New build in NW Austin suburb - plaster!

[Soggydoggies]

Hey y’all!! We’re just starting the pool build process - currently waiting on city and HOA permits. I’ve been lurking on these forums for a couple months on several different topics, so thought it would be good to actually join the fun. We’re doing a gunite/pebble finish sports depth pool with a good amount of decking. So far our builder has been super with recommendations and suggestions for equipment - although I started out wanting the salt chlorinater, as other ATX peeps have mentioned, you have to get out the thumbscrews to get a builder to use one. So we’re going with traditional chlorine and using a mineral feeder and UV light to hopefully kill all the bugs and still have a lower than usual chlorine level. We back up to a creek and have a lot of undeveloped land around us, so we’ve got raccoons, possums, wild hogs, river otter, turkeys, herons, deer.... all kinds of critters we share the area with but bring additional concerns as far as keeping weird zoonotic things out of our pool. Also I really want flagstone coping ? so salt doesn’t work great with that either. Anyways, here’s just a simple rendering and basic equipment list. I’d love to hear if anyone sees any big red flags. It’s our first pool, and we are clueless!

 

[tim5055]

although I started out wanting the salt chlorinater, as other ATX peeps have mentioned, you have to get out the thumbscrews to get a builder to use one. So we’re going with traditional chlorine and using a mineral feeder and UV light to hopefully kill all the bugs and still have a lower than usual chlorine level.

Welcome to TFP

Get out the thumbscrews and demand a SWCG. The "alternative" you are talking about doesn't work.

Alternative sanitizers and "chemical free" pools--The Truth!

Pool owners frequently seek out "Chemical Free" alternatives to pool water sanitization. Many claims in favor of these systems and methods have been made (usually by the manufacturers of such systems) often without adequate scientific proof of their efficacy. Let's take a look at them and see...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[DB-Cooper]

Welcome. What part of NW Austin are you in?

 

[Soggydoggies]

Thank you! We’re in Leander - just north of 1431 off Parmer.

 

[wilkj1]

first welcome your in the right place. please read more you will see peeps here that tried to trust builders and pool stores and pool services i am one , they will help you spend your hard earned . here we want you to have a trouble free pool. 3 years ago i had a pool built. i fired my pool maintenance guy in 3 months got lucky found this site in nov 17
i had a tab feeder /mineral system, opened pool in april 2017 3 months into pool ownership had green algae thats why i fired pool guy i was lost till TFP .
i do everything now and love it .


where did you see that salt water will hurt stone its going to be at levels of tears 3500 ppm sea water 35000 ppm there are rocks in the ocean millions of years old . some stone is softer and freez/ thaw can do damage i lived in Austin on and off over my life it froze 2 times the last winter i was there
i have stone coping i live in Oklahoma i did seal my rock not hard and can be owner done salt will not hurt stone coping with care but bad water balance / chemicals will ..as for the u v system you get plenty of uv in Austin unless pool is covered. traditional chlorine = pucks ? more problems down the line please ask questions read read the info and help is here i promise.

plus please include us here in your build w/ pics start a tread i know @kimkats will love to help pic out bling for your pool



tim5055 is spot on Get out the thumbscrews and demand a SWCG. The "alternative" you are talking about doesn't work.


i did it my self and have saved thousands of $ in the last 3 years please i mean no disrespect we want to help
you will be asked to get your own testing kit do it for your family you will not regret it.

 

[Soggydoggies]

Hmmm. Maybe we’ll revisit the salt option. Thank you! Just out of curiosity, how hard is it to migrate to salt at a later point if we go with chlorine but hate it? The builder’s main concern with salt is that it’s harder on equipment I think. The main things I liked about the uv option was that it killed giardia, crypto, and lepto - all pretty legit concerns with the amount of animal traffic we’re likely to have. I’ll check into stone sealant.

