New Pool Build, Am I missing anything?

[SunnysGlimpse]

Hello, this is my first post so I have to say thanks for all of the wisdom we have found on these forums! It has been invaluable as we will be first-time pool owners.

Here is what we're looking at for our pool in Austin, Texas:

Perimeter: 86’ ft.
Area: 350 Sq Ft.
Depth: 4’ – 5’ – 4’
Capacity: Approximately 11000 gallons
WetEdge Satin Matrix Pebble
6" Baby Pool area with 18" deep middle
Bubbler in the Baby Pool Area
12 ft of 18” – 24” high custom rock water wall
6” Frost proof water line tile
Limestone coping
10 ft long area that has an extra foot of coping overhang to create a bar area on lower patio
Two Color LED Lights by Hayward
1/2” Rebar is in the bond beam
3/8” Rebar tied on 10” Centers with a four bar beam and additional bars at all high stress areas if required
2HP Jandy E Pump
460 sq. ft. Jandy Cartridge filter
Jandy Aqualink PDA 4 Remote, and a mounted control box by equipment
Nature 2 Fusion Inground by Zodiac (should replace with Liquidator?)
Manual fill (will probably make this automatic)
Polaris 9300 Sport
3 Returns - 1 ½” schedule 40 PVC.
Two Pool Main Drains with Anti Vortex Covers. 2” schedule 40 PVC
1 skimmer
580 sq ft of flagstone Stone Patio
Built over 4" concrete
3/8” Rebar on 12” centers

Does everything look sound here? Namely...

1. Are the structural and plumbing specifications up to snuff?
2. I'm thinking we should get 1 more skimmer and 2-3 more returns for the amount of surface area we will have. Does that make sense?
3. Will a Jandy 2HP ePump be able to adequately handle the bubbler, waterfall, and pool pumping?

Thanks so much for all your help!

 

[Matt in Houston]

Just finished building our pool in Humble. I would consider these options:

Maybe upgrade to stronger and probably cooler, light colored travertine coping...You might be surprised its probably not much more if you can find a good deal.

Unless your deck is shady, the flagstone deck is going to get super HOT in the summer...You can save a ton of money and less heat with a spray deck application over the concrete. Many different colors to choose from too.

I would upgrade to 2 skimmers and maybe 1 or 2 more returns with that size pump. You could probably get away with a 1.5hp easy and save power.

We have two bubblers in our 9ft x 3ft sun ledge and if they are turned up even half way the water all around gets very turbulent. You will probably have the toddler bubbler on quite low or it might be very rough. I was surprised when I realized this about our pool.

Go with the auto water leveler for sure. We have the Paramount paralevel and it is really nice.

Good luck! Keep in mind I'm far from an expert, but I thought I would throw in my 2 cents. Im sure others will chime in soon.

 

[SunnysGlimpse]

Maybe upgrade to stronger and probably cooler, light colored travertine coping...You might be surprised its probably not much more if you can find a good deal.

Unless your deck is shady, the flagstone deck is going to get super HOT in the summer...You can save a ton of money and less heat with a spray deck application over the concrete. Many different colors to choose from too.

I would upgrade to 2 skimmers and maybe 1 or 2 more returns with that size pump. You could probably get away with a 1.5hp easy and save power.

We have two bubblers in our 9ft x 3ft sun ledge and if they are turned up even half way the water all around gets very turbulent. You will probably have the toddler bubbler on quite low or it might be very rough. I was surprised when I realized this about our pool.

Go with the auto water leveler for sure. We have the Paramount paralevel and it is really nice.

Thanks for all the advice Matt! I really appreciate it.

I definitely plan on upgrading to two skimmers. Would 4 or 6 returns be better? I'm also wondering with the 2hp Jandy ePump, if we should ask that all plumbing be 2" or 2.5". What are others thoughts on that?

Also, is there any reason why we should upgrade from the Jandy PDA 4 to the PDA 8 remote control? The only other thing we want to control with it outside of our pool is landscape lighting that we will get installed at a later time. We will not have a Spa.

Thanks!

