Pool Design Help: Are we expecting too much?

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Billrush

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Jun 27, 2018
18
Naples,FL
We are talking to two pool builders. We have never owned or built a pool. I think we need a designer who listens to us but makes active suggestions based upon their experience. In both cases, the software they use to show designs seems fairly unsophisticated. I've attached a recent drawing. They have put the spa in the shallow end with steps drawn next to it. To me, that means there will essentially not be a useable shallow end in this pool. They know we are not building this pool to do laps. It's for relaxing. I want to sit in the shallow end and have a glass of wine!

So now we tell them to put the spa in the deep end and they will, but it makes me wonder if we have a decent designer. I want them to tell me the downside and upside of having the spa in the shallow end. We have grandchildren who are very young. The pool they drew will have most of the area over their heads! Thoughts anyone?

Thanks
 

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I have my spa in the shallow end and it is a spillover. I don't really see any reason to not put it in the shallow end. You can see my spa placement in my forum icon.

Then again if it is offset from the pool on the deep end you could probably do it there as well unless they didn't put it there due to the spillover it looks like you have down there. I know the majority of pools I see have it at the shallow end.

If you have room you could always set the spa back a little at the same spot and have full use of that end of the pool. That is how mine is set up.
 
Bill,

It is a two way street.. They show you a design, and you tell them what you like and don't like, and they show you a modified design. It often takes several cycles.

Some general thoughts..

It really helps to see a number of already built pools to get ideas...

Pools don't have to have a deep end.. I have what is called a sports pool.. the ends are about 4' and the middle is about 6'..

Kids grow up... If you fit your pool to the grandkids, no one will be able to use it in a couple of years.

Have you ever actually sat in a gunite spa? It is not at all like a standalone spa comfort wise...Your spa appears to be very big compared to the pool. You could remove the spa altogether or make it smaller. You could set the spa back and to the left in your pic and that would give you more pool room.

Your steps appear to include a shallow area to sit in a chair and have drink... you could make that bigger or smaller..

It is your money and some designers are just better than others.. If you are not happy with this one, ask for another one or use a different builder altogether.

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.
 
I concur on the gunite spa comfort. It really isn't as theraputic as a stand alone spa so if that is an option you might consider getting one of those instead of the inground attached spa. I kind of wish mine was like that but I really don't have room for a separate spa and the house came with a pool so it isn't easy to modify after the fact.
 
I agree with Jim on the spa - I have one, it’s not that comfortable or effective and the kids will play in it more than the adults will use it. It makes my pool look nice...but that’s about it.

Have you considered getting a stand alone hot tub and positioning that somewhere else? Then the pool can be bigger and you can add bubblers to the shallow end for the kids to play in.
 
And I don’t know what that thing is at the deep end (fountain of some sort?), but it’s an eye-soar in my opinion. If you’re looking for a waterfall/fountain/spillover effect, then I would design that end of the pool with a retaining wall / planter wall and have a few sheer descents put it. Look up sheer descents and bubblers for pools and you’ll get a good idea.
 
The pool in your picture does not seem to have many places for relaxing... there is the entry shelf, then just the two seats at the far end.

If you want a pool for relaxing, I suggest more places to sit in the pool. We just built ours, and we put a step that goes all along one side of the pool. Above that step is a wall with three sheer descents coming out of it. It is so nice to sit there and relax under or next to those waterfalls, especially if we have the heater or chiller running, so the water coming down is warmer or cooler depending on the water and outdoor temps. If you have young ones, keep in mind they will want easy access to places they can reach to rest while they are leaning to swim.

You can see our design here, completely different style, but will give you the idea: Pool Build 2018 | Flickr

Also, don't be afraid to just start drawing some designs of your own, and give that to your builder. I used graph paper to do everything to scale, and the design was completely our own.
 

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I have a pool similar to that drawing, with a couple changes.
1. A 7x7 square spa is offset so that it connects to the pool, corner to corner.
2. I have a 7x7 sun-shelf next to the spa, which makes the pool/spa into two rectangles that are connected.
3. My pool is a play/sport pool with 3.5/5/4 foot depth.

We love our pool design. The offset allows the spa and pool to be connected without losing much pool space.
 
Bill - I would like to suggest you do a Google search for "rectangular pool designs" and look at all the images. Pick out several design elements you like and present that to your PB and they can come up with something that works for you. I did that and it really help me and it gives the designer a great idea and starting point of what you really want. Hope this help you....it did me :)
 
I concur with some of the others, lose the spa! That end would look great with a sunshelf going the entire width. And yeah what is that fountain thing? Seems like they had a special for a free fountain and no place to put it. Your left side could have a raised edge with a sheer descent that would be really nice. See my pics I have something similar.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=VFlubTNQa1NURXl5UVVBbnRNdk1DU25NMGV0clFR
 
Jimrahbe said:
It looks more like a urinal than a fountain... :p

Jim R.
Click to expand...


Which, after having a pool with kids, I would say could be very useful!!! My landscaping appreciates the extra “watering” but it’s a bit of an embarrassing situation when guests are over for a swim ...
 
And in response to the original question... I've designed a lot of pools, houses, landscapes, etc and there is one type of person I hate dealing with - one that expects me to know what they want.

If you are not getting what you are expecting then you are either not explaining your needs/wants clearly enough or your designer is not listening. If the latter is the case then it may be time to look for a new designer.

I've learned the hard way and because of that I will not begin drawing anything until I've seen a few examples of the style of pool they are looking for. I don't mind making small changes here and there but the days of making 10 completely different designs for the same person are long gone...especially since the general understanding is that the computer just spits out these photo realistic images with the click of a mouse.

Your rendering was done in Pool Studio which is probably the industry standard for pool designers. If you want something more realistic than that you'll probably need to solicit the services of a draftsman that uses Revit with a powerful raytrace engine but be prepared to pay. I bet there was well over 200 hours that went into this one...

lakehouse_recent_spaces_08_pool_03_medium.jpg
 
If you haven't already, I highly recommend taking measurements of your space, drawing it out on some graph paper, make copies, then start drawing out different pool designs. The first picture below is what we gave our builders, along with a verbal description.

Here is what one of them came back with, I thought it was pretty close to what I gave them: https://youtu.be/YZ0_d25cweI

And the second picture below is what we ended up with.

20180810_163116-756x1008.jpg


2018-08-10_04-37-40-1368x912.jpg
 

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