Dallas (Southlake) Area New Build - July 2022 - Construction Thread

[davecraze]

Bid contract says pentair in-line chlorinator.

 

[Texas Splash]

Bid contract says pentair in-line chlorinator.

Others may have already noted, but remember that tab feeders are for short-term use because tabs add stabilizer (CYA) that can increase quickly over a month or two. So unless you have a salt water generator installed, you'll be adding liquid chlorine each day during the swim season to keep the FC level at the appropriate level.

 

[davecraze]

Thank you very much. I have had some casual discussions with my builder about a SWG or not, but I don’t have strong feelings either way. I am not really interested in performing daily maintenance. Will discuss some more with him.

 

[.ben]

If you are looking for the least-hassle chlorination method, SWG is 100% the way to go. The cell should be rated for at least double your pool volume.

 

[TX2OBX]

I think this was a merged thread so I can't see the exact bid but just guesstimating with everything you're in the 300k+ range easy. Southlake area is where im from as well. We built a pebbletec pool almost 8 years ago and spent about 120k at the time which I thought was crazy. Between Rona, inflation, and supply chain shortages I can't imagine what it would be today. Had nowhere hear the bells and whistles your build has (just an attached spa and some bubblers/fountains). Lucky enough the house came with covered patios and outdoor kitchen so we just needed the pool.

Southlake is a well off part of TX and the builders know this. Mercedes discount personified lol. My current build is almost 250k all in (base pool 112k) but thats all the extras that come with doing a pool like landscaping, lighting, electrical upgrades, outdoor kitchen, were doing bigger doors and also redoing the pier. Buy once cry once, Everyone told me everything doubled in the last year so, I guess it is what it is unfortunately. But seriously what an incredible design I am extremely envious and hope it comes to life the way you want it.

 

[davecraze]

Great to see another local on the forums.

"I think this was a merged thread so I can't see the exact bid but just guesstimating with everything you're in the 300k+ range easy."

The initial bid (I removed it) that was attached to the earlier Jan 2022 thread was more than 3x that. The final signed bid with a different builder is still more than 2.5x that, sadly. And it has gone up from there.

Regardless, we are still looking forward to getting into this project in earnest as our backyard was completely empty since we built the house almost six years ago. We had a fairly sizable outdoor patio with outdoor kitchen done when we built the house, but need to tie it in to the new construction to make it look cohesive.

 

[jark87]

Beautiful design! Our builder was out of Southlake (Claffey Pools) and they did a fantastic job. I didn’t see the name of your builder, but if it’s Claffey, you’ll be happy with your decision.

 

[davecraze]

Claffey is a class act and built our immediate neighbor's pool and a pool and huge outdoor living area at a facility that my employer company owns. Charlie Claffey was even GCing that latter project for a while. Claffey was just sold to another company earlier this year, so not sure what, if any, impact that will have on their business. They were the lead initially, but when we started over with a new design, we decided to use one of the builders that our designer uses all the time as their aesthetic better matched our style and we wanted to ensure tight coordination between designer and builder (avoid finger pointing, etc.) We ended up using Aquaterra and so far they have been great. Yes, the hard part is just starting though - ha.

 

[TX2OBX]

Beautiful design! Our builder was out of Southlake (Claffey Pools) and they did a fantastic job. I didn’t see the name of your builder, but if it’s Claffey, you’ll be happy with your decision.

Small world. They did ours too. Didn't know if we could mention builders or not. The pool itself was fantastic, never had a single issue, everything worked as designed. I would build it again completely differently today, Had I known back then what I know about pools im sure they would have accommodated any wish I asked for without the typical pool builder balking.

 

[davecraze]

Excavation finally finished - 8 full work days. No rock or anything unusual to speak of, thankfully.

Next up: 20+ helical piers

 

[jark87]

That’s a lot of gravel! Well done by your builder! When we had our pool built 15 years ago, Claffey didn’t normally put a gravel base down, but I insisted. I didn’t get THAT kind of coverage!

 

[davecraze]

Stub electrical and plumbing done and rebar still in process…

The high water table required a bunch of additional work (and cost) to be fully engineered, plus 40 helical piers, plus more costly excavation, more steel etc but we are back on track

We also excavated another foot down all around the front of the pool and basin (for aesthetic purposes - to raise the front seat wall) , so we had to rip out the basin rebar, drop the basin a foot as well and redo the basin rebar

After inspection we will do gunite, which will be interesting as none of the several companies the builder works with would give a fixed bid due to the complexity and the inability get comfortable with the amount of runoff waste. So we are working estimates only.

 

[davecraze]

We swapped out the 23 globrites for microbrites, taking into account input from earlier in the thread - thanks all.

Also, We dropped the five scuppers on the feature water wall and we will instead do a 24 foot great American waterfall company Aquastorm linear waterfall all along the top.

Inspiration pic (this is another pool my builder is just finishing with the same linear waterfall and we like the way it is shaping up)

 

[davecraze]

Even more rebar - rebar and the rough plumbing is taking forever…

Perimeter overflow spa steel and plumbing seems to be done.

Surge tank area coming along

 

[davecraze]

Gunite day - finally. They brought two crews and have a third on standby in case they need to finish in one day.

~205 yards of gunite

 

[Jimrahbe]

Dave,

Looking good!!!

Jim R.

 

[joepaiii]

Stub electrical and plumbing done and rebar still in process…

The high water table required a bunch of additional work (and cost) to be fully engineered, plus 40 helical piers, plus more costly excavation, more steel etc but we are back on track

We also excavated another foot down all around the front of the pool and basin (for aesthetic purposes - to raise the front seat wall) , so we had to rip out the basin rebar, drop the basin a foot as well and redo the basin rebar

After inspection we will do gunite, which will be interesting as none of the several companies the builder works with would give a fixed bid due to the complexity and the inability get comfortable with the amount of runoff waste. So we are working estimates only.

Where are the piers?

 

[davecraze]

There are around 40 helical piers under the combined monolithic pool, basin and cabana gunite structure.

 

[davecraze]

Pool area grading and gunite waterproofing done - gas line next week, then inspection and start cabana construction and feature wall constuction

 

[davecraze]

Long plumbing and stub electrical, cut channel for acrylic panel in process - also equipment pad