Jason Lott usually builds gunite pools. But when a homeowner came to him three years ago saying Lott was the only builder he trusted to construct an indoor, free-form, fiberglass pool, the president of Utah’s Paradise Pools & Construction had no choice but to agree.
“He did all the legwork, even contacting the manufacturer and getting me signed up as a dealer,” Lott says. “This was the pool that got me going on fiberglass. I’ve done about five other fiberglass pools since then.”
The homeowners wanted to bring the tropics to Utah’s dry environs, hoping to create a year-round retreat. But they also wanted to protect their grandchildren, making an automatic, hidden safety cover one of their first requests.
To begin the $110,000 project, the lot was excavated and the pool was installed on a thick concrete footing. The new structure housing the pool with a sunroof was then built around the project while Lott molded the first level of decking.
Once the first level was set, Lott’s crew installed the track for the automatic cover and built a raised plywood platform to span the length of the deck. The second level of concrete was poured 6 inches above the first deck, creating an empty gap for the cover.
“One of the biggest problems we had was just getting through the engineering,” says Lott, who consulted with a structural engineer. “It was about figuring out how to support the weight of the decks above the pool without putting any stress on it, and figuring out how to get both cantilevered decks to follow the exact shape of the vessel.”
For the tropical look, a large planter was filled with transplanted Florida palms. Laminar jets, sheer descent waterfalls and fiberoptic perimeter lighting completed the scene.
Finally, the pool and raised beams beside the planter were lined with European glass tiles. They took three weeks to arrive and nearly two weeks to hand lay.
Easy maintenance further enhanced the project’s appeal. For example, the automatic cover can be reached quickly through a suspended concrete lid built into the deck. Plus, a climate-control system dehumidifies and ventilates the building and pool.
All in all, the construction process took six months and helped induct a “newbie” into the fiberglass fold.
