The Essential Plans
Downloadable Construction Plans for Our Essential Natural Swimming Pool/Pond
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These construction plans are your essential guide to our most basic, most economical style of Natural Swimming Pool/Pond (aka "NSP")! This 14 page plan is packed with scaled drawings, material and dimension callouts and special construction details. Within the plans, you will find drawings detailing all of the major components and installation steps needed to create the Essential NSP (including plumbing the system as well as building a basic pier and underwater wooden wall), plus some optional upgrades like a waterfall or zero-entry pebble beach.
What's Included:
This eBook, like our other educational resources, is viewable on The Natural Pool Academy website. Pair it with our video course, Natural Pools: The Essential Online Course and/or our how-to eBook, Natural Swimming Pools & Ponds: THE TOTAL GUIDE, 3rd Edition, for the ultimate DIY experience (see Bundle & Save options). After purchase, you will be prompted to create a password and be able to access the plans instantly on NaturalPoolAcademy.org. These plans are designed to be viewed online, but you can also download a PDF copy for offline viewing or for printing out at home.
What's Included:
- 8 Different Size Options in Round or Oval Shape to Choose From:
- Designs range in size from 32FT to 56FT+ overall with swimming areas as small as 13FT x 13FT or as large as 34FT x 39FT
- 14 Plan Pages
- Itemized Materials List
- Plumbing Schematics
- Plan View and Section View Drawings
- Sample Pier Drawing
- Excavation Drawing
- Underwater Wooden Wall Details
- Instructions for Creating the Biological Filter
- Instructions for Adding an Optional Beach
This eBook, like our other educational resources, is viewable on The Natural Pool Academy website. Pair it with our video course, Natural Pools: The Essential Online Course and/or our how-to eBook, Natural Swimming Pools & Ponds: THE TOTAL GUIDE, 3rd Edition, for the ultimate DIY experience (see Bundle & Save options). After purchase, you will be prompted to create a password and be able to access the plans instantly on NaturalPoolAcademy.org. These plans are designed to be viewed online, but you can also download a PDF copy for offline viewing or for printing out at home.
FAQ's : Essential NSP Plans
What's The Natural Pool Academy? For over 20 years, we've helped people build their own natural pools with our how-to eBook, Natural Swimming Pools & Ponds: THE TOTAL GUIDE. In 2023, we launched The Natural Pool Academy in order to expand our educational offerings. This includes a new website, NaturalPoolAcademy.org, which hosts the newest edition of the eBook along with a new video course, Natural Pools: The Essential Online Course and our Essential NSP Construction Plans.
How do I receive the plans once I purchase them? The plans are instantly viewable online on the Natural Pool Academy website (NaturalPoolAcademy.Org) and are designed to integrate with our online course, Natural Pools: The Essential Online Course and our how-to eBook, Natural Swimming Pools & Ponds: THE TOTAL GUIDE which you can also view there. After purchase on The Natural Pool Academy website, you will be automatically prompted to create a password and allowed to login to the Essential Plan pages of the website. Once there, you can download a PDF version of the plans for offline viewing, if you so choose. These plans are copyright protected, so please do not distribute, post online or otherwise share these plans. We've worked very hard to create these, so please only use them as intended!
I plan to print the plans after I download them, what size are they? The Essential NSP Plans are 8-1/2" x 11" letter format (14 pages). We recommend printing them in color, since some of the pages feature important color-coded details. The Resource Packet (which is included with the plans and contains the Materials Lists) is letter sized as well with 13 pages.
What's the minimum space required for the Essential NSP? Our Essential NSP plans includes options for eight different sizes and shapes, ranging from 32FT Round (with a 13FT swim area) to 51FT x 56FT Oval (with a 34FT x 39FT swim area). To allow for equipment access during construction, the smallest option included in the plans (32FT Round) needs a space of at least 40FT x 40FT.
Do the Essential NSP Plans include instructions for building the pier? Yes, the Essential NSP Plans include construction drawings (including a plan view, side view, and install details) for a basic rectangular pier.
Why do you use underwater wooden walls in the Essential NSP Plans? The underwater wall serves multiple functions in the swimming pond: It retains the material along the outer edge of the pond (bio-filter plumbing, filter media gravel, river rock and water plants) and creates a separate swimming space in the center. Our underwater wooden walls are always wet, so they are not subject to rot like wood that is kept alternatively wet and dry. We have 15+ year old NSP's with these same wooden walls that are still strong and beautiful! Some of our other NSP styles feature stacked rock walls instead of these more economical wooden walls, but are much more labor & material intensive (contact us for a Custom NSP Project).
What if I want a rectangular shaped pool? The strength of the underwater wall comes from its polygonal shape, which is designed to withstand the inward pressure of the gravel on all sides. That's why the Essential Plans include instructions for a round and oval shaped pond. Long, straight wall sections, as would be needed to create a rectangular swimming area, require a different, more complex and labor-intensive construction method (contact us for a Custom NSP Project).
What skills are required to build an Essential NSP? Though we consider the Essential style NSP the easiest to DIY of the various construction methods we employ, it still requires considerable construction experience and involves skills like:
We go over many of these tasks in our how-to ebook, Natural Swimming Pools & Ponds: THE TOTAL GUIDE, 3rd Edition and in our video course, Natural Pools: The Essential Online Course. In fact, most of the video course was filmed during one of our own Essential natural pool builds!
