into the ground so they are at floor level, people will have to climb up and into them. Is there enough height between the top of the pool and the ceiling for someone to do this? Are handrails necessary? Another important question can be asked a couple of ways. ”How deep are your pools?” can also be queried, “How high are your pool walls?” Even with generous 8 foot ceilings in most of the basement, Sketchup showed me that if I wanted a swim-spa depth of 4 feet deep, I would have this very tall 4 foot wall extending across the basement, leaving only a 4 foot distance between the pool coping and ceiling. This meant someone would have to crouch to get in and out or else they would hit the ceiling. It looked bad, and I knew it would feel claustrophobic to be swimming so close to the ceiling. Plus, the danger of having the lights so close to the water surface - you don’t want someone to be tempted to change a light-bulb while standing in the pool! The obvious option was to make the pool shallower, but I really wanted the maximum depth I could get because it opened up the option of doing water-aerobics, water-walking and water-running. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get around this problem! Time for another walk at lunch.
