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I don't know how it is in your city, but in mine it is a pain to pull permits and deal with all that. I think I would have gladly paid someone $200 to deal with the city for me and go down to the permit office a few times. (Also, there's no difference in my city in cost depending on who pulls...

I think the busy contractor issue has a lot to do with when you build. If you're in a hot market and getting into late spring/summer, you do run the risk of having contractors prioritizing builders over you. One mitigation for that is a company like "Build Your Own Pool", where you're...

One quick note that a couple of us owner builders have learned: after plumbing is done, get system pressurized and monitor the psi at each milestone (before gunite, before patio, etc). With so many people working on your pool you'll want to make sure nobody compromises its integrity.

Thanks for the additional context. That does sound a bit rough. The pipes on the ground seems particularly unacceptable. You're probably right in that the plumber just didn't feel very invested in this pool. That's unfortunate. I don't think that he would do shoddy work, so you should be fine...

Here are some random thoughts: - You should really consider SWG. I know that you mentioned chlorine seems fine to you, but I have to tell you that the SWG makes pool maintenance so much easier (acid is the main thing I have to ever do with my pool) - the Polaris 360 cleaner doesn't require a...

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Question: if it held pressure just fine for a month, didn't the plumber do his job? Isn't it most likely that one of the other guys like the cheap labor that work on the patio actually nicked a pipe while they were working? Not defending the fact that they...

If my math is right, it sounds like your quotes were on the order of 12k vs 18k (based on 30% being about 6k savings). If that's the case, that sounds really steep. When I worked with these concrete coating companies, some of their practices were a bit questionable. 1) the square footage...

My plumbing guy did all the plumbing except for the pool equipment before gunite (hooked up to a manifold for pressure testing). He ran the returns in the bond beam. He also used a blow torch, I believe to curve pipes so as to not require any more joints than necessary (and in the bond beam...

Congrats on the build. Had I known you were at the gunite stage, I could have lent you my hose timer with sprayer that I bought specifically because I knew I wouldn't water religiously - not that you'd need that anymore with all this rain. Hope it goes well and that you have good luck with...

I agree with what people have said so far. Just to add on, I created a similar thread earlier this year you might look at: My cost savings by going owner builder route

Wow... I'm surprised they tried to go for that much markup on the patio.

Biggest regret: I would have bitten the bullet and paid the extra $ for automation. My pool equipment is far enough away that my laziness gets the best of me... I've been trying to train my 6 year old though... automation via reproduction, per se. I can still have it installed, but it would be...

In what I saw from my builders, they didn't take a big margin on the pool deck. This could obviously vary, but they wanted to charge me around $10 per sq ft for concrete with Koolcote, whereas my price all in came to about $9. Things like turndown, concrete pump rental, drainage add up on top of...

Thanks for the input. I asked the inspector for all the details. He said DIY will work as long as I can show him the UE compliance sticker or whatever from the product. For mine I can't put a concrete deck in there due to the septic setback requirements. I just had an idea though. I wonder if...

I'm needing to install a pool fence for the city permit, and I need some advice. On one side of my pool, I do not have concrete (just grass). I've had 3 bids, 2 of them said they don't do the concrete footers to do the fence in dirt, and the one that does quoted $3700 (145 feet of fence)...

I'm running into this same question on my pool now. From what I can tell there are three options: 1) they make pool fences that have a filled bag that lays next to the fence to support it (they look hideous to me) 2) Dirt spikes are cheap online. They are just rods that go 2 feet in the...

Re: New Build in Round Rock (Austin), TX - Equipment Comments Requested We struggled with the salt with stone for a long time as we are also here in Austin. At the end of the day, it's clear that pool builders make way too big of a deal about it, but it's unclear whether there will be any...

I have a heat pump. General trade offs are gas vs electric and heat maintenance (i.e. Keeping a set temp for several days vs a quick warmup for a couple hours). In my case, I don't have a spa. I just use it to extend the swim season (esp since I'm a baby in cold water). With a 7 mm solar...

Don't blame yourself for this. The guy is the one that is to blame. I had a few situations with renters as a landlord and learned the hard way that some people really suck. I always wanted to believe in the good in people - that nobody would try to take advantage and screw somebody so bad...

Sorry to hear about all your trials. I'm not a lawyer, but some info that you might find useful that I learned recently. Don't know about in Georgia, but in Texas they upped the amount you could sue in small claims court from 5k to 10k a couple years ago. The cost to serve someone is like...

I just saw your PM, and replied with my list of subs.

In Austin, TX, I saw $5.50-6.50... most were around $6.50. Kool-Cote tried to give me a starting price of something crazy like $5 per sq ft (on top of the cost of the concrete I paid). They quickly came down to $1.85 (supposedly builder price). Note that kool cote is cheaper on new concrete...

So it's funny after several months to come back to this thread that I started and see all of these great ideas. What I ended up doing I am really happy with. I got 4 rock speakers from Amazon ($100 total) and wired them up (buried wire) through our laundry room into a Denon 4100w receiver. The...

In my build thread (in my signature) I lost out all of the places online where I got mine. Most of my stuff I got from polytecpools. The warranty thing, most will warranty 1 year if installed by a professional (vs like 60 days without). Lots of local places will do the 3 year warranty thing but...

Good idea. I think different places handle it differently. Jamie's charged by the hour but mine was fixed cost. In Austin, all excavators just assume rock and always come with a jackhammer attachment for the backhoe. They all also charge fixed prices (though you can do it differently with a rock...

Shower is awesome. I also wonder where you got it and if I can still go pick it up on clearance. Did you do the plumbing yourself? I agree that 73 is too cold. We've been using our solar cover and heat pump, but 82 was even a bit cold for me today. I set it really high the other day at 88, and...

You could do a liner pool in Austin, but I hate dealing with rips, holes, leaks. The sun is also pretty intense here. That being said, the pool shell part of my Gunite pool ran something like (5.5k gunite, 5k pebble, 3k steel and form), so if you take those out, the patio, digging, and pool...

Looks a lot better. Night and day. Are you having the plaster guys do the clean out of the shell? My plaster guys charge $300 for that.

Does anybody know how in the world pools are so substantially lower in that part of the country? I know that pricing is very regional, but how is it that this pool is so cheap? Labor, dig, supply, what is the difference between Arizona and Texas?

That sucks. I'm in the process of fixing all of my irrigation lines from my pool build. Crazy how much damage was done. I already replaced a bunch of pipe, 3 valves, and had to wire my electrical around the whole patio since the patio guys cut the wire. I still have a bunch more lines to do now...