Hi all,
As we are interviewing pool builders trying to recreate our slice of paradise, I mentioned that we loved the 4' wide sheer descent we had on the front of our former raised 18" spa that made a lovely waterfall into our pool. It was directly under the spa coping and spilled into our pool. I just flipped a switch on the panel or selected it on the handheld unit to turn it on and we used it frequently during the 5 years we had that property.
Fast forward to now, I am asking about building the same thing and am being told(by 2 Pool Builders) that they don't like to build this way because the only way to have this sheer descent on the front of the raised spa is to have separate bodies of water. Apparently, that is not advisable to do nowadays. The present and future seems to be all broken copings with spillovers so the pool and spa can share the same body of water. I don't like spillovers because we love to do step offs from the front of the raised spa coping into the pool(feet first of course!). Unbroken coping all the way around the raised spa also gives more places to sit and dangle feet into the waterfall and be connected to those in the pool from the spa. We also loved to get behind the sheer descent and feel like it was another "place" within the pool(I've even brought a drink back there). All the spillovers I've seen don't seem to have the projection that we had where a full adult could easily get behind the waterfall. They just seem to dribble down or fall much closer to the raised side of the spa. I also don't like scuppers for this application because while they have projection themselves, the water coming off of them does not seem to. I would also worry about catching a foot on them when stepping off the spa since they stick out further than the spa coping.
Just when we thought were close to selecting our pool builder and then this has come up where I am not sure now if this is just something that they don't want to do or if there are legitimate reasons why we cannot have what in 2024 what we built in 2017. How bad of an idea is it to have a separate bodies of water for the pool and spa? Admittedly, I didn't know what I was doing when we had that pool built and I don't know much more now, but I am reading a lot and trying to absorb it all as we are embarking on our new pool build. I am pretty sure we had separate bodies of water at our last pool, but can't be 100% sure how it was plumbed. I see on our old paperwork that we had a Haywood VS Ecostar pump, but also see under the equipment section that next to sheer fall size, it states 3/4 hp pump. So maybe we had the VS for the pool/spa and another small one just for the water feature? I don't want to ask a pool builder to do something they aren't adept at as I have no interest in being someone's live action expensive experiment. I also don't want to build a pool that is instantly outdated or harder to maintain or deal with because it was build in a convoluted manner. I am planning to maintain the pool myself as I did at prior home but am not opposed to reaching out for professional help. At least the water chemistry aspect didn't daunt me. Pool plumbing, on the other hand...;0
The goal isn't actually if we have shared bodies of water or not, or separate pumps or not. We all just really loved our sheer descent and want the same thing again. I have told the pool builder this, and they will have to get with their build team to see how to design the plumbing. We just met with them yesterday, so they will not get back to us until sometime next week, but I wanted to see if there was a general consensus among the pool users of the internet on how to accomplish this.
Thanks!
Juls
As we are interviewing pool builders trying to recreate our slice of paradise, I mentioned that we loved the 4' wide sheer descent we had on the front of our former raised 18" spa that made a lovely waterfall into our pool. It was directly under the spa coping and spilled into our pool. I just flipped a switch on the panel or selected it on the handheld unit to turn it on and we used it frequently during the 5 years we had that property.
Fast forward to now, I am asking about building the same thing and am being told(by 2 Pool Builders) that they don't like to build this way because the only way to have this sheer descent on the front of the raised spa is to have separate bodies of water. Apparently, that is not advisable to do nowadays. The present and future seems to be all broken copings with spillovers so the pool and spa can share the same body of water. I don't like spillovers because we love to do step offs from the front of the raised spa coping into the pool(feet first of course!). Unbroken coping all the way around the raised spa also gives more places to sit and dangle feet into the waterfall and be connected to those in the pool from the spa. We also loved to get behind the sheer descent and feel like it was another "place" within the pool(I've even brought a drink back there). All the spillovers I've seen don't seem to have the projection that we had where a full adult could easily get behind the waterfall. They just seem to dribble down or fall much closer to the raised side of the spa. I also don't like scuppers for this application because while they have projection themselves, the water coming off of them does not seem to. I would also worry about catching a foot on them when stepping off the spa since they stick out further than the spa coping.
Just when we thought were close to selecting our pool builder and then this has come up where I am not sure now if this is just something that they don't want to do or if there are legitimate reasons why we cannot have what in 2024 what we built in 2017. How bad of an idea is it to have a separate bodies of water for the pool and spa? Admittedly, I didn't know what I was doing when we had that pool built and I don't know much more now, but I am reading a lot and trying to absorb it all as we are embarking on our new pool build. I am pretty sure we had separate bodies of water at our last pool, but can't be 100% sure how it was plumbed. I see on our old paperwork that we had a Haywood VS Ecostar pump, but also see under the equipment section that next to sheer fall size, it states 3/4 hp pump. So maybe we had the VS for the pool/spa and another small one just for the water feature? I don't want to ask a pool builder to do something they aren't adept at as I have no interest in being someone's live action expensive experiment. I also don't want to build a pool that is instantly outdated or harder to maintain or deal with because it was build in a convoluted manner. I am planning to maintain the pool myself as I did at prior home but am not opposed to reaching out for professional help. At least the water chemistry aspect didn't daunt me. Pool plumbing, on the other hand...;0
The goal isn't actually if we have shared bodies of water or not, or separate pumps or not. We all just really loved our sheer descent and want the same thing again. I have told the pool builder this, and they will have to get with their build team to see how to design the plumbing. We just met with them yesterday, so they will not get back to us until sometime next week, but I wanted to see if there was a general consensus among the pool users of the internet on how to accomplish this.
Thanks!
Juls