URGENT ADVICE - Building on a budget - plan for later?

[techgirl]

We are just excavating now so our window for changes is closing but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

We are trying to do a 400 BTU gas heated pool, with infloor cleaning, spa, gas firepit, 1000 sq feet of paver decking and full landscaping under 50K so we are having to be disciplined on some things. I'm wondering about the things we should wire/plumb for now even if we can't afford to add features later. We have three umbrella holes (they're only $40) which should give some nice shade.

For example we love the lighted deck jets, but they're not in our budget - since we're going pavers could we add those later? With pavers could we lift them up 10 years from now?

We have bubblers (not LED), but I'm wondering if we'll regret not adding electrical?

We're in AZ and I'm worried about the pool being too hot in the summer - should we be adding anything in now to be able to cool it when we're spending more time there (this is a vacation home now until we retire). I see lots of PVC solutions that plug into the vacuum spot but am not sure if we'd need something added now since we have infloor cleaning and the heated water comes into the floor of the pool not the side.

Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[4knights]

Cant answer the heater or bubbler questions but one of the experts will be along soon.
Anything you want to add later needs to be planned for now to avoid tearing up the decking later.
Pipe is cheap and can be capped off as well as electric runs(future use).
The lighting in the pool would need to be in place as they build but other features can be added later.

 

[AZHeat]

Re: Cooling. I am using a heat pump that heats and cools and I'm in Phx. It's about $1000 upgrade for the cooling option. The heat pump will extend my swimming season but not enough for Jan swimming. If you want to stick with gas, try the Glacier coolers. they are based in Phx and are an option if you want to use gas heat.

 

[duraleigh]

Search "Pool cooler" on this forum. You can cool your pool for $20 investment if you are the4 least bit handy.

 

[techgirl]

I did search pool coolers, they seem to all rely on returns in the side of a pool as opposed to the floor

 

[duraleigh]

A return on the side with a valve could be plumbed in now with VERY little additional cost.

 

[techgirl]

That's good to know - thank you!

 

[dmanb2b]

Not sure if you are set on the in-floor cleaning system, but you could just opt for a really nice robot instead and save a few dollars for the upgrades you really want.

 

[techgirl]

We just really don't prefer the look of the cleaners that creep through the pool

 

[4knights]

We just really don't prefer the look of the cleaners that creep through the pool

With a robot you could have it clean at night and wouldn't see it creeping, plus save the buck for that LED lighting you want.

 

[UnderWaterVanya]

Also... In floor cleaning is expensive to run, can be expensive and difficult to repair... If a robot breaks the most you have at risk is the direct cost of the bot.

Why not solar BTW? It can be run at night to cool off the pool

Sent via Tapatalk...

 

[davelinde]

The easiest thing on your list to defer is landscaping... The heating could be wired now and deferred too.

I really like our LED lit bubbler - but it does not seem like a good retrofit idea. The niche for the bubbler/light combo is specific to the light and is set into the concrete. The niche is where the electrical conduit and water pipe connect... We had an idea of building a water feature later but did not plan it well. We ran a capped water line and electrical conduit to the location for "future use"... but then realized that the waterfall and coping needed to match up, then realized that building it with the screen enclosure in place was a bad idea. So we ended up contracting it during our build anyway, it delayed things a bit and, of course, the electrical conduit was in the wrong place and needed to be relocated. Moral of that story is to have a specific design done for anything that will be a "future".

We also wanted to defer landscaping to save $$'s but ended up biting the bullet and getting sod/plants done because the mud pit around the pool was not OK.

BTW - yes, you can lift pavers if needed, but the cost to lift and re-install pavers is about the same as the cost to install pavers in the first place. We had to do some lift/re-install on ours and happily we cannot see any sign of where it was done. However, over time the pavers do get harder to remove (we had ours pulled within a week of the install , long story)