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58


SPN DEC 2011 MovingFloors


www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk


“An area that can be employed for swimming at all levels including diving and sub aqua, wet and dry exercise – plus provide a waterside landing area and easy access for the elderly and disabled is a huge advantage”


so the kids are playing safely in six inches of water.” Secondly, he thought it was what he calls ‘theatre’, which is essentially the owners of large houses with big pools keen to ‘show off’ a little to their mates. Finally there’s the whole question of space restrictions.


“A typical 50 sq metre pool has lots of extra room demands and with surrounds and other things it’s going to take up 120 sq metres. If you can change the use and turn that area into a function room – that’s a big space saved.” Stuart Thomas, Managing Director at The Lifting Pool Floor Company, says that after years of development, research and prototypes the system they use and the after sales service they offer provides the perfect solution for their customers’ varying needs. A steady flow of enquiries keeps them on their toes and experience and excellent service helps them to convert those all important enquiries into sales. Over the years, The Lifting Pool Floor Company has installed many moving floors with one extremely satisfied customer even stating ‘it’s the best thing ever’. Praise indeed which shows that perseverance and dedication pays off which in turn produces a product to have faith in and be proud of. Heritage Pools recently installed a luxury private pool with a moveable floor that enables the floor to be stopped at any point in its path upwards, meaning the depth of the pool can change with the touch of a button. When at its deepest, the pool is 2.1m but if you want a paddling pool for children then the floor can be raised to suit. As the floor is raised, the water drains down an 8mm gap that surrounds the pool, finally locking into place and allowing the tiled floor to merge seamlessly with the surrounding tiles to create a flat open and dry space. From bottom to top, moving the floor takes between 8 and ten minutes.


The 9.5 x 5m pool has its own building and includes environmental controls that automatically change the temperature and humidity of the room depending on whether the pool is open or closed and here’s where the real challenge comes for pool owners. Whilst the floor moves, in order to make the room adaptable the Air Handling Unit (AHU) needs careful engineering and consideration. For this client, the pool hall air heating is created via an internal heater coil that offers dehumidification as well as fresh and stale air ventilation that also provides negative pressure in the pool hall to assist heat recovery. Likewise, the air coiling coil chiller unit buffer vessel will heat the pool hall environment to the client’s desired temperature, which is usually 30°C, and maintain the relative humidity (RH) at 60%. These are optimum conditions whilst the pool is in use and when the floor is raised to its highest position so that the room moves into ‘party mode’ and automatically locks into place, the AHU will begin to reduce the pool hall air temperature at a controlled rate down to the desired room temperature and humidity. This process could take several hours as the cooling of the room needs to be done in a controlled way. The traditional pool hall air handling system does have a set-back function that will attempt to lower the air temperature and humidity, but this means it will allow the room temperature to drop passively to 25°C. Most modern buildings, and particularly basements, the heat losses are so minimal that room temperature barely changes, therefore the development of the Premier AHU answers the customer’s requirements, so that the pool hall can be truly a multi use space. Brand new technology was also used to create the floor with the development of an aquadraulic


pump. This pump uses the pool water rather than oil, meaning there can never be any contamination of the water and is an industry first. In order to make space for the floor, the pool had to include a working zone beneath the pool of an additional 850mm. “This additional depth had implications in the structural design of the pool as well as excavation and construction,” said Brian Andrews of Heritage Pools. “The volume of water is some 40 cubic metres more than would have been necessary, which has implications for filtration, but the new technology which created the aquadraulic pump is an exciting step for the industry.” Suntrap Systems are the UK representative for KBE Moving Floors in Germany. KBE Bauelemente was founded in 1965 with the aim to develop and design facilities that permit the water depth to be adjusted in swimming pools for schools. The ‘height adjustable intermediate floor’ was created – only later referred to as a moving floor. Their floors comprise scissor jack sections – a fortuitous piece of engineering – and the top of the floor can be made with a stainless steel tray, meaning that it can be tiled to match the rest of the pool surround, giving a uniformed look when it is raised. This is popular with private domestic pools and of course, KBE have manufactured floors for large commercial projects as well. During the initial years, moving floors were operated oil-hydraulically. Despite using synthetic oils, it was not always possible to avoid problems generally caused by leaks. Subsequently, electromechanically operated systems were rapidly developed and were introduced to the market in 1972. These moving floor systems have been constantly updated, supplemented and patented. They are not only very reliable but also simple and robust in terms of conceptual design. Some of the main advantages and features of KBE Movable Floors are: • Comply with European Standard Norm 13451-11 • Surface consists of reinforced polyester sections 494mm wide screwed together with 6mm wide slots. This allows water flow through 1.5% of the surface area of the floor


• The floor is calculated to support a live load of three people per m² and can be used for water disco, aqua aerobics, etc.


• The floor is automatically locked using self locked screws in all positions.


• The floor can be used to cover the surface area of the pool overnight by moving it 2cm above water level


• Large cleaning flaps allow the use of an automatic pool cleaner under the floor, as the area below the floor is free from cables, etc.


• Installation and adjustments are carried out during one operation, without the need for a return visit to site


• Installations are possible in existing pools (retrofit) and also in free-form pools


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