New DIY inground pool in Phoenix

[vudoo222]

Hi all,

We are just starting the process of designing our pool. Have been in our house for 3 years and we finally decided that we are tired of looking at a dirt yard in the back.

We started looking into pool estimates from the pool builders last month and after recovering from the sticker shock, we looked into a DIY. We have never owned a pool and never thought about DIY until we met a pool designer, and Gumby from this forum who is just finishing with his own DIY pool. I would like to thank Gumby for all the help, information on his pool and contractors list, which has given me a great leg up on this project.

I am starting this thread early on in our pool build and hopefully you guys can join us in building our dream pool. I have learned much already in this forum the last few weeks, but there is still much more to learn. I am sure there will be ups and downs, but I am looking forward to all your helpful inputs to make the bumps smaller down the road.

Le.

My 4yo boy and I in Sedona

My boy and wife who loves her trees and garden.

 

[Bama Rambler]

That's a good looking family!

Welcome to TFP.

 

[vudoo222]

As stated above, my wife loves trees and we decided on a free form pool with a more natural surrounding. We wanted a slide for our boy as he loves the water.

We decided going with SWG as he has asthma and hopefully will be less chemicals he is exposed to, plus maintaince will be easier. Below is the first design that our designer created that we absolutely loved with few minor changes. Gumby recommended keeping the sunken cabana at 42", but my wife is only 5' tall, so we will just lower it to 36". What are your thoughts on the cabana and the design as a whole? I will post the internal parts of the pool in another post.

 

[kjm11379]

Thats gonna be some project, can't wait to follow it...

 

[kimkats]

Well you are on the right track! Finding TFP and posting pics! This is going to be fun to watch!

 

[SkyKid]

Wow is all I can say that will be really awesome when you're done
I loved Sedona AZ
Did you guys go there by way of 89a from Prescott to Jerome?
What an awesome sight when you get over the peaks and see into the valley below

 

[pwrstrk]

Make sure you keep us posted with lots of pic's. that's going to be sweet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

 

[vudoo222]

Hi Skykid, that was on the Pink Jeep Tour in Sedona, wish I was there this weekend keeping a little cooler than in the Valley.

 

[vudoo222]

As for the pool, we wanted a play pool as we aren't much of swimmers so the depth of the play pool will be 3/5/4.
As far as the design is concerned, we had wanted a grotto and slide, but Todd, our designer, drew a slide area with more plants. He said it will give it a softer and cleaner look. He will give us a better drawing of that area and I will post it as soon as we get it, and we'll see what you guys think.

 

[vudoo222]

Now to the guts of the pool. This is the area where I definitely need some help and suggestions. For pool equipment, I believe Gumby has a great setup and in fact I copied his equipment list and made some changes to save time typing:

Pentair Intelliflo VS (011018) pump
Pentair Clean and Clear Plus 520 (160332)
Pentair Mastertemp 400K BTU (460736)
Pentair Easytouch 8 with IC40 cell (460736)
Pentair ScreenLogic2
Pentair 5G Intellibrite (pool) x 2
Pentair 5G Intellibrite (spa)
Paramount PV3 In-floor heads for entire pool
Paramount Venturi skimmer
Paramount Water Leveler
Paramount MDX-R3 drain with SDX side drain
Shear waterfall from the roof of the cabana
Pentair MagicFalls Waterfalls x 2
Pentair LED blubbers x 3
Decking: Noce travertine
Coping: Either Noce or a lighter travertine.
Most likely Pebble Tech for the interior.

Now the questions:
1. Would one more pump be good enough with all the water features? or would I need two more? If so, besides the Intellifo VS, what other pumps would be needed? Another VS or two speed and what HP?

2. Does any one have the Pentair ScreenLogic and how well do you like it?

3. With lighting, will have 2 LED lights facing away from the pool and the 3 blubbers, but any recommendations for more lights in the pool?

4. With the in-floor cleaners, was told by all the pool builders that they are the greatest thing and each one said their system was the best. Come to find out on this forum that is not always so. Tried to talk my wife out of in-floor, but she does not like the idea of a "robotic" cleaner in our "natural" pool. I decided to go with the PV3 system as that one seems to be the most popular one on this forum, but I will probably need a vacuum pump for the hopefully just occasional extra cleaning. Which leads to plumbing questions. I know of that the skimmer and main drain should be plumbed separately, any other pearls? Should we try to use mostly 2" pipes and 2.5" for the spa? Where is it ok to use 1.5" pipes? Rigid or Flex pipes here in Phoenix?

 

[Patrick_B]

Just wanted to say that will be one incredible pool! Sorry not to help you with all the equip questions, but there are others here qualified and experienced enough to do that.

Welcome to TFP Vudoo.

If you haven't seen it yet, you will be very interested in this thread: pool-build-california-dreaming-3-years-closer-t20686.html

It is a most incredible DIY build.