Inground pools in Chardon, Ohio

Chardon sits on high ground roughly 10 miles inland from Lake Erie. Cold air picks up moisture over the lake and drops it when it rises over the ridge. A 1989 Ohio Journal of Science study of the city's weather station found an average of 106 inches of snow a season from 1945 to 1985, with 82 days a year of at least an inch on the ground. The average first and last one inch snowfalls came on November 10 and April 4. The Geauga County Maple Festival on Chardon Square is held the last weekend of April, and it has been moved more than once because of spring snow.

For a pool owner that means three practical things. The swim season starts later than it does in Akron or Canton, because the ground and the water take longer to warm after the snow leaves. Winter covers carry real weight, so we steer Chardon owners toward a proper safety cover for the off season. And every concrete surface around the pool goes through a lot of freeze and thaw. We build decks on a compacted base with drainage that carries water away from the coping, because water trapped under concrete is what heaves it.

Geauga County's building department designs residential footings to a 40 inch frost line and uses a 30 pound per square foot ground snow load. Any pergola or pavilion we put next to the pool is engineered for that load, not for the lighter snow a few counties south.

We checked the USDA soil survey at points around the square and out toward the city limits. Mahoning silt loam turned up most often, with Wadsworth, Ellsworth and Rittman silt loams on the slopes and Sebring silt loam in the flat, low spots. All of them hold water. The USDA describes Mahoning with a seasonal high water table 6 to 12 inches below the surface from October through June, and Sebring as poorly drained ground that ponds briefly during heavy rain and spring snowmelt.

Put 100 inches of melting snow on top of soils like that and April is not digging season. We plan most Chardon excavations for late spring, once the ground has had a chance to drain, and we still expect to pump. A fiberglass shell needs a way to relieve groundwater pressure underneath, and the yard around it needs grading that sends snowmelt away from the pool and the house.

We lead with fiberglass here for the same reason we do across Northeast Ohio: a one-piece Liberty shell with a smooth, nonporous surface handles freeze and thaw well and goes in quickly once the weather opens up. Chardon is also where our ICF concrete pools earn their keep. The insulated walls hold heat, and in a town where the season starts late and cool nights come early, that gets you more swimming at each end of the summer. Run the heater that comes with the package and add an automatic cover, and the gain is bigger.

Many homes near the square are older, some of them century homes on narrow in-town lots, while the newer streets toward the edges have more room. On the tighter lots, a compact model such as the Victory 11x22 or the Hero 12x26 usually fits inside the 10 foot setbacks with room left for a deck and equipment pad.

A pool inside the city needs a zoning certificate from the City of Chardon's Planning and Zoning Department at 111 Water Street. The city's application covers pools, decks, sheds and fences, and for those projects it asks for a site plan showing where the structure goes and its setbacks from every property line. The city does not issue the building permit itself. Construction plans go to the Geauga County Building Department, which approves residential work under the Residential Code of Ohio.

Chardon's private pool rules are in Section 1135.13(b) of the Codified Ordinances and apply in the RC and R districts:

• The pool, and any equipment or structures next to it that are used with it, must be at least 10 feet from every property line.
• The pool, or the property it is on, must be enclosed by a wall or fence to keep people from reaching it from the street or neighboring lots.
• That fence or wall must be at least 5 feet high, with a gate and a lock, and kept in good repair.

The same section limits fences to 3 feet in front and side yards and allows up to 6 feet in the rear yard. A fence has to sit entirely on your own property, not on the line, with the posts and rails facing your side. So the 5 foot pool fence belongs in the back yard, and on a narrow lot it often wraps the pool itself rather than the whole property.

A Chardon mailing address does not always mean the city. Homes in the surrounding townships follow their own township zoning, and the county still handles the building permit. We confirm which zoning office applies before we design.

Our fiberglass packages start at $68,400 installed, and that covers the shell, Pentair pump, filter and LED lights, a 4 foot concrete wrap deck, installation and electrical hook-up at the equipment. In Chardon, plan for a few items outside the package: the 5 foot fence, a good winter cover, extra decking, the electrical run from your panel to the pad, hauling off wet clay spoils and dewatering during the dig. We show those line by line in the 3D design, and financing through our lending partners is available if you would rather spread the cost.

The best time to start a Chardon pool is in the winter, on paper. If the design, zoning certificate and county plans are done by early spring, we can dig as soon as the ground allows and you swim the same summer. Waiting until the snow melts to start planning usually pushes the dig into midsummer. Fall builds can work too, but the window closes earlier here than anywhere else we go.

Chardon is about 30 miles from our shop, at the northern edge of where we build most often. We also work in Bainbridge, Chagrin Falls, Solon, Aurora and Mantua, so the crew knows Geauga County's permit office and the way snowbelt ground behaves.