New Owner Builder Pool - Buckeye AZ

[Gearheadzs]

Here goes nothing,
Hey everyone, my name is Jason. We are just starting this project that we have wanted for many years but other priorities always won over. We will be sending our plan to the county for permitting tomorrow or Monday (was waiting for the special engineering for the Waterfall and Sunken Ramada). Hoping to break ground on this beast within a month if permits go smooth. Would love to be done by Feb/Mar, or at least 85% and wet.

My hopes are that I can document this build and keep everyone up to date as it goes if your interested; the ups and downs, and sideways' as they occur. I am no pool builder, but have stayed at a holiday inn express a few times , and am also project manager, technician and a quick study. I have learned a lot following others posts, forums and builds, as well as talking with other owner builders, and the trades people, and hope that with this knowledge and the things I learn along the way, mine turns out well. I value everyone's feedback on this project as this goes. I have been getting all my bids in from the different trades, interviewing them, comparing prices, references, and learning the if's and or butts to their quotes.

Below is my plan if I post it correctly, please take a look and provide your thoughts. Feel free to comment, I'm a big boy, and can handle criticism well if it is called for. It is a very large pool, on the lower level of my 1.5 Acre property, and this section of the property was to always be just for the pool and play area.

Jason

 

[Crackerjack4u]

Hi Jason, and Welcome to TFP,

By your design it looks like your pool is going to be a nice one.
If you want post all your "Build info in your Signature by going to Setting at the top right of your page, then Edit Signature on the left side of the next page under the bold MY Settings tab. (You only get 5 lines in the Signature, so add what you can and put the rest in a comment if needed, then when your build is complete you can Update the Sig info to match what you ended up getting etc.

Include the size of the potential pool, the pump, swg, heater, types etc., the type of materials you plan to use for the surface, decking etc. and a lot of folks will be around to offer you advice on whether they preferred this one or that one or if they've had issues with a particular model etc. and this might help you make some final decisions on your build.

I look forward to watching the build. Oh, and post us plenty of pictures along the way. If you use a site like photobucket, you can just copy and paste the IMG link right into your comment that way you can share entire albums if you want to. Again welcome to TFP, and have a wonderful night.

 

[Gearheadzs]

Thanks for the warm welcome. I guess I should have posted my topic in the under construction section.
Hopefully someone will move it to the correct location.

I look forward to all the feedback. I am becoming Pool OCD lately.
Jason

 

[Crackerjack4u]

It will probably be fine under the "Just getting started" forum, but if not, they will get er moved for you, so not to worry. Your Signature Information looks really good. Now that my old eyes can see all the measurements etc. I must say that's going to be one awesome pool when it's complete. I'm thrilled you're planning to share your build progress with us here at TFP.

 

[kimkats]

That is going to be a WONDERFUL pool! I would love to see a close up of the plans. I am having a hard time reading the details. The info in your siggy is awesome!

No need for the ozonator. You can do a search on the TFP home page to see the whys and why nots.

We LOVE pictures. You can show us where the pool is going to go to get us started.

We will also help you pick out your colors and such! I just LOVE spending other peoples money! LOL

Kim

 

[Marlahoutex]

What a huge pool and lot! Looks awesome! Just curious, with such a big lot, did you consider putting in a lazy river?

 

[JamieP]

I agree, your pool is going to be awesome! Have you decided on what SWG system you're going to use to chlorinate a pool that big?

 

[Gearheadzs]

Ok,
Let's see if I can do this correctly. Here are some photos of the main backyard and lower pool area pre build. I figure I may as well get them in now, for reference and for comparison in few months, or so some can wrap their arms around size, location from house, on property, etc if desired. Please disregard what many call Christmas lights that are hanging, its still summer in AZ, I call them party lights, we change the name to Christmas lights in December .
Also, meet Whiskey, he likes to follow me everywhere.
We will start with an aerial, then the main back yard, then from main to pool area, then different angles of the pool area from different corners:

 

[Gearheadzs]

We did think about the lazy river, which my wife really wanted, but cost/use wise, the larger sunken ramada will get more year round use, as we host lost of parties. So we opted for the fire pit with a stream next to it with a little bridge.
For the SWG, we are currently leaning towards the Pentair intellichlor IC60P. For the ozonator, I have heard it both ways from several people.. Like pretty much everything else. So right now it is still on the list with a dotted line, while I do more research.
Also, for controls, we are going with the Pentair intellitouch I9+3, and a pentair spa command 150.

Below are the specs, please keep in mind, that as I am the owner builder, some items spec'd on the list are very likely to change. As an example, it has decking as pavers, we will likely end up with a stamped concrete coping and path to fire pit, fire pit, and ramada floor. The main layout poolside decking will likely be acrylic lace. 90% of the waterfall/rock feature will be real rock, with an artificial top rock for jumping off of and waterfall. We have had to reconsider the underground 500Gal tank due to restrictions on easements, and are opting for 2ea 100gal propane tanks, above ground, behind the waterfall mtn.

