New Austin, TX Owner Build

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ummgood said:
Hey could you post what type of latch you used? I am all for the safety of my kids and already have bought something for up high that will not allow them to open the door. I don't mind putting spring hinges on my door and a self locking latch as long as I can find one that works and my son won't be able to force his way through.

Our windows are very hard to open and he wouldn't be able to open them. I am more worried about the door.
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We were building the house at the time we planned for the pool, so we just had the standard lever type latch placed higher on the back doors.
 
The dig was delayed a day since the ground was still wet. Hopefully they'll start tomorrow.

We didn't let that hold us back from doing pool stuff. We went to go look at tile and pavers in person. Here are all the pics of the things that we liked. Going from this collection to something actionable will be difficult, but I feel like we made some progress.

Here are are the pics. Let me know what you think. (Honestly, were a bit overwhelmed anyway). I don't mind making decisions about filters, pumps, etc, but we are not very design oriented.
Coping

Reminder: well be doing koolcote concrete patio (probably the typical tan color).
 
Sorry to hear your dig got delayed, but better to be on the safe side. At least you made the most of your free time though! The pictures look great. The colors of the thin tiles you are considering for coping are beautiful, but I think they do look a little thin for coping. I think I'm partial to the thick tiles in the third picture. They are a pretty color (which will also help with the heat probably) and hefty looking too. Then for your waterline tiles I like the Kashmir best, then Raku, for the little bit of brown they bring to the bluish grey, which will tie in well with your coping/decking color.

I'm sure you'll get more experienced and artistically savvy opinions than mine, but that's just my $.02. :)
 
kimkats said:
I will tell you that another pool build turned their rainfall into a sheer after they heard how loud the rainfall was! They said it was way too loud. Their PB just cut through all of the holes to make it one long line. MUCH better and still very pretty!

To my you cannot have too many benches so..............as for the swim out that is up to you. Just make sure it does not cut into your swim lane too much.

If the pavers/patio are the same height then would it matter how thick the pavers are? Are you thinking of looking at the pavers from inside the pool? If so I THINK any would look good no matter how thick. That is just me.

Sloping--I will let others talk about that. You saw how the rain ran in your yard so use that as a guide.

Kim
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That makes me feel better about the sheer.

Thanks for the advice on the benches. I went ahead and added one to the design, and I'll tell the excavator to leave dirt for it tomorrow. Here are the pics:
Benches
 
You can just switch the deadbolt with the door latch. That should put the latch out of reach of most little hands.
 
I like the patio stone with the different sizes/shapes for the shapes. I like the color of the one where you can see someones arm.

The pool tile...........I like kasmir the best but do not like the raku due to the amount of yellow in them.

I do like the last set you showed also!

Good job on the bench! I like the placement. It shall be known as "Kim's bench"! LOL

Kim
 
Looking good! Were you at Custom Stone Supply? That is the most awesome place and they have always been so helpful to me. I was in there so many times going through their Belgard pavers trying to pick colors. They let me take so many samples home.

About the 2" thick coping how big does it come? My PB was pretty anal about whatever I selected had to be available in a size bigger than 12" for the coping He wanted it to completely overhang the pool shell on both sides and mine shell was consistently 12" so I needed something bigger than 12". That is why I had to use the Mega Bergerac because it was the only one available in a 14x14" size. Just make sure you have enough width in whatever material you pick.
 
ummgood said:
Looking good! Were you at Custom Stone Supply? That is the most awesome place and they have always been so helpful to me. I was in there so many times going through their Belgard pavers trying to pick colors. They let me take so many samples home.

About the 2" thick coping how big does it come? My PB was pretty anal about whatever I selected had to be available in a size bigger than 12" for the coping He wanted it to completely overhang the pool shell on both sides and mine shell was consistently 12" so I needed something bigger than 12". That is why I had to use the Mega Bergerac because it was the only one available in a 14x14" size. Just make sure you have enough width in whatever material you pick.
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Yes; we were at Custom Stone Supply. They had a great selection there.

That's interesting about the >12" coping. The one that I found is 12", but it is specifically pool coping (which I thought was 12" standard).

