Beer Tunnel,
They had the best price by far. To the point we investigated whether they cut corners compared to others.
Funny but last Fall we were in the exact same place as you. Fiberglass was very tempting but quite a bit more expensive than our gunite built by All Seasons.
Same with our decision about the decking. We were surprised to find out that pavers were less expensive thru them than poured. We love our pavers. We did go with a poured coping so we wouldn't have paver joints at the pool edge.
We went with a typical Florida screen enclosure about 40'x 30'. It keeps the pool clean and is almost like adding an addition to the house. We use it all the time to hang out, cook, and (oh ya) SWIM.
Our pool is free form with an attached spa. We've used the spa just about every day so far this fall. As listed below, both are lined with Stonescapes finish in Mini-Tropics Blue with abalone shell enhancement. It looks fantastic sparkling in the sun.
Frank led us through the selection process and hit a home run for us. FWIW our "out the door price" was just under $40,000. Everything included.
Would not change items:
Salt water chlorine generator. So far the Jandy 1400 (rated for a much larger pool than ours) is maintaining chlorine levels perfectly (once I got the hang of fine tuning it based on weather/usage).
Stonescapes min-pebble. We love the look and feel. Some might find it a little rough on the skin. Very easy to maintain. With the screen room, we haven't had to do anything but brush it on occasion and vacuum it a few times.
Canister filter. A little more cost but with the screen room keeping debri from the pool it hasn't even needed cleaning since our start up last spring.
I-Aqualink. Works great to access all controls. As long as it has WIRED access to the internet. We found the wireless was less than perfect. Once we used a Network via Powerline adapter to connect to our router it HAS been perfect.
Pavers. We love the look
Might change if doing over again:
Hot tub/spa would be shrunk to 6' instead of 7'. Most of the time it's just my wife and I using it. This would keep the heating costs down.
We went with a large 400,000 btu LP heater (we can have the spa up to temp in 20 minutes). LP isn't a cheap way to heat the pool/spa so we only heat the spa after regular swim season. We might look into adding a solar heating system when our budget recovers from the initial build. Probably should have added at the start.
Bottom line is that we have fully enjoyed out pool this first season. It's been less trouble to maintain than I could have imagined. Check the pool chemistry every day or somewhere around there. Make adjustments where required (I will say that we add Muriatic acid every few days because of our waterfall feature and the SWCG). You are good to go.
