Читать книгу How to Build a Pool and Hot Tub in your Basement - Adrian Martin - Страница 4

Can you imagine this basement containing a hot tub and swim-spa? I demonstrate how to do it with pictures galore!

It seems to me that whenever I think about doing anything creative, voices of doubt creep into my mind. The vision, what I want to do, can be strong and vivid, but the doubts chip away at the vision, criticizing the costs, the schedule, the reasoning behind it, even the selfishness of it. ”Why,” I often ask myself, “should I do anything at all?”

Why shouldn’t I just continue to do what I have to do - raise my family, go to work, go to church, cut the grass, paint the house, take out the trash…

What right do I have to enjoy the luxury of a hot tub? Those are for wealthier people, or people who have larger houses with better yards in which to situate the thing. And a resistance pool? Those are for the ultra-wealthy or supreme athletes who keep themselves in peak condition by swimming all summer and winter. And both devices require expertise which I don’t have.

I don’t know how a pool works. I don’t know how chlorine works, or bromine, or ozone. I don’t know what size filter to buy, or what size pump. How do you keep the water in, and the electricity out? Small mistakes could have grave consequences and it might be better if we just chucked the whole idea right now. It’s just way too complicated. Sorry. The book is over.

The End.

But I’ve learned a thing or two about the voices of doubt. And that is to give them a fair appraisal, but let facts and reason rule the final decision. I would never ignore the voices. They challenge you to go out and get stronger - finding facts and information to fill in all the gaps in your knowledge. Like bullies, they taunt you and stare you down, menacing you, and so you must face up to them and create a turning point in your life. The victory is all the sweeter for the trials. Oh, and before I forget, not all the negative energy will come from your own mind. There are other people to consider.

Can you, just for a moment, conjure up the responses that people will give when you tell them you are building a pool in your basement?

“Won’t that cause your basement to get all moldy?”

“What about leaks?”

“Your house will be unsellable after you finish that project!”

“What about building-permits? Are you even allowed to do that in your subdivision???”

“My uncle built a pool in his basement. A pool-table - which he never uses! Ha!”

“A pool in your basement? But you don’t swim now! Will anyone use it?”

It just occurred to me that if your spouse or partner is voicing any of the above concerns you have got to get them to read this book. You and your significant other must be a united team in order for this project to succeed. A hidden benefit of this book is to get you two working together on a project! A marriage is not so much what you bring to it, but what you build together. I’m giving you a three-year project here. That’s gold!

A CHANCE TO CREATE!

Never judge your own art. Just create, create, create. That is one good reason to do this. You and your spouse, family, and maybe even friends, can embark on an exciting creative journey where you write the checks, and they swing hammers and trowels. It’s a chance to be creative and explore your talents in woodworking, painting, tile, and design/architecture. This is a journey. My basement project took three years working mostly weekends, holidays, and occasionally, vacation time.

GET UP AND GET BUSY!

Our sedentary lives afford us little opportunity to labor, but here is a chance to work hard until your muscles ache and you long for your cubicle and Monday morning - just so you can rest. There is also satisfaction in seeing your vision come to life - all the parts and pieces meshing in harmony like an orchestra. And water. Ah, the water.

THE MAGIC!

Water is magic. The way the light sparkles on it or dances on the ceiling due to the slightest ripples. The way it feels on your skin, flows along the body, and lifts you. The sound of water is comforting when it burbles over rocks or trickles over a ledge into a pool. Water is so compelling and yet there is a menace to it.

Water in a pool is a caged lion - beautiful to look at, rippling with energy, scary. People can’t help but reach their hands through the bars to touch. But this animal deserves respect and daily care. If you neglect your duties, or treat her trivially, she will attack by turning the water toxic, leaking out upon your floor, or causing you to wail in frustration with equipment failures. On the other hand, if you learn her ways, she will give you back energy, prolong your life, relieve your stresses, and enrich the precious minutes of you life.