Never undertake a Natural Swimming Pool/Pond construction project unless you are confident you can see it through properly and safely. We want your NSP project to be a success, so we offer a variety of construction options.
What if I plan to DIY using these plans, but need help getting started? We can help you if you have any questions at all while looking over the plans. If you need some help deciding where to put the pond in your yard and what size/optional extras are best for you, we offer a Essential Site Visit service to anywhere in the contiguous United States. At the Site Visit we will work with you in-person to decide where to put your NSP, what size, shape and features are best for you and answer any site-specific or project-specific questions. We will use that time together to basically customize the Essential Plans to your unique space! Alternatively, we can help you remotely with our Hourly Design service; via phone, email or video chat.
How do I receive the plans once I purchase them? The plans are instantly viewable online on the Natural Pool Academy website (NaturalPoolAcademy.Org) and are designed to integrate with our online course, Natural Pools: The Essential Online Course and our how-to eBook, Natural Swimming Pools & Ponds: THE TOTAL GUIDE which you can also view there. After purchase on The Natural Pool Academy website, you will be automatically prompted to create a password and allowed to login to the Essential Plan pages of the website. Once there, you can download a PDF version of the plans for offline viewing, if you so choose. These plans are copyright protected, so please do not distribute, post online or otherwise share these plans. We've worked very hard to create these, so please only use them as intended!
I plan to print the plans after I download them, what size are they? The Essential NSP Plans are 8-1/2" x 11" letter format (14 pages). We recommend printing them in color, since some of the pages feature important color-coded details. The Resource Packet (which is included with the plans and contains the Materials Lists) is letter sized as well with 13 pages.
What's the minimum space required for the Essential NSP? Our Essential NSP plans includes options for eight different sizes and shapes, ranging from 32FT Round (with a 13FT swim area) to 51FT x 56FT Oval (with a 34FT x 39FT swim area). To allow for equipment access during construction, the smallest option included in the plans (32FT Round) needs a space of at least 40FT x 40FT.
Do the Essential NSP Plans include instructions for building the pier? Yes, the Essential NSP Plans include construction drawings (including a plan view, side view, and install details) for a basic rectangular pier.
Why do you use underwater wooden walls in the Essential NSP Plans? The underwater wall serves multiple functions in the swimming pond: It retains the material along the outer edge of the pond (bio-filter plumbing, filter media gravel, river rock and water plants) and creates a separate swimming space in the center. Our underwater wooden walls are always wet, so they are not subject to rot like wood that is kept alternatively wet and dry. We have 15+ year old NSP's with these same wooden walls that are still strong and beautiful! Some of our other NSP styles feature stacked rock walls instead of these more economical wooden walls, but are much more labor & material intensive (contact us for a Custom NSP Project).
What if I want a rectangular shaped pool? The strength of the underwater wall comes from its polygonal shape, which is designed to withstand the inward pressure of the gravel on all sides. That's why the Essential Plans include instructions for a round and oval shaped pond. Long, straight wall sections, as would be needed to create a rectangular swimming area, require a different, more complex and labor-intensive construction method (contact us for a Custom NSP Project).
What skills are required to build an Essential NSP? Though we consider the Essential style NSP the easiest to DIY of the various construction methods we employ, it still requires considerable construction experience and involves skills like:
- Excavation and Earth Shaping
- Heavy Machinery Operation
- Site Drainage Management
- Water-Tight Liner Installation
- Carpentry (Underwater Wooden Walls, Pier)
- Plumbing and Trenching
- Rock Movement and Careful Installation
- Artistic and Functional Waterfall Construction
- Waterplant Selection and Installation
We go over many of these tasks in our how-to ebook, Natural Swimming Pools & Ponds: THE TOTAL GUIDE, 3rd Edition and in our video course, Natural Pools: The Essential Online Course. In fact, most of the video course was filmed during one of our own Essential natural pool builds!
Never undertake a Natural Swimming Pool/Pond construction project unless you are confident you can see it through properly and safely. We want your NSP project to be a success, so we offer a variety of construction options.
What if I plan to DIY using these plans, but need help getting started? We can help you if you have any questions at all while looking over the plans. If you need some help deciding where to put the pond in your yard and what size/optional extras are best for you, we offer a Essential Site Visit service to anywhere in the contiguous United States. At the Site Visit we will work with you in-person to decide where to put your NSP, what size, shape and features are best for you and answer any site-specific or project-specific questions. We will use that time together to basically customize the Essential Plans to your unique space! Alternatively, we can help you remotely with our Hourly Design service; via phone, email or video chat.
NSP's made With these plans:
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Here are photos of just some of the Natural Swimming Pool/Ponds (NSP's) we've built using these plans. You can use the Essential NSP Plans to partner with a qualified pond or water garden builder in your area. Have a local building team in mind but not sure if they can handle it alone? Our designers are available for Hourly Design Consultations over email, phone and/or video chat. We can even send one of our Project Managers to help guide your team for the entire build or for just a few crucial steps: We are here to help!
