Swim-Up Success

A swim-up bar allows people in and out of the pool to have a snack or beverage together. For the best interaction, the dry-side floor should be lower than the pool bond beam. Pool designer/builder: Brian Cullingworth Custom Pools & Spas, Temecula, Calif. Photo: Chip Morton Swim-up bars are a great way to add a resort-like experience to a client’s backyard. They allow bathers to literally swim up to a stool for a snack or a drink or to just relax.

“If you go to any party, there are people who don’t want to be in the water,” says Brian Cullingworth, president of Brian Cullingworth Custom Pools & Spas in Temecula, Calif. “So a swim-up bar is a good link for the dry people and the wet people.”

In fact, more than half of Cullingworth’s clients purchase this amenity. “Every hotel in Baja, all the way through the Mexican Riviera, has a swim-up bar,” he says. “People come back from those vacations and the first thing they say is, ‘We’re going to get a swim-up bar in our pool.’”

When designing these features, you should consider convenience, comfort, and entertainment value. Here, pool builders share the secrets of successful swim-up bars.

Design considerations. First, make sure you have enough space. The bar itself should measure at least 7 to 8 feet long in order to accommodate three stools, and that’s just a start. Cullingworth likes installations with at least four stools and an 11- to 14-foot-long bar.

These features are easiest to incorporate into multi-grade lots. The floor of the dry side must be lower than the pool’s bond beam, so that people sitting on either side can look each other in the eye. This becomes more practical if you have an area outside the pool that sits on a downward grade. Then on the bar side the pool can stand partially out of the ground, and the dry bar can be built at ground level. “[With that type of site] we can put steps down to a lower deck and have an open serving area,” says John Oliver, president of Atlantis Pools & Spas Inc. in Tulsa, Okla. “It’s a little bit easier, and I think it looks better.”

Besides logistics, consider what kind of mood you want to set. Designers will often place swim-up bars so that they face a great view, but that doesn’t have to mean an ocean, lake, or stunning hillside. You could position the bar to face the focal point of the yard—say a water feature or nearby television. Don Goldstone, president of Los Angeles-based Ultimate Water Creations, once built a bar so it had the perfect view of the homeowner’s tennis court.