AN INVESTMENT IN YOUR HEALTH!

Water is the best exercise for any person and for any age. Submerged in water to your waist, you weigh half as much. Submerged to your neck, your muscles and skeleton bear only 10% of your body weight. Now that you are lighter, you can begin to exercise without the pounding on your muscles and joints. Swimming offers the trifecta of health - stretching, strengthening, and aerobic exercise all at once. Water gives you a workout while at the same time keeping you cool and feeling clean. And warm water soothes stiff joints, allowing them to limber up as well as relieving the pain of arthritis. I was surprised to learn that swimming increases bone-strength - yet another good reason to make this your lifetime exercise. Want to avoid coronary heart disease? Swim 30 minutes a day. Want to experience a zen-like moment where you lose track of time and come up out of the water feeling like you’ve been away and have to look at the clock to calculate the dimensional time-slip? Swimming is like that when you get into a rhythm of breathing, stroking, and letting the mind solve problems, or wander, or go black.

What I’ve been talking about is an investment in your health. What kind of price do you put on health? Health is wealth. The root word of wealth is weal or well-being. That’s well-BEING not well-HAVING. What good is the money if you cannot enjoy it? Health is wealth and many is the rich but sickly person who would gladly change places with a much poorer but healthy soul. Guard your health. While the “lion in the basement” may provide some stresses early on, they are good stresses. And in the end, you will be relieved of bad stress by frequent visits to the basement.

A SMART SITUATION!

And what about the care and feeding of the beast in the basement? Well, housing a pool in your basement can be very smart and economical when compared to keeping it outside. In the basement, it is protected from harsh weather and freezing temperatures. My basement stayed a fairly stable 55 degrees before I put the pool and hot tub down there. Now, the radiant heat from them keeps the basement at around 65 degrees. I don’t have to heat the basement because I use the heat from the pools three times. Once to heat the pool. Once more to heat the basement, and one last time to heat the floor above the basement. If the hot tub were outside, I’d be heating water, and then the heat would be wasted by going straight into the atmosphere. And where I live, Colorado, we can have weeks of sub-freezing temperatures. No matter how well insulated your hot tub, you can expect that the heater will be running non-stop making your electric meter spin like a fan. Efficient use of energy is one plus, and there are others. In your basement, your water will be protected from the rays of the sun. Sunlight degrades chlorine - making it less able to do its pool-cleaning work. Outside pools require cyanuric acid to stabilize the chlorine, something unnecessary in a basement pool. More chemicals mean more costs. Sunlight also stimulates algae - something you don’t want growing in your pool. You’ll need to chemically shock your pools more often and more chemicals mean more costs. Additionally, winds carrying dust, debris, and leaves will not soil your basement pool or clog its skimmer. Nor will pranksters be able to sneak in and skinny dip, or fill it with dishwasher soap to create a foaming mess.

PRIVACY!

Finally, you will have more privacy in your basement. Where I live, in the suburbs of Denver, my home is surrounded on all sides by other homes and their windows look down upon my back yard. Do I really want to sit there in full view of the neighbors? Will the noise I and my friends make offend them and cause them to have to come speak to me? It has happened to a neighbor of mine who situated her swim-spa on the property line between her and the neighbors. After an evening of mild reveling, she got to meet those neighbors for the very first time when they came over to complain about the noise. Who needs that? Plus, there is nothing for me to look at anyway. The night sky is ruined by light pollution, and the neighbors would just be staring down at me from their windows. The frigid weather would make it a challenge to walk outside in a bathing suit, or come back inside dripping wet. You should shower before entering the pools so that would mean tramping water from your shower through your house and out the door to the pool. This discomfort and inconvenience creates a barrier and must be eliminated. Just put the pool in your basement, along with a bathroom and shower.

Well. Now that I’ve convinced you that this is a worthwhile idea, let me show you how to do it!

I also show you how to make this rather unique concrete bar!