Congratulations to Mr & Mrs Vivers from Maitland for winning the 2017 #Pinkcompasspool Fiji Holiday.

We are excited to announce that, starting today, we will run a new competition with winners for another Fiji Holiday announced next year as our charity work continues with the McGrath foundation.

Would you like a Compass Pools authorised dealer to build your dream pool?

Each year, SPASA Victoria showcases excellence in the swimming pool & spa industry at the annual Awards of Excellence Gala Dinner. These prestigious awards cover a range of categories from finished pool & spa installations to the latest equipment innovations. Compass Pools Melbourne, our dealer building pools in the Greater Melbourne region, has again received multiple awards this year.

There are multiple categories available within this prestigious event. Judges may award a Gold and/or Highly Commended, or no award, in each category.

The Awards of Excellence are designed to:

• Promote achievement in design, construction, innovation & professionalism across the industry
• Encourage a high degree of competency & professionalism by members
• Provide a means & opportunity for consumers to identify Award winners

We are proud to announce that Compass Pools Melbourne, the authorised Compass Pools Australia dealer, has been successful again this year. One of their pool installations was awarded Gold and four pools were awarded Highly Commended by the committee. The official SPASA Victoria website lists all the awarded pool builders for each of the categories. These are the successful fibreglass pool installations by Compass Pools Melbourne:

Paradise in the Country

Sitting gently in the environment, the two lanes lap pool allows multi purpose swimming. The pool features a glass wall which is still a very new technology in the fibreglass pool building industry.

Renovation Designed Around the Pool

The customer wanted their courtyard to be part of their everyday living. Their daily life ‘lives’ with the pool – morning, noon and night. Glass panels were positioned to be ‘balanced’ with the courtyard.

Photography

Paradise in the country. Living out of town this client wanted to have the swimming and aesthetic pleasures of a river or natural body of water view. They wanted the pool to sit gently yet tastefully with the view.

Artistic Design

The customer did not want a negatived edge due to the evaporation rate of the water running over the edge but did want the look of extended water view or disappearing edge. This was the reason the glass edge was added to the project. They didn’t want blue water to contradict the landscape. They wanted to enhance not contrast.

Originally looking at a long lap pool they decided that they needed more lap swimming but in proportion to the large deck space. A skinny pool would look wrong in size. Hence, they made it two lanes instead of one!

Degree of Difficulty

This site was very easy due to wide access, however, the height difference did cause some complexity. The pool was engineered by Compass Pools Australia the Maxi rib technology to allow the pool to be ‘free standing’. This pool was originally sold with the base of the pool shell sitting on the natural ground. This would have meant the client had to walk 5 or 6 steps down to the pool from the house (as the house was sitting high on the hill). The pool was then re-engineered to have a floating slab constructed so that the pool was raised to sit almost level with the finished height of the house. They didn’t want long continuous deck so they broke it up with one step down.

Obvious Perceived Qualities

The aim in fibreglass pool building is to make sure edges still look sharp. To do this, as the pool builder you have to combine existing manufactured practises that are not easily changed with on site adjustments. Manufactured pools do restrict the individual aspect of a look and as the builder, you need to push the boundaries of what the shell was originally designed for ‘to get the look’. An experienced fibreglass pool builder can do this and make it look like all one beautiful vessel.

Innovation

Glass is common with pools, but only with concrete construction. Glass has very rarely been used with fibreglass pool given the fibreglass shell is flexible by nature. Any people who wanted a ‘wow’ factor with a swimming pool always had to revert to concrete pools.

PWe had the manufacturer build one edge with a ‘drop edge’ on the pool shell. Once in position, the Compass Pools Melbourne team could measure and have a custom made stainless steel channel designed.This was then fixed and sealed to the pool. The glass then sits in this and it is hidden so it doesn’t look ‘tacked’ on, The inside of the pool shell then has a matching tile to cover this edge.

Desirability

The client wanted the benefits of fibreglass pool with the smooth surface and ease of maintenance but was worried it would look like an old fashioned pool. By giving clients the advantages of these pools but constructing it with the ‘wow’ factor it gave them the best of both worlds.

Amenity

This pool was designed for regular lap swimming but they also wanted to have a pool proportion to space. They wanted it to be easy to get to (not having to walk down many steps to get to the pool). They also recognised that it enhanced their view and made them enjoy it more.

2017 SPASA Victoria Awards

Photography

This house renovation was designed around the pool. The customer wanted their courtyard to be part of their everyday living. This photo captures how their daily life ‘lives’ with the pool – morning, noon and night

Artistic Design

When designing this pool with the client, Compass Pools Melbourne had to work out where the glass panels could be positioned so they were ‘balanced’ with the courtyard yet had to be built between the fibreglass structural support ribs. These engineered free standing support were non-negotiable as to their position. They had to work with a prefabricated product and manoeuvre it in an existing space and we needed to make it look ‘balanced’ and not have the windows ‘off centre’.

