THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX (OR CONTAINER)

Children in the Lake District are learning to swim in an old shipping container converted by Portable Space. In September 2021, swimming instructor Lee Read got in touch with Portable Space. He wanted to test the water with an idea: could an old shipping container be used as a swimming pool?

In the Lake District there may be an abundance of water, but there is a shortage of swimming pools accessible to the public. From Lee’s point of view, it is vital that local children learn to swim, and in a safe environment. But as he told us, he had found it increasingly difficult to hire space at nearby pools. What’s more, Swim England predicts that the number of pools available for hire to the general public is set to reduce dramatically over the coming years.

At Portable Space we were definitely up for the challenge to create a swimming pool. After a few discussions with Lee and revised quotations, we finally decided on a design. Portable Space would supply a shipping container and carry out all of the structural modifications needed. Furthermore, as Lee planned for it to be a warm pool, we would line and insulate it to make sure any heat loss from the sides and floor was minimised. Here’s the original sketch from Lee.

We refined the design until we were happy and the build started in February 2022, taking a few weeks to complete.

The swimming pool was constructed from a used 40ft shipping container. We removed the cargo doors and reduced the sides to the required height.

We strengthened the shipping container swimming pool so that the sides could withstand the water pressure and what’s more we insulated, and ply lined the floor and walls adding further strength and integrity to the swimming pool.

We created all the openings for the underwater lights, surface skimmers and filtration to have a fully functioning swimming pool.

Once it had been fully welded, the container was ready for a coat of paint. At Portable Space we’re fortunate to have two fully-equipped paint shops at our site in Bacton, Suffolk.

Now that that the container was starting to look more like a swimming pool, we turned our attention to its internal fittings. We insulated the floor with a PIR foam board and overlaid that with a thick plywood. The walls were next: having insulated them with cavity wall slabs, they were also overlaid with thick plywood.

Once the pool had been fully lined and insulated, we installed underwater lights and pipework for the bottom drains, surface skimmers and water returns.

Delivery day arrived. Our fleet of Hiab delivery vehicles can reach the most unusual of locations – so the warehouse unit in Cumbria where Lee had set up his swimming school was no problem.

Lee then had the hard work of making the pool watertight with the help of a liner, and connecting all of the pipework to the filters. The pool was then filled with environmentally and skin friendly salt water.

Three months later, Lee is still very busy and growing busier all the time. He works seven days a week, teaching life-saving sk

ills to many children from Cumbria. Lee believes swimming lessons are crucial because of the open water in the Lakes. As Lee is so busy, he has spoken about ordering another swimming pool container conversion to help with the lesson demand.