West Haven is mostly new. Not long ago a lot of it was farm ground, and now it is subdivisions with young trees and blank backyards. That is a gift and a trap, and pool builders do not talk about the trap enough.
Most West Haven backyards have nothing in them yet. No mature trees to work around, no thirty-year-old patio to demo, no ancient sprinkler main to cut through. Access is usually good, because the fences are new and somebody laid the lot out knowing a truck might need to get back there one day.
So the design is genuinely open. You are not fitting a pool into a yard, you are designing a yard around a pool. If you are going to do this, do it properly — start with custom pool design and lay the whole backyard out at once instead of bolting things on for the next ten years.
When farm ground becomes a subdivision, the ground gets moved. Lots are cut and filled to sit level and drain to the street. Some of the dirt in your backyard has been there ten thousand years and some of it has been there since the builder graded the lot, and those two behave very differently when you put a pool in them.
Engineered fill that was compacted properly is fine. Fill that was pushed around to make a yard look flat is not, and it settles. A pool does not tolerate settlement, and neither does the concrete around it. That is the thing to watch in a newer neighborhood, and it is why we want to know where the fill is before we dig rather than after.
West Haven also sits low and west, so shallow groundwater is on the table here like it is across the west side. The Utah Geological Survey notes shallow groundwater sits within about 10 feet of the surface in low ground near lakes and can destabilize excavations. If we find it, the build changes: dewatering during the dig, and a hydrostatic relief valve so an empty shell cannot float out of the ground later.
Much of West Haven is governed. Newer subdivisions frequently have HOAs, and HOAs frequently have opinions about fence height, equipment placement and noise. Pool equipment makes noise and has to live somewhere. Find out the rules before you fall in love with a plan. It is a ten minute phone call that has saved people real money.
Utah has adopted the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, with statewide amendments in Utah Code 15A-3. Residential pools are permitted and inspected, and the safety barrier is part of the code. We pull the permit and schedule the inspections.
Usually easier for access and design, sometimes harder for soil. Open yards and wide gates make the work simpler. Uncontrolled fill from grading the subdivision can make the engineering harder. It depends on the lot, which is why we look at it.
Most will, with conditions — commonly around fencing, equipment location and construction hours. Get your CC&Rs out before you design anything.
Parts of it do. It sits low and west. Where we find shallow groundwater we design for it with dewatering and a hydrostatic relief valve rather than pretending it is not there.
Across the area, including Hooper, Syracuse, Clearfield and Layton.
If your backyard is still a blank rectangle, that is the best possible time to call. See inground pool construction and pool installation, or get in touch.
Ogden Pools — 190 W 33rd St 160 suite K, Ogden, UT 84401. Call (801) 751-9057.