Degree of Difficulty

This site proved to be somewhat difficult for many reasons. Inner city Melbourne (Richmond) meant that the fibreglass pool delivery had to consider trams/clearways and working in a small space. The house was existing and with the tight space in Richmond, we couldn’t have a crane lift the pool into space. They had to use two small cranes and a custom built trolley to end up wheeling it through the kitchen area into position.

Obvious Perceived Qualities

The pool shell is manufactured with a ‘void’ to allow them to build the glass windows. It’s important that the fibreglass shell look like one with the glass and not just ‘inserted’ in ….i.e. not two different structures. It had to blend. It is not till you explain how it’s built that people realise there is a marriage between the fibreglass and landscaping (or deck fit out & tiles) to make this look complete.

The fibreglass shell was manufactured with recesses built into it. These recesses were trimmed out on site. Glass was measured up and glued into position and sealed watertight. Secondary glass window – removable for cleaning was used on the outside so that the pool would comply with fencing regulations.

Innovation

Glass is common with pools but previously only with concrete construction. Glass has very rarely been used with fibreglass pool given the fibreglass shell is flexible by nature. Any pool buyers who wanted a ‘wow’ factor with a swimming pool always had to revert to concrete pools construction. This is not the case anymore. This client wanted the colour of the water visual from the house. The pool was only able to be positioned free standing (due to site conditions) and they did not want to look at ‘box or wall’. It brings the pool and the life of the pool into the house.

Desirability

The client wanted the benefits of fibreglass pool with the smooth surface and ease of maintenance but was worried it would look like an old fashioned pool. By giving our clients the advantages of these pools but constructing with ‘wow’ factors gives them the best of both worlds.

Amenity

This pool is used day and night and we are not even talking about when the kids are swimming. At family meal time, the pool lights are on, the pool has in-floor cleaning so it always looks crisp and clean. It had to have infloor cleaning given it was on show every time anyone was in the kitchen. The beautiful pool colour had to be sparkling all the time.

2017 SPASA Victoria Awards

Would you like Compass Pools Melbourne to build your dream pool?

At Compass, we try to provide as much information and knowledge for our customers as possible. Texts and images can be informative, however, sometimes it’s better to see and hear it in the form of a video. We already had a lot of videos on the website, but they were scattered around the site and could not always be accessed readily. From now on, you’ll find more than 30 videos in the dedicated Video Library. You can access it from the main menu under Advice – Video Library.

In the Library, we have organised more than 30 videos into seven categories. At the top, there are five featured technology videos, which explain the hidden advantages that make Compass Pools so much better than other fibreglass pools. In the Planning a Pool section you will learn about considerations that might be important before even deciding to build a pool. Here, an interesting question that many people ask is explained as well: Should you build a pool before the new house is constructed or after it’s built?

Generally, among the many issues that need to be considered, pool cost is the number one. Let our pool planning experts explain to you what affects the cost of a swimming pool and how to prepare your swimming pool budget. When it comes to pool construction, you might like to know how long it takes to build a swimming pool or how to build a future-proof pool. Find these and four other interesting videos in this section.

We deal with swimming pool design and features in the next section of our new Video Library. Find out more about the different pool shapes and sizes available, how to choose a colour for your pool or how to build a freestanding fibreglass pool. In the Why Compass Pools section, we assure you that you won’t regret selecting a Compass fibreglass pool. Are you curious why real estate agents love our pools? You will find out why in another video within this section. Finally, we share insights on swimming pool care in the final section. If you do not know what a hands-free pool is or you still believe that maintaining a pool is hard work, stray into this section of the Video Gallery to be enlightened.

We hope you will enjoy this new multimedia part of our website. We will be more than happy to hear from you – please get in touch with us either by calling 1300 667 445 or contacting your local Compass Pools pool builder.

Do you need a water tank when installing a pool and why is it important to know your pool’s water capacity?

Video transcription: We’re often asked, if I install my pool, will I need a water tank? That is a really good question. As a general rule, pools up to around about ten metres generally don’t need a water tank. As soon as you exceed the ten metre mark which correlates to the number of litres in that pool as a rough rule of thumb, if your pool has more than 40,000 litres of water in it, under the BASIX rules it’s generally required that you install a water tank with your swimming pool.

The other tipping point is not just 40,000 litres, because you could have a pool or a volume of water that is a lot less than 40,000 litres, the other trigger is whether the overall project exceeds $50,000 in cost.

Here is another tip. When you’re thinking about the pool, if you’re just trying to avoid a water tank, and you think, I’ll cut down the size simply so I don’t have to have one, really think about. This is something you are likely to live with for a very long time. Most people who are thinking about installing a pool are not thinking about moving from the house in a couple of years. So you’ll soon forget the little bit of extra money you spent on the water tank in the planning of your pool. This is something that is going to be with you for life. If that means you’ve got a greater swimming area or something that suits your lifestyle better, that’s really what we would suggest is the most important consideration. Give one of the team a call today on 1300 667 445.