For aquatic facilities across the country, age is becoming a tough challenge, and it’s affecting attendance levels, staff recruiting, and budgets alike.  Many communities are replacing and enhancing their pools; but the resulting effect on neighboring aquatic facilities with outdated facilities is felt even more. Unfortunately, many communities do not have budgets allowing for dream replacements costing millions of dollars and years to design and construct.  But rest easy; because if you’re one of the communities working within a limited budget, you can re-energize your facility and help those slumping numbers.

If your pool is relatively new and you are interested in increasing the appeal to repeat customers, think about adding new features.  Water slides, toddler slides or floatables are all features that can be added to your pool, and many of these features can be bought and installed directly from the manufacturer with low stress to the facility and renewed fun for patrons.

For older facilities, pool replacement may be the typical consultant recommendation, but it’s not your only choice.  If you have an older facility and you’re thinking about making some updates, you may want to start your project with an evaluation of your pool.  An evaluation of your existing facility conducted by a qualified aquatic consultant will serve to determine your pool's overall condition and will help your community set a plan for the future. 

To provide the most effective information to you and your community, an evaluation should include an on-site facility assessment and any additional items that will help the consultant thoroughly assess the condition of the facility, such as the following:

• Attendance and program participation history review

• Systems testing

• Facility history review

• Soil and subgrade testing

• Water use profile

• Water loss testing

• Pressure testing

• Code requirement reviews

• Structure analysis

• Remaining life estimate

After the consultant has completed your evaluation, you should be presented with a comprehensive report detailing all the results and findings of the various items in the evaluation.  The report should also include consultant recommendations for renovation, enhancement, or replacement, along with cost estimates for each alternative, and possibly concept drawings, depending on the terms of your contract. 

As an option to update your aging facility, renovation may be identified as a possible course of action, and your consultant can then work with your community to develop an acceptable budget and concept plan for updating your facility; many times at a much lower cost than a complete facility replacement.

If your facility is unable to be renovated, and the consultant recommends a complete replacement, don't despair!  By beginning the process with an evaluation, you will now be armed with the proper information and knowledge necessary to budget and prepare for this important step in your community's aquatic future.

This article was brought to you by Water's Edge Aquatic Design.  For more information on renovations, please contact Heather Jensen at hjensen@wedesignpools.com.