THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 8, 1995 TAG: 9507130590
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY ELLEN MILES, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
LENGTH: Long : 142 lines
Ahhh, the ecstasy of sliding into the cool, silent world of a pool after a long, hot summer day. Or the thrill of a loud, vivacious vault into a noisy, wet environment with friends, smacking a volleyball around, frolicking in the water.
Swimming pools are a virtual feast for the senses this time of year in Hampton Roads.
With recreational costs growing, it seems more families are looking for ways to have fun at home. If your clan loves the water, but not the sand or all the hordes that crowd the beaches, perhaps a pool is the solution.
Pools aren't just for kids to splash around in. Many health specialists expound exercise in the water. Aerobics in a pool doesn't put pressure on the joints and, a real bonus during a Southern summer, causes little sweat.
In 1990, Ben Miller and his wife had a kidney-shaped sports pool installed in the back yard of their Lago Mar home in Virginia Beach, primarily for exercise. ``It has been really good,'' he says, ``because we've gotten a lot of use out of it.''
His daughter, Pamela Todd, is one of those people who can do without sand, so she's able to swim without that nuisance. And granddaughter Jessica ``gets a big kick out of it,'' inviting her friends over to play volleyball or splash around together.
Another bonus, Miller says, ``is the way backyard pools are arranged, I don't have a lot of yard maintenance since there's not much grass.''
The trend today is ``special use pools,'' says Bruce Baxter, who owns Pools by Baxter. ``Fitness has become a very big item in this industry. We're getting lots of requests for 5-feet-wide lap pools, which are fine if that's all you're going to do.'' For lap swimmers, only shallow water is needed.
``But we find when we sit down with such customers, they want to use the pools for other things. We are capable of designing custom-shaped pools - any size or shape,'' he says. ``That way, we can open up one end of the lap pool and make it usable for other family members and purposes.''
He has also had requests for a ``swim spa'' system - a pool with a water jet that expels so much water you have to swim against a current, allowing for plenty of exercise. Baxter also sells fitness and sports pools.
Sports pools are designed for water volleyball or basketball. The fitness pools come with a complete aquatic aerobic package containing resistance paddles for hands, an exercise bar that goes over the sides of the pool and a book that teaches you the exercises. ``The fitness pool is becoming very popular,'' Baxter says, ``with people putting it in various shapes.''
Baxter says that in 1972, when he started his pool business, most of his clients were high-income and family-oriented. Now, owning a pool is more common for middle-income families. ``The average age of the buyer used to be quite a bit older then than it is today,'' Baxter says. ``People were trying to get the grandchildren to visit. Then, as the economy changed, more and more people wanted pools, with the average dropping. It is still continuing to drop today.''
Another change, Baxter says, is that fewer clients desire above-ground pools, which he sold until about four years ago. However, the pool remains a purchase made for family togetherness.
Although diving boards used to be a part of the pool purchase, they - along with slides - are rarely installed today, mostly for safety reasons. ``We've only installed one slide this year,'' Baxter says. ``We try not to encourage them.
``Most children play on slides and you're asking them to climb an aluminum ladder with their wet feet, seven feet above concrete, stand on a small piece of slick fiberglass and slide on a wet slide. To me, it's like an accident waiting to happen. Diving boards are nowhere nearly as unsafe.''
You need a deep pool to dive in. ``The trend is for people to have pools about 5.5 to 5.6 feet deep,'' Baxter says. ``That depth allows everyone to enjoy the pool. Fortunately, the city and state continue to be stringent with their requirements regarding fences and restrictive barriers around the pool area.''
Joe Parnell, owner of Paradise Pools in Virginia Beach, says he has seen a trend in pool liner colors. ``Everyone used to have either blue or white,'' he says. ``Now, we're seeing lots of greens and browns.''
Parnell's experience in the 11 years he has been in business is that pool sales increase during election years. ``I've sold more pools this year than ever,'' he says. ``But sales will be down next year.'' He says families seem to want above-ground, not in-ground, pools because they're cheaper.
With more younger families buying pools, Baxter says most of his customers are in subdivisions or houses only about a year old. Pool season normally hits about mid-January, after people have figured out their taxes.
Taking into account a few days of bad weather, Baxter says it takes only three to four weeks to install an in-ground pool. Most of his customers live in Virginia Beach, but recently his business has moved westward toward Suffolk, Smithfield and Wakefield.
``Twelve years ago, almost all pools were made of concrete,'' Baxter says. A plaster coat was used with the concrete and was very porous, susceptible to staining as well as well as cracking during cold weather. Later, fiberglass sidewalls with a concrete bottom replaced the plaster.
``When pools became more popular,'' Baxter says, ``word got around that vinyl sides were cheaper than fiberglass, and everyone wanted a vinyl pool.''
Today, all concrete pools are usually made for commercial use, since they are sturdy. Ocean Breeze Fun Park requested a concrete bottom for its pools with fiberglass sidewalls bolted to the fiberglass slides. Almost all of Baxter's residential clients want vinyl-lined pools, which cost less and are less sturdy than concrete.
For pool sanitation, you can choose from four main processes:
Chlorine, which, Baxter says, is ``by far the strongest and most economical.''
Baquacil or SoftSwim (virtually the same product but different trade names), which is hydrogen peroxide-based and more expensive than chlorine but a good alternative to those sensitive to chlorine.
Ozone, a process through which water passes through a high-intensity light, killing any bacteria. This is primarily used in spas, because it's difficult to implement a system large enough for a pool and in high temperatures some chlorine may need to be added.
Ionization, a process through which particles of metal are electronically charged and able to ``zap'' bacteria in the pool. Sometimes chlorine is added. The biggest problem with this process, Baxter says, is that sometimes, when too much chlorine is added, iron particles may settle on the bottom and stain it.
If money is no concern, he recommends using the SoftSwim/Baquacil system.
Because of the city water shortage, Virginia Beach requires swimming pools to be filled with well water, ``which leads to problems with contaminants such as iron and copper,'' Baxter says. ``It's just another difficult facet of our business.''
Contaminants can be handled in one of three ways. A water softener company can place tanks on the wells, a solution can cause the particles to sink to the bottom of the pool so they can be vacuumed up (but you may get the staining described above), or water can be trucked in, which can be quite expensive.
Despite the difficulty and expense in acquiring a pool, Baxter says, ``the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act and the water shortage drew enough attention to pools that they actually kept an increase in business coming.''
One question that frequently comes up for those considering a pool, is what it might do to the value of the property.
Peggy Economidis, a Virginia Beach real estate agent with William E. Wood & Associates, says that more buyers are looking for pools than they did in the past. Now, there is extended family life with grown children living at home longer and elderly parents living with their children, and that could make pools more desirable. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover by Vicki Cronis, Staff
Sarah E. Cooper and Jessica L. Todd, both 13, practice their form in
the pool at the home of their grandfather, Ben Miller...
Photo by Vicki Cronis, Staff
Ben Miller's back yard revolves around his pool.
by CNB