A man, a vision, and the swimming pool he built in his garage

http://www.urbanitebaltimore.com/sub.cfm?issueID=70&sectionID=4&articleID=1174

by shard • 17 years ago

71 44 17 years ago

ars4• 17 years ago

Totally awesome! Too bad if the city ever find out, he'll be in trouble - sometimes government is a little too rule oriented.

And this makes we want to put one in my basement - I get water in there anyway, and the concrete floor is all cracked.

cdr• 17 years ago

Yes, damn those governments and their insistence on rationality and safety and all that nonsense.

jrockway2• 17 years ago

You seem to be being sarcastic. But a guy did this inside his own house. Do you really think the government should come in and save him from himself? Why?

ars4• 17 years ago

Notice I said rule oriented, and not intrusive or other similar words. You are right that they should insist on safety etc., and I have no problem with that.

But what's the chance that they will evaluate the safety of this, vs. saying - no engineering plans? No inspector? No permit? Fail, big fine, and we'll bill you for demolition.

And not even evaluate the specifics.

pchristensen• 17 years ago

This is even cooler than the guy that built a Lamborghini in his basement!

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=350019

jcl• 17 years ago

Crazier, maybe. I'd say Lamborghinis are inherently cooler than swimming pools. (unless you meant thermally)

sanj• 17 years ago

That's the among the most naive bits of work I've ever seen.

Concrete carries essentially no bending or tension loads. I'm amazed it's stood up to this amount of additional pressure.

Retric2• 17 years ago

The total weight of the pool is effectively meaningless. The load per square inch = weight of water at that depth. Thus the pressure at the top of the pool is effectively zero. At the bottom it's around .42psi/foot * 3feet = 1.3psi which is not all that bad. Anyway, I suspect the load is actually less than the average basement wall which often holds back 6 feet or more of soil.

ars4• 17 years ago

Didn't he brace the outside of it with 2x4's?

patio112• 17 years ago

Now, I'm not a structural engineer. However, if at the bottom of the pool you can crush/shear/buckle/etc concrete, you should also be able to crush/shear/buckle/etc six-year-old-girl, right? I'm betting the bending and tension load resistance of 6 year old girls are decidedly suboptimal for residential construction.

I see photographic evidence of six year old girl, decidedly uncrushed.

Zolt• 17 years ago

Not many stories actually make me laugh-out-loud, this one was an exception. I think it was the picture of his four daughters smiling in the picture that took me over the top!

I thought I was doing good with creating a square-foot-garden with my kids (http://www.toddalewis.com/square-foot-gardening.aspx)... hard to compete with an "indoor" swimming pool.

ph0rque• 17 years ago

But your project is a lot more practical... I sent the link to my wife, and we decided to do something similar with our children next spring, who will be 1 and 3 years old by then. Please do post more info/links/advice/lessons learned!

mrtron• 17 years ago

Absolutely. My projects tend to be pretty dumb and over the top...but this rates right up there.

I actually worked building pools during one summer[1], so I would have went a more traditional poured concrete route. I probably would have also had a plan to fill the pool in and cap it with concrete if I planned on selling the house.

Kudos on the indoor garden - I was just thinking of building one, but spring is near.

[1] Caveat - I worked almost every variety of job during high school in a small town...so the 'experience' factor is minimal. Mechanic several times/several farm jobs/baker/librarian/general contractor/factory/etc

mikeyur• 17 years ago

You can't fill in the pool, unless you want a few foot difference from road height to the height of the garage.

There was no digging involved when putting in the pool, he just put it down on top of the old garage floor.

kolya3• 17 years ago

Why fill in the pool? Just turn it into a sub-garage room and market it to the buyer as a wine cellar or a "food riot panic room" :)

wallflower• 17 years ago

If I were him, I would look very carefully every day for 45 degree cracks in the concrete below the pool. 45 degree cracks in the concrete indicate that a structural condition may exist (e.g. the load bearing of the concrete is significantly compromised) (other angles than 45 are ok).

mattmaroon2• 17 years ago

Nobody who knew that would build such a contraption in the first place.

ckinnan• 17 years ago

The thing I'd worry about is that a collapse seems most likely when the kids are using the pool. It is irresponsible. He should have poured concrete, perhaps on bearings so the whole thing could be removed in the future.

mattmaroon2• 17 years ago

Totally. If you're worried about water rocking back and forth, kids playing marco polo would seem like the most likely cause.

The author of the article seems to mention how heroically he ignored all of the educated naysayers. We'll see how heroic he sounds when his children are dead and he's in jail for criminal negligence.

mattboyd• 17 years ago

Wow, haha. This story gives everyone hope!

tocomment• 17 years ago

Any more pics? I can't really picture how it looks? I wonder why he didn't just get an engineer to help him out?

brandnewlow• 17 years ago

"Paul" sounds like he stepped out of a Faulkner or Hemingway novel.

teej• 17 years ago

As a resident, I can assure you that your statement describes a fair number of Baltimoreans.

furburger3• 17 years ago

good luck passing a housing inspection there dude...presuming he wants to be buried in the house after this bit of idiocy, cuz he'll never sell it

Tichy• 17 years ago

Am I the only one who finds such stories depressing? It depresses me that so much effort has to be spent on living in some place.

weegee• 17 years ago

he's going to have a hell of a time parking his car in there...

A man, a vision, and the swimming pool he built in his garage

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