Design/Plan/DIY Build NorCal pool

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manoweb

manoweb

0
Apr 14, 2017
152
Hayward CA
Hello. My wife really wants me to build a pool and now that I am back living and working in Northern Californa (Hayward, in the East Bay Area) I must proceed and fulfill her desire. Note I am really excited too.

I have been on this forum for a few years now but things in life (having to move for work etc) have delayed this moment until now.

The idea (that came from my wife and was validated on this forum) is to buy an "in-ground vinyl liner pool kit" and perform the build myself. I am not saying I'll do everything on my own, I will hire subs for some parts.

The pool will be primarily used for swimming, as my wife routinely drives a long way to swim for hours. We also have three children that might enjoy it. I will instead have fun with the maintenance and cook for them on the BBQ area we are also building.

Our primary requirements are, in no particular order:
  • no fences of any sort.
  • auto cover primarily to maintain temperature but also as a safety device and to prevent deer, raccoons, opossums, skunks, to go for a swim without our permission
  • fastlane or similar device to swim a lot
  • a deep end for the kids to enjoy - although we are not planning for a diving board now
  • solar heaters, even if I'll have to delay the installation of those to next year I think as I need to re-do the roof first
  • nice RGB lights
  • state of the art plumbing and equipment, I tend to be annoyingly meticulous in this regard
  • very energy efficient, everything is so expensive in this state it really pays off

I have attached a preliminary plan that show the pool position relative to the house and the immediate surroundings. I live on the hills so the flat area comes at a premium. We feel like 36' x 18', 3'4" to 8' deep pool is a good size. This plan was several years in the making and I had input from talented professional landscape designers; however, I strongly value the input of assiduous pool users and owners that might catch some practical issues.

https://www.poolwarehouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/18-X-36-X-6-RADIUS.pdf is a common dig profile for this kind of pool, it would end up being just shy of 24,000 US gallons.

I have a vague idea of the main pool equipment, discussed in another thread:
  • Pentair IntelliFlo Variable Speed Pool Pump - 011028
  • Pentair IntelliChlor IC60 Complete Salt Chlorinator System
  • Pentair Clean & Clear Plus, 520 Sq. Ft. Cartridge Filter
Plumbing with 2" PVC pipe all around. I still have to come up with a detail plumbing plan.

Any advice or comment on what I have written so far is very welcome.
 

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By the way, I already spoke to the city about this project and they were not familiar with these "vinyl liner" pools - not very common in this part of the country. It's not going to be a problem as long as I bring them a stamped engineering report for the state of California and pay around 2000 US dollars in fees. So far the discussion has been just informal, I'll see how it goes.
 
About time! LOL Lets get this party started!

Yeah you need to START with 4' then go to the 8'. This will allow for a full crawl stroke and good flip turns. It will also allow for a good game of Watermelon ball (look it up........best game in the pool EVER!).

Kim:kim:
 
manoweb said:
  • no fences of any sort.
  • auto cover primarily to maintain temperature but also as a safety device and to prevent deer, raccoons, opossums, skunks, to go for a swim without our permission
Click to expand...
Auto-cover is good. "No fences" maybe not. I'll assume you'll have neighbors in Hayward. Without a fence, you have an "attractive nuisance" which will subject you to liability if a neighbor kid drowns in your pool.

Review the updated CA pool safety rules (easy to read version) and here (official version). If you plan to get your pool permitted (which you should if you might ever sell the house), you will need some child safety barriers. The auto-cover counts as one. A fence with self-closing gates would count as another. Absent a fence, you would need another safety feature such as the incredibly annoying door alarms on every door in the house that opens to the yard with the pool.
 
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jtburf said:
Define "Swimming Fast Lane" If a lap pool your shallow end is to shallow for flip turns.
Click to expand...

It is an hydraulic-actuated device that generates a water movement fast and large enough that a person can continue to swim while staying stationary, difficult to explain in simple words, let me post a link:


I know there are people that have installed a device like this with an automatic pool cover
 
kimkats said:
Yeah you need to START with 4' then go to the 8'. This will allow for a full crawl stroke and good flip turns. It will also allow for a good game of Watermelon ball (look it up........best game in the pool EVER!).
Click to expand...
Unfortunately the shallow end depth is constrained by the design of these pools, where the primary structure is formed by panels that are typically 42" tall. There might be options for 48" panels however I need to look into that, thanks.
 
Rocket J Squirrel said:
Auto-cover is good. "No fences" maybe not. I'll assume you'll have neighbors in Hayward. Without a fence, you have an "attractive nuisance" which will subject you to liability if a neighbor kid drowns in your pool.

Review the updated CA pool safety rules (easy to read version) and here (official version). If you plan to get your pool permitted (which you should if you might ever sell the house), you will need some child safety barriers. The auto-cover counts as one. A fence with self-closing gates would count as another. Absent a fence, you would need another safety feature such as the incredibly annoying door alarms on every door in the house that opens to the yard with the pool.
Click to expand...

Oh the law changed in 2018. I spoke to the city after that date and they were willing to waive fencing requirements if the auto-cover had the proper safety certification. We are not willing to install a fence around the pool or self closing doors so we need a way out of that. Obviously there is already a fence on the property lines with the other neighbors. Thank you for pointing this out, I'll do more research.
 
