Fibreglass Pool Ideas Kawakawa
Fibreglass swimming pools for Kawakawa backyards — made in New Zealand, installed by the installer who covers you.
Every Bayside shell is moulded in Whakatāne and set in the ground by the licensed local installer — for Kawakawa that is Sue and Pete at Splashdown Pools. Here is what to weigh up for a Kawakawa section, the ten models and their real dimensions, and the answers buyers up here ask for.
At a glance
Sizes are quoted as internal, water-line measurements — an 8 x 4 is 8 x 4 of water. Depth is the shell height, and capacity is measured to the top of the shell.
The photo up top
What to look at in a pool photo
That is a finished Bayside pool, and it is the best way we can show you what one looks like in a yard — it is not a photo of a section in Kawakawa. Look at how much room the pool takes out of the space around it, where the water line sits when you look out from the house, and what the yard looks like once the paving and planting are done. For an in-ground fibreglass pool in Kawakawa, those three decide it.
- How the pool sits in the section Start from the space you actually have. The shell is only part of the footprint once the surround and somewhere to walk have taken their share, and that arithmetic decides what fits in Kawakawa long before the model does.
- The colour of the water The water takes its colour from the finish on the shell, and it is the one choice on the whole build you look at every day. Worth seeing a finished pool rather than a swatch before you commit.
- What surrounds it Paving, decking and glass fencing are what turn a shell in the ground into a yard. They are priced and chosen separately from the pool itself, and getting them settled early keeps the build moving.
Want to see one in the ground rather than a photo of one? Splashdown Pools installs right across Kawakawa & the mid North — give them a call and ask. Every shell they set was moulded in our own factory first.
Up here
Fibreglass pools in Kawakawa, and what is different up here
Kawakawa is the crossroads town of this patch. Paihia is 8 km away, Russell 14 km, Kerikeri about 20 km, and Whangarei is a straight run south. Because it sits between the Bay of Islands and the city, it is the town a lot of the work passes through, and it is one of the closer addresses for the Kerikeri-based team.
Sue and Pete
Splashdown Pools is Sue and Pete: a couple who have been installing pools in Northland for four years, and who run the Kerikeri pool shop on top of it. That combination is why the water chemistry is not an afterthought up here. They test and supply what your pool needs, they do the landscaping packages that finish the surrounds, and they are the people you ring in year three as well as the day it goes in.
The job up here
Kawakawa gets the same warm Northland summer as the coast without being on it, and it is close enough to the Bay of Islands that the coast is part of daily life anyway. The install side is straightforward by Northland standards, and because so much of the work in this patch passes through here, the team is used to the ground around it.
Getting everything in
Northland is not the city. The quarries and the suppliers are further out, the towns are smaller and the sections are often somewhere between the two, so a pool build up here is a logistics job before it is a building job. Pete arranges what has to travel and when it travels, which is the difference between a job that runs to plan and one that waits on a truck. Kawakawa is a town people live in and pass through on the way to somewhere else, so the pools here are family pools bought to relax in over a long warm season rather than showpieces for visitors.
The photo up top shows pavers laid around the shell. It is worth looking at for that reason: the shell is the same one you would order anywhere, and what you are seeing is the surround and the fencing. Glass or a clean hard surround opens a section up and reads modern; decking or planting softens the same pool. It is an idea from our own library, not a job in Kawakawa.
Starting point
Fibreglass pools for Kawakawa sections
Start with the section rather than the brochure. The four points below are the ones that decide which model makes sense at your place.
Space on the section
Get a tape on the site first. What fits is decided by the clear space, not by the plan you drew on the back of an envelope.
How you will use it
Decide who swims and how — small children, teenagers, laps, or two adults at the end of the day. Each points at a different model and depth.
Getting it in
Getting the shell in is the part that surprises people. On a tight section it is worth talking about before anything is ordered.
Around the pool
The surrounds are what you live with. Splashdown does the landscaping packages as well, so the yard gets finished rather than left as a hole with a pool in it.
One thing, three names
In-ground pool, inground pool, fibreglass pool — the same purchase
People search all three terms. For a Bayside pool they mostly describe the same thing.
In-ground pool
A pool set into the ground rather than standing above it. Every Bayside shell is designed to go in the ground, so an in-ground pool is the normal case rather than an upgrade. Where digging is not wanted there is a Freestanding option in the range — still a Bayside shell, sitting above ground.
Fibreglass pool
The pool body is a one-piece moulded shell, made in our Whakatāne factory and delivered complete. On site the work is preparing the base, placing and setting the shell, then everything around it — rather than building the pool body itself on site.
Swimming pool
The widest of the three, and the one people type most. It covers a small plunge pool through to a 12 m family and lap pool — the difference being length, depth and how much of the section they take up.
The dimensions we sell are internal, water-line measurements — an 8 x 4 is 8 x 4 of water. Depth is the shell height, and capacity is to the top of the shell. The shell itself needs a little more room than the pool does.