 

[wilkj1]

on later install it depends i had no automation so i was able to use a stand alone system by circupool it works by a unit powered into main pump power
with pentair automation you will want the pentair cell and need pro install most likely but please look into it with open mind . you will most likely end up here just because people really do care and this community not here to sell you on anything just help. and btw i have been in concrete 50 years pure salt on roads and sidewalks does some minor damage but most is freez/ thaw and its pure salt not diluted to 3500 ppms i sure hope your build goes well remember we want pics / updates

 

[tim5055]

The main things I liked about the uv option was that it killed giardia, crypto, and lepto - all pretty legit concerns with the amount of animal traffic we’re likely to have. I’ll check into stone sealant.

This is where the UV falls apart. Yes, it kills those things, but ONLY if they pass thru the UV chamber. 100% of the water does NOT pass thru the chamber on a regular basis. They give pretty diagrams, they talk about turnover rate and stuff like that. You can have a 20,000 gallon pool with a turnover rate that will move 20,000 gallons thru the chamber in let’s say four hours. But that just means 20,000 gallons passed thru, not all of the water in the pool. Some of those “gallons” may have passed thru 10 times and some never made it there.

It looks good on paper, but it just isn’t good.

If you read their paperwork they are very careful to skirt many of these issues, but the fact is there are only three products the EPA recognizes as pool sanitizers - Chlorine, Bromine and Baqua. They will say, oh yea, you need chlorine but a much lower level, 0.5 - 1.0ppm. It is next to impossible to keep that level of chlorine in a pool when the average chlorine loss to the UV rays of the sun is somewhere between 2 - 4ppm per day. If you put 0.5ppm in you pool it will be gone by lunch in Texas. They are talking how things work in a lab, not how it works in your back yard.


Oh, while I’m talking about it, that UV chamber consumes your chlorine also.

 

[Bcrule]

Howdy -
Congratulations on your upcoming new pool. I live closer to Houston, and my pool builder talked me out of a SWG 3 years ago by quoting me a jaw-dropping basically "I don't want to do it" price. So I didn't. However, I am having one installed soon by someone else. Using liquid chlorine has not been a problem, but it does get old buying so many plastic jugs and then taking them to be recycled.
On a separate note, I live in a rural area with many of the same critters you have. One of my must-haves was an automatic pool cover so I could cover the pool at night and not worry about what I would find in the morning. It has been great. Honestly, they are very expensive, but if your budget would allow it, I recommend them.

 

[tim5055]

One of my must-haves was an automatic pool cover so I could cover the pool at night and not worry about what I would find in the morning. It has been great. Honestly, they are very expensive, but if your budget would allow it, I recommend them.

Looking at the shape of his pool I'm not seeing an autocover.....

 

[Bcrule]

It would have to be deck mounted, but they (coverstar anyway) offer a recessed track that I think looks nice. But I agree that freeform pools make it more challenging.

 

[Bcrule]

And if it is a raised spa, yeah, I don't see it happening, either.

 

[kimkats]

HI and WELCOME!!!! Please listen to them about the UV and mineral stuff. I do liquid chlorine thing. It works for me for now. I hope to get a SWG one day.

I LOVE our pool design. There are two things I would would think about:

-That bench should be shifted closer to the spa. That way people can sit on it and chat with people in the spa and it will square them up to the patio for TV watching and such.

-fire pit-I would not get a built in one. There are many free standing ones. If you really want a built in one I would not put it where it is now. It looks to be right in the walking lane from the patio to the pool shelf/entry steps. I would shift it over so it is closer to the right side of the pool.

I would also make sure there is an overflow line for when you have big rains. You will thank me the first time you don't have to go out to the equipment pad in the middle of the night during a rain storm to drain the pool down some.

Kim

 

[Soggydoggies]

And if it is a raised spa, yeah, I don't see it happening, either.

Yes, it is a raised spa. I hadn’t considered a cover just due to the shape, but realize the spa would be the bigger problem....

 

[Soggydoggies]

HI and WELCOME!!!! Please listen to them about the UV and mineral stuff. I do liquid chlorine thing. It works for me for now. I hope to get a SWG one day.

I LOVE our pool design. There are two things I would would think about:

-That bench should be shifted closer to the spa. That way people can sit on it and chat with people in the spa and it will square them up to the patio for TV watching and such.