Not sure how to send a question to the Moderator. Bear in mind I do not want to go against Your authority, I'm just asking about policy. As in this section of the forum people did not know what a fastlane even was, I felt a more specialized section would be a better place to ask. My aim was to keep this thread relatively clean and only report the results of specialized discussions, also for the sake of future users searching for the same thing. What is best? People that know about fastlanes would probably be more luikely to click on a thread called "fastlane what should I know" than "pool in East Bay". Thanks. Also, please let me know how to reach for individual messages, if acceptable. Thank you for the relentless work.

MOD NOTE: It is best to keep all things related to a build in one thread.
 
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Search works pretty well here to find things within threads. Here are a few threads with comments about Fastlane...

Swim Jet or Endless Pools Fastlane

Good Day We are in the planning process of our pool. Trying to decide Badu II or Endless Pools Fastlane. Does anyone have experience that they could share? Don't want to spend a lot of money and be unhappy. Have heard that the jets are easy to overcome and not as smooth as the fastlane. Any...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

New Pool Plan - Tampa, Florida

Hey All, My first post here. Never owned a pool and just discovered TFP as I was researching on various things related to pool. I always used to think that pools are money pits (still hold that opinion sort of) and elitist and require lot of care and maintenance (translating to time and effort)...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

older endless pool question

Good day, Great forum. I will be helping a friend buy/install an old stock (unused) endless pool that has been in storage for close to 15 years. I'm planning on trying to turn on the fastlane blower momentarily to see that it functions. Any other suggestions with something like this that has...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

New indoor/outdoor pool going in - questions about equipment

We are putting in an in-ground pool that will be in a sunroom attached to our current house. Will have the ability to open or close windows in the sunroom. Pool is an exercise pool and dimensions are 12x7 (basically a copy of the smallest endless pool done in concrete). Water depth will be...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

Endless Pool Fastlane and SWG

I am about to start a new house and pool. The primary purpose of the pool will be exercise via the Fastlane. My plan all along has been to have an SWG for the convenience. The Endless Pool website FAQ says that their machines are ok for salt water, as long as your balance is well maintained...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

using a SWG with Endlesspools Fastlane

HI, I'm building a gunite pool and intend to install a Fastlane and SWG system. The Endless pool warranted says: "Placing a Fastlane in a pool which is sanitized using a salt-chlorine generator creates increased risk of a hydraulic system failure and oil leaks. Any Fastlane placed in this...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

Endless Pool Fastlane and SWG

I am about to start a new house and pool. The primary purpose of the pool will be exercise via the Fastlane. My plan all along has been to have an SWG for the convenience. The Endless Pool website FAQ says that their machines are ok for salt water, as long as your balance is well maintained...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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manoweb said:
My current plan is to have the pool equipment on the lower side of a retaining wall, about 2-3ft below the water surface - I know of people that have pool equipment underground. Any special consideration for that?
Click to expand...

You need to put valves to shutoff water on your suction and return and any water feature lines so that you can work on equipment without the pool siphoning.
 
manoweb said:
I thought valves were standard issue also with an equipment pad level with the pool? Or these are extra. Thank you
Click to expand...

I don't understand about valves being "standard issue"? Can you rephrase your questions?
 
ajw22 said:
I don't understand about valves being "standard issue"? Can you rephrase your questions?
Click to expand...

Certainly, sorry for the poor form. What I meant is, I thought it was good practice to install shutoff valves on return and suction no matter what, even if the equipment pad is level with the surface of the pool. I was expecting that, on the equipment pad, all lines had a valve anyway; therefore I wanted to make sure we are referring to the same valves. I hope it's clearer now.


I will design a schematic of the plumbing next. I have obtained prevailing wind data to place the skimmers.
 
Nothing is standard on a pool and should be assumed. We have seen all sort of strange things done. Specify everything exactly as you intend it to ensure no miscommunication with whoever is doing the work.
 
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About equipment: I mentioned above I'm leaning towards Pentair:
  • Pentair IntelliFlo Variable Speed Pool Pump - 011028
  • Pentair IntelliChlor IC60 Complete Salt Chlorinator System
  • Pentair Clean & Clear Plus, 520 Sq. Ft. Cartridge Filter
What automation system should I consider; I see Pentair has Intelliconnect, Easy Touch and IntelliCenter and it's quite difficult to understand for somebody that hasn't used them before the differences between models even consulting the manufacturer's website. I wish there was a table "Wikipedia style" that lists features, interfaces and the protocol they use, etc.
In an ideal world I would connect the automation with Ethernet to my house network and control it through some sort of web-interface, no internet access (cloud) required. Not sure what is the current state of these solutions. I have read several discussions on this topic and sounds like Intelliconnect is the low end solution; Intellicenter might be the top of the line?
 
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Another issue I am dealing with is that in a thread like:

Build thread: Vinyl in-ground, 18x40, Fastlane, Autocover.

You can patch your liner if the dogs get to it. You'll have your poolhouse forever! And you'll have a nice convenient place to do your testing. I'm waiting for a doggie swimming party picture by the way. Looking great!
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

The owner @lazygirl1978 mentions she has benches on the deep end. I believe that is a wonderful idea but so far I have not found a vinyl kit that has those benches. This is a show stopper I need to find a solution before I can proceed. I'd love to see detail pictures of benches like those and understand how they are formed in a vinyl liner pool with autocover.
 

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