Getting started in Southeast Texas!

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TXsunshine

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Jul 4, 2015
79
Bridge City, TX
We have finalized our pool plans and will be signing our contract later this week. I am including the stats of our pool. Construction should start in a few weeks (fingers crossed).

size: 15'10"w x36'4"l x 22'w
depth: 3'6" x 6'
perimeter: 110
area: 544
decking: 700 sq ft--pea gravel
coping: 94 --using flagstone
Freeform shape
added 4 umbrella sleeves around pool

4' sundeck, deep end bench x2

8' round spa with 7 jets will be raised 12" with dry stacked stone spillover into pool

CCP 420 Cartridge Filter
Pentair 2HP Superflo Pump/motor
1 Pentair LED light in pool and 1 in spa
4 pool returns
2 skimmers-Pentair Bermuda 2" line separate lines
Easy touch lite automated system
mastertemp 400,000 BTU NG heater
Polaris 280 w/letro booster pump
320 inline chlorinator


Any thoughts? We also upgraded to colored pebble tech instead of the included white. We are deciding between Tahoe blue and blue lagoon. I will post pictures of the plans when I get them. I don't have a file, just a printout right now. We have a large backyard, our house sits on almost an acre. We will also be adding on to our existing patio and connecting to the pool decking. I am EXTREMELY excited! I didn't think my husband would ever agree to having a pool. But we really enjoy family time at home, love our neighborhood, and we know we will use it a lot! We have 3 kids, ages 10, 6, 6. They are estatic! Lol
 
Welcome to TFP, and another Texas pool.
You will get all sorts of suggestions and advice here from a lot of different pool owners; from Light placement to sundeck depth.
There is a tendency to the Salt Water Pools due to their ease of running.
The inline chlorinator is relegated to vacation use for the folk that use the TFP BBB approach. (I have one)

all with a healthy dose of humor and sanity checks.
Remember you only have to hang with your builder for a few months, the pool will be with you much longer.
Get the contract as specific as possible; makes & models, delivery dates
If something does not seem right, ask them. (Then bring their answer to use to dissect)
Don't take, "that's the way we have always done it' as a reason.
Sometimes a builder will try to dissuade you from a methodology or course of action because they are not experienced in it.

Enjoy the ride.
 
Here are a few pics. One of the plan and a few of the backyard. We are meeting tomorrow to sign the contract and I am driving myself (and my husband) crazy! I just want it to get it right! Overall I am pretty happy with the layout and shape of the pool. I need to double check the length and depth of the Baja shelf. We had planned on making it 12-18" deep because I want to be sitting in water if I use a lounger on it (not completely out of the water). But then we moved it from the other side to the shallow end and I need to make sure that will work as a first step into the pool. The more I look at it, I also need to make sure it is long enough for a chaise lounger if I want to use one!


We also plan on extending the covered patio out 10 more feet from the existing patio. That will increase the size of the covered patio to 20'x20'. We will also be adding concrete (uncovered) on the right side of the patio that will meet up to the pool decking. That is noted on the pool plans. We will eventually add a fireplace and outdoor kitchen somewhere. I think that is what is stressing me out the most--feeling like I need to decide where everything is going now while we are planning the pool.


The only other hesitation I have is where the spa is located. I am worried about it obstructing my view of the kids in the pool if we are sitting on the patio. But we used a hose to try and map it out tonight as it is planned and I don't think it will be as big of a problem as I was thinking because it is off to the side of the actual patio. I also wonder if I am going to regret not being able to really see the water feature of the spa (stacked stone spill over) because it will be facing away from the seating area. But I was thinking I wanted it on the porch side because in the fall and winter I won't want to walk around to the other side of the pool to get in it. I also think it would be nice to sit in the spa in somewhat close proximity to the fireplace in the winter. Thanks for reading! I have been looking at all of the construction threads and other pools, researching as much as possible. Any thoughts?
 
I would add another bench to the left of the hot tub. Kids love to throw stuff at each other from the benches and swim back and forth to them. What if you swap the hot tub and the sun shelf?
 
We signed our contract today. We discussed the size of the sun shelf and decided to leave it as is. We are thinking that once we get it layed out we will probably move the spa over some and make the sun shelf a little bigger. It is almost 8 ft wide as it is now. I need to do some more research on how big of a lounger I want to fit there so we can adjust it if needed. The pb said it was not a big deal to adjust the size of it or the exact placement of the spa if I decided to. We will probably discuss it more when they come next week to do the layout and make a final decision. We will do 12 inches on the depth of the sun shelf. We went ahead and picked out out waterline tile. We will have to go to Houston (2 hours away) to pick out Flagstone for the coping and wrap around of the spa.

Pool waterline tile


Inside spa waterline tile will be the subway tile blue glass one.


The spa will be raised 12" and we will do flagstone on the outside and top of the spa. The spillover will be dry stacked stone.

We have picked blue lagoon pebble tech for the plaster.... For now. I really wanted blue Tahoe but my husband liked the blue lagoon. We plan on going to see both finished in person before we decide for sure.

