If you’re a fan of outdoor reno projects, listen up. This family bought a home with an outdoor pool that was pretty much in disarray. So instead of just renovating it, they decided to turn in into a fabulous garden.
You won’t believe the difference once you see the before and after. This looks like some kind of an epic endeavor. Let’s take a look at their whole process shared by Imgur user jmunsters .
When this family bought their house the pool area looked pretty disastrous.
They actually got quoted around $15,000 – $23,000 to fix it up. So they decided to pick a different route.
There were major cracks and heaves in the concrete padding surrounding the pool, and significant hydraulic cracks in the pool itself.
It would have been hard to salvage it.
So they figured that it was better to turn it into a vegetable garden.
Now that the project is finished they’re looking forward to a full gardening season.
Instead of renovating the pool they used the money to buy a family gym membership with access to a competition pool.
Smart thinking!
The demolition of the pool proved to be a bit tricky because their hillside left them with limited options for machinery.
But ultimately they didn’t destroy the whole yard.
They had to cut out large squares of the concrete in the shallow end to support drainage.
The husband actually wanted to get some low-grade explosives but his wife objected.
After consulting with a civil engineer they had to have eight truckloads of fill sand hauled in and shot over the garage with conveyor belts.
Their kids absolutely loved it.
They got galvanized cattle fencing with 4×4″ openings from a local farm store and then they ended up cutting sections to size and framed them up.
This worked out great.
The fence is sturdy enough for their boys to climb up.
They were able to plant passion flowers, hardy kiwi, jasmine, and clematis in a variety of sections.
As far as the pool goes, the engineer suggested adding in geotextile fabric above the sand to help stabilize it.
It was more expensive but definitely worth it.
They ended up using 4×4 utility-grade cedar on the interior and a basalt rock wall around where the buried pool wall was.
They opted to build 4×4 raised bed frames.
They used some organic compost mixed in with peat moss for the garden beds, along with 10 yards of hemlock bark dust to fill in the walking and play areas.
This looks awesome!
Overall the project cost about $12,000 including the fencing side project, as well as a kids’ play area.
Therefore it was way cheaper and safer than keeping the pool.
Whoa, I’m pretty amazed at how awesome this project turned out to be.
I would still love a backyard pool myself but this is the next best thing for sure.
