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A man, a vision, and the swimming pool he built in his garage
- ars 18y agoTotally awesome! Too bad if the city ever find out, he'll be in trouble - sometimes government is a little too rule oriented. And this makes we want to put one in my basement - I get water in there anyway, and the concrete floor is all cracked.
- cdr 18y agoYes, damn those governments and their insistence on rationality and safety and all that nonsense.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- jrockway 18y agoYou seem to be being sarcastic. But a guy did this inside his own house. Do you really think the government should come in and save him from himself? Why?
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- derf 18y agoThe article didn't give a good description of the area around this guy's house... I, for one, would be concerned if I found out one of my neighbors had 3000 gallons of water in a poorly structured container in his garage. A collapse would most definitely affect me and my neighborhood. Aside from the inconveniences that would be caused, the neighborhood could very well end up stuck with the bill for repairing damage done to infrastructure (street, sewer, underground power lines, ...) For what it's worth, I'd also be concerned if I found out my neighbor was: stockpiling firearms, making meth in his bathtub, keeping pet tigers, storing 3000 gallons of gasoline in a tank in his garage. I'm not trying to make a direct comparison, just hopefully illuminating the fact that it might not all be about the government "[saving] him from himself"
- jrockway 18y agoAside from the inconveniences that would be caused, the neighborhood could very well end up stuck with the bill for repairing damage done to infrastructure (street, sewer, underground power lines, ...) After criminal damage is done, the state can press charges. Everything else is a very slippery slope. As an example, imagine your neighbor has a gas stove and accidentally leaves it on, unlit, all day. A pilot light turns on, and the house explodes, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage. Should the government ban gas stoves? How about electricity? Finally, stockpiling firearms, making meth in the basement, keeping pet tigers, and storing 3000 gallons of highly-flammable liquid is not the same as having a small swimming pool. The things you list are generally illegal in all circumstances, but having a swimming pool is never illegal. Also, water just isn't that dangerous. The pool collapsing would probably not cause any more damage than watering a tree and forgetting you left the hose on. So, as I mentioned earlier, you are heading down a very slippery slope. Individual rights should trump the possibility of "inconvenience" to your neighbors. If anyone should be upset, it's this guy's insurance company.
- mr_justin 18y agoBuilding codes exist for a reason, simple as that.
- unalone 18y agoSo... once somebody creates a code that makes it perfect and right and unquestionable?
- derf 18y agoI don't think the government should ban gas stoves, but I don't want my neighbor running his own gas lines that don't meet the building codes. Can we agree that there is a grey area which covers where lines should be drawn in terms of personal rights vs. infringing the rights of others? It is certainly the crux of our system of government. We obviously disagree where the line is in this particular case, and I totally respect your vigilance. I do take issue with your statement "having a swimming pool is never illegal" -- that is certainly incorrect, at least by definition of the building codes in the jurisdiction I live in. But I agree, we are surrounded by slippery slopes.
- furburger 18y agoyes because someone else coming over to the house may not realize that this is dangerous, craptastic, etc. dude may actually be setting himself up for a huge liability should this ever fail on an unsuspecting guest....his house insurance won't cover it, its non-permitted work in any case he'll have to remove it if the house ever goes up for sale, there's no way that would pass inspection. the first thing an inspector will ask for is the permit for the work
- electromagnetic 18y agoAFIK he didn't modify the garage, so once it's time to sell all he has to do is drain it, disassemble it and no one will be the wiser. House insurance doesn't necessarily extend to a free standing garage, so he might be cleared there too, he just has to hope nothing disastrous happens to it.
- Raplh 18y agoIf the pool collapses with his kids in it, they might be killed. That plus the issue with damage to neighbors seems to provide a valid government interest to me.
- jonknee 18y agoHow would they be killed? It's effectively a large hot tub sitting in his garage. No more dangerous either.
- grouchyOldGuy 18y agoIf it blew out the walls of the garage, then the roof would collapse. That doesn't bode well for anyone under the roof at that time.
- ars 18y agoNotice I said rule oriented, and not intrusive or other similar words. You are right that they should insist on safety etc., and I have no problem with that. But what's the chance that they will evaluate the safety of this, vs. saying - no engineering plans? No inspector? No permit? Fail, big fine, and we'll bill you for demolition. And not even evaluate the specifics.
- furburger 18y agono permit = ripped down at owners expense, pure and simple
- Retric 18y agoI don't want to pay for a government inspection of this type of crap after the fact. It's far less expensive for the public to simply force him to take it down at his own expense if he lacks the proper inspections / permits. However, it's unlikely to become an issue until something bad happens which IMO is a reasonable compromise.
