Pooling your leisure ideas
Basement space into leisure space
The creation of leisure space is becoming a priority in many self-build projects. The importance of health and well-being are better understood, and Glatthaar Keller are increasingly being asked for a sport and wellness space as part of the clients’ basement project.
The simplest ideas utilise a basement room for home gym or studio, but when the objective is to replicate some of the more luxurious features found in hotels and spas, clients are including saunas, jacuzzis and indoor swimming pools.
An outdoor swimming pool is the simplest option, but its availability is thwarted by the British weather, limiting use for half of the year. An indoor swimming pool delivers 365 days swimming time but comes with an exceptionally large footprint eating into the available space. A big challenge for prospective self-builders relates to finding a suitable building plot in a desirable area. Unfortunately, this is normally a compromise, where cost, size and plot suitability has to be traded. Therefore, getting smart with the design will deliver against your desired requirements. The relationship between cost size and availability is well understood, and more and more frequently smaller building plots are the only available options. When a building plot is on a slope, the addition of a basement can be seen as an advantage rather than a negative. Digging out the space for the basement and locating the wellness centre at the bottom of the building plot and building the house on top provides a wellness centre with access to the garden, as well as a source of natural light. By using sliding glass doors, the indoor pool is seamlessly connected to the garden in summer. Even if the building plot is level, a subterranean terrace or lightwell can be created allowing natural light into the leisure space.
Glatthaar Keller have completed several basement swimming pool projects and there are a few things we’ve learnt along the way. Ideally, the swimming pool should be included as part of the design process from day one. A litre of water weighs exactly 1kg, and a relatively modest swimming pool has in the region of 15,000 litres of water. It is probably a good idea to include some additional strength to support the weight. We make the foundation slab thicker, and include extra reinforcing steel, not something which can really be retrofitted later. All of the elements which make up the swimming pool sit below ground level, which means a standard 2.4m high room requires the depth of the pool and some extra space for services. We recommend including a double height AquaSafe® basement system to house the swimming pool and supporting plant equipment. Finally, if you’re going to create a subterranean level lower than the height of the building plot, or the drainage system, extra groundwork planning is needed to make sure any flood risk is mitigated. Fortunately, with a little bit of planning the creation of a wellness centre with swimming pool should not be seen as a huge challenge.
Contact Glatthaar Keller today to discuss your basement leisure space.
