The Palladium Plunge Fiberglass Pool | Johnson County, Kansas

Palladium Plunge™ Feature Highlights

The Palladium Plunge packs four features into a footprint built for tight courtyards and side yards: ample lounge seating, a wrap-around bench seat, a flat-bottom pool, and entry & exit steps. Each one is doing real work in a compact rectangular plunge — every feature earns its place. Below is what each feature does and why it matters at this scale, followed by a fifth note on choosing between the 16 and the 20.

Ample lounge seating

Lounge seating on the Palladium Plunge isn’t a single bench in one corner — it’s a series of submerged ledges that let multiple users find a comfortable position at the same time. On a small plunge, that matters more than it would on a 30-foot rectangular: when the basin is 16 or 20 feet long, every square foot of seating is the difference between a usable hangout pool and a single-occupant cooldown box. Two adults can lounge across from each other without sharing a single ledge, or a small family can post up along different sides during a backyard gathering. For the typical Palladium Plunge use case — Overland Park courtyards, Olathe side-yard installations where the pool is also the patio social center — the lounge ledges are what make multi-user occupancy actually pleasant.

Wrap-around bench seat

A continuous bench runs the perimeter of the basin, giving every wall a place to sit. On a flat-bottom 5-foot plunge, that bench is what turns the pool from “stand or swim” into “stand, swim, or sit comfortably at chest height.” The wrap-around design also means there’s no awkward orientation problem — wherever you enter the pool, there’s seating within a step or two. For homeowners using the plunge for water therapy, end-of-day cooldown, or low-impact exercise where part of the routine is simply soaking, the bench is the feature that gets used most often. It also serves as a transitional zone for kids or less-confident swimmers who want to be in the pool but not fully off-bottom.

Flat-bottom pool

The Palladium Plunge runs a single uniform 5-foot depth across the entire basin — no shallow end, no deep end, no slope. That’s chest-to-shoulder depth for most adults, deep enough for genuine immersion and water-resistance use, but shallow enough that everyone stands. The flat bottom also simplifies maintenance and cleaning: no dead spots where debris collects in a deep-end transition, no varying chemistry zones. The 5-foot uniform depth is what makes the Palladium Plunge work as an adult cooldown, exercise, and lounging pool — and it’s worth knowing up front so families with very young kids learning to swim can compare against models with a graduated shallow end. The “Also Consider” section below points to those alternatives.

Entry & exit steps

Built-in steps give swimmers a graduated way in and out, sized for actual feet rather than a token half-step. On a plunge with no shallow end, the steps are the only place in the pool where the depth is less than 5 feet — which makes them the natural staging area for getting in, getting out, and for any user who wants to ease into the water rather than stepping straight into chest-deep. The steps also double as additional seating during a gathering, and on a tight footprint that bonus square footage matters. They’re positioned to keep the open swim area clear so the pool stays usable end-to-end.

Two length options on the same 8-foot width

The 16 and the 20 both run 8 feet wide, so the sizing decision comes down to length. The 16 fits courtyards and tight side yards where even a 20-foot pool would crowd setbacks. The 20 gives you four more feet of length — enough to push off a wall and take a few strokes before reaching the other end. Neither is a lap pool, but the 20 is noticeably more swim-usable than the 16. Site evaluation usually settles which variant is right: setbacks, equipment pad placement, and access for excavation determine the upper bound on what the lot will accept.