Pool with a view: Elaborate design, hillside location make this backyard
addition 1 of a kind
By Alma Gaul

They said it couldn’t be done.

When Larry and Linda Olson bought their red brick house overlooking the Mississippi River in Rapids City, Ill., about three years ago, they thought they’d like to have a swimming pool, too.

But the half-dozen businesses they contacted said they didn’t think that would be possible, given the 100-foot drop-off some 20 feet beyond their house, which is almost perched on the bluff.

The property was, indeed, a challenge. But it was one that Scott Pearce, president of Blue Water Pools and Swim Spas, Bettendorf, took up with a vengeance.

Saying it couldn’t be done “kind of put a fire in my belly,” he says.

The result is a 14-foot by 28-foot kidney-shaped Fiberglass pool and adjoining whirlpool spa, set in a 33-foot by 37-foot steel-reinforced concrete bunker that sinks some 16 feet into the hillside, offering an unparalleled view of the Mississippi.

Standing at the edge of the deck and looking out, you can see 10 miles from east to west. It is safe to say there’s no other pool like it in the Quad-Cities, likely in the world.

It was, as Pearce says, “a major, major project.”

Pool & Spa News, the pool industry’s leading trade publication, thinks so too.

The 40-year-old, Los Angeles based publication features Pearce and the Olson pool in its Masters of Design issue, coming out Friday.

The issue profiles builders throughout the world who have created outstanding pools in one of six categories — Fiberglass, gunite (concrete), vinyl liner, portable spas, water features and above-ground.

Pearce is the lead builder among three in the Fiberglass category, Bob Dumas, Pool & Spa News technical editor, said.

Pearce was picked because “design-wise, the pool was such a challenge, built into the side of the hill like that, and because of the view,” Dumas said.

How it was done

In tackling the project, Pearce first looked at it as though he were building on flat ground, then asked himself what he would need to do to support that.

He decided to build a concrete bunker with walls 14 inches thick, sunk about 16 feet into the hillside, with three-foot wide, continuous concrete footings, reinforced with steel bars that are installed vertically, then tied horizontally and double-stacked. The concrete work was done by Diercks Concrete and Excavation, Davenport, requiring 22 loads.

The steel rods “really reinforce the structure,” Pearce says. “We erred on the safe side.”

To make a “nest” for the pool and spa, the “bunker” was then filled with several layers of rock — first a layer of rocks eight to 10-inches in diameter, followed by a fiber mat, then a layer of rocks four- to six-inches in diameter, followed by a fiber mat, then a layer of two-inch gravel, followed by another fiber mat and finally a six inch base of rock chips.

Bringing in the rocks was no easy feat, given the site. From trucks, they had to be moved via a conveyor belt to the back.

Once the rock was installed, Pearce could proceed as he would with a normal installation, “craning in” the one-piece Fiberglass pool. Randy White of White Roofing, Eldridge, Iowa, did the work.

Pearce then installed the plumbing, with a separate heater, filter and pump for the pool and spa, plus a computerized chlorination system and fiber optic lights. Then the bunker was backfilled with more rock chips and the pools were filled with water.

The last major job was to install the decking — concrete aggregate in the area immediately surrounding the pools and vinyl for the rest. Part of the deck projects 15 feet out into space, supported by steel braces. This cantilevered design was built by Joe Sampson, of Sampson Construction, Davenport, who also installed the steel rod fence that surrounds the project.

Overall, the project took about 45 days, start to finish, last fall.

Cost? Olson, who is retired from Olson Engineering, Eldridge, just shakes his head and smiles. That’s not a question he’s going to answer.

By the numbers

3: Feet thickness of the footings

13: Drain holes at the bottom of the bunker

14: Inch thickness of bunker walls

15: Number of feet the pool deck projects out into space

16: Number of feet the bunker sinks into the hillside

22: Loads of concrete used in project

45: Number of days the pool took to build

357: Loads of aggregate rock used to fill the bunker

800: Pieces of steel re-rod used in the bunker

8,000: Number of gallons of water the main pool holds

Alma Gaul can be contacted at (563) 383-2324 or agaul@qctimes.com.