Figured it would be fun to document the progress of our pool build and hopefully it gives insight to others by way of design or questions. I had been lurking on this forum for awhile prior to us starting the interview selection process for deciding on a pool builder. We moved into a new home at the beginning of March (new construction) and swore to ourselves that we’d never go another summer in AZ without a pool. After we got our finances back in check and the many projects inside the house were being completed, we started interviewing pool builders in May. We got 5 bids and they were all pretty close to each other. We explained what our vision was to each of the builders, so the basic concept was the same in each of the designs, and the quotes were all relatively close to each other. The one we chose had what we felt the best design of the group and they have one of the better reputations in the Phoenix area. We signed the contract on 6/18/16 and then went through a couple change orders. Dig started 7/25/16 and things have progressed slowly since that time due to a heavy rain we got on 8/2/16 which set us back about 2 weeks. On to the details:
Specs
Perimeter: 119
Depths: 3.5x5x4
Dimensions: 33'8" x 20' on the baja bench side & 16' on the table side
Interior Area: 1032
Gallons: 16,680
Equipment
Hayward 60DE filter, EcoStar Variable Speed Pump, Hayward P4 Programmable Remote Control System w/puck, Gold line salt chlorinator, Wave Force Venturi Skimmer, Wave Force venturi looped return system (8 returns), Hayward Color Logic Light, Paralevel Auto Water leveler, Dedicated vacuum (however I'll be using a Doheny Discovery robot cleaner that I bought last month while it was on sale).
Features
Oversized baja bench with two bubblers (for the kids - 2.5 year old and another due in Nov.), 42”x24” rectangle table with seating area (for the adults), +6” +18” +6” feature wall with stacked stone and 4’ sheer decent, Arctic Sea Glass Pebble interior finish, travertine decking.
And now on to the pictures which I know everyone loves, myself included.
Design and Material Selections
In one of the change orders, we increased size of the baja bench as we felt it was a little small at first. The overall baja bench size is 8' deep at its deepest and 13'8" at its widest. Now the baja bench is inline with two pillars on our covered patio. This ultimately added 2' to the whole width of the pool. I never did get revised renderings after that change order though, so these aren't the most accurate depiction of the overall size.
White quartz stacked stone, waterline tile, Boulevard Lite travertine, and 1”x1” glass mesh tile for table top
Pool builder’s exclusive finish: Arctic Sea Glass Pebble (pebble tech finish with sea glass and abalone shell)
Layout
Dig
Day 1 of excavation, the equipment shows up
The excavation took about 2.5 days. The little excavator took awhile to get through the earth; slowly but surely it got the job done though. And the bobcat got a flat on the end of the second day, so that delayed things a little further.
Aftermath of rainstorm
Plumbing was scheduled for 8/3/16 and we got an epic monsoon storm on 8/2/16. Here's a picture of the rain that night and how quickly it turned the overflow basin next to us into a lake. We felt so helpless watching the backyard fill with water and ultimately start eroding into the hole.
As you can see, the plumbers got most of the work done in one day, but we had to wait until the rain water subsided and the excavators to come back and and fix the mess.
Steel
This guy worked alone and got most of the job done on Friday 8/19 and then spent another 5 hours on Saturday morning to complete it.
That's where we leave off as of now. I will be contact the PB tomorrow as I'm only seeing 3 bars for the bond beam. One of the reasons we chose this builder is that they stated they do a 5 bar bond beam. Electrical is supposed to happen 8/22-8/23, then pre-shotcrete inspection 8/24. If all goes according to plan and no issues at the inspection, shotcrete is supposed to happen 8/25 or 8/26. I'll keep updating this post as we make progress. Thanks for letting us share our story!
Specs
Perimeter: 119
Depths: 3.5x5x4
Dimensions: 33'8" x 20' on the baja bench side & 16' on the table side
Interior Area: 1032
Gallons: 16,680
Equipment
Hayward 60DE filter, EcoStar Variable Speed Pump, Hayward P4 Programmable Remote Control System w/puck, Gold line salt chlorinator, Wave Force Venturi Skimmer, Wave Force venturi looped return system (8 returns), Hayward Color Logic Light, Paralevel Auto Water leveler, Dedicated vacuum (however I'll be using a Doheny Discovery robot cleaner that I bought last month while it was on sale).
Features
Oversized baja bench with two bubblers (for the kids - 2.5 year old and another due in Nov.), 42”x24” rectangle table with seating area (for the adults), +6” +18” +6” feature wall with stacked stone and 4’ sheer decent, Arctic Sea Glass Pebble interior finish, travertine decking.
And now on to the pictures which I know everyone loves, myself included.
Design and Material Selections
In one of the change orders, we increased size of the baja bench as we felt it was a little small at first. The overall baja bench size is 8' deep at its deepest and 13'8" at its widest. Now the baja bench is inline with two pillars on our covered patio. This ultimately added 2' to the whole width of the pool. I never did get revised renderings after that change order though, so these aren't the most accurate depiction of the overall size.
White quartz stacked stone, waterline tile, Boulevard Lite travertine, and 1”x1” glass mesh tile for table top
Pool builder’s exclusive finish: Arctic Sea Glass Pebble (pebble tech finish with sea glass and abalone shell)
Layout
Dig
Day 1 of excavation, the equipment shows up
The excavation took about 2.5 days. The little excavator took awhile to get through the earth; slowly but surely it got the job done though. And the bobcat got a flat on the end of the second day, so that delayed things a little further.
Aftermath of rainstorm
Plumbing was scheduled for 8/3/16 and we got an epic monsoon storm on 8/2/16. Here's a picture of the rain that night and how quickly it turned the overflow basin next to us into a lake. We felt so helpless watching the backyard fill with water and ultimately start eroding into the hole.
As you can see, the plumbers got most of the work done in one day, but we had to wait until the rain water subsided and the excavators to come back and and fix the mess.
Steel
This guy worked alone and got most of the job done on Friday 8/19 and then spent another 5 hours on Saturday morning to complete it.
That's where we leave off as of now. I will be contact the PB tomorrow as I'm only seeing 3 bars for the bond beam. One of the reasons we chose this builder is that they stated they do a 5 bar bond beam. Electrical is supposed to happen 8/22-8/23, then pre-shotcrete inspection 8/24. If all goes according to plan and no issues at the inspection, shotcrete is supposed to happen 8/25 or 8/26. I'll keep updating this post as we make progress. Thanks for letting us share our story!
and not a thing you could do.