Jason

 

[JamieP]

Your backyard is just asking for a pool! It's going to be great!

Ok,
Please disregard what many call Christmas lights that are hanging, its still summer in AZ, I call them party lights, we change the name to Christmas lights in December .

This was hilarious... It made me laugh out loud!

 

[Gearheadzs]

I agree that the area is perfect for it, we almost had one built a few years back, but were not in position to do it right with the budget we had at the time. So we worked harder and saved to be able to get it done and not be undersized for the location. Doing it as an owner builder will be sure to add more headaches, and possibly some time, but save us money as well, enabling us to get more out of the dollar. Thankfully, I work out of my home office, and my schedule is totally flexible, so I will be here to oversee every contractor I hire and every component of the project.

Glad you got a kick out of that Jamie.

Jason

 

[Crackerjack4u]

You have a beautiful home and yard already, so a pool will complete it nicely. lol Whiskey I'm sure will be the overseer of the project to ensure it all goes smoothly. LOL those Party/Christmas lights have a Gretchen Wilson song lyric written all over them, but lol whatever works. Have a nice night.

 

[BuckeyeChris]

I'd have to dig out our plans from 2 years ago, but perhaps indicate the distance from the property line to the water line. 5 foot minimum is the requirement. Though from the pics it doesn't look too close.

With such a big back yard, are you doing a fence? We opted to have an auto-closer put on the side gate and on the sliding glass door, with window stoppers on every window that exited to the back yard. And had to take the doggie door out. But we have a small yard so there wasn't much room for a fence.

No HOA in that neighborhood? about where are you?

 

[Gearheadzs]

I'm in a county island, no hoa. Too many doors, sliders, gates, on house and rest of property, so we will be adding some fencing and an inswing gate at the base of the main stairs to the E perimeter wall, about 20'. Then along the upper wall about 30' W, with a 90 tied back to the house, with another inswing gate. This should resolve safety issues/access.

With this plan, the fencing will be pretty unnoticible, and intrusive, but still safe.

 

[Gearheadzs]

Chris, we are going to turn the equipment slightly due to utility run on backside of E wall, just learned that yesterday, so we should be good.. Im south of frys, across from inca school, 2 houses down. On NE corner across rd of guy who sells jeeps all the time. Brown adobe house facing watson. You know it??

 

[kimkats]

Jason! THANKS for sharing! Your house is awesome. I bet your pool area is going to be wonderful! That are is just screaming for a pool and surround!

I love the spiral staircase going up to the roof! We have one in our pool house. That is the first thing anyone notices!

LOVE Whiskey! "Hold on Dad, I am on my way! You know you cannot do anything with out me." LOL Do I also see a pug?

LOVE the lights........we have rope lights around our pool and deck--------party lights 11 months of the year then...........Christmas lights! LOVE IT!

How is the yard with drainage? Will you have to do a lot of grading to make sure water does not run into the pool?

Kim

 

[Gearheadzs]

You guys catch everything, I love it.
I have had the grade, elevation and drainage one in mind for a while. I am hoping they do not want us to have to do anything special for drainage, as it works just fine now as it is.
Shown below is a couple pics top down, the highlighted yellow area is the dry riverbed that crosses through my property. 99% of the year it is dry. My neighbor has a pool within 15' of it, my other neighbor who built his house 4 years ago is pretty close to it, and my pool would be about 30' from it. I took video during the hardest rain we had all year a few weeks back, and the water never left its normal track or pooled into my pool area, and that area has never flooded. The whole pool area is on a very slight grade.

It is my understanding from talking to several people about it who have built here, is that as long as we are not adjusting the natural riverbeds (which we won't be), we should be just fine. Keeping fingers crossed that they don't want something special for diversion that is not needed. We are also not in a flood zone.

BTW, yes that is my pug; Princess Fiona (I call her Bone), at the top of the stairs, keeping an eye on things. Another good catch.

 

[Gearheadzs]

Chris,
Below is how I plan to handle the fence issue.

 

[BuckeyeChris]

You can't have anything near the fence that can be climbed so that you could jump over the fence. That transition area up to the upper landing area could be a problem.kid could swing around to the back side of the upper fence and walk across past the lower fence. Hopefully you can get that explicitly reviewed by an inspector before you install it.

We had a friend right in that area, but in the new builds. No yards that big...

 

[Gearheadzs]

This is the plan if the original plan is not good enough for them, but I will be checking before building it for sure. I will be building the fences myself unless someone sells fencing cheaper than I can build them.