New pool in upstate NY...I've never owned a pool before so I'm looking for advice

[pooldv]

You really can't have too much deck. It will be used and functional I'm sure. If it looks a little empty just buy more patio furniture! It will fill up in a hurry.

Kids playing in woods is awesome! That's how we do it! We're gonna need pics of those new paths.

 

[Karen14]

Hi Karen,

My yard also has a slope and we had to address this so we didn't have a ledge for people to fall off of. It was 3 feet at the tallest and gradually sloped down. I thought I'd need to do a retaining wall but the landscaper suggested otherwise. We essentially turned the straight drop into a hill and landscaped it. I'll post pictures in the next day or two if you're interested.

I'm interested in pictures. There was so much dirt from the dig, I didn't think there would be enough to grade my yard the way I wanted now I'm thinking that there is too much and now I have a ledge going into the woods line! They'll be able to grade it better then you can see in some of the pictures to follow.

 

[Karen14]

I can't believe how much they accomplished on their first day!

early morning


end of day


playing outside during construction on our new trail!


day 2...we almost have a pool!


plumbing

 

[kimkats]

First things first------------what cute, happy looking kid! LOVE it!!!!!!!

Next---------are you REALLY telling me ALL of that work you just showed was done in ONE day?????? NO WAY! If they keep that up you will be swimming in no time! WOW!

Kim

 

[Nectarologist]

New pool in upstate NY...I've never owned a pool before so I'm looking for ad...

I'll find a pre-grading picture but this is the final slope. In a the middle it was exactly 3 ft tall and gradually sloped down as you go left to right. I feel that the yard blends together rather than an eye-grabbing drop off. Plus it's a lot cheaper than a retaining wall. I put diem metal border to keep the mulch from washing away. Worked like a charm. Landscapers ripped it up but they'll fix it.


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[Karen14]

Re: New pool in upstate NY...I've never owned a pool before so I'm looking for ad...

First things first------------what cute, happy looking kid! LOVE it!!!!!!!

Next---------are you REALLY telling me ALL of that work you just showed was done in ONE day?????? NO WAY! If they keep that up you will be swimming in no time! WOW!

Kim

thanks Kim. He was very happy. These pictures span two days of work. I just didn't get a chance to post the first day so I posted them together.

I'll find a pre-grading picture but this is the final slope. In a the middle it was exactly 3 ft tall and gradually sloped down as you go left to right. I feel that the yard blends together rather than an eye-grabbing drop off. Plus it's a lot cheaper than a retaining wall. I put diem metal border to keep the mulch from washing away. Worked like a charm. Landscapers ripped it up but they'll fix it.


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that looks great! I asked my landscaper about something like that and he said that it would not work for us but seeing yours I'm thinking he wanted us to build the walls!

 

[Karen14]

So of course nothing can go smoothly. We noticed on the second day of the build (when the walls were complete and cemented in) that the pool was crooked and shifted over about a foot. At first the shift bothered me the most but now I'm realizing that I can deal with the asymmetry. The more bothersome aspect is the crookedness. We need retaining walls between the pool and house and our landscaper is going to try to hind it there. One wall will be parallel to e pool and the other to the house and hopefully landscaping in between will disguise it.

Im so mad. I spent so much time trying to make this right before it even began and now, for an unknown reason, the pb has always been great, hardworking and willing to work with me at every step, this happened. He says that our house is not square but we checked it and it is. The pool is not square with the house. Because it is an l shaped pool mirroring our bump out it jus looks wrong. I keep trying to tell my husband that no one will notice it but I'm not sure even I believe it since I noticed it and I never notice these things. You may be able to see it in one of my pictures above. What should we do?

 

[Nectarologist]

Is the pool built to the specs and just placed incorrectly? Or is the pool itself different than planned? The liner has very specific measurements so it needs to be ordered to the new dimensions if they are off too much. If the pool is built to spec and just not placed as planned that stinks but much less of an issue. I think you can compensate for that. My pb and I went back and forth btwn having it parallel to the house or back fence (which runs at an angle to the house). Either would have been ok imo.


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[gustafsa]

Why did the walls shift? Just curious..


