Shipping containers transformed into backyard pools by Abbotsford couple
An Abbotsford couple is making a big splash in the world of outdoor recreation by converting shipping containers into backyard pools.
Paul and Denise Rathnam launched Modpools at the B.C. Home + Garden Show in Vancouver earlier this year. Since then, the idea has taken off, with orders mostly from California, Nevada, Texas and Florida. Paul Rathnam said people like the idea of repurposing the containers. “People like to get behind it,” he said. “The traditional pool is a symbol of excess and waste. This is a little more modern, more modest. We’re repurposing something rather than recycling. This pool can be resold, and you can take it with you if you move.”
Each Modpool is a custom order which takes about eight weeks to fill. For the standard size — eight feet wide by 20 feet long, and just over five feet deep — the price in Canada is $35,000 delivered, not including tax.
That compares to a much longer waiting period, in some cases up to two years, to build a standard concrete pool, he said.
The cost for a traditional pool, according to Rathnam, can be as much as $80,000 to $150,000 in B.C.
“For many of our clients, this is a much cheaper solution than what they were prepared to pay,” he said.
Each pool comes with a clear, acrylic window on one side. Rathnam said they can add a second window on the other side for a “see-through” pool if the customer wants one.
Modpools makes other versions that are 10-feet and 40-feet long — the latter made up of two containers placed end to end.
The hot tub compartment is separated from the rest of the pool with a clear polyethylene wall. The hot tub has eight body jets, and steps can be used for seating. The pools’s water temperature, hot tub jets and lighting can be controlled from a smartphone.
Modpools can add an pool jet spa system so that customers can swim in place against a current.
The idea occurred to the Rathnams while they were in Palm Springs. The couple often rented houses with hot tubs that spilled into the pool.
“With a Modpool, we have our kids swimming around, we have our eyes on them — but we’re doing it from a nice hot tub with a drink in our hands,” Paul Rathnam said by phone.
“For the people we’re selling pools to, it is more about the lifestyle, less about the volume of water.”
If you think you could just buy your own container and turn it into a pool by lining it with plastic, Rathnam said sure, go ahead and try.
To successfully turn shipping containers into pools, he has used the experience he has gained from working for 12 years modifying shipping containers for industrial uses, such as storing equipment and turning them into bathrooms.
He said Modpools spent two years researching and developing its product.
The biggest challenge? Developing a liner that was watertight.
“It’s not as easy as just painting it and putting a plastic sheet in because of the corrugation,” he said. “We had to go to a chemist and have a lining chemically formulated.”
The liner is similar to the heavyduty lining for oil tanks. It is resistant to chemicals and ultra-violet light.
A Modpool can be set up above ground on a concrete pad or 20 cm of gravel. It can also be installed partially or fully in the ground.
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