They have set the excavation date for Aug 3rd!! One week from now! This PB quotes a 21 working day build time.Pretty impressive if that happens. They did a few pools in my neighborhood and they seem to pretty much hit that target unless they have rain delays. The concrete guy and framers for the patio extension are coming on Tuesday. Things are going to start happening quickly around here! Let the construction begin! Thought or opinions on the tile choices?
 
Today is the day! They are here bright and early! We went ahead and poured the concrete for our patio extension yesterday. In a few weeks we will extend the roof out 10 more feet and will have a 20x20 covered patio. I now will believe my contractor husband when he says " it just looks small" when he lays something out for me. :D After they poured the concrete it was huge! They should start digging soon, I will post more pics later.

 

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They finished about 12. We made a few adjustments while they were here. We switched the swim out from the opposite side of the pool to the patio side. I wanted the kids to have a bench on each side of the deep end to swim between. We made the tanning shelf 5ft instead of 4ft. We measured when they were done and everything looks pretty accurate/matches the plans! Steel goes in tomorrow morning with a steel inspection scheduled for the afternoon. Gunite scheduled for Thurs, but they are a little behind so it will probably be Fri or Sat. Finally decided on Tahoe Blue pebble tech after looking at a few pools today. Yay! It was my first choice, I should have just gone with my gut.

The kids swing set makes a good location to take overview pics!


Tanning shelf and spa


Our dog Scooby checking everything out!


i didn't get a pic of it but there is also a deep end bench on the back side where the pool curves out.
So excited!!!
 
They finished gunite on the 8th. I haven't posted a picture yet.


And guess who did our gunite? Modern Method! We love almost 2 hours away from Houston. But apparently our pool builder uses crews from Hosuton almost exclusively now because they have had a lot of trouble with their local subs. It was so funny when I saw their name on the instruction sheet they left for us. My husband said, "how would you know who that was?" I said from Trouble Free Pool! Lol

Last week they completed the plumbing and electrical. It looks so intimidating!



i know I have a lot to learn when it comes to all of that. Luckily my husband is mechanically inclined. So at least he will have a clue. Or I hope he will! Lol

They were supposed to start tile and coping last Fri but the crew didn't show up. So we got pushed until today. And of course the forecast showed 60% chance of rain. So they didn't come. My fingers are crossed they will be able to start tomorrow. The weather looks iffy all week though so I'm not sure how much progress will be made. I've been keeping myself occupied by ordering patio furniture and picking up some pool toys from clearance racks.
 
We are using Tahoe Blue Pebble Tech. We haven't had rain in over a month. It has been HOT and dry. In fact the backhoe didn't even leave ruts in our had or tear up our grass during he dig--that is how hard and dry the ground had been! But now it is supposed to rain all week.

I really can't complain. We are only 2 weeks into the process and they are moving extremely fast! If we stay on track, we will be done in 4 weeks. I know from reading other threads that is not the norm!
 
Tile guys came today. I was so excited to get home and see the progress they made. We had soccer practice so we didn't make it home until almost 8. At first glance I was impressed--they had completed all of the waterline tile in the spa and the pool. And then we started looking more closely. We are super disappointed :( Apparently they cut flagstone inside of the pool...with nothing underneath. I have several deep gouges in my gunite now from the saw!! Including a really deep one in my 2nd step.

The pb called me yesterday and said I needed to be there by 5 to pick out a grout color so they would be ready for today. I rushed over there to pick one out. Guess what? They didn't use the right color. They used a dark gray and I picked a lighter tan that matched the stone in the tile. I wanted the grout to blend in. So I guess that was a wasted trip.

There are are several tiles that were installed and grouted that are chipped.

There are mounds of dirt around the base of the raised spa. They actually left the dirt in place and set flagstone up to and around the dirt line! Not to the base of the spa where it meets the decking. They also used lots of leftover chunks
of flagstone on the raised spa wall--it looks obvious that it is just the leftovers. Not happy with that either.

I hung around this morning until they got here because I wanted to check the tile and flagstone and make sure it was right. I didn't think to check the grout. Sigh. I guess I will have to see if I can live with the grout as is or if I want them to re-do it. But that might mean waiting on more tile to come in. My husband and I will both stay home in the morning to talk to the builder before the instillation continues. I know it would be best to have someone here as much as possible when they are working. But that is difficult when we both work. So disappointing! I will take pictures tomorrow. It was starting to get dark when we got home.
 
That sucks sorry. We plan and wait so long to start a pool and than you get mistakes like this. I haven't started the dig for ours yet. And after reading some of the treads here I'm thinking I'll need to be here to over see things. At least it seems like an easy fix. Not like the finish was the wrong color. That would really suck.
 
I feel better after talking to the pb this morning. They said the saw marks in the gunite aren't a big deal. They will redo the grout. It doesn't look bad but it isn't what I picked. So I told them to let me think about it and decide if I wanted it changed. I think I was just disappointed last night. But I trust my pb and know they will fix it!
 

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