For swimming, you'll need a decent size, you can get water jets systems that you swim against, but they're not cheap. Other than that, home pools are mostly just for splashing about in, difficult to swim in really, just too small.
Loads of them over here, and there's plenty of kit manufacturers, both for in ground and above. They're fairly reasonable pricewise, they use a block (or metal panel frames) and heavy duty PVC liner type. The liners are normally 10 years life expectancy, but can be changed. Last time I looked above ground kits decent ones start at about a 1-2 grand over here, in ground kits for 8 X 4 is about 6 - 7 grand. A cheap option if you're doing the work yourself, but as a comparison, we have a friend who had it all done by a builder, and he was in for about the 25 grand all in, about 2 years ago. then there's all the accessories, that you need, covers, robotic cleaners, showers etc, etc....
The home built kits aren't too bad if you're a reasonably skilled DIYer. They're not really technically demanding. We helped another mate put his together, and it was simple enough. The difficult bit was getting it all spot on level, so the skimmers etc worked properly. The rest was easy and the filtration / pumps / plumbing skids are just basic pvc pipe glued joint, type with running couplings for maintenance. Then a wee bit of electrical installation, but that all came as part of the kit.
For the uk, I'd definitely be looking at a covered one with heating (solar or heat pump). Even down here, you can really only use open ones for about 3 months a year, so that would be a lot less in the UK. With the covered types you can extend the "useable" time to quite a bit longer.
Have a look at "Kit de piscine 8 x 4m", "volet de piscine", "accessoires de piscine" "abris de piscine retractable" then use translate page. That should give you some ideas... if that's the sort of thing you are looking at, surely there will be a uk version somewhere, but if not I can manage the translation, ordering and shipping for you from here easily enough.
hope that helps
Loads of them over here, and there's plenty of kit manufacturers, both for in ground and above. They're fairly reasonable pricewise, they use a block (or metal panel frames) and heavy duty PVC liner type. The liners are normally 10 years life expectancy, but can be changed. Last time I looked above ground kits decent ones start at about a 1-2 grand over here, in ground kits for 8 X 4 is about 6 - 7 grand. A cheap option if you're doing the work yourself, but as a comparison, we have a friend who had it all done by a builder, and he was in for about the 25 grand all in, about 2 years ago. then there's all the accessories, that you need, covers, robotic cleaners, showers etc, etc....
The home built kits aren't too bad if you're a reasonably skilled DIYer. They're not really technically demanding. We helped another mate put his together, and it was simple enough. The difficult bit was getting it all spot on level, so the skimmers etc worked properly. The rest was easy and the filtration / pumps / plumbing skids are just basic pvc pipe glued joint, type with running couplings for maintenance. Then a wee bit of electrical installation, but that all came as part of the kit.
For the uk, I'd definitely be looking at a covered one with heating (solar or heat pump). Even down here, you can really only use open ones for about 3 months a year, so that would be a lot less in the UK. With the covered types you can extend the "useable" time to quite a bit longer.
Have a look at "Kit de piscine 8 x 4m", "volet de piscine", "accessoires de piscine" "abris de piscine retractable" then use translate page. That should give you some ideas... if that's the sort of thing you are looking at, surely there will be a uk version somewhere, but if not I can manage the translation, ordering and shipping for you from here easily enough.
hope that helps