LOCATION & AWARDS: This vinyl liner residential pool, located in central Pennsylvania outside of the Harrisburg area, won a Gold Medal in NESPA’s 2007 Design Awards Competition and honored with a Special Judge’s Award in that contest. Special Judges’ Awards are given at the discretion of the design awards judges for a pool, spa or water feature that they consider to be exceptional.

BUILDER: The project was designed and constructed by Goodall Pools and Spas, Inc., Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Robert Goodall is the owner of the company, which was started by his father, Robert L. Goodall Sr., in 1962. Originally, the company was a Fox dealer constructing wood-walled vinyl liner pools. From 1968 to 1979, Goodall became a Heldor dealer and shifted to building steel-walled vinyl liner pools. Goodall continues to build vinyl liner pools today. In addition, it has four retail outlets in central Pennsylvania that are all located about 20 miles apart in Camp Hill, Harrisburg, Lebanon and Lancaster. Besides building and retail businesses, Goodall has five service trucks on the road. The company is a Sundance Spa dealer and a BioGuard dealer, selling BioGuard chemicals in its four stores.

PROJECT PARAMETERS: Over the years, Goodall Pools had developed strong relationships with several high-end custom-home builders in central Pennsylvania. One of those homebuilders was constructing a large single-family home, which was to include a swimming pool, spa and pool house. The homebuilder would build the house and the pool house, and the pool builder would build the pool and spa. The homebuilder put its client in contact with Goodall Pools and another pool builder in the area. After studying Goodall’s capabilities, looking at its work and hearing its ideas for this project, the client wanted Goodall for the job.

The pool house: What the client wanted was not an ordinary pool house, but rather a structure designed to be reminiscent of the beautiful, 200-300-year-old mill houses that grace the landscape of central Pennsylvania. The pool house was to be a 16-ft by 24-ft structure with a main level/loft and a basement. Although the home builder would construct the pool house, close communication between homebuilder, architect and pool builder were required because the pool house and the pool shared a common wall. On the interior, the pool house would be the size of an apartment with a fireplace, kitchen, eating area and living room on the first level and a sleeping loft above. Outside steps would lead to the basement level and an outside shower. Mechanical equipment would be housed in the basement although mechanicals for the pool were placed outside the house to keep pool equipment as close as possible to the pool level.

The pool: The pool was to be a vinyl liner pool with the look of gunite measuring 41 feet long and 33 feet at the widest point. The deep end would be 20 feet wide and the shallow end 16 feet wide. It is considered a modified 20-foot by 44-foot mountain lake or lagoon-style pool. The pool would hold 27,000 gallons of water.

The spa: The house contained a large family room with a gas-fired see-through fireplace to the outside. Outside of the fireplace would be a spa that would look back at the fireplace and down the slope to the pool, pool house and the landscaping below.

BUILDER COMMENTS

The Edge interviewed builder Robert Goodall and Dan Inderbitzen, the Goodall  Pools designer who designed this project. Here are their comments:

The greatest design challenge was to blend the elevations accurately and harmoniously. The large house was built on a slope that dropped off in two directions. The basement level is exposed on the back side of the house and the homeowner wanted the pool to be at the same level as basement egress. For the pool to be placed at that level, it would actually be three feet below the main level of the pool house. In the basement of the main house, the ceilings were nine feet tall, which meant that the main level of the house would tower 10 feet above pool level. The windows facing the pool almost at pool level are actually windows in the basement of the pool house. The beautiful wrought-iron balconies surrounding the windows are eight inches above first floor level. The door to the main level of the pool house is about three feet higher than pool level.

One of the challenges of the pool house was what to do with water runoff from the roof. In this area of Pennsylvania, roofs are typically asphalt shingles or slate. To let the water simply run off an asphalt roof and into the pool would mean that dirt and debris would collect in the pool. Down spouts could be added, but they would impact the design lines of this beautiful 19th century-looking structure. The client researched and found a sterile, rubberized composite roofing material that was extremely pricey, but when rainwater rolled off the roof and into the pool, it did not change the water chemistry. The homeowner opted for this material.

The common pool house/pool wall: Undoubtedly, one of the biggest challenges in this project was the common pool house/pool wall. The client wanted to incorporate the natural native limestone and bluestone on the pool house that was used on the main house. The look that he wanted was for the stone to go below water level. That is an easy task in a gunite pool, but a harder job in a vinyl liner pool. What Goodall Pools came up with was a common concrete wall that ended with a four-inch step at the top. Then, that entire wall on the pool side would be sheathed in custom stainless steel panels designed to fit the wall from the bottom of the pool to the top, including the four-inch step. The native stone used to finish the house would fit into the step with the steel behind it. These steel panels extended to both ends of the wall and turned the corners, as does the pool. The water seal connecting the vinyl liner was done below water level with a plastic seal strip. If water leaches through the natural stone, the stainless steel panel behind the stone will prevent any water from infiltrating the house.

Locating the spa: The spa that sits outside of the family room on the main level of the house might look like it was simple to install, but nothing could be further from the truth. The excavation for the house went down to basement level, about 10 feet below where the spa was to sit. A foundation needed to be created for the spa and then built up with block and filled with stone. Three-foot columns of concrete built it up to about 6.5-7 feet. A poured concrete base was constructed. The spa was set on the base and the deck was built around it. The boulder retaining wall was the added to create the sense of this elevation.

Vinyl vs. gunite: Gunite pools are not big in this area of Pennsylvania; in fact there are very few resident gunite builders in the market, although gunite people will come in from Philadelphia and Maryland. Goodall builds only vinyl liner pools, but makes them look like gunite-a unique, high-end gunite-looking pool.

Specifying the liner: Specifying the liner was a challenge, as it always is in a complex pool. Goodall worked with Merlin Industries Inc. on both the liner for the pool and the winter cover.

In-floor cleaning system: Goodall installed an in-floor cleaning system by Paramount Pool & Spa Systems that allows for a virtually maintenance-free pool in the true sense of the word. Vacuuming is rarely necessary and all debris, even sand and leaves, gets pushed into a lower suction area protected by a Suction Vacuum Release System (SVRS) and the pulled into the basket alongside the pool. The lid is easily opened to dump the basket.

Cartridge filter: Besides the infloor cleaning system, the pool has a customer-friendly cartridge filtration system, which greatly reduces the time and effort spent on maintenance chores.

BioGuard Mineral Springs: The BioGuard Mineral Spring system uses easy-to-apply minerals and a chlorine generator to produce a chlorine sanitizer. It gives the water a nice feeling and is easy to maintain. The client has a service contract with Goodall, and the check the pool every two weeks. They also open and close the pool; otherwise the pool really takes care of itself.

Pool hydraulics: Goodall Pools took its direction from Paramount in constructing the hydraulics system. It is a well-thought-out system with 2.5-inch suction plumbing and two-inch return plumbing. Everything is constructed to current code.