Three years ago Graham Menzies and his wife Jan were searching the internet for design ideas for a pool for their Northamptonshire home. “Our house is listed, and we wanted a design that would be sympathetic to the style of the house.” They found a French manufacturer – Piscinelle – that really fitted the bill. “Their website was full of pictures of pools they had installed, many of which were in period homes not unlike ours”.
Graham was invited to a Trade Show in Brighton at which Piscinelle were to be exhibiting, which gave him an opportunity to look at not only the Piscinelle range, but also to talk to other pool manufacturers.
“Piscinelle has a unique concept”, says Graham. “They developed this fantastic range of pools that are based on a wooden structure, with a wide choice of coloured liners that can be inserted. They have a 25 year history in the timber trade, and they really know what they are doing in this regard. As well as being expertly engineered, they are also designed to be objects of outstanding beauty. They use only the finest hardwood, for instance, for the pool surround, and you only have to touch it to realise the quality and strength that it has. And the wood that is used for the main structure is selected and treated in such a way that it should withstand direct contact with earth for at least 20 years without any degradation. In fact there are cases of people who have moved house after several years, and disassembled the pool to take with them to reassemble elsewhere, and found the wood to be still in perfect condition.” The use of wood for a pool structure surprises many people, but it has much better thermal retention properties than concrete, and easily copes with minor stresses that can sometimes crack rigid structures.
Another design feature unique to Piscinelle is the Technical Block. This combines all the necessary working parts of the pool – the circulation inlets and outlets, surface skimmer and lighting, into one unit, which is placed on whichever side of the pool is most appropriate for your design. Vitally, it doesn’t require that holes are drilled in the liner or the pool structure. “I looked at some competitive designs which seemed fine until you got down to the detail, and I instinctively felt that any place where you have to pierce the liner would create a weak spot in the structure. Subsequent discussions with clients have confirmed this.”
The final point that swayed Graham towards Piscinelle was price. “We had set ourselves a budget of £20,000 for the pool. Talks with designers of concrete pools started at much higher than that figure, and rapidly climbed towards £30 - £35,000. But my pool came in at just over £11,000. It’s not often that we have undertaken a project in the house that has ended up costing less than we thought!”
So Graham sums up his approach to choosing a pool, as with many similar items, as using the ABC technique:
A - Appearance – does it look good, and enhance your home?
B - Build quality – is it well made; will it look as good in 3, 5 or 10 years time?
C - Cost – does it represent good value for money?
Delighted with his choice and looking for a new project after having recently sold his computer software business, Graham approached Piscinelle earlier this year with a view to setting up a distributorship in this central region. “They were very welcoming and helpful”, says Graham. “They recognise the benefit of having someone who is a pool owner acting as an agent. Potential clients are always welcome to see my pool, and many of them take the opportunity to try it out – something they might be hesitant to do in a showroom. They also see the real thing. My pool is now 3 years old, is used regularly, but looks as good as new.”
The pools are sold as self-assembly, and come with full instructions. But Graham recalls his reticence at taking on the task. “I am a competent Do-it-yourselfer”, but this was a big project, so I asked for some help. In the end our pool was delivered early, and my son and I decided to have a go, and we had it all up and filling in just over a day – so we cancelled the request for help!” However Going Swimmingly does offer assistance to clients, and is prepared to undertake anything from simple advice and guidance right up to full project control.
So, how is the business going? Well, there can only be one answer to that, says Graham – “It’s Going Swimmingly!”.
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Going Swimmingly Ltd, 7 Sutton Street, Flore, Northampton, NN7 4LD |
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