My family has been interviewing PB's in the Inland Empire over the last 3 months and have selected the company we'd like to build our pool. Our lot is fairly small (70' wide x 25' deep). All of the bids we received included a patio cover and all soft scape (plants/irriigation).

Here are a few pics of the design we like. Any thoughts/ideas/constructive suggestions are appreciated.

Specs for the pool at this point include:

15'6x34 pool size
448 water surface area
49 square foot spa with six jets
Depth: 3'6" -5'6"
2 LED pool lights
1 LED spa light
Easytouch 4 remote
VS3050 Pentair Pump
420 Pentair Filter
400,000 BTU Pentair Heater
Shark Pool Cleaner
Intellichlor salt system
White plaster finish
raised bond beam veneer with stacked stone
1 36" cascade waterfall
18" bench that runs the length of the "deep end" of pool

The bids also include: a 12x33' solid alumawood patio cover, all irrigation and plants, 1100 sq. ft. of textured and stamped concrete

Welcome to TFP!

That looks like a great pool. I'm so used to seeing problems with the equipment list, it is refreshing to see a list like yours that makes sense. My one, very minor, comment is that a variable speed pump is totally worth it if your electric rates are high ($0.20/kwh or higher) but not as clearly worth it when your electric rates are lower. When rates are low a two speed pump can be a better choice. Either way it will be fine, just fine tuning long term costs

Thanks for the pump advice. I'll look into it. How about the 18" bench along the house side of the deep end? The PB says the kids (ours are 8 and 5) will like a place to rest up or have available to swim to. Any pros/cons to this feature? Another thing we are still undecided about is the depth. We are at 5'6" now, and the builder initially recommended 5'. We are building this pool primarily for our kids enjoyment and want to make the pool as "useful" to them as possible.

Hello~~

I am concerned about the artistic rendering of the color of the pool water. It could be my computer but I don't think so. I am using a one year old MacBook Air laptop with the brightness turned up.

I am guessing that the color of your water will be a fairly light pale blue/a true aquamarine rather than what is shown in the rendering. You are spec'd a white plaster finish. Your pool depth is only 3.5 to 5.5 feet. I feel there is no way that your pool will have that medium to deep blue color.

I want to help avoid your being disappointed. Be sure to get a little tour of a few other pools that your builder has done, so you can see in person which plaster colors yield which pool water appearances.

Lana

Thanks for the feedback. The PB covered the water color variations you find relative to the interior finishes (plaster/peblble tec/sheen/fina). We've been in quite a few backyards they've done (along with 7-8 others with different builders) and we are actually on the fence as to whether we'll upgrade to pebble tec. The PB has cautioned us that if we do to stick with a lighter color as the multi color LED's won't look as good with a darker bottom.
Any thoughts about the 18" bench that will run the length of the "deep" end? Thanks again for the feedback.

Just my .02 cents, the 18" bench would be used a lot in my pool. I have two swim-outs and a baja shelf and those areas are constantly being used for resting and relaxing. You might decide to do 3'6" to 5'6" to 4'6" or any other combination you want to make the two ends equal for games.

My 2 cents, my kids and all other kids that use our pool love the 8 1/2 foot deep end, especially as they get older.

Thanks for the .02 cents- we appreciate it. We met with the PB today and were quoted a $3500 adder to upgrade to Pebble Tec (category 1 color) from white plaster. This seems a little steep- opinions? Also, does anyone have an idea of what a reasonable (if any) upcharge from Tec to Sheen would be?

The design is great. On the deep end: If you have a raised wall along the pool then as your kids get older they're going to dive. Deeper would be better in my book.

pebble sheen vs. pebble tec: I like pebble tec because of it's natural look. It seems like pebble sheen would look a bit like plaster from a distance. Might make sense to just go with plaster and use the money for an upgraded controller... or just pocket it.

Absolute newb here, no advice but I have a question. Is a heater necessary here in the IE? ( I live in San Jacinto/Hemet)

Like your design. Would you mind giving us a ballpark on your quote? Understand if you don't want to say.

A heater is necessary. You could get away with swimming for July, August, September (maybe) without one. Solar would extend the swimming season further, but a heater will allow you to use the pool all year. They aren't cheap to keep running though. It's worth mentioning that you don't often see new in-ground pools these days without a spa in california. I think the entry price for a pool spa combo has to be north of $30,000... and that will essentially get you a big bowl of water in your backyard .

Duh, I suppose a heater is necessary at least for the spa.

Pool and spa, 1100 sq ft. of textured colored concrete, 12x33 solid alumawood cover with 2 electrical hook ups, 6 24" box palms, 21 15 gallon trees/shrubs, 27 5 gallon shrubs, drip irrigation system, drainage/curb cores, 5 tons decorative rock, demo existing concrete: $55,000.....it's basically a turn key total back yard. The quotes we received all are in the 55-60 range.

Pebble finishes are more durable and should last longer than plaster finishes. White plaster is really stark though. There is a wide spectrum of colors until you get to the 'dark colors that don't show off the LEDs well'. A light grey or light blue will give a pretty blue color without being stark.

I have a 10yo son, and our pool design has a 8.5' deep end. Dive, dive, dive -- them boys wanna dive.

Thanks for the feedback. I think we are leaning towards the Tahoe Blue Pebble Tec. As far as depth goes, we don't want a severe drop off and are probably going to go 3'6 to 5'6 with a fairly gentle slope down to 5'6. I am curious as to upgrading the controller- what specifically do we gain moving from the easy touch 4 to something else?

Don't know anything about the capabilities of the easytouch 4... but I imagine it only has 4 buttons. You'd need a button for pool, spa, pool lights, and spa jets. It leaves out the option for controlling other things... like splitting pool lights and spa lights, controlling other outdoor lighting, a valve actuator to control the water features separately, and anything else you may want to turn on and off via a timer. There may not be an easy upgrade path to do more down the road.

Our PB had an upgrade to go from plaster to pebbletec, but the pebble didn't have an upgrade from there. Meaning pebbletec & pebblesheen were both the same price. There was an upgrade for the darker colors, but we went with the mainstream granite or aqua, can't remember which. Also had LED lights added... I would say I don't see a loss of color with them and our pebblesheen selection. If that helps ease your mind with your selection.

Really like the design!!! Think you will be very happy!

Thanks for the reply- we really appreciate your input. We're trying to do as much as possible to get this as "right" as possible. Is Sheen significantly easier on the feet than the Tec? I've read conflicting reports about Pebble Tec being too rough on skin. Can anyone elaborate on that?

We had an abbreviated pool season since we just finished our pool last month, but my kids didn't complain about their feet with the PebbleSheen.

Spoke to PB about controller. He's saying that our cascade waterfall and spa overflow will only be running when the pool is in circulation mode. I was hoping that we could turn them the waterfall on and off whenever we felt like having them run. Can anyone comment on this?