Stuck on fencing design/options for Texas Hill Country pool
- Thread starter jd-gtown
- Start date
Re: Stuck on fencing design/options for Texas Hill Country p
With being in the etj your going to have to have a fence around the pool or your entire property. Have your talked to many pool builders in our area?
With being in the etj your going to have to have a fence around the pool or your entire property. Have your talked to many pool builders in our area?
Hi All - It's been a little bit since I posted this thread, but wanted to circle back and hopefully get some thoughts around my current thinking. Essentially, we gravitated towards the rectangle pool design. At first thought it was going to be simple/clean/easy and hopefully cheaper. After several rounds of designs/changes/etc we have a bigger, more elaborate, more feature rich pool than we started at a really hard to swallow price. The issue is its hard to go back to that ~38-40k price pool as its missing a lot of must-haves to us that we didnt realize until we really got into it. Things like pebbletech vs standard plaster, the size of the pool, enough concrete to make a good living and pool area, etc, etc. It seems like the only other lever we have to make costs go down is shrinking the pool. Anyhow, I wanted to get some opinions on the shape and size to ensure I'm not missing or overlooking anything. I'm close to 60k estimated on this pool and decking, which is way more than we started out thinking we'd spend AND we ditched the spa option along the way.
Some things we added:
L - shaped to allow for a sizable (12x8) baja shelf that doesnt interfere with the rest of the pool.
A seat that extends across the shallow end allowing for people to sit with the butts in the water and legs dangling without taking much room from the pool (aka: my pabst blue ribbon sippin ledge)
Changed from 3.5 to 5.5 to 3.5 sport pool to 4' to 7' traditional deep end
Went from around 90' perimeter to 122' because of the L and size of the pool.
After all said and done, I really like the L shaped design. It feels like it gives us the full rectangle pool for kids playing, swimming and swimming laps, yet it gives a connected "yet out of the way a bit" hangout place for the adults on the baja step without needing to hog up a huge part of the shallow end with baja step in the non-L shape rectangle. Also we went with 38' long to hopefully give enough room for laps, definitely not sure what is appropriate here. 34' would make things cheaper for sure, but I dont want to regret going to small and not being able to do any laps. The main pool is 15' wide. Fencing not showing or priced in this whole deal yet either. Anyhow, would love any thoughts or opinions to help me get my mind right around the whole thing.
Some things we added:
L - shaped to allow for a sizable (12x8) baja shelf that doesnt interfere with the rest of the pool.
A seat that extends across the shallow end allowing for people to sit with the butts in the water and legs dangling without taking much room from the pool (aka: my pabst blue ribbon sippin ledge)
Changed from 3.5 to 5.5 to 3.5 sport pool to 4' to 7' traditional deep end
Went from around 90' perimeter to 122' because of the L and size of the pool.
After all said and done, I really like the L shaped design. It feels like it gives us the full rectangle pool for kids playing, swimming and swimming laps, yet it gives a connected "yet out of the way a bit" hangout place for the adults on the baja step without needing to hog up a huge part of the shallow end with baja step in the non-L shape rectangle. Also we went with 38' long to hopefully give enough room for laps, definitely not sure what is appropriate here. 34' would make things cheaper for sure, but I dont want to regret going to small and not being able to do any laps. The main pool is 15' wide. Fencing not showing or priced in this whole deal yet either. Anyhow, would love any thoughts or opinions to help me get my mind right around the whole thing.
I like the design. It seams most pools in our area start at 50k and that is for a small pool. What type of decking was included in the price? Integral concrete, Stamped, Sundek? I wouldn't be surprised if a wrought iron fence added another 10k but I might be really high on the price (hope I am)
I hope the fencing is much cheaper than that, eek. On the decking we haven't fully decided yet. The PB puts estimates in the price but doesn't 'sell' the decking directly, but rather brings in the decking subs into the project and we work out final quantities/cost with them, etc. I'm assuming he does that because its probably the most wishy-washy back and forth elements of the pool and repricing everything constantly would be challenging especially when customers are pushing for price breaks, etc. His model is basically, he'll bring them in and run the job based on what we want and won't make any $ on the decking. That also prob means theres no one to call down the road if it cracks. With all that said, any advice on the decking would be helpful for this situation. We are on the fence between between Lueders and Travertine for the coping. Given its a simple shape we wanted it to be high quality. I'm not sure if a stamped concrete or a plain concrete or even something like sundeck would look and perform best for this shape and design. Any advice is much appreciated.
The other big thing is how much decking. Our drawing is 1500sq, which is pretty much super expensive and the plan is to try to bring that down to 800-1000, but I'm unsure of how to get the right amount of living area, pool area, lounger area, bbq area, pad for a future above ground spa in the corner of house/raised-porch, firepit area, etc without having everything cramped. I'm not sure given the size of our property and access from all around if taking away all the concrete on the back side would make sense. Thoughts there?
Thanks,
JD
What other options do you have on the pool for example full automation? Only reason I bring this up is because cut that stuff out if you can and go as big as you can with the decking. Automation can be added later trying to match decking down the road could be a headache. Are you doing Saltwater or Chlorine? Lueders are limestone and I have heard issues with saltwater pools etching limestone coping. I have a hard time seeing it but looks like your have white limestone on your house correct? Check out Cobra Stone and Espinoza stone chances are that is where your PB is going to get your stone http://www.cobrastone.com/gallery.html , http://www.espinozastone.com/
you could do Tan leuders for coping. For the decking (from espinoza) Buff to light tan native Texas sandstone. That look would be a very linear look to it
you could do Tan leuders for coping. For the decking (from espinoza) Buff to light tan native Texas sandstone. That look would be a very linear look to it
Only real options i have in there are pebbletech, ez touch 8 controller, 4 deck jets and a pump to run them and thats pretty much it. The controller adds around $1750. Jets and pump add around $900. The jets seem reasonable given it will be the only real water movement/sound since we didnt get any water features or spa, etc. We went back and forth several times on salt vs chlorine. As it stands, we have it spec'd with chlorine and a trident uv system. I'd like salt from the skin/feel perspective, but seems to be a lot of people saying its not worth the headache and potential issues around here in central texas hill country area. The house looks like a white/yellow/rust colored limestone type of rock, its a bit more rough cut and not cut flat like the newer construction homes tend to be.
Thanks,
Justin
I myself have a 32 foot long pool and its fine for laps. If I wanted to cut expenses a bit I'd lose that long beer shelf step, and cut the pool down to 32 feet from your current planned length. I'd also go to 8 or 9 feet in the deep end to allow for diving, even if its just diving in from the side. My one regret is not having a deep enough pool to allow for diving.:sad:
Just my humble <cough cough> opinion
Just my humble <cough cough> opinion