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[Karen14]

Is the pool built to the specs and just placed incorrectly? Or is the pool itself different than planned? The liner has very specific measurements so it needs to be ordered to the new dimensions if they are off too much. If the pool is built to spec and just not placed as planned that stinks but much less of an issue. I think you can compensate for that. My pb and I went back and forth btwn having it parallel to the house or back fence (which runs at an angle to the house). Either would have been ok imo.


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that is a good point. I should check all of the walls to make sure that the pools walls are at 90 degrees with each other too. I know that it is crooked with the house because the walls of the pool do not line up with the walls of our bump out. I'm going to measure today and see how off it all is.

Why did the walls shift? Just curious..


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The whole pool is shifted about one ft. To the left of where it was supposed to be. This creates a problem with surrounding landscaping that I have been perfecting since October. Everything with this build was based on this symmetry with the pool steps centered on the steps coming down from our patio. We now will have to shift our steps to meet the new pool placement which means that I may not have enough room for foundation plantings that border buffer our house and patio.

 

[kimkats]

I would curve the decking so the shift is not as noticeable. I am hoping it is just that they shifted the whole pool and not that it is not just one wall sifted. That would mess up the liner as far as fit.

Kim

 

[Karen14]

Here are some pictures from the back of the yard showing what I mean.

 

[kimkats]

I see them and see what you are saying. The only thing you/they could do it start all over. That might cause more problems in the long run. I say adjust the surround to make it look like you want.

Kim

 

[Mr Bruce]

I can see them. I understand your frustration, I'm not sure if over time you'll stop noticing or if it will bug you forever. It's almost like it would have been better to put the pool at 30-40 degrees instead of square so there would be room for "error".

 

[Nectarologist]

Hi. Here is a picture of my yard before they graded the drop-off/slope. The very left of the pic is where it was 3 ft (once the pool was backfilled). You can see as it moves right it's less (same thing was on the left of the pool).

 

[Karen14]

I just measured so dimensions. What do you think?

 

[bmoreswim]

Here's my take. It stinks that it didn't get done right. Though it should have been caught at the time the walls were first placed, by either the pool builder or homeowner. But now is the time to decide how to be happy with it.

I'm not that old, but I'm too old to deal with the confrontation and hassle of taking the whole pool out and redoing it. Landscaping and deck work can do wonders. As mentioned above, if you were planning to have geometric deck and wall alignments, I would consider more organic shapes.

Best of luck as you wrestle with the issue.

 

[Karen14]

I see them and see what you are saying. The only thing you/they could do it start all over. That might cause more problems in the long run. I say adjust the surround to make it look like you want.

Kim

thanks Kim, I too think that is my best option, I just do not know how to go about redesigning it.

I can see them. I understand your frustration, I'm not sure if over time you'll stop noticing or if it will bug you forever. It's almost like it would have been better to put the pool at 30-40 degrees instead of square so there would be room for "error".

Thanks for the comments, I am the type of person that can let it go but it will bug my husband forever. He sees details very clearly. Also we build our house and we were very naive. Certain things did not turn out well and we let them go because we did not want to complain, it is just not in our nature, but now we are living with those things and that has caused us to feel taken advantage of

Here's my take. It stinks that it didn't get done right. Though it should have been caught at the time the walls were first placed, by either the pool builder or homeowner. But now is the time to decide how to be happy with it.

I'm not that old, but I'm too old to deal with the confrontation and hassle of taking the whole pool out and redoing it. Landscaping and deck work can do wonders. As mentioned above, if you were planning to have geometric deck and wall alignments, I would consider more organic shapes.

Best of luck as you wrestle with the issue.

thanks for the thoughts. this whole thing went so fast that I didn't notice it until the second day when they had the concrete footings poured and I was in shock, didnt know how bad it was and wasn't sure what to do. I did mention to the pb on site and he didn't respond to that so I thought it was in my head, I don't typically see these things well.

 

[Karen14]

We are meeting with the pb tomorrow.

 

[Jannylee53]

Can you make the drop off line curvy so it is less noticeable? Then just go with your original deck plan but with some curves? That might offset the six inch difference, perhaps.


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