Inground pools in Akron, Ohio

Akron covers about 62 square miles and had 190,469 people at the 2020 census, so it is hard to talk about one kind of Akron backyard. Goodyear Heights and Firestone Park were built by the two rubber companies to house their workers, and those neighborhoods still have compact city lots with garages at the back and driveways down the side. On a lot like that, the first question is whether a pool fits at all once you take 6 feet off each side and the back, then leave room for a deck and a walkway to the gate.

Other parts of the city feel almost rural. Part of Cuyahoga Valley National Park lies inside Akron, and Sand Run Metro Park, home to the F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm, is on the west side. Homes near the parks and along the valleys tend to sit on bigger, wooded, sloping lots, where the problem is grade and tree roots rather than square footage.

Access matters more here than almost anywhere we work. An excavator, a dump truck for the spoils and, for fiberglass, a one-piece shell all have to reach the backyard. On a tight lot the side yard is often the only route in, and on the tightest ones a crane over the house is sometimes the only way a shell gets there. We walk the route before we quote, because it changes both the plan and the price.

We checked USDA soil survey data at points all over Akron. Most of Akron maps as urban land complexes, meaning ground that has been graded, filled and built on, and the natural soil under it is most often Canfield silt loam. Canfield formed in glacial till and has a dense fragipan starting 15 to 30 inches down. Water can't get through that layer quickly, so the USDA describes a perched water table 10 to 21 inches below the surface from November to April in normal years. In practice, a spring dig in Canfield ground can take on water, and we plan to pump it.

Parts of the city sit on Chili soils instead, which formed in gravelly glacial outwash and drain well. Those are the easier digs. The ones to watch are the low spots mapped as Carlisle muck, an organic soil where the water table can sit at or above the surface from September to June. We would not set a pool on muck without a soils engineer's advice, and sometimes the right answer is a different spot in the yard.

Older city lots can also hide things the soil survey can't: old foundations, buried debris, backfill from a house that was torn down decades ago. Summit County builds footings to a 38 inch frost line, so decks and walls around the pool are designed to that depth either way.

On most city lots we steer people toward fiberglass. A Liberty shell arrives finished, goes in quickly, and the nonporous surface stands up to freeze and thaw. For smaller yards the Dignity 10x20 and Enrichment 9x17 packages start at $68,400 installed, and the Victory 11x22 is $70,600. On the larger lots near the parks, owners who want an unusual shape or a pool built into a slope often choose an ICF concrete pool, and Latham vinyl liner pools give custom sizes where a standard shell won't fit the space.

It helps to know what a complete project involves before you set a number. Every fiberglass package includes Pentair LED lights, a variable-speed pump, a DE filter, a pool heater, a 4 foot concrete wrap deck, startup chemicals, installation and electrical hookup at the equipment. The fence, extra decking, the run from your electrical panel to the equipment pad, pumping out groundwater and hauling away the dirt are separate. In the city that last item is rarely optional, since there is nowhere on a small lot to spread the spoils. We work with lenders, including PoolLoan.net and HFS Financial, to find financing that fits.

Akron writes its pool rules into Chapter 197 of its building code. They apply to any pool 24 inches deep or more, or 250 square feet or more, and to any pool with a recirculating system. The main points:

• You need a permit before a pool is built, enlarged or altered. Plans must show the pool's dimensions and depth and its distances to lot lines, buildings, walks and fences, plus water supply and drainage details.
• The pool can't sit in a required front or side yard. The pool wall must be at least 6 feet from any rear or side property line and 10 feet from a street line.
• Any pool holding 24 inches of water or more needs an enclosure at least 4 feet high around the pool area or the whole property.
• Gates must be self-latching, with the latch placed 4 feet above the ground.
• Water drained from the pool has to go somewhere approved, without creating a nuisance for the neighbors.

The permit itself comes from the city's Plans and Permits Center at 1030 E. Tallmadge Ave., which lists in-ground pool permits among the residential permits it issues, with a $75 review and permit fee. The Zoning Division checks site plans before permits go out. Building and electrical inspections are handled by Summit County Building Standards. The city's page says fences under 7 feet don't need their own permit but limits fence height near the public right of way, so corner lots get a closer look. We prepare the drawings and file for you.

A clean set of plans is what keeps an Akron job on schedule. Once the permit is in hand, we call OUPS to mark the utilities, which on older streets can turn up lines nobody expected. The dig follows. In spring, the perched water in Canfield soils can slow the dig and the shell set, so we sometimes suggest a start after the ground firms up. Late summer and early fall builds on small lots go smoothly because the ground is drier and the crews have more room to work.

From the Ravenna shop we reach Akron in well under half an hour, so site visits and inspections are easy to schedule. We also build in Tallmadge, Cuyahoga Falls, Fairlawn, Copley and Uniontown, so if you live near the city line the same crew handles your project.