I found a picture of this quartzite coping and tile together (it's a collection), and I think my wife and I are in love. It's MSI stone's line called "Golden white quartzite". Pic: tile.png - Google Drive
 
Construction has begun! They started to dig out the hole today, and it is quite exciting. IMG_5536.JPG - Google Drive Of course the yard is a mess, but I expected that. I never took good care of it anyway.

We only encountered a few issues on our first day :)
1) The water still had not drained by the pool area. We dug anyway, and it actually wasn't that big of a deal
2) They burst a water main when the excavator was driving in the front of the house. They said it happens a lot (really?) and that it was exacerbated by the mud (sinking of the machine) and that there was a rock on top of the waterline that probably put pressure on it. No biggie. They called the plumber out and he patched it up (though they did stop digging early)
3) They started to hit lots of rock (a few feet down). I'm sure we'll hear lots of the jackhammer tomorrow.

Also, I realized that I need to start ordering things quickly (need the bubbler by Monday), so I just spent a ton of money today. Feels great to spent $5k in one day on pool equipment (not really). If we add in the dig, it's like I spent $10k today - whew! I bought all the lights (2 5G color LEDs and 1 ColorCascade bubbler), the heat pump, and the SWG (Aquarite AQR-15 40k). Still need to buy the sand filter. Beginning to wonder if I should pay $120 more to set up to the S310T2 over the S270T2 (30" vs 27").
 

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And5555 said:
Y
I found a picture of this quartzite coping and tile together (it's a collection), and I think my wife and I are in love. It's MSI stone's line called "Golden white quartzite". Pic: tile.png - Google Drive
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I think we need to lock you in on this pick! NICE! Now your job will be to make sure they mix the colors up when they go to tile. We had one build where they put all of the lights in a row then did all of the dark! The hard part is to not make a pattern. Just a nice mix of all of the colors and shades. I would lay the tile out and play with them.

NO one ever was sorry to go bigger on their filters. The bigger they are the less cleaning you have to do! Spend a little extra money now to save you time/effort in the future.

Oh and where are the pics of the mess?? You do know it is NOT a real build thread without the whole story! LOL

Kim
 
Yep you'll have to start using [ IMG ] tags to have your photos show up in your thread. I think people are missing the links.

Looking good! It is always so fun when they dig that hole. Then a few days later I had that "Oh no what did I do?" then that goes away for awhile and comes back. It is pretty normal.

Sorry about the coping size thing that is just what I was told by my builder for my build. Perhaps your gunite won't be as thick as mine. Also remember ALL of my pool was at least 1' out of ground to deal with drainage so they beefed up the thickness of the gunite. Not that I was complaining.

I really like your coping/tile selections. I think it will go well with the existing landscape and wall you already have. It will be fun to see an owner build in Austin. I should have done that since I ended up having to be here for things to be done right anyway even with a PB.
 
Update: they're still digging. They'll finish tomorrow. There were a few issues with the backhoe like flat tire, broken hose for jackhammer that delayed the dig. The steel/form/plumbing guy is waiting to get started.

They did did hit a bunch of rock and seemed to be jackhammering for a solid day without taking a dump truck load. Here are some pics of the wrong and a video of the jackhammering. Random fact: Austin has the Balcones fault that separates sort of east and west Austin. The ground from one side of the city to the other has lots of rock and the other side not (which can also imply more foundation issues on the east). I live on the west side, so the dig was a little more pricey at $4500 (including haul off), but luckily no rock clause. There's a common misconception that building a pool in Austin is so expensive because of the rock, but as you can see, it's not that big of a swing. I think at the end of the day, it's just that pools in general are more expensive than people think.

This is a folder of pics and a video: Dig

Coping/tile : I got an estimate on the labor for the tile and coping ($800 and $1150, respectively). I also found a great tile on my materials (Golden White Quartzite by msi) at tilesbay.com (6x6 tile for $4/sq ft and coping for $11/sq ft plus $250 shipping). With those prices, it's looking like I'll actually come in under budget and tile and coping by $1000. Wow! It's nice to see something come in under budget, and with my favorite material: quartzite. The builder would have charged me an arm and a leg for that.

