More than a swimming pool: how a movable floor transforms your space
A swimming pool can be one of the most enjoyable additions to a home, but it inevitably takes up a significant amount of space. What if that same area could be a swimming pool in the morning, a place for children to play in the afternoon and an entertaining space in the evening?
A movable floor makes this possible. Built into the pool itself, the floor can be raised and lowered to change the depth of the water or raised completely to conceal the pool and create a solid, usable floor.
For homeowners looking for flexibility as well as luxury, it means the space occupied by the pool no longer has to be devoted exclusively to swimming.
One space, many uses
The ability to reclaim the space above the pool is perhaps the greatest attraction of a movable floor.
When the pool is in use, the floor sits below the water at the required swimming depth. When swimming is over, the floor can be raised to deck level, with the water remaining securely beneath it. The pool effectively disappears, and the area becomes usable floor space.
For an indoor pool, this could transform the pool hall into a space for entertaining, exercise or other family activities. Outdoors, the same principle can turn the pool area back into a terrace for dining and socialising.
This flexibility can be particularly valuable where space is at a premium, but it is equally attractive in larger properties where owners want every part of their home to work harder.
The possibilities can go considerably further. In one London Swimming Pool Company (LSPC) project in Primrose Hill, raising the movable floor transforms the entire pool room into a private cinema. The natural stone finish on the movable floor matches the surrounding floor, creating a seamless surface once the water has disappeared beneath it. Take a look at the Pool to Movie Theatre project.
A swimming pool that adapts to you/your family
A movable floor is not simply open or closed. One of its most useful features is the ability to alter the depth of the pool.
At full depth, the pool can be used for swimming and exercise. Raise the floor and shallower water can be created for less experienced swimmers or children learning to swim. The depth can also be adjusted for water-based exercise, relaxation and other activities where full-depth water is not required.
This makes the pool much more adaptable to different generations and abilities. Rather than having permanently defined shallow and deep ends, the water depth can be changed as requirements change.
For a family, that flexibility can be particularly valuable over the lifetime of a pool. Young children grow up; swimming confidence develops and the way a family uses its leisure space changes. The pool can change with them.
Children should, of course, always be appropriately supervised in and around a swimming pool, whatever the water depth.
How does a movable pool floor work?
Considering the size of a swimming pool floor, the simplicity of operating one can seem surprising.
A movable floor is an engineered platform incorporated into the pool structure and connected to a concealed operating system. Because the system needs to be integrated into the pool structure, movable floors are designed for new pool installations rather than for retrofitting into an established pool. Once installed, the floor can be raised or lowered to the required position at the touch of a control.
As the floor rises, the pool water moves around it and is retained beneath the structure. When the floor reaches deck level, it forms a solid surface over the water. Lower the floor again and the swimming pool is revealed.
The precise engineering varies according to the movable floor system specified, but the mechanisms are designed to remain out of sight. The pool owner sees the transformation rather than the technology making it happen.
Depending on the system, different depths can also be programmed or selected, allowing the pool to move from full swimming depth to shallower water without having to be completely closed.
Making the pool disappear
For a movable floor to work successfully from a design perspective, it isn't enough for it simply to cover the water. When raised, it should feel like a natural continuation of the surrounding space.
The visible surface of the floor can therefore be finished to coordinate with the pool surround or wider interior design. Indoors, it might continue the flooring used within the room; outdoors, it can complement the surrounding terrace.
The transformation is quite spectacular. As the floor rises to meet the surrounding surface, the swimming pool completely disappears from view, leaving a seamless expanse of usable space. Someone entering the room or garden for the first time would have no idea that a swimming pool lies hidden beneath their feet.
This creates exciting possibilities for architects and interior designers. Rather than designing a room around a swimming pool, they can create a genuinely multi-purpose space in which the pool is revealed only when it's wanted.
One of LSPC's award-winning projects in Wimbledon Village demonstrates the idea particularly well. The pool sits within an impressive arched, wood-finished room and has an adjustable-depth movable floor. Raise the floor completely, and the swimming pool becomes a concert hall. The same principle could allow a pool room to become a dance floor, cinema, function space or simply additional living space. See the Concert Hall Moving Floor Pool.
An additional layer of safety
A fully raised movable floor also provides a substantial physical barrier between the room or terrace and the pool water beneath.
Modern systems are designed to create a strong, load-bearing surface when raised to deck level. This provides reassurance when the pool is not being used, particularly in family homes.
A movable floor should, however, form part of the overall approach to pool safety rather than replace appropriate supervision and other safety considerations.
Energy benefits
Closing the pool with a movable floor can have benefits beyond creating additional space.
An uncovered heated swimming pool continually loses energy through evaporation. Covering the water helps reduce evaporation and heat loss, which can contribute to lower energy demand.
For indoor pools, there is an additional consideration: humidity. Warm pool water releases moisture into the surrounding air, which is managed by the pool hall's environmental control and dehumidification system. Covering the water when the pool is not in use can help reduce this moisture load.
These benefits make the movable floor not only a design feature, but potentially part of a wider strategy for operating the pool efficiently.
Planning a movable floor pool
A movable floor needs to be considered at the earliest stages of pool design.
The pool structure must accommodate both the floor and its operating mechanism, which means additional depth is required below the normal swimming depth. Structural design, hydraulics, finishes, controls and access for future servicing all need to be considered as part of the overall pool specification.
For this reason, installing a movable floor retrospectively into an existing pool can require extensive structural modification. If a movable floor is something you may want, it is better to discuss it with your pool designer when planning a new pool.
The system can then be integrated into the architecture of the pool and surrounding space from the outset, rather than treated as an addition later.
Indoor or outdoor?
Movable floors work particularly well in indoor pools, where reclaiming an entire room can dramatically increase how the space is used. However, the same principle can be applied outdoors.
Raise the floor of an outdoor pool and the area can become part of the terrace, providing additional space for seating, dining or entertaining. When it's time for a swim, the floor is lowered, and the pool reappears.
For properties where garden space is valuable, this means homeowners do not necessarily have to choose between a generous swimming pool and a generous terrace - the same footprint can provide both.
A pool designed around the way you live
The real appeal of a movable floor lies in the freedom it brings to pool design. Rather than asking a family to adapt its space and lifestyle around the pool, the pool itself can adapt to the way the space is used.
For homeowners planning a new pool, it offers an imaginative way to combine luxury, practicality and exceptional design, creating a swimming pool that becomes an integral and adaptable part of the home.
LSPC's projects show just how far that flexibility can go: from swimming pool to cinema, concert hall or entertaining space, all without increasing the room's footprint.
If you are planning a new pool, a movable floor opens possibilities that a conventional fixed-depth pool cannot offer. It allows the question to change from “How much space are we prepared to give to a swimming pool?” to “How many different ways could we use this space?”
London Swimming Pool Company designs and builds bespoke indoor and outdoor swimming pools incorporating movable floor technology. Explore our movable floor pools or contact our team on 020 8605 1255 to discuss the possibilities for your pool project.