What fits
What pool size works in Kawakawa
Ten fibreglass swimming pool models cover it. At the small end: the 3.6 x 2.2 m Tranquil and the 4 x 2.4 m Pause. Mid-range: the 5.45 x 3.4 m Element, the 6.5 x 3 m Retreat and the 7 x 3.5 m Cove. Larger: the 8 x 4 m Satin, the 9 x 4.4 m Shoreline, the 10 x 4.4 m Coastline and the 12 x 4.4 m Big Bertha. Every one is moulded in Whakatāne. Sizes are quoted as internal water-line dimensions, so an 8 x 4 really is 8 x 4 of water, depth is the shell height, and capacity is measured to the top of the shell.
The sequence
The sequence of a pool build in Kawakawa
The sequence is the same on every job. What changes is how much of it your section makes difficult.
- A look at the site — where the pool sits, how the digger and the shell get in, and where the equipment goes.
- A written quote — the pool itself, in the ground and running, with the inclusions listed plainly.
- The shell is built — moulded in Whakatāne by the people who make every Bayside pool.
- Dig and prepare — excavation, base preparation and backfill of the hole.
- Place the shell — set on the prepared base by the installer who quoted the work.
- Fill, commission and hand over — water in, pump and filtration running, handbook handed across.
Excavation and shell placement are quick. The time goes on filling, surrounds, fencing and getting the water balanced — plan the garden around that, not around the dig.
After handover
What ownership looks like the year after
On handover day we walk you through the whole pool — the equipment, the water and what the first week looks like — so it is familiar before we leave. After that the main job is the water: keep the chemistry in range and the surface and the equipment both stay happy.
Read the pool warranty Pool maintenance tips Landscaping around a pool
Coverage
Pool ideas for the rest of Northland
Splashdown Pools covers the whole of this patch, from the southern end up to the Far North. These are the other areas with their own pages.
- Pool ideas for Kerikeri
- Pool ideas for Whangarei
- Pool ideas for Paihia
- Pool ideas for Russell
- Pool ideas for Mangonui
- Pool ideas for Kaitaia
- Pool ideas for Kaikohe
- Pool ideas for Dargaville
- Pool ideas for Mangawhai
- Pool ideas for Waipu
- Pool ideas for Ruakaka
- Pool ideas for Hikurangi
- Bayside Pools Kerikeri — Sue, Pete & Splashdown Pools
Questions
Questions about a pool in Kawakawa
Do you install pools in Kawakawa?
Yes. Kawakawa is the crossroads of this patch — Paihia is 8 km away, Russell 14 km, Kerikeri about 20 km — and the Kerikeri-based team covers it as home ground rather than as a run from out of town.
We are between Kawakawa and the Bay of Islands — who covers us?
The same team. Kawakawa, Paihia, Russell and Kerikeri are all inside the one patch, and Whangarei is a straight run south of here. If you are anywhere between the city and the Bay of Islands you are on the local installer’s own ground.
What size pool suits a Kawakawa section?
It follows the section, and the sections around here are mixed — some town sections, some with a lot more room. Tight sections end up at the plunge and compact models; bigger sections usually take a 7 to 8 metre family pool. The clear space decides it, not the postcode.
Is a building consent required for a pool in Kawakawa?
Pool fencing is the part that is not optional. It has to comply with the building code and it is checked, whether or not the pool itself needed a consent. The consenting side up here works the same way it does anywhere else in the country — there is nothing peculiar to Northland about it — and it is worked through as part of the job rather than left to you. The fencing sits outside the pool price, so ask for it to be shown on the quote.
How long does a pool installation take?
Excavation and setting the shell are the quick part — days rather than weeks once the team is on site. What takes the time is what comes after: filling, the surrounds, fencing and balancing the water. You get a realistic sequence up front. Up here the thing that moves dates is how far the materials have to travel, and that is planned rather than discovered.
Which Bayside model should I look at first?
It follows the section rather than the town. Tight sections end up at the plunge and compact models — the Tranquil, the Pause and the Element. Sections with room usually take a 7 to 8 metre family pool, which is the Retreat, the Cove or the Satin. The whole range with its dimensions is on the pool range page if you want to see the sizes side by side first.
Who installs a Bayside pool in Kawakawa?
We manufacture, and the licensed local installer puts the pool in. For this whole patch that is Sue and Pete at Splashdown Pools, based at Kerikeri, who have been installing up here for four years. Every shell is moulded in our Whakatāne factory and set by the installer who covers your area, and the person who quotes your job is the person on your site when it goes in.
Are fibreglass pools in-ground pools?
Yes. A Bayside shell is designed to be set into the ground, so an in-ground pool is the normal case rather than a special order. The range also includes a Freestanding option where digging is not wanted; it is the same shell family, sitting above ground.
What is different about a fibreglass pool?
The shell arrives as one finished piece rather than being built up on site, so the on-site work is preparing the base, placing and setting it, and then everything around the water. That is also why the surface matters: ours is ChlorShield, the gelcoat system on every Bayside shell, and the ChlorShield page sets out what it is built to do.
What colours do fibreglass pools come in?
There is a full palette on the pool colours page, shown on real pools rather than as swatches on a screen. You can also ask to see a colour in person before the shell is ordered — the light a pool sits in changes how a colour reads, and up here that light is strong for most of the year.
Ready to talk about a pool in Kawakawa?
Send us where the pool is going. You will get a written quote and a site visit from the local team who will build it.