 

[jblizzle]

My non-expert 2cents:

Plumbing:
- Have main drain and skimmers plumbed separately to the pad (each with their own valve) ... gives better control. Having them all be 2" is probably fine. If the floor was plumbed to the skimmer, I would say go 2.5" from skimmer to pad.
- Are all the returns going to plumbed together? If you go 4+, maybe split them into 2 separate runs from the pad. If split, I think 1.5" for both is fine. If together go 2" pvc.
- I assume the bubbler and waterfall will be separate runs from the pad with their own valves.

I was going to suggest a 2-speed pump, but see you have opted for a variable speed pump. With all the different return paths you have, the 2HP may be good ... but this is something Mark (mas985) would have to run numbers on.

Auto-fill is a nice to have and kind of a pain to add later.

+1 on finding a cool option for decking ... Flagstone gets HOT in the sun. Travertine is cooler, the Kool-deck is definitely cooler (we have this) although not as fancy looking as stone.

Get rid of the Nature 2 and go either Liquidator or SWG.

 

[SunnysGlimpse]

My non-expert 2cents:

Plumbing:
- Have main drain and skimmers plumbed separately to the pad (each with their own valve) ... gives better control. Having them all be 2" is probably fine. If the floor was plumbed to the skimmer, I would say go 2.5" from skimmer to pad.
- Are all the returns going to plumbed together? If you go 4+, maybe split them into 2 separate runs from the pad. If split, I think 1.5" for both is fine. If together go 2" pvc.
- I assume the bubbler and waterfall will be separate runs from the pad with their own valves.

I was going to suggest a 2-speed pump, but see you have opted for a variable speed pump. With all the different return paths you have, the 2HP may be good ... but this is something Mark (mas985) would have to run numbers on.

Auto-fill is a nice to have and kind of a pain to add later.

+1 on finding a cool option for decking ... Flagstone gets HOT in the sun. Travertine is cooler, the Kool-deck is definitely cooler (we have this) although not as fancy looking as stone.

Get rid of the Nature 2 and go either Liquidator or SWG.

Thanks for all the input Jason. I will have to follow up on the plumbing and return paths. It amazes me that pool builders don't go into this more. I guess the assumption is that the normal pool builder doesn't care about the plumbing. The same thing goes with anything they mention like "Hayward light" could be any of 10 different models. Anyways, I digress...

We actually would save a significant amount of money by going with the Kool-deck instead of natural stone. The PBs we've talked to have actually encouraged that and said we could get it stamped to look like limestone. Did you add a color to yours or get it stamped?

We just already have a lot of natural limestone decking and want to ensure the pool decking blends in as well as possible but we're going to look into this more.

 

[jblizzle]

Ours is just a spray on texture with a solid acrylic color ... no stamping ... nothing exciting ... but we don't get burned We had some flagstone stepping stone at my last house going to the pool equipment ... you could burn yourself very quickly if your feet were not wet or wearing shoes.

Other note, there are some examples of the low levels of salt for SWG increasing the rate of dissolving / flaking of natural stones. So if you considered a SWG (or in the future), that would be another reason to avoid some rocks.

I would also suggest, that trying to blend to different decks / surfaces could potentially look "off" if they did not match VERY well. Maybe it would be better to have something different enough that gives a separate but complimentary look.

 

[SunnysGlimpse]

Ours is just a spray on texture with a solid acrylic color ... no stamping ... nothing exciting ... but we don't get burned We had some flagstone stepping stone at my last house going to the pool equipment ... you could burn yourself very quickly if your feet were not wet or wearing shoes.

Other note, there are some examples of the low levels of salt for SWG increasing the rate of dissolving / flaking of natural stones. So if you considered a SWG (or in the future), that would be another reason to avoid some rocks.

I would also suggest, that trying to blend to different decks / surfaces could potentially look "off" if they did not match VERY well. Maybe it would be better to have something different enough that gives a separate but complimentary look.

Thanks Jason. We're going to go take a look at some sprayed decks tomorrow. The good thing about if we go with a sprayed deck is we could actually look at SWG again. We had completely ruled it out due to us using limestone coping and decking.

What are some good natural stone coping options that can tolerate SWCG?

Also one more question for everyone regarding the structure - should we ask for 1/2" rebar on the 10" centers instead of the 3/8" rebar?