I was having lunch at a club today and I noticed an official notice that they were taking the pool out of service for good in July.
I asked one of the managers about it, and she said, they debated it long and hard but he insurance and upkeep versus the use made it not worth it.
I’m not a club member, I was having lunch as someone’s guest, but I got to thinking, this is a huge Olympic sized pool. It’s 3 feet to 15 feet deep.
What does one do with a pool after you close it? I asked the manager and she said, “We’ll just lock it up for now, and if we get the money to tear it down, I guess we will or maybe someday reopen it.”
So I guess the pool area will be locked and this huge room will be wasted?
My question is what are the logics of removing a huge ground floor indoor pool?
The swim club I was a member at during high school got bought by a church (Evangelical of some type, IIRC) about the time I went to college. The indoor pool had its tiling jackhammered out, the pumps etc. removed, and was filled with concrete. I understand that the altar ended up where the diving boards used to be.
The outdoor pool and tennis courts they kept for their members, apparently so they wouldn’t have to associate with any nasty outside influences in their non-church time. About five years later the congregation folded, and it’s now been abandoned for years and years. Rumor has it that the giant chunk of concrete under the floor indoors made it infeasible to repurpose the place into something else.
If you’ve ever seen a press conference from the White House, that long room with a sloping floor that they’re in? That’s an ex-pool. So, your club could try that, if they have a lot of press conferences.
It probably wasn’t completely filled with concrete. Standard work for abandoning a pool would be to punch holes in the bottom, fill the pool with dirt and compact, and if a floor was desired on top it would be a slab about 4" or so thick, depending on the use.
OK, basics of shutting down a pool (indoor or outdoor):
As Dag Otto mentioned, there is a hole punched in it. Because it otherwise is a waterproof tub sitting in water-filled soil. Some people who drained a pool found that it popped up a few inches as the last of the water was removed. The hole allows the water to rise in the tub as it rises in the soil.
Before completely destroying the value of the real estate by creating a huge block of concrete, the sensible thing outdoors is fill with soil (and leave the stubs of the various pipes, in case a future owner is foolish enough to want to restore it).
Indoors, I would suggest an engineered floor across the pit (after punching a couple of holes).
The Elementary School I attended had an underground “meeting room” with a bizarre domed floor. Rumor had it it was originally a pool. My gess is that they punched the hole and promptly filled with concrete - then discovered that even a block of concrete will rise if it is on a water table which rises.
I looked that school up many years ago (we moved from the town) - it had been torn down (including all the “additions” that were never enough) and rebuilt.
I"d love to know what they found under that floor.
My grandparents had an indoor pool in there basement. It hadn’t actually been filled up & used since circa 2000 and my brother sold the house a few years later. I’ve always wondered what the new owners did with it. From driving past I know they put an above ground pool up in the back yard. I know from my brother the indoor pool did NOT make it easier to sell the house.
That would cost almost as much as re-plaster, clean waterline tile, replace spa return jets.
And more than replace controls/timers with ones usable from Smart Phone!
I don’t care enough, nor am I rich enough to do either.
I am atrophying due to pain from osteoarthritis. I really should get a foam board and start paddling around in the pool for exercise.
Someday.
