Austin, TX - New Pool Build - About to sign and need suggestions!

[ATXFirstPool]

Hi All,

We are about to sign off on our first build next week. Looking forward to any suggestions on equipment, design, anything really.

Video of Pool

Our backyard is small. Here is a video of the design. This is really an entertainment pool and for doing some exercise.

Specs are:

• 44' long, 5' of that is tanning shelf, so 39' of pool
• 9' wide, 11' wide at the widest (have to have 5ft from fence according to HOA. We can ask to get this approved for a wider pool. Thoughts?)
• Depth of 3' going to 5'6" in the deep end. Not sure of depth in tanning shelf area
• Salt Water (not sure what equipment is best here)
• Salt finished concrete
• Coping is actual newton marble:
  newton white marble - Google Search
• I think everything is Hayward though they can change to Pentair Omnilogic for free
• We are doing manual fire bowls. I asked that they install conduit into each column in the event we add electronic igniters later
• Video shows copper fire bowl, but we will do 30" concrete square fire bowls
• We will be moving one light to the deep end
• Any suggestions on a good cleaner/booster?

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Exciting times ahead! Okay.... upon review these are the things I see...others may have more input"

NICE length!

Width...well if that's all you're allowed, at least you widened it in the middle. Just a couple more feet would be nice here.

Depth- No bueno 3' is far too shallow to do any swimming in. Scraped knuckles for sure! Also the more shallow it is, the muggier the water will feel come summer heat. At minimum 3'6", but 4' is better. You have the baja shelf for lil kids to play on.

Salt System- make sure its 2x the volume of the pool.. if you want to get any automation, keep all the equipment the same brand for ease.

Cleaner with Booster Pump- Old school dude! You don't want to deal with that....go with a robot. Way better cleaner, less electricity use and saves space and cost deleting that booster pump.

I have no clue what a "multicyclone prefilter" is??

Make sure your pump is a Variable Speed- NOT VSF. You can crank it up high when needed, and down lowwwww otherwise. Great energy saver!

In Floor Cleaner waste of money (and lots of it!) when a robot is much more practical and reliable.

Autofill

Marble coping sounds lovely!


We'd love to follow along with your build, lots of pics too please?

Maddie

 

[Texas Splash]

Congrats! I would encourage you to post-back with as much details as you can get about the equipment and automation system (model, etc) as some of our folks really know those well. didn't see the filter info (cartridge, sand, DE?) either, so make sure to get the specs on that as well. I don't think the pre-filter is of any value. Looking forward to seeing this one take shape. Welcome!

 

[DB-Cooper]

Welcome to the club! I'm also in Austin. What part of town are you in?

The video link isn't working for whatever reason. The marble also looks great!

I'd look at 3.5-4' minimum, especially given your length as a true swimmers pool. Also, depending on your shade situation, shallow/small pools in Austin can get uncomfortably warm by late August, especially if it's in direct sunlight. I went 6' depth, if I had to do it over again, I'd probably do 5.5', but I'm in direct sunlight as I'm above the treeline, so I may prefer the extra depth later in season.

 

[marcgr]

Sounds good! I like my in-floor cleaner.
I noticed that both you and DB Cooper put in Salt Water systems. Our PB flat refused to do it (we are in ATX also). Has the PB industry changed their opinion of SWG in TX?

 

[DB-Cooper]

Sounds good! I like my in-floor cleaner.
I noticed that both you and DB Cooper put in Salt Water systems. Our PB flat refused to do it (we are in ATX also). Has the PB industry changed their opinion of SWG in TX?

No, I faced the same thing. There are two camps in ATX:

1) Outright won't do it
2) Will do it, but will try to convince you not to or tell you horror stories

Along with the feedback from another person on this thread, I just told me PB early on, it's salt or no pool. You just have to draw the line in the sand early on, and it's been a non-issue. If you waiver or say you're on the fence, they'll sway you. As stated, just tell the PB, I'm only doing salt, if you're not willing to do salt, l'll just move on and not waste your time.

My PB hasn't brought up anything, he hasn't complained or pointed out any negatives since I just told him. It's limited a couple of material choices, particularly with coping, but outside of that, it's been a total non-issue.

 

[kimkats]

Thanks for letter us help design your pool! The video is locked

Depth of 3' going to 5'6" in the deep end.

3' is way too shallow. Go for at least 3'5" if not 4'.............why 5'6"? 6' you can cannonball in if you don't jump from too high of a spot.

Salt Water (not sure what equipment is best here

All of your equipment needs to come from the same manufacturer so they can all talk together. Make sure to get us model numbers so we can tweak them if needed.

Coping is actual newton marble

Look so pretty but I worry about how slippery it might be. All of the marble I have seen is very smooth aka VERY slippery when wet even with dew.

Kim

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I dunno Kim....how much walking does one actually do on coping?? Yeah, if it were pavers I'd be freaked (having slipped on my wet ones in Italy).
But I'm thinking a slight bit of slippery/smooth would be nice when you're sitting on the edge and decide to slip in.....?

Maddie

 

[kimkats]

Maddie you have a very good point! It would be nice to sit on them and not worry about snags on suits!!

 

[ATXFirstPool]

Here are our *almost* final pics of our new design.
We nixed the firebowls due to the shorter width of the pool.
Our plans are to do a wood decking around the pool since were a tad short on impervious coverage.
3.5'-6' depth

Our pool Builder is suggesting using Hayward Equipment for Our Saltwater Pool. She is allowing us to change to Pentair free of charge. Which do y'all suggest?

Equipment as follows:
Hayward 2.7 THP Variable Speed Pump
AquaRite 9000
Hayward 600 SF Cartridge Filter
Hayward Color Logic


Other than leaving room on the equipment pad to install a heat/cool pump later (if we decide we want it), is there anything else we should do?

And hey guys: do we even an automated controller for lights & water feature? If so we are probably doing that after the fact. Are there any y'all suggest? Anything we should tell pool builder to leave space for now?

 

[JJ_Tex]

What is her logic in Hayward over Pentair? I would still see if you can get the model numbers for the Pentair equipment so you can see exactly what your choices are.

As to your question on automation, I dont know Hayward that well, but I dont see any automation listed. Generally you want your automation to be the same manufacturer as your pump and swcg to ensure they all talk to each other. If you go Pentair, I would suggest Intellicenter since that is their latest and greatest.

What did you decide about a cleaner?

 

[ATXFirstPool]

Automation we would add later. Not sure if we need it since we only have one water feature, our pump and one light.

As for her logic in Hayward, they believe the automation to be more user friendly. Looking forward to hearing some other thoughts on that.