Harvestore Swimming Pool

Harvestore Swimming Pool AG WORLD Ag World 12-3-17 Walk into the back yard of Charles Van Mater, Columbus, N.J., and you'll find the most unusual swimming pool you've ever seen: a 48 ft. long, "figure 8" shaped pool made of two interconnected circles of used 5 x 9 ft. Harvestore glass lined steel silo sheets. The pool is surrounded by a huge 60 ft. long deck, with a diving board at one end. Van Mater, a dairy farmer, built the unique pool 4 years ago with used silo sheets purchased from a Harvestore dealer. He has worked part time for 16 years servicing Harvestore silo unloaders paid about one fourth the price of new sheets," says Van Mater. "I built the pool in a figure 8 shape because I wanted a deep part to dive in, and a shallow part for my wife and kids." One circle, 2 sheets high and 28 ft. in dia., is 8 1/2 ft. deep; the other circle is 1 sheet high, 20 ft. in dia., with a concrete floor that's 3 1/2 ft. deep on 1 end, tapering off to 2 ft. on the other end. Where the 2 circles meet, Van Mater left out a couple of sheets to form a 14 ft. opening between the circles. In all, Van Mater used 35 sheets - 26 in the big pool and 9 in the small one. To build the pool, Van Mater used a backhoe to dig circular holes about 9 ft. deep. Then he set up the sheets, applying sealer between them and bolting them together. Next, he poured 8 in. of concrete on the bottom, placing 2 or 3 bricks on edge under each sheet to allow concrete to envelope the lower edges of the sheets for a good water seal. Mastic strip, applied on the lower inside edge of the sheets, provides an additional water barrier. After waiting 2 days for the concrete to set, Van Mater backfilled around the pools. "Altogether, it only took us a week to build the pool," he says. But it took him most of a summer to build the 60 ft. long deck, which is 35 ft. wide on the ends. Van Mater bought the pool's filter, pump and lines from a local swimming pool company. Altogether, he figures he spent about $4,000 for the silo sheets, concrete and filtering system. He spent another $4,000 to build the deck. Next time, says Van Mater, he'd use only unchipped glass sheets. "Some of the sheets I used had chipped glass. Wherever there's a chip, water can eat at the steel. The pool hasn't leaked yet, but I'm watching it." Contact FARM SHOW Followup, Charles Van Mater, RR 1, Box 33, Columbus, N.J. 08022 (ph 609 298-7136).

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