First Post: Constructing a low cost pool for a fitness club

[Pool Masters and Hustlers]

Hello Pool Fourm.

I am young entrepreneur and I would like to start a Health Club/Gym someday. I have done a little bit of research and I am shocked at how expensive pools are. How ever I checked many forums and this forum seems to be the best place for knowledge and a great place to tackle specific questions.

What kind of ranges are there in terms of cost and quality? I'm looking to open up a gym about the size of a planet fitness. So I need the pool to allow users to swim laps for there fitness related goals. My Budget may be around 10,000-25,000 for a pool.

I'm wondering what are the benefits of building the pool my self vs hiring a separate company to do this for me.
Thank you.

[PoolDoc]

Try setting the LOW end of your budget at $50,000 for a 20 x 60' outdoor pool, and $300,000 for the same pool, indoors.

[Pool Masters and Hustlers]

ok, so a pool under the 50,000 dollar budget is just not possible?

[Pool Masters and Hustlers]

I know that above ground pools are also a lot cheaper. This is probably gonna sound weird and not what you guys want to hear but I'm really trying to go as cheap as possible with out compromising the ability to swim and swim in clean water.

What are my options in terms of above ground pool construction and purchase? Also are there any good threads you would recommend for my specific issues "Gym start up"?

Thanks for the speedy reply comrade.

[PoolDoc]

No threads like that here; quite possibly none elsewhere either. Commercial pool operators -- like you intend to be -- are in-&-out on forums. They show up, ask questions, either get answers or not, and then leave. They don't become part of the community. As a result, there's no information sharing.

However, I can tell you, the 'budget' fitness pool is a goal of many fitness center operators: I've seen the pools that result. And, as a fitness swimmer, I tell you that they are essentially unusable.

[Pool Masters and Hustlers]

Hmmm alright... Well would you be able to point me in the right direction? I guess from what your saying there's no such thing.. Alright sounds understandable. Ok what's a pool you would actually swim at that you could build for the least amount of funds. Than could you tell me what's a people you'd be impressed with because if I'm gonna do it perhaps I should do right. I see that you feel people like my self may not have much to add to the forum but I would actually like to learn and I'm willing to give back.

[PoolDoc]

If you're "gonna do it", you're have to do it in a way that makes money . . . which is NOT the "right way", except at the very high end.

And, to be 'frank', you have neither the expertise, nor the budget to go there.

Even at the high end, pools are mostly marketing devices for fitness centers, rather than actual focus areas for users. For some reason, many fitness center customers put a lot of importance on a center HAVING a pool, even though the users mostly -- once they join -- do not USE the pool.

I've worked with various fitness centers and country clubs over the years, and can tell you that, almost without exception, fitness center and country club managers HATE their pools, and live in FEAR of them. Operating locally, I was able to 'exploit' that, by providing service contracts through which they paid me to make sure their pool ran as well as possible, given the often half-a## design and equipment they had. But it's not a service I could provide here, even if I wanted to do so.

Honestly, if you can come up with a successful business plan for a budget fitness center that does NOT involve a pool, you'd be wise to do so.

[Pool Masters and Hustlers]

I couldn't have found a better person to talk to about such an issue. You are right based on what I know most people do not actually use the pool. Its a shame what fitness clubs, health centers, gyms have become. I can't say I'm too proud. If your advice is to do it the right way well than thats the way I'm going to do it.

So what do you do now for employment?

I'll create some scenarios where I do not include a pool in my business plan. Although the places I would like to compete against I would have a advantage over them if I offered more services and amenities. This is going to be an interesting 3 years. If you could summarize why its so difficult to build a pool, I'm still having issues grasping the concept. To me it doesn't make sense why an item thats designed to hold water, keep it at a certain temp, filter it, and so forth has to cost so much? Must have something to do with the support structures that hold the water together? and all the reacquiring costs of maintenance? as well as the cost of materials to build the pool? but why is it so much?

Why can't we just get a hallowed out metallic tank, add some filters, add some temp controllers and some support beams and fill that with water? I know I probably struck a nerve with that but why can't there be an reasonable solution.

Also I would like to be a little more serious with this forum if you could bump me up. Trying to edit the profile to give you guys what you want.

[PoolDoc]

Nope. Sorry.

Commercial pool Q & A is low priority for me. It's what I do locally, and I'm *very* familiar with the problems, issues, and solutions. But none of those things mix with the forum well, nor do responses here serve the forum generally.

Given that my time is limited, I'm simply not willing to put more into answering your questions. There are pool designers and consultants available: you may want to spend some time with one of those.

Good luck . . . and I'm done here.

[CarlD]

I couldn't have found a better person to talk to about such an issue. You are right based on what I know most people do not actually use the pool. Its a shame what fitness clubs, health centers, gyms have become. I can't say I'm too proud. If your advice is to do it the right way well than thats the way I'm going to do it.

So what do you do now for employment?

I'll create some scenarios where I do not include a pool in my business plan. Although the places I would like to compete against I would have a advantage over them if I offered more services and amenities. This is going to be an interesting 3 years. If you could summarize why its so difficult to build a pool, I'm still having issues grasping the concept. To me it doesn't make sense why an item thats designed to hold water, keep it at a certain temp, filter it, and so forth has to cost so much? Must have something to do with the support structures that hold the water together? and all the reacquiring costs of maintenance? as well as the cost of materials to build the pool? but why is it so much?

Why can't we just get a hallowed out metallic tank, add some filters, add some temp controllers and some support beams and fill that with water? I know I probably struck a nerve with that but why can't there be an reasonable solution.

Also I would like to be a little more serious with this forum if you could bump me up. Trying to edit the profile to give you guys what you want.

I'm probably going to regret this, but you need to learn a LOT more about pools before you are even READY to explore building one for your "health club".

To give you SOME idea of what you face: A 60'x20'x4' deep pool contains 156 TONS of water--that's right--The water ALONE weighs as much as 78 automobiles! Plus water is reactive with almost everything--so protection of the structure is critical from corrosion.

Quite frankly, I use my local YMCA for a gym, but if they had a pool like you describe, I'd be out of there like a shot!

Just my 2 cents, and I'm NOT in the pool business.