[airon26]

As the title suggests, I would like to build a dance floor over my in-ground pool for our wedding at the end of this month. Since I want this to be as safe as possible, I figured I'd better ask for some suggestions. Here is the situation:

The pool is 12' wide by 40' long. Ideally I would like the dance floor to cover 30' of the pool length, leaving the last 10' open for a fountain.

My initial idea was to use 2x10's on 16" centers that are 16' long. This means that each one would hang over the edge of the pool by 2 feet. I would also use 2x10's along the outside, with joist hangers for each beam going across the pool.

Or should I buy I-beams to span the pool and do 20 or so of them on 16" centers?

I would like to avoid supporting beams in the pool, since I don't think they would do much good. The pool has a sand bottom with a liner over it (If you take your heel and stomp really hard multiple times you can dent the bottom of the pool).

For safety's sake we'll assume that the dance floor could be full of people. We're expecting around 200 people at our wedding, so we'll assume very high and say 100 people on this dance floor at the same time.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!:thumbsup:

 

[airon26]

Yeah I thought a hand rail near the edge by the fountain might be a good idea, but then again... it might be kind of funny to watch someone fall in.

Time is not an issue. I've got the entire month off, and I figure this will only take a few days to build.

The edge of the pool is concrete, and with the 2 foot overlap on each side, I'd figure it'll be fine.

 

[airon26]

As far as the 10" step, I was just going to leave it at that, a step. I guess I could put some kind of rail around the outside, and have an 'entrance' with one step up. I want to avoid that though, because then I would have to build the rail beefy enough for people to lean on, cause I'm sure if it is there people will lean on it.

As far as anchoring the floor so it doesn't move laterally, I hadn't thought about that. I just figured with the weight of the floor itself that it probably wouldn't move?

 

[airon26]

I think you would have some serious liability exposure with that step. Ten inches is well outside the parameters of the law and building codes. Assuming alchohol is available to the guests, that step would be a real issue. How about a five inch step all the way around?

Good point.

I'd better build a step all the way around, or build a rail with a step area.
Thank you for the input.

 

[airon26]

I'm planning on doing the same thing in November. How did this turn out? How did you end up building it? I'm still trying to come up with ideas to engineer something like this. I called a company that rents out dance floors to go over pools and it looks like it would cost at least a couple thousand dollars to rent.

This is still in progress. The wedding is on the 30th, and we are planning on building it the weekend before.

 

[airon26]

Hello! Wondering how this worked out for you? I know it's been a while since you posted, but my daughter is getting married in our back yard next month, and we were planning to build a dance fl oor over our pool using a plan that sounds similar to yours. Just wondering what materials you ended up using and how it all worked out for you; I would really appreciate any advice or feedback. Thanks so much!

It worked great! And we actually ended up using the materials twice. My brother got married the year after and we built the floor on parallel docks over the lake.

I'll see if I can find some pictures and then give you more info on the construction.