Hello All,
I have to say that this site is amazing and has been invaluable to me as we have started our pool. We moved into our new house/new build in February 2017. Through a series of poor decisions we are on our 3rd major version of our backyard. We had always planned to do a pool, eventually, so our first version was mostly quarter/minus rock throughout the yard with some fake grass. That ended up being very messy and was being tracked into the house. Version 2 replaced most of this with travertine. At this point, I built a large custom pergola (pics below). The southern exposure and dog waste smells made the fake grass extremely unpleasant. I tried everything to get rid of the smell, but eventually we replaced the fake grass with real grass. This solved the smell problem; however, I don't count this as a version change because it didn't change the look. Both my wife and I grew up with swimming pools and decided we wanted to do the pool now rather than later to give our kids the same experience and to give them something to do outside.
Pool Specs:
15,551 gallons
14.5'x26' rectangle
5' baja shelf
4' to 7' depth
36" Sheer Decent Water Fall
Qty. 2 Deck Jets
Salt Water
Softened City Water for Refill
Equipment:
Pump - Pentair VSF (3.0HP)
Filter - Pentair Quad DE 60 with Hayward Separation Tank (Not sure if I will backflush, but backflush can return to pool or be discharged.)
Sanitation: Pentair Intellichlor IC40
Automation: Pentair EasyTouch 8 with ScreenLogic 2
Heater: Pentair Mastertemp 400
Skimmer: Paramount Paraskim V venturi skimmer
Automatic Water Leveler: Pentair T40
Taylor K-2006 Test Kit (need to get the salt tester)
Here is version 1 of the yard.
Version 2
Version 2 with Pergola
Start of version 3
Unfortunately, we had to pull up a whole bunch of travertine and the pavers down our driveway to ensure that they didn't get broken or ruined during the dig. However, this allowed for easier running of the soft water tap and for gas/electrical/etc.
Dig started.
Dig finished, but the left bench in deep-end collapsed during a storm. They had left drain for the downspout pointing right at the end of the pool, so all of the water just poured over the edge.
Plumbing going in. Noticed that they have the wrong skimmer. This is not a venturi since it doesn't have any return water to it. They are replacing with the correct one.
They have all of the returns hooked together as a loop, which is correct from what I have read here.
I think they did a good job at the equipment, except, that they put in the wrong filter. I specifically wanted the Quad DE filter. They have replaced the filter; however, the Quad DE has the Input and Output swapped, so this will have to be re-plumbed. I like that they put in a valve that will effective cut any water flowing through the heater. They also plumbed the DE separation tank to have the water return to the pool or out to waste.
Quad DE with incorrect water direction.
One question I have is about a check valve. They don't have anything between the heater and the SWCG. There is quite a bit of distance between the two and one isn't required in the manual. An additional consideration to this is that I plan to add in the IntelliPh, which will inject just before the SWCG. I was wondering about how smart the EasyTouch 8 is when combined with the Intelliflow pump, IntelliChlor, and IntelliPh. For instance, is it smart enough to continue running the pump for some amount of time after it shuts off the IntelliChlor or IntelliPh? If not, I was thinking that I could program in a short amount of pump time at the end of my pumping sessions that is at a low enough flow rate not to trigger the flow switch in the IntelliChlor. This should also work for the IntelliPh since it uses the flow switch from the IntelliChlor. The last option would be to redo the leg where the IntelliChlor is and move it down a bit and put in a check valve. Thoughts on this?
Rebar and connection to soft water loop. They also put in the wrong automatic water leveler, so this is being changed as well. I've also asked them to move it so that it is back by the rest of the equipment so that there will be less things in the decking.
Lastly, here is a pic of what it should look like. We didn't end up getting the fountains in the baja shelf.
I have to say that this site is amazing and has been invaluable to me as we have started our pool. We moved into our new house/new build in February 2017. Through a series of poor decisions we are on our 3rd major version of our backyard. We had always planned to do a pool, eventually, so our first version was mostly quarter/minus rock throughout the yard with some fake grass. That ended up being very messy and was being tracked into the house. Version 2 replaced most of this with travertine. At this point, I built a large custom pergola (pics below). The southern exposure and dog waste smells made the fake grass extremely unpleasant. I tried everything to get rid of the smell, but eventually we replaced the fake grass with real grass. This solved the smell problem; however, I don't count this as a version change because it didn't change the look. Both my wife and I grew up with swimming pools and decided we wanted to do the pool now rather than later to give our kids the same experience and to give them something to do outside.
Pool Specs:
15,551 gallons
14.5'x26' rectangle
5' baja shelf
4' to 7' depth
36" Sheer Decent Water Fall
Qty. 2 Deck Jets
Salt Water
Softened City Water for Refill
Equipment:
Pump - Pentair VSF (3.0HP)
Filter - Pentair Quad DE 60 with Hayward Separation Tank (Not sure if I will backflush, but backflush can return to pool or be discharged.)
Sanitation: Pentair Intellichlor IC40
Automation: Pentair EasyTouch 8 with ScreenLogic 2
Heater: Pentair Mastertemp 400
Skimmer: Paramount Paraskim V venturi skimmer
Automatic Water Leveler: Pentair T40
Taylor K-2006 Test Kit (need to get the salt tester)
Here is version 1 of the yard.
Version 2
Version 2 with Pergola
Start of version 3
Unfortunately, we had to pull up a whole bunch of travertine and the pavers down our driveway to ensure that they didn't get broken or ruined during the dig. However, this allowed for easier running of the soft water tap and for gas/electrical/etc.
Dig started.
Dig finished, but the left bench in deep-end collapsed during a storm. They had left drain for the downspout pointing right at the end of the pool, so all of the water just poured over the edge.
Plumbing going in. Noticed that they have the wrong skimmer. This is not a venturi since it doesn't have any return water to it. They are replacing with the correct one.
They have all of the returns hooked together as a loop, which is correct from what I have read here.
I think they did a good job at the equipment, except, that they put in the wrong filter. I specifically wanted the Quad DE filter. They have replaced the filter; however, the Quad DE has the Input and Output swapped, so this will have to be re-plumbed. I like that they put in a valve that will effective cut any water flowing through the heater. They also plumbed the DE separation tank to have the water return to the pool or out to waste.
Quad DE with incorrect water direction.
One question I have is about a check valve. They don't have anything between the heater and the SWCG. There is quite a bit of distance between the two and one isn't required in the manual. An additional consideration to this is that I plan to add in the IntelliPh, which will inject just before the SWCG. I was wondering about how smart the EasyTouch 8 is when combined with the Intelliflow pump, IntelliChlor, and IntelliPh. For instance, is it smart enough to continue running the pump for some amount of time after it shuts off the IntelliChlor or IntelliPh? If not, I was thinking that I could program in a short amount of pump time at the end of my pumping sessions that is at a low enough flow rate not to trigger the flow switch in the IntelliChlor. This should also work for the IntelliPh since it uses the flow switch from the IntelliChlor. The last option would be to redo the leg where the IntelliChlor is and move it down a bit and put in a check valve. Thoughts on this?
Rebar and connection to soft water loop. They also put in the wrong automatic water leveler, so this is being changed as well. I've also asked them to move it so that it is back by the rest of the equipment so that there will be less things in the decking.
Lastly, here is a pic of what it should look like. We didn't end up getting the fountains in the baja shelf.
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