CAPTURING GLORIOUS HARBOUR VIEWS
Capturing glorious harbour views, this impeccably positioned award-winning swimming pool is one of the crowning jewels of this outdoor sanctuary in Neutral Bay. It’s where family and friends gather to swim, relax and watch the moored boats gently bobbing in the harbour waters that lap the lowest level of the property.
Originally, KMD Outdoor Constructions was asked to simply renovate the existing pool, but this quickly became a much bigger task than first anticipated, leading to a complicated new pool construction. “When the old fibreglass interior was removed, cracks in the pool shell were discovered. Upon further investigation we found it was an old gunite pool shell and that the steel had rusted through in many places,” explains Kieran Devlin, director of KMD Outdoor Construction. “Subsequently, the pool was condemned and a new pool shell and suspended walkway had to be constructed. The existing pool shell had been floating on fill so to stabilise the new one, we had to cut down through the floor of the existing pool and excavate through 3m of fill, rubble and rock. And because machine access wasn’t possible, the piers had to be hand-excavated.” his wasn’t the only challenge, however. “During excavation we discovered two old concrete tanks approximately 3m in diameter, each full of heating oil,” adds Kieran. “The heating oil had to be pumped out into tanks on a waiting barge for removal.
Once this was done, the piers could be filled with concrete and the new pool could be constructed.” KMD finished the interior of the new pool with shimmering Trend glass mosaic tiles. For the pool coping and surrounds, as well as the steps leading to the pool area, KMD used Beauford sandstone. The soft cream colouring of the sandstone is the perfect complement to the tropical planting around the pool and references the stone used for the sea wall located at the foot of the property.
To ensure uninterrupted views, frameless glass fencing was installed. The pool was completed at the end of 2016 but two years earlier, KMD had completed another project on the same site — namely the construction of a new sea wall and access stairs.
Says Kieran, “The old sea wall and adjoining stairs had failed. Our job was to rebuild them, ensuring they would not fail again. As with the pool, this was also a challenging job. There were access issues to contend with — everything had to be brought in and taken away by barge — and the engineering required to ensure a long-lasting solution was complex.” After demolishing the existing sea wall and stairs and installing new concrete footings on a series of piers, KMD set about reconstructing the wall using Pyrmont sandstone cut from a building site in the Sydney CBD and demolition sandstone. For the solid step treads, they used KLS sandstone.
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