Electrician: I'm getting quotes from a couple electricians now. I have to hurry a bit on that since it's almost time for them. In lieu of paying the electrician a high price to dig the 80' 18" deep trench, I'm paying my friend to do it who needs some money. Cheaper and help out a friend.

Equipment: I've bought pretty much all of my pool equipment now. I did go with the 30" sand (thanks, Kim). It didn't feel good spending over $7k, but the equipment should be pretty nice, and I have to remind myself that a PB would have charged me >2x for all the upgraded equipment I got.

Contractor form: I did some research and found that some states (including Texas) have a required form to use for a lien release for the contractors. If you do not use the form, it doesn't really count. There are 4 variations, and the form is available on the web. Texas Construction Association | TCA
 
You are welcome! Glad I could help spend your money wisely!

That is quite a deal on your coping and tile! NICE fine!

On the installers-----any way you can check out their work before you pick? There is good and there is great. Pick the one that does the details better! (small areas, turns, corners, ect.)

Nice find on the lien release! What words did you use when you searched for it? This is something I want to put in my folder for up coming builds.

That jackhammer! Good thing you or someone did not have to do that by hand! Will you save some of the bigger stones to use as a border or something in the yard?

Kim
 
kimkats said:
You are welcome! Glad I could help spend your money wisely!

That is quite a deal on your coping and tile! NICE fine!

On the installers-----any way you can check out their work before you pick? There is good and there is great. Pick the one that does the details better! (small areas, turns, corners, ect.)

Nice find on the lien release! What words did you use when you searched for it? This is something I want to put in my folder for up coming builds.

That jackhammer! Good thing you or someone did not have to do that by hand! Will you save some of the bigger stones to use as a border or something in the yard?

Kim
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Great point on the installers. My friend who owns a gunite company gave me 2 guys that he recommends. I'll be monitoring while they work too. With a lot of curves on my pool, it would be easy to make those 2 foot long pieces look bad by not doing enough cuts to make it blend.

I searched "contractor lien release texas".

I would save some of the stones, but I honestly don't know what to do with them. We have a ton of stone on the property already (a couple huge retaining walls). My neighbor wanted to take some though.
 
We had one build that has quite a few curves. One of the first areas was awful! The coping looked like old fashion, wooden teeth! She knew it did not look good but when we were able to put a "name" to it she could point it to her PB. He laughed when she told him what it looked like BUT did agree! It was redone and looked purrfect!

You do have quite a bit of stone so yeah let your neighbor have them!

Kim
 
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. The form, steel, and plumbing should be done tomorrow. Here are a couple pics of that process.
Form

its coming together well. These guys really know what they're doing.

I got quotes from a couple electricians. One said that he didn't feel comfortable doing it without upgrading service (which is $3000). The other didn't think there was any problem with the load. I have 200 amp service and don't have that much going on at my house, but he said with the heat pump it would push it. The house was built in 2005, so it looks like there are safety mechanisms in place if something went wrong. In any case, one of the electricians didn't think there was an issue...

Anyway, the electrician ended up costing more than I budgetted because they have to install a subpanel. I have my neighbor digging the incredibly long trench for the electrical. The cost for everything except the trench comes out to $3000. It sounds like a lot of it is because the City of Austin is very particular about everything.

Called the the gunite guy (my friend) - told him I'd be ready next week.

My form guy was asking about my coping and said that I should think about how the 12x24 coping stones will work with all the curves. He said they'll have to cut them a lot and I'll mainly end up with wedges. I dunno...
 
Those little rocks at the beginning of the post, I love them. Little kids throwing them into the pool would not deter me from keeping them, if that's what I wanted. Knowing me, a child would get time out for throwing things to begin with.

Also, it'd be nice to see the thread full of pics instead of links but I'll click on them if I have to. :mrgreen:

You need to watch your wallet around Kim. She is good at outfitting pools.
 
Now is the time to make sure things are how you want them. Add 3 inches to your steel for the gunite and make sure it is deep enough, wide enough, long enough, etc.

Electric- better safe than sorry............If the one saying it is okay is saying it will be close......to me he is trying to say "you really need to add but I want your job so will say what you want to hear".

I love the pic of the kids playing while the work is going on! CUTE! Where were you to take the aerial view? Nice shot!

Kim
 

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