we built another pool I know we would add it again.

 

[Tenamarie123]

We use our ledge the most. We put a few of the plastic adirondacks on there and sit with our feet and a bit of our lower half in the water which is 6" deep. We do have 1 return and 2 lighted bubblers. Would not change a thing about it.