-fire pit-I would not get a built in one. There are many free standing ones. If you really want a built in one I would not put it where it is now. It looks to be right in the walking lane from the patio to the pool shelf/entry steps. I would shift it over so it is closer to the right side of the pool.

I would also make sure there is an overflow line for when you have big rains. You will thank me the first time you don't have to go out to the equipment pad in the middle of the night during a rain storm to drain the pool down some.

Kim

These are all great points! I will ask about shifting that bench (the one in the pool I’m assuming you’re talking about?) so that it’s snugged up against the spa.
We did talk about just doing a free standing propane fire pit instead of the built in natural gas. It still may be the first thing to go if we need to spend budget somewhere else... like a salt system! Originally it was to be placed in the semi circular area on the opposite side of the pool (it was larger before the change) but we realized the gas line would be too far of a run. Of course with propane tanks that wouldn’t be a concern. It’s hard to tell on the rendering, but there is a step down from our existing patio onto the pool height decking, so it makes the space on the right pretty narrow too. Also you can see the tv on the patio from the current fire pit area. But still, I appreciate your point of that being probably the most traveled area in the whole setup.
I will definitely ask about an overflow line as well - thanks! One of those things I didn’t know existed.

 

[kimkats]

I will ask about shifting that bench (the one in the pool I’m assuming you’re talking about?) so that it’s snugged up against the spa.

Yes the bench in the pool. Good question to ask to make sure though!

a free standing propane fire pit

I was thinking a wood burning one but using those fire logs instead of real wood. SO easy to use and clean up!!

I am glad you are already learning about what can be done and what is needed with a pool!

So lets talk about your depths. What are you thinking? I see this "sports depth pool" so think I know where you are going but want to make sure.

Kim

 

[Soggydoggies]

Y’all are definitely making me agonize over the salt vs traditional chlorine thing! I’m going to get pricing on switching setups along with those other smaller modifications. Depths are 3.5 ft on the left side by the stairs, going to 5ft in the center and 4ft on the right. We considered 5.5ft in the middle, but it would be over my head and volleyball is one of the things my husband really wants to do in the pool. We have a six year old and lots of family and friends with kids. I had a scary experience as a kid swimming with a baby that slipped out of his floatie in the deep end - I am not a strong swimmer and at about twelve years old almost drowned trying to keep my baby brother’s head above water while my mom and neighbor chatted just feet away. I’m nervous about not being able to touch with my kid in the pool. He is a great swimmer, but still I would never leave him unsupervised.

 

[tim5055]

Y’all are definitely making me agonize over the salt vs traditional chlorine thing! I’m going to get pricing on switching setups along with those other smaller modifications. Depths are 3.5 ft on the left side by the stairs, going to 5ft in the center and 4ft on the right. We considered 5.5ft in the middle, but it would be over my head and volleyball is one of the things my husband really wants to do in the pool. We have a six year old and lots of family and friends with kids. I had a scary experience as a kid swimming with a baby that slipped out of his floatie in the deep end - I am not a strong swimmer and at about twelve years old almost drowned trying to keep my baby brother’s head above water while my mom and neighbor chatted just feet away. I’m nervous about not being able to touch with my kid in the pool. He is a great swimmer, but still I would never leave him unsupervised.

Salt will make your life so much easier.

I'm with you on deep pools, the deep area (over my head) is really lost space most of the time. As you say volleyball or just lounging around in the pool take place in water not over your head.

 

[Bcrule]

Do you think you will use the fire pit a lot? If it will only be an occasional thing, a more "out of the way" location may not matter as much. Gas vs wood - there is no right or wrong there.
We knew we wouldn't use ours a bunch, so we went with wood. The fun of building the fire thing. Also, since we knew it was not going to be used a lot, we went for one that we liked looking at all the time anyway...call it yard art.
There are lots of options - and the planning phase is the cheapest time to change your mind!

 

[DB-Cooper]

I bought a fire pit for my upper deck years back. I used it once this season. Granted the weather was fairy warm this last winter. Texas just doesn’t make fire pits that worthwhile. However, if your family and social group are ones that like to hang out around a fire and chill out, it may be worthwhile. I get more use out of my outdoor furniture and portable propane heaters (like the ones restaurants use).