First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

[bdavis466]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

I feel some of those options are very overkill.

I subscribe to the belief that thicker concrete does more for the structure than more steel. The trouble with this is unless you are there watching the crew, there's no easy way to know how thick they shot the walls and floors.

So long as your pool is engineered by someone knowledgeable with pool construction, I see no reason to exceed the standard engineering.

A shell warranty is meaningless and if something arises will result in finger pointing between the engineer, excavator, rebar sub and shotcrete sub. Ask your builder how many shells he's replaced due to this warranty.... Pretty sure you already know the answer.

 

[BattleOfYakima]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

Thanks Brian! I'm learning too! Great info!

 

[kimkats]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

I feel some of those options are very overkill.

I subscribe to the belief that thicker concrete does more for the structure than more steel. The trouble with this is unless you are there watching the crew, there's no easy way to know how thick they shot the walls and floors.

So long as your pool is engineered by someone knowledgeable with pool construction, I see no reason to exceed the standard engineering.

A shell warranty is meaningless and if something arises will result in finger pointing between the engineer, excavator, rebar sub and shotcrete sub. Ask your builder how many shells he's replaced due to this warranty.... Pretty sure you already know the answer.

This is the person I asked to help out on your question. You can take what he says to the bank.

THANKS again B!

Kim

 

[Marlahoutex]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

Any updates? Still checking out PBs?

 

[rhawke]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

Hi all, sorry we had a bunch of stuff going on with the construction of the house so that we had to put the pool discussion on hold. But now we are back up and running.

One question for you design folks: A few pool builders we interviewed thought that the round spa did not go with the rest of the design of the home or pool since everything else has square corner. We really like the round spa for the social aspect of it though and we assume that it is easier to seat people in a 7' round spa than a 7'x7' rectangular hot tub. What do you think?

 

[bdavis466]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

The round spa does look out of place in that design. I would move it to the center edge of the pool

 

[santacruzpool]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)



Brian who posted above builds some amazing pools, so I would look at whatever he suggests!!!

 

[rhawke]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

thanks Brian! the problem is a bit in the layout, if we moved that spa to the center we would cut the pool in half. Or we would have to move it outside of the main pool area, but then we would increase the volume of the pool significantly if we want to keep the same full 37' length for lap swimming. Any ideas on how to overcome that? We want to stick with the max 100 linear feet and less than 450 square feet of pool surface while getting a solid lap swimming length.

i was also thinking of maybe going octagon style?

 

[bdavis466]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

i was also thinking of maybe going octagon style?

Let me find some motivation and I'll see what I can come up with

 

[SuzfromTexas]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

I'm going to throw in my 2 cents re the round spa. I don't like the round with your pool design.

I have the round spa and like it fine. Just so you know, I have not been in a square or rectangular one. I don't think seating-wise the square will dampen the social enjoyment of the spa. Think of it like seating at a table - round vs rectangular. Yes, you can squeeze in more people at the round, but is that really comfortable? Lay out the square size, see how many people you fit on each side. Consider the typical people using the spa - adults, kids etc. Now, if you think you will have lots of people using the spa OFTEN and at the same time, then you might have to forgo the aesthetics of the round or go for a larger square or rectangular spa.

Octagonal? Maybe. Keep in mind the # of jets and configuration you will have in any shape you consider.

Decisions, decisions....

Take care,
Suz

 

[Nectarologist]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

My .02 on decking. Have you considered grass? I have grass around 3 sides of my pool (pavers at stairs end) and I love it. Goes right up to the coping. I also did 2' x 2' slabs in the grass but that was just for looks. You could do travertine at the entry/exit point and have grass around the rest. Sod is a fraction of the cost of concrete. You could then upgrade to the full travertine in the future. I've never had an issue with grass in the pool (either from mowing or kids jumping in the pool. But I use a bag on my mower and I know that helps. In 5 years if you have travertine in the budget you likely won't pay to rip up the concrete but grass wouldn't be much if anything extra since the ground needs prep work anyway. Something to consider. You could have the patio end at the house and make a path of travertine to the entry of the pool stairs w the rest grass. Not sure if the design is representative of the yard/house or just the pool. I see it has grass on the far side. Great design by the way. I know it's unorthodox to mix rectangle with round but it looks cool, in part because it's unique.

 

[wilkj1]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

I owned a structural concrete company with my dad here in okla city for 40 years. We built concrete boxes for water lines and such mostly under ground. In the 1970's we built boxes with 6 " walls and 1/2 or #4 rebar 12" oc both ways they were as deep as 16' the boxes still exist today . By the 2000's the same boxes on new city water lines we were using 12" walls with #6 or 6/8 " epoxy coated rebar on 6 " centers both ways ( scared engineers) . I personaly would go with 1/2 or #4 rebar because the cost is not to great and the benefit is great . As for the concrete thickness the bottom needs to be thicker to support the walls 10 " is great i would try for 10 " walls too but at least 8 " and yes the bond beam 4 # 4 in a 12" thick beam . We dont want our walls to cave in . long walls like to bend.

