Fibreglass Spool & Cocktail Pool: Sizes, Depths & Cost

Three parts of the job do not shrink with the shell:

• The fixed job lines. A pre-construction fee, an installation materials kit and a miscellaneous allowance are charged on the smallest shell in our range exactly as they are on the largest.
• The crane. Every shell in our range is craned into position, and the crane class steps up with the reach the site demands. The base allowance is a 20-tonne Franna. Lift distance sets the crane class beyond that base allowance. A 13 to 16 tonne small slew covers a lift to 15 m, a 40 tonne medium slew to 20 m, a 55 to 60 tonne standard slew to 30 m. That standard slew takes a counterweight to 36 m, and an 80 to 120 tonne large slew covers 36 to 48 m.
• The dig and the spoil. We price the excavation off two site measurements: how wide the access is, and how far the spoil has to be carted to the truck. The defaults are 3 m of access and 20 m of cart. Wide access lets the truck reach the hole. Narrow access puts a mini excavator in the dig and carts the spoil out in 0 to 20 m, 20 to 40 m and 40 to 60 m bands. Earthmoving is priced per cubic metre either way.

The site sets other lines: concrete slab removal by the square metre, stormwater diversion as a fixed allowance, and fire ant treatment as a standard line on South East Queensland jobs. We build fibreglass pools across South East Queensland, under councils including Brisbane, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Logan and Moreton Bay. Only the shell price, the water volume and the running cost fall with size.

A DIY kit is cheaper on paper. Swimming Pool Kits Direct prices an inground plunge pool kit at $12,500 to $16,000, plus installation of about $10,000 to $15,000, roughly $22,500 to $31,000 finished. A pool advertised at around $25,000 is almost always shell-only or a DIY kit rather than an installed pool. In Queensland the council approval and the compliant barrier are required whoever does the digging.

American prices do not convert into an Australian quote, and the US sources disagree with each other. The Pool Nerd puts most professional installs at USD $22,000 to $35,000, and Jenna Sue Design puts an inground spool at USD $30,000 to $75,000-plus. The same shell in Australia is quoted as a plunge pool, and an Australian installed plunge pool quote includes the council approval a US quote leaves out. Site conditions move the number more than the shell does, and the installed price for your own block comes back against your access width, slope and spoil once those are set.

What's the difference between a spool, a cocktail pool and a plunge pool?

The three words describe the same kind of pool, and the sources disagree about where one stops and the next begins. Latham lists plunge pools as sometimes called dipping pools, cocktail pools or dunk pools, treating the terms as one product. Plungie, Thursday Pools, Jenna Sue Design and River Pools separate them by depth. A plunge pool is deeper and built for full-body immersion. A cocktail or dipping pool is shallower, with more built-in seating. River Pools draws the line at four feet, about 1.2 m, with a cocktail pool usually no more than four feet deep and anything deeper usually called a plunge pool. River Pools also lists compact pool and spool as further names for a cocktail pool, and Plungie treats the spool as the spa-hybrid version of the same shell.

Term	Where the term is used	Typical depth	What it is built for
Spool	United States, for the spa-pool hybrid with jets and a heater	0.9 m to 1.5 m	Sitting and soaking, run warm or cool
Cocktail pool	United States; in Australia, Cocktail Pools Australia	No more than about 1.2 m (River Pools)	Sitting and socialising, with built-in seating
Plunge pool	Australia and the United States	Deeper than about 1.2 m (River Pools); Australian shells run 1.0 m to 1.78 m	Cooling off, floating and socialising, not lap swimming

A pool and spa combination is a different object again. A spool is one small shell that swaps between the spa role and the pool role; a combination shell moulds a full-size swimming pool and a built-in jetted spa zone into the one piece, so each zone keeps its own depth and neither role gives way to the other. Those combination shells make up the Resort series, and the dedicated spa shells, the Bastia and the Elba among them, make up the Spa series.

The words differ by market, not by product. Australian builders say plunge pool, and the drink-named cocktail shells sold overseas, the Margarita and the Martini and the Mai Tai among them, are American manufacturers' models rather than products available here. US makers publish them in feet: Watertite lists a Paloma at 8 feet 6 inches by 12 feet 6 inches, and Rainforest a Nova at 7 by 14 feet on a 4 foot flat bottom. One Australian builder uses the vocabulary: Cocktail Pools Australia, which lists Mini and Biggi models with no dimensions or prices published.

FAQs

Can you swim in a spool pool?

No. A spool pool is built for sitting, soaking and cooling off, and at 3.0 m to 5.5 m long the shell is one or two strokes end to end.

Is a spool cheaper than a pool?

Yes, but not in proportion to its size. The shell price, the water volume and the running cost fall with a smaller pool. The pre-construction fee, the installation materials kit, the miscellaneous allowance, the crane, the dig, the spoil removal, the safety barrier and the council approval do not.

What is a margarita pool?

A margarita pool is a US cocktail-pool model name. American manufacturers name cocktail shells after drinks: Margarita, Martini, Mai Tai, Mimosa, Daiquiri, Sangria, Paloma and Americano. Those shells are American manufacturers' models and are not sold in Australia.

How do I build a spool pool myself?

In Queensland you cannot legally fill one without approval. Any pool holding more than 300 mm of water needs council building approval and a compliant safety barrier before it is filled. The pool also has to be recorded on the state pool safety register.

What is the lifespan of a fibreglass pool?

A concrete pool needs resurfacing or replastering roughly every 10 to 15 years, and acid washing every 3 to 5 years. Barrier Reef Pools, Compass Pools, Leisure Pools, River Pools and Latham all publish that cycle. Concrete is porous, which makes it more prone to algae and bacteria and pushes chemical use above a fibreglass pool's.

What is the downside of a fibreglass pool?

A fibreglass pool only comes in the shapes and sizes it is moulded in, so you choose from a range of shells rather than drawing one. Every shell also has to be craned into position, which makes site access a real constraint.