- pchristensen 18y agoThis is even cooler than the guy that built a Lamborghini in his basement! http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=350019 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=350019
- jcl 18y agoCrazier, maybe. I'd say Lamborghinis are inherently cooler than swimming pools. (unless you meant thermally)
- sanj 18y agoThat's the among the most naive bits of work I've ever seen. Concrete carries essentially no bending or tension loads. I'm amazed it's stood up to this amount of additional pressure.
- Retric 18y agoThe total weight of the pool is effectively meaningless. The load per square inch = weight of water at that depth. Thus the pressure at the top of the pool is effectively zero. At the bottom it's around .42psi/foot * 3feet = 1.3psi which is not all that bad. Anyway, I suspect the load is actually less than the average basement wall which often holds back 6 feet or more of soil.
- ars 18y agoDidn't he brace the outside of it with 2x4's?
- patio11 18y agoNow, I'm not a structural engineer. However, if at the bottom of the pool you can crush/shear/buckle/etc concrete, you should also be able to crush/shear/buckle/etc six-year-old-girl, right? I'm betting the bending and tension load resistance of 6 year old girls are decidedly suboptimal for residential construction. I see photographic evidence of six year old girl, decidedly uncrushed.
- Zolt 18y agoNot many stories actually make me laugh-out-loud, this one was an exception. I think it was the picture of his four daughters smiling in the picture that took me over the top! I thought I was doing good with creating a square-foot-garden with my kids (http://www.toddalewis.com/square-foot-gardening.aspx http://www.toddalewis.com/square-foot-gardening.aspx)... hard to compete with an "indoor" swimming pool.
- ph0rque 18y agoBut your project is a lot more practical... I sent the link to my wife, and we decided to do something similar with our children next spring, who will be 1 and 3 years old by then. Please do post more info/links/advice/lessons learned!
- mrtron 18y agoAbsolutely. My projects tend to be pretty dumb and over the top...but this rates right up there. I actually worked building pools during one summer[1], so I would have went a more traditional poured concrete route. I probably would have also had a plan to fill the pool in and cap it with concrete if I planned on selling the house. Kudos on the indoor garden - I was just thinking of building one, but spring is near. [1] Caveat - I worked almost every variety of job during high school in a small town...so the 'experience' factor is minimal. Mechanic several times/several farm jobs/baker/librarian/general contractor/factory/etc
- mikeyur 18y agoYou can't fill in the pool, unless you want a few foot difference from road height to the height of the garage. There was no digging involved when putting in the pool, he just put it down on top of the old garage floor.
- kolya3 18y agoWhy fill in the pool? Just turn it into a sub-garage room and market it to the buyer as a wine cellar or a "food riot panic room" :)
- wallflower 18y agoIf I were him, I would look very carefully every day for 45 degree cracks in the concrete below the pool. 45 degree cracks in the concrete indicate that a structural condition may exist (e.g. the load bearing of the concrete is significantly compromised) (other angles than 45 are ok).
- mattmaroon 18y agoNobody who knew that would build such a contraption in the first place.
- ckinnan 18y agoThe thing I'd worry about is that a collapse seems most likely when the kids are using the pool. It is irresponsible. He should have poured concrete, perhaps on bearings so the whole thing could be removed in the future.
- mattmaroon 18y agoTotally. If you're worried about water rocking back and forth, kids playing marco polo would seem like the most likely cause. The author of the article seems to mention how heroically he ignored all of the educated naysayers. We'll see how heroic he sounds when his children are dead and he's in jail for criminal negligence.
- patio11 18y agoOK, if you want to pick the dangerous part of this, folks, it is NOT the construction. It is the fact of there being a pool, itself. Standing water kills children. It is one of the most prolific killers of children in the United States -- not as bad as that noted scourge, plastic buckets, but almost there. Seriously -- we have REALLY warped senses of what is dangerous. What is the scenario for the pool "collapsing" when his children are playing in it? A 60 pound girl waves her arm displacing perhaps 2 pounds of water at a few inches per second, which then pounds the surrounding concrete to dust, causing it to fly at supersonic speeds into the water, in the direction opposite the water pressure? I didn't exactly do so great in physics but I'm finding that sort of unlikely. The most likely failure -- his pool springs a serious leak. The garage gets written off. Oh well.
- mattboyd 18y agoWow, haha. This story gives everyone hope!
- tocomment 18y agoAny more pics? I can't really picture how it looks? I wonder why he didn't just get an engineer to help him out?
- brandnewlow 18y ago"Paul" sounds like he stepped out of a Faulkner or Hemingway novel.
- teej 18y agoAs a resident, I can assure you that your statement describes a fair number of Baltimoreans.
- furburger 18y agogood luck passing a housing inspection there dude...presuming he wants to be buried in the house after this bit of idiocy, cuz he'll never sell it
- Tichy 18y agoAm I the only one who finds such stories depressing? It depresses me that so much effort has to be spent on living in some place.
- weegee 18y agohe's going to have a hell of a time parking his car in there...