WE just had our pool built start 11/16 to open 4/17 on the contract concrete was estimated at 44 yards. I have been doing this for near 45 years so i was confidant on the figures .With rain and over digging we used 54 yards. Make sure you are covered on this easy to happen extra. 10 yards is over $1000.00 good luck . and ask as many concrete questions as you like . I hope to think im as good at concrete as these guys are at pool care. like farmers i seen it all lol.

 

[rhawke]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

Suz and Bryan, thanks for your thoughts on the round spa. I will run this by my wife to see what she thinks.

Nectarologist, thanks for the idea about the grass. Yes the renderings are exactly what the house and yard will look like. Granted, the trees in the back are in reality more bushes, but that was all the 3D software had to offer.

We already removed all the decking along the back side of the pool to cut down on cost, we will only have the 1 ft coping there. And we shrunk the pool about 3 ft as well so that the walkway out the backdoor lines up with the 3 ft of decking on that side of the pool

We would save a ton by not adding any decking and doing grass instead. My main concern is that maintaining nice grass in Houston is difficult. I used to grow up in a climate similar to yours in NY and loved to sit / walk barefoot in grass. In Houston I gave that up quickly. Unless it is some special planted and then well maintained (=pampered) grass, it will die and naturally be replaced with grass that's tough and really uncomfortable to even just walk on barefoot. And then there is grassbur, which stick like needles in your foot ... I didn't even know those existed until I moved here ...

 

[rhawke]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

fyi here a quick pool rendering from one of the PBs we were considering to show the updated pool boundaries and decking.We have about 9ft of decking between the patio and pool coping, 3 ft of decking on the left side and 6 ft of decking on the right side by the spa. In these, the house is not accurate (missing windows, etc.)

 

[LeighHop]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

I'm going to go against the grain here a bit and say I actually think the round spa with the rectangular pool is kind of cool. Its unique without being too "out there".

We are about to get started on a geometric pool build ourselves. We are doing a square spa that forms an "L" shape with the pool. Doing scored broom finished concrete for the decking. I like the clean, simple lines. (Apologies if this pic doesn't upload correctly, I'm a newbie.)

 

[kimkats]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

Now Leigh you are quite the tease! You post this awesome pool design here BUT do NOT have a build thread yet??? Need any help doing this? Just let me know and I will get you started! (Oh goody! I get to help build another pool!!! hehe)

Kim

 

[SuzfromTexas]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

rhawke, I really like the plans in post #34 compared to the first one in your thread. If you do plan to use a cover, this last plan would make working with a cover easier. I also love the grass on the back side coming up to the coping. You're really dialing in your plans! I think Nectarologist has a terrific idea about going grass until you have the budget for travertine or decide for sure what you want. Sorry if I missed it somewhere, but what are the depths you're considering? Using the plan in #34, can you stretch out the pool length just a bit? I would want as much length as I could get. You would lose some decking on the ends, but with my pool, 3' is plenty for walking space or for a chair (not lounge) or two. You have great pool side decking on the house side.

LeighHop, lovely plan! The sun shelf is awesome. I absolutely love mine even if I have shorts on and just sit in a chair on the shelf getting my feet wet. Very relaxing if I don't have time for a full swim. Never worry about 'going against the grain'! Something you mention might be just what the pool owner hadn't thought of or needs to hear! Welcome to TFP!!!

Suz

 

[rhawke]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

rhawke, I really like the plans in post #34 compared to the first one in your thread. If you do plan to use a cover, this last plan would make working with a cover easier.

The first drawings were from our home design software that wasn't made for pools, so the pool builders software does a better job

Sorry if I missed it somewhere, but what are the depths you're considering? Using the plan in #34, can you stretch out the pool length just a bit?
Suz

Depths starting on the hot tub side:
- 3.5 feet in that narrow end next to the hot tub
- slope to 5.5 feet in the middle
- slope back up to 4 ft on the opposite side

The total pool dimensions on that plan are 37ft x 13ft (minus the space the hot tub takes). We could increase the pool size by an extra 2 feet and reduce the decking on the hot tub end from 6 ft to 4 feet but that is as far as we can go because we don't want to relocate the sewer line that runs to the back easement. Do you really think 39ft vs 37 ft is going to make a difference? We plan to heat the pool in the winters for swimming and therefore we purposefully don't want to have too many gallons of water that need to be heated.

- - - Updated - - -

One more design question: Would you extend that bench all the way to the end as shown on the initial post design or cut it short half-way as shown in post #34?

 

[bdavis466]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

If your set with the basic layout then here's my suggestion....raise the spa and bump it out of the perimeter of the pool. The coping to spa transition will be much cleaner and you get a water feature (spillway), a spa thats easier to access, and another seating area near the pool. This also opens up the swim lane of a somewhat narrow pool.

 

[rhawke]

Re: First Time Pool Owner (Houston Pool Build)

Thanks Brian, that is a very interesting idea. We were planning on using a square pool cover to cover pool and spa at once, which is why we had the spa inside the square. But I guess pushing it out half way would still allow to use a slightly larger square cover as long as we don't raise it. My parents in law have a level spa with a spill over and the water level difference is only about 3" but that is still enough to get a tiny water feature.