San Antonio Pool Quote Help

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gramazo

0
Feb 12, 2014
9
San Antonio, TX
Need some help on a pool quote from our first PB. All comments and suggestions are welcome and encourage!

The price is $76,798 for the pool portion and concrete around pool and walkway to the house. (Kitchen, Pergola and Firepit areas are not part of the price - just the pool, decking, and a few retaining walls).

Pool

19 x 36 Freeform
101' permitier
513 sq ft surface area
3-6 depth


Coping: Leuders
Tile: 6x6
Walls: Stacked stone
Plaster: WetEdge Satin Matrix
Raise pool wall with 2 18" water shears
2 Hayward Color Logic LED lights

Spa:
7' round
5 jets
Raised 18"
Hayward 2nd pump (need to get specifics)
1 Hayward Color Logic LED light

Equipment

Hayward 425 sqft cartridge filter
Hayward 2HP TriStar pump
Hayward 400,000 BTU gas heater
Automatic Inline chlorination
Hayward Aqua Logic PS-8
Aqua Pod remote

Polaris 280 with booster pump

820 Sq ft Salted and Stained Concrete
All steps capped with leuders as well but not shown in image.

Construction:
• Dry Mix Gunite, Water and quality controlled at job site.
• Steel Reinforced Concrete Structure- Designed in accordance with the American Concrete Institute ACI-318 Standard “Building Code for Reinforced Concrete”
• Rebar tied on 10” Centers with a four Bar Beam and additional bars at all high stress areas. Pool and Spa are #4 Rebar, 60 grade.
• 80% tie guaranteed with Galvanized Tie Wires
• To comply with American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) No. A615
• Minimum floor and wall thickness of 8"-10" (12" thick on Bond Beam and when out of ground)

Plumbing:

• All Pool Piping will consist of 2” Schedule 40 PVC
• Two Pool and Spa Main Drains for Maximum Safety (2” suction back to Pump)
• Pool Plumbing is VGB Compliant
• Skimmer- (Qty.2) Surface Skimmer with Hydrodynamic Weir and 2” Suction Line- Independently Plumbed
• Directional Returns: (Qty. 6) Proper Manifold for even Pressure
• Overflow Line and Fill line
• Independently Plumbed Pool Cleaner Line
• Base Price includes 30` from Pool to Equipment Pad

Electic:

• Bonding by State Licensed and Bonded Electricians
• Hook up of Underwater Lights, Timers, and Pool Pump
• Includes Hook Up from Exterior Sub Panel and all required Circuit Breakers and GFI, etc.
• Base Price includes 50` from Panel to Equipment Pad


Picture Pool1.jpg
 
Welcome to TFP :wave:

Looks like a nice backyard oasis!

A few things you might want to give a closer look at...

1. A 2 HP pump seems too large for your setup. My pool has similar dimensions (including the spa) but with a deep end of around 10' and I'm running a 1.5 HP (1.65 SFHP) pump which is plenty of pumping power for my pool. Plus, I run a Polaris 360 off of that pump without a booster. Question...is the pump in your spec a 2-speed or multi-speed? If not, I would definitely look into a 2-speed. A 2-speed of equivalent HP does not cost that much more than a single-speed, but it will save you lots of $ on your electric bill. Now's the time to look into this.

2. Inquire into running a Polaris 360 or similar pressure side cleaner that does not require a separate booster pump.

3. Curious as to the need for two main drains in the pool. One is all that's needed. In fact, many newer pools are being built without main drains. I would ask your builder to explain their reasoning on this.

4. Filter: Are you sure you want a cartridge filter? Cleaning is much more labor intensive vs. sand or DE filters. My personal preference would be sand. It's as close to maintenance free as you can get. Many improvements have been made to the filtering efficiency of sand filters in recent years, so I would give them a closer look. Plus, proper chlorination plays the leading role in water clarity regardless of filter type.

5. LED lights: Admittedly, it has been a couple of years since I priced these out. At that time, the LED pool lights were considerably more expensive than the traditional halogen pool light. While they will use less energy than the halogens, you may not get payback for some time unless you plan on having these lights on for several hours each and every night. If not, I would do a cost comparison vs. the halogens. Of course, if the color-changing capability is important to you, then my previous comments are moot. Love LEDs for in-house lighting (where the price points have come down in the last couple of years). Just have not seen LED price points come down enough for other applications.
 
Price seems pretty high to me, but I'm not sure about the San Antonio market.

