Diddion

We are considering a house purchase near Tomar. All of the available land is rural, so (I am led to understand) we should be able to put in an above ground pool. There will be no possibility to build an in-ground pool. This opens a number of questions:

• Are there any restrictions on what can be done - eg size, material and so on? For example, would a 12m x 5m concrete construction be ok?
• Are any permissions required for this?
• How is an above ground pool defined? For example, if one wall abuts a terrace, would it be perceived as above ground - or could the pool be sunken laterally into the terrace?
• Any links to reference material would be appreciated!

Thanks

Diddion

mfesharne

Planning rules tend to differ by area so probably the best thing to do is go to the Tomar Camara & ask the planning guys what you can/cannot do.

EMR

Why not do as thousands in the Algarve do when summer arrives erect a temporary above ground pool which comes with all the equipment used in a permanent one .
They range from simple inflatables to semi rigid ones on metal frames.
Being a temporary structure I doubt that you would both have any regulatory issues.

Diddion

Thanks both. I will check in the Camara. Is the salient point that the pool is temporary, or is it that it is above ground????

Lelandy

A large concrete box is not going to be viewed as anything other than permanent construction no matter what you are using it for.

EMR

A permanent pool is a pool above or below ground.
You could refer to it as a cisterna for storing water but maybe the tiles s, heating and filtration equipment would be a giveaway...

liveaboard

A neighbor of mine recently built a huge pool in the natural park, an area where swimming pools are definitely not allowed [although I don't know why].
It's a "natural" pool with no filters, pumps, or chlorine. Instead it has adjoining chambers of plants + small fish.
On paper, it's a barragem [storage pond], and he has all the permissions. It's lined with a plastic membrane.

I thought it would be pea soup within a year or two, but it's looking great.
It was very expensive, built by a specialist company.

Shanorme

I'm not sure if this is relevant but when we were looking at properties, there were a couple of above ground pools, which were basically only agricultural cisternas that had been converted. The impression I got is that as they had been in place for many decades, that their conversion was 'acceptable '. One of the properties we looked at had tried to disguise it by building up around the cisterns and paving it. We didn't pursue that property for other reasons but the thing that would have been top of my list to explore, would have been the legality of the built up area around the cisterns too as it was quite a large area.