We are building a pool

That's a good point, We thought 2 meters was sufficient too, then I was reading the rules again, and it said 2.5 meters...The 2.5 meter lanes are for FINA meets. Check your National Governing Body rules for facility standards. For example in USA Swimming the 2.5M rule only applies to national championships, otherwise 7 feet (2.13 meters) is the minimum. Your NGB facilities standards will also give you other dimensional requirements (depth, markings, etc) Actually we are looking to put as many activities as posible. Most of the time is dedicated for schools and swimming lessons, but we are also planning on having a high volume training team, masters team, recreational activities and hidrogymnastics.Programming will dictate HVAC and gutter/pump/filtration considerations.

It has always seemed to me that many pools get built with narrower purposes in mind (like recreation), and then over the years as swimming interest increases, the use changes into more intense uses (competition, teams etc.)that require additional deck space, locker rooms, warm-up pools, bleachers, bathrooms, food service, tables, shade, timing and score boards, etc. Even if you don't have the intentions or $s for these more intense needs and uses now, it would be worth planning a footprint ahead for these possiblities so that you don't box yourself in. Think about people and how they will be interacting with the facilities now and into the future. Get a good architect that knows pool design and is up to speed on the latest technoloy too. I think we've all been in pools where the architect was clueless. Once the plans are about 80% complete, take them to an independent recognized swimming director/coach that has been around the sport for years and ask them to look it over. He might spot a fatal flaw. Because you can not easily expand a pool itself, building it with adequate size, flexibilty, lanes, gutters, access, and depth for 25-50 years into the future is probably your most important initial decision. LCM pool would be great, if you can do it. Is this pool is outdoors or indoors?? I assumed outdoors. Indoor pool areas IMHO are moer contrained and harder to expand, so planning for the future is perhaps more important indoors. Also, a few unisex individual cabana changing rooms (like at airports) could solve the problem of parents changing little kids in a lockeroom for the opposite sex. :2cents:

I forgot to mention that the pool will be build in South America, (I used to live in Ohio), so meters are the rule down here. 25m makes sense then given that info. :) You may want to check into local ordinances as far as pool capacity in number of people with that small of a pool for the older people and children. Make sure what you build will handle a typical "load" during busy times. If most your people want to be in the smaller warmer pool and its always at capacity, then thats not good either.

Would you like to, as an adult with a disability, have to deal with something like a cabana rather than the same type of facility offered to an able bodied person? The cabana solves the problem of changing but what about the problem of taking a shower or using a handicapped toilet? While South America might not have something equivalent to the Americans with Disabilities Act--I'm SURE (what with a warm water pool) that the disabled might want to be included. Who said anything about relegating disabled persons to individual changing rooms?? ADA (or the south american equivalent standard) compliant (aka accessible) facilities should be built and avaialble in all of the locker rooms, pools, and facilities. My suggestion was intended to address people, as you brought up, that are sensitive to Moms taking their 5 yr old boys into the women's locker room or Dad's taking their 5 year old girls into the men's locker room. A few small changing rooms (cabanas) would provide for that need, and some of these shoud be accessible too!

decision. LCM pool would be great, if you can do it. Also, a few unisex individual cabana changing rooms (like at airports) could solve the problem of parents changing little kids in a lockeroom for the opposite sex. :2cents: Would you like to, as an adult with a disability, have to deal with something like a cabana rather than the same type of facility offered to an able bodied person? The cabana solves the problem of changing but what about the problem of taking a shower or using a handicapped toilet? While South America might not have something equivalent to the Americans with Disabilities Act--I'm SURE (what with a warm water pool) that the disabled might want to be included.

My feeling* is two meter wide lanes is sufficient unless you plan to host major national or international competition. Considering the second pool is more or less a "kiddie" pool I'm assuming this is not the case. One advantage of the 2.5 meter lanes would be that you might be able to configure the pool as ten lanes for training purposes. The bottom and end markings would be useless with the ten lane setup, of course. * with the caveat that I'm on no way an expert on pool design!

What are you planning on using the pool for? Recreation, training, competition, lessons,etc. And how much do you plan on programming for each? If you plan on running big swim meets, then pool dimensional tolerances (with touch pads) is critical, as is the selection of timing equipment, wiring, and scoreboard. Also sound system and swimmer/spectator space. And without knowing programming it is tough to provide specific advice. USA Swimming has some very good resources for those planning on building an aquatic facility. You may wish to contact them or if you are in Omaha for Trials you can sign up for their Build a Pool conference July 1st www.regonline.com/.../Default.aspx

Obviously my suggestions could add tens of thousands of dollars to a pool design but I think its things worth thinking about if you haven't even broken ground yet. You might be glad you did some day. It would definitely be a much larger pool. Their current configuration gives a pool with a volume of approximately 691 cubic meters. A 25m X 25yd pool with the same depth would be 957 cubic meters, so almost 40% larger by volume.

yeah but OP was consideing a 20.4m wide pool. Whats 2 more meters to make 25y? I think your suggestion is definitely worth considering. Having the pool 25 yards wide certainly makes it more flexible for competition (by the same token they might consider a removeable bulkhead to allow for 25 yard competition). I just wanted to point out what seems like a small adjustment makes a substantial difference in the volume of the pool. That means more money to build the pool, but also more money to maintain the pool.

Overall, I guess my biggest piece of advice is have plenty of deck space if you'e planning to have events at the pool. Also, have locker rooms large enough to fit 2 teams. I've seen beautiful pools with locker rooms designed for 1 team or less. Once you get 40-50 guys in it, it's claustrophobic. I suppose if you have adult and child locker rooms, during meets where the pools are used you could designate a locker room to each team (assuming only 2 teams). My local pool has 5 locker rooms which I find very useful. 1) Girls' 2) Boys' 3) Womans' 4) Mens' 5) "Family/Handicapped" (meant mostly for mothers changing children, but also handicapped who need assistance getting changed). I think you have a couple options for access control. No easy solution though. 1) Put the poolside openings of the locker rooms together in a hallway leading toward the pool. Have staff member at a desk at the end of the hallway before the pool to check the membership of each person attempting to enter. This of course requires a person to work the desk and a way of the swimmer to show their credentials (ID that they have to carry in or a computer system to search for the person by name, which would be tedious). 2) The other option I see would be to have keycards, RF fobs, barcodes to unlock the doors. This doesn't really allow 100% security as people can slip through the closing doors. If the people have an ID to get in the building in the first place, use this ID to also allow them into the pool area. Obviously this is a more expensive and complicated option. People won't necessarily want to bring their keys/cards with them into the pool. To get into the gym area of one of the college pools I use there are these "turnstiles" where you tap your ID card and then you walk through (theres no bar, just sensors). If you don't tap, an alarm goes off. It's kinda like a lot of subway stations use minus the doors or metal bars. If you have the luxury of having locker rooms specifically for the pool and you can control the access at the beginning before the pool locker rooms, that'd be easier than controlling it after the locker rooms. That ways swimmers can take care of the security before they get in the locker room (they can put away their ID or w/e) or the person checking the credentials might be able to be dedicated to more tasks like working the front desk. I guess access control would provide you interesting and fairly accurate statistics on pool use.