18" is what mine will be. Three inches among friends may not make all that much difference, but there must be a reason and deeper seems better to me.

I went the other way at 12" for our big beach. My wife and I tried a few beach and big step areas and didnt like it that deep as the water seems up to yor neck when sitting. We found one at 12" and that seemed perfect to us.

A friend of mine has his at 18" and wishes he went shallower. He says he has to hold the chair down or it floats away. And when he sits in it, his bottom gets all wet. He prefers to sit in the chair and only get his feet wet.

Mine's also at 18. I'm thinking that I could get a taller chair if needed. 15 inches sounds like a happy medium. How old are the children that'll be playing in the kiddie pool?

Ours is 18" deep, the in-floor cleaner takes care of it perfectly. We use it as much as we use the rest of the pool. I would make it larger if I could, ours is 8x9', I would make it at least 10x12'. Two loungers fit on it but very tightly. The water is at the perfect height for sitting on the loungers, and if you put a regular chair in your butt won't get wet.

Thanks everyone. Michelle I posted under another thread asking how deep your shelf is because it seems perfect for what we need. 18" is good to know. My kids are 4 and 9 so they will be using the kiddie pool quite a bit. I just cut the size of the little pool back a little though so I hope I didn't make a mistake! I asked them to move it back to 8x9 from 10x11 because it was encroaching on the deep end! Yiyeks. I shoudl talk to my PB tomorrow and see...

Where did you get those cool lounge chairs? And are they the standard 12" high?? Also, what is your pool finish (PT color?). Thanks for the pix and everyone's advice. Maybe we'll go with 18 and see if we can drain a bit of water if necessary. Better deeper than shallower I would think.

Katherine

Hi and thanks! We bought the chairs at Costco 5 years ago, they are heavy aluminum with vinyl straps. We leave them out all the time, they still look great and are sturdy as ever. I haven't seen the same ones at Costco in a few years, but just keep looking. You never know!

I think they are 12" tall. Perfect height for laying on your back or stomach (with the back down to the first angle setting) and have water cool you off.

Our color is Caribbean Blue PT. LOVE it. If you look through my photo books you will see it from different angles, sometimes it is very green looking from a distance, other times it is blue or turquoise. It is the neatest color because it changes so much with the amount and angle of the sun.

I think you will be happy with 18". We also have a small step that if there is any kid that couldn't sit on the bottom he could definitely sit on the step. And at that age that is all they need to be happy! It is a great height for all age kids, we sit on it all the time with friends, everyone loves it almost more than the pool itself!

Keep us up to date with your build. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Scroll down for the pool pics

Sorry....I'm late to this thread....another idea if you can't decide on depth.

We did a modified beach entry...meaning this. The main tanning area is about 4" deep (perfect to lay on with one of those foam floats) or just lay on without the float. The 4" area is about 10' x 12' and then from there we have a slope that goes from 4" deep to 18" deep and the 18" deep extends the length of the beach for a bench to sit or kid to play.

Here's a picture of our plan to help visualize.

Hope this helps!

Measure the height of the chairs you intend to use and make the sun shelf appropriate so that the water level will be at the bottom of the fabric you sit on... otherwise the chair could float when you get up... also the idea is for you to touch the water... not be submersed... 18" of water (aka 21" from the bottom of the coping) is way too deep... as a rule of thumb I like 12" of water... unless using a bubbler (fiberstar) they recommend a max of 9" to effectively use a lit bubbler...

Poolmanny, why would 18" be too deep? In 18" our butts and thighs are an about 5" of water, not submerged, and with a regular patio chair we are well above the water. I am also curious, where did you come up with the water line being 21" from the bottom of the coping? Our waterline is about 2" from the bottom of our coping.

The chairs we bought are heavy-duty aluminum, they definitely don't float and never rust. The cheap plastic stackables probably float away, ours don't.