I would guess something like that would be closer to $60K at the most. To give you a comparison, one quote I got was for a geometric pool, about the same scope ie, hot tub, plaster, equipment, etc and it was under $60K.
 
I agree with Vegas Kid on the price. My build is similar to yours in many ways and our pool cost is ~$60k (not including the outdoor kitchen). Have you received other quotes? I narrowed it down to 2 PBs and had them create basically the same pool using the same equipment. Then I told them they were competing for my business and ultimately went with the PB that I felt most comfortable with. He did lower his cost to get my business and now we may be using them to put in an outdoor kitchen.

I think there are many factors that drive that price but you may be able to get them to come down some.

Our spa is in a similar place as yours and we lowered it. We have young kids and we want to eliminate hiding places. That then led to a raised wall with scuppers along the back to make up for the lost water feature with the spa.

Either way, it is a great looking pool and I am sure you would be happy with it.
 
mjworthy said:
I agree with Vegas Kid on the price. My build is similar to yours in many ways and our pool cost is ~$60k (not including the outdoor kitchen). Have you received other quotes? I narrowed it down to 2 PBs and had them create basically the same pool using the same equipment. Then I told them they were competing for my business and ultimately went with the PB that I felt most comfortable with. He did lower his cost to get my business and now we may be using them to put in an outdoor kitchen.

I think there are many factors that drive that price but you may be able to get them to come down some.

Our spa is in a similar place as yours and we lowered it. We have young kids and we want to eliminate hiding places. That then led to a raised wall with scuppers along the back to make up for the lost water feature with the spa.

Either way, it is a great looking pool and I am sure you would be happy with it.
Click to expand...

First 76k did not include electrical panel upgrades or gas to the heater site. My gas and electric are on the opposite side of the house (off course). Its either a 180 ft. run around the house or 100 ft up and through the attic.


We actually met with 6 builders. Got quotes from 5 of them. One was ridiculously high (way, way over 100K). One at 79K and another at 80K (no gas or electric) and the other was 90K (But that did include the electrical and gas runs from main panels, meters).

So 3 of my quotes seem to be fairly close. The 90K one did include the gas and electric upgrades, but not the some plaster and coping upgrades. Taking some neighbors pools and adding on our upgrades...make it seem a little high.

So I feel pretty good about the price comparatively speaking, but spending that kind of money always make one nervous.
 
Mine is also similar in size to yours - priced the same as Vegas Kid and mjworthy. My pool builder did tell me that prices go up significantly in January because business is good and people want their pools in before the weather warms up. I can tell you, prices in DFW seem to significantly higher than my Houston friends who were getting the same size pool for 40k. May just be the market in San Antonio.

In my opinion, the lights are worth it!! We initially cut those trying to save some money but glad we changed our minds and added them back - love the LEDs! We did put off the spray deck for now since we wanted to do a patio cover and outdoor kitchen, decided we could do the coating later without to much issue. Good luck with your build.
 
You should get a turnkey quote. Have them include everything...you don't want a bunch of extra things creeping up on you that you didn't account for.

Regardless of the area, $76 is way too high IMO. San Antonio has plenty of cheap labor.
 
You guys that are not familiar with San Antonio... the price may affect the fact that they most likely have to dig through solid rock to build the pool. We don't have that issue here in N Texas.
 

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RobbieH said:
You guys that are not familiar with San Antonio... the price may affect the fact that they most likely have to dig through solid rock to build the pool. We don't have that issue here in N Texas.
Click to expand...

If that's the case then maybe the OP can look into getting somebody else (3rd party) to do the excavation. If most of the cost is the excavation then maybe the OP can save some money.
 
I would tell them you want to see the price breakdown per sub so you can see where the money is going. No guarantee they'll show you but I would ask. If nothing else I would call and get an excavation bid just to see if that is where all the money is going.

We built our pool as an owner builder so I payed all the subs directly. Below is our breakout:

Pool consultant $2500
Plans $150
Permit $208
Electric and Plumbing $3700
Excavation $1500
Rebar $1950
Gunfire $4900
Tile $2702.90
Concrete $5564
Equipment $6490
Pebblesheen $4507
Fire pit $1529.46
Dive Rock $368.75

Our pool was pretty basic and it's in another region of the country but labor is labor and it shouldn't be 3 times the cost. If I had to pay that kind of price I think I'd be swimming in a irrigation canal.

I love the design. Keep us updated.
 
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