Our stock tank pool {part one}

If you follow me on Instagram then you know my husband and I are always working on some type of project. Even when we say we are going to take a break, another idea comes to mind. That was the case with our stock tank pool!! I had seen Ashley from Arrows and Bow documenting her new stock tank pool and casually mentioned the idea to my husband. He, of course, gave me that “you’re nuts” look haha. Until he started researching them himself and then his dream of creating the “red neck riviera” in our backyard came about. 
Once I got confirmation from the Mr. that “team Moysa” was tackling the project I started sketching out my design plans. I still love putting pen to paper for my ideas, it helps me visualize. I knew I didn’t just want the pool sitting on the concrete, so I got the idea of us building a deck. I also knew there would be times that I didn’t want to get fully in the pool, but having a place to sit and just dip my feet in sounded ideal. 

This blog post will focus solely on the how-to paint the pool, level the pool, what pump we used and all sources. (List at bottom of blog post) I’ll have another blog post focused on the deck building.

We purchased the 6 foot diameter by 2 feet deep pool from Tractor Supply Co. My husband drove to the nearest store and strapped this sucker onto the back of his truck and drove it home. It was quite a sight. Many people with stock tank pools go with the 8 foot one, but we just didn’t have that space.

After going back and forth on if we were going to paint it black or white, I stuck with my gut and decided on black. I just knew that the contrast it would provide between our concrete floor and the white fence would be perfect. The paint I used specified that it was for metal and aluminum among other surfaces, so I knew we should be just fine. I got to painting after doing a thorough rinse and scrub on the entire outside of the pool.  I used a combination of a roller and small sponge brush to paint the pool.  The sponge brush came in handy for the deep groves and then the roller was for the rest of the pool surface.

After two coats the pool looked great!

Next step was to level the pool since we had a slight angle to the concrete towards the back fence. We purchased sand from Home Depot and slowly started adding it to our chalk marked outline of the pool. We knew we would need more towards the back fence then the front edge of the pool, so placing a piece of wood propped up til it was level acted as our “sand guide.”

Once the sand is down we just kept patting it with wood blocks until it was compacted and filling to the height we needed it at.

Part two of our Stock Tank Pool can be found here