Made a huge mistake...need advice PLEASE

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dprorie

Active member
May 18, 2020
40
Texas
We are first time pool owners and we didn’t read all the helpful forums before we started building. Big mistake. We’re 1-2 wks from completion and I’m just realizing a huge flaw in our pool design. We didn’t add decking on the side of the pool where they put one of the skimmers. Now, the skimmer box sticks out like a sore thumb. :cry: We had the decking inspected Friday and they’re pouring tomorrow. Should I stop them from pouring and most certainly cause a delay or just go with it and use creative landscaping to hide the skimmer box? Any advice welcome! TYA
 

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Landscaping could definitely be a good fix. I don't know what's involved in creating a concrete deck on a slope like that, but I imagine it's pretty involved. You could do a nice composite deck (like Trex) instead. Maybe something to match the railing on your stairs. They can be hot, but they make them now with some sort of cooling feature that keeps the heat down. It's not clear from your pics how much room you have on that side, but if you could make the deck large enough that would be a nice place to lay out, watch the pool, etc. And the composite deck, especially if it's large, should be considerably cheaper than a concrete deck.
 
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Are those pictures as of yesterday?

No tile, no coping, but they are pouring decking?
 
Dirk said:
Landscaping could definitely be a good fix. I don't know what's involved in creating a concrete deck on a slope like that, but I imagine it's pretty involved. You could do a nice composite deck (like Trex) instead. Maybe something to match the railing on your stairs. They can be hot, but they make them now with some sort of cooling feature that keeps the heat down. It's not clear from your pics how much room you have on that side, but if you could make the deck large enough that would be a nice place to lay out, watch the pool, etc. And the composite deck, especially if it's large, should be considerably cheaper than a concrete deck.
Click to expand...
That’s exactly why we didn’t get decking on the side, but we had no idea the skimmer box would stick out like that and the designer sure didn’t advise either. Thank you for the advice! I hadn’t thought of a composite deck. We have about 10 ft on the side, so I will definitely look into that. We have landscaping architect coming today as well. Hopefully, they will have some good ideas that won’t be too expensive.
 
Love your edge tile color!! And the great contrast between it and the coping. Nice.

10' would make a nice deck, for sure. There are many threads here that reference amount of deck. Nobody ever complains about having too much deck, but the opposite is often the case. Then a nice row of landscaping behind it and the pool, all the way along the fence, maybe? I'd want something tallish, to help fade the houses and street behind. Evergreen, if possible. But something that won't shed a lot of leaves and such into the pool on a windy day.

You could have some very nice landscaping lighting all along that fence, too, that would look fantastic. Up lights that shine through the plants. If that's not in the budget, you might have the deck contractor bury a conduit from some outlet by the house under the deck to one side of your pool or the other, so that there's a path for the wiring. That way you can fish wire through it later. If the concrete covers the pathway between house and pool, you won't be able to do it later. That should be a minor expense. You could even do it yourself with some electrical conduit from Lowes or HD.

Be sure there's a plan for drip irrigation, too. That's a little detail a deck contractor might overlook. There needs to be a path from your water source to where all the plants are going to be, before the deck goes down. Just giving you some topics you can discuss with the architect.

Pardon me for asking... What's the plan for that one corner where the tile doesn't align? Or am I seeing things? That's unfortunate. Is that third tile to the right shorter than the others, to allow the corner to align? If so, they missed. That's not OK. They need to bust out all three of those tiles and do it right. Don't let them "glue" on a little sliver of tile. That won't hold up to foot traffic and won't look right. Did you end up with any extra tiles? That's not acceptable workmanship, IMO, if the corner is off by an 1"...
 
Doesn't seem like a big deal..you can always add decking later. Just make sure to run any drainage underneath first and shove some conduit for "other stuff" just in case. Like someone said before, more decking is always good around the pool for safety reasons...my only concern with yours is that someone (a kid) could fall off that side if they weren't being careful.
 
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I really don't see it in a bad way. A deck or a little landscaping.... I think it'll blend in fine, once the pool is done and you start playing.

Looks really nice. I like the colors and layout. It'll be cool to see finished product.
 
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kazamali said:
Doesn't seem like a big deal..you can always add decking later. Just make sure to run any drainage underneath first and shove some conduit for "other stuff" just in case. Like someone said before, more decking is always good around the pool for safety reasons...my only concern with yours is that someone (a kid) could fall off that side if they weren't being careful.
Click to expand...
There will likely be a building code that mandates a railing if the height of the deck over the ground exceeds a certain amount. Or just use common sense. I just saw in another's thread how he used a black wire grid, like 4" squares, to fill in his railing, instead of the typical 2x2s. It looked fantastic, or rather it didn't, because it was near invisible when focusing on the landscape behind it.
 
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Check out this thread for a deck idea (and the railing I mentioned). Not everything needs to be concrete. He used wood, which requires annual maintenance, but it looks amazing. I suggested composite which generally has a higher initial cost but lower maintenance requirements.

Advice on a decent deck layout

So we sort of shoe-horned in a 24 foot pool into our small yard. I absolutely love the pool we ended up with but I am trying to work with the small and awkward space leftover when planning a deck. I am hoping you guys might be more creative than I am. We don't want the deck to encroach upon...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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The upside of this design is that you will not have to stoop over to clean your skimmer basket.
I too thought a wood or composite deck platform would work there. Add a few planter boxes and a box hedge too.
 
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Dirk said:
Love your edge tile color!! And the great contrast between it and the coping. Nice.

10' would make a nice deck, for sure. There are many threads here that reference amount of deck. Nobody ever complains about having too much deck, but the opposite is often the case. Then a nice row of landscaping behind it and the pool, all the way along the fence, maybe? I'd want something tallish, to help fade the houses and street behind. Evergreen, if possible. But something that won't shed a lot of leaves and such into the pool on a windy day.

You could have some very nice landscaping lighting all along that fence, too, that would look fantastic. Up lights that shine through the plants. If that's not in the budget, you might have the deck contractor bury a conduit from some outlet by the house under the deck to one side of your pool or the other, so that there's a path for the wiring. That way you can fish wire through it later. If the concrete covers the pathway between house and pool, you won't be able to do it later. That should be a minor expense. You could even do it yourself with some electrical conduit from Lowes or HD.

Be sure there's a plan for drip irrigation, too. That's a little detail a deck contractor might overlook. There needs to be a path from your water source to where all the plants are going to be, before the deck goes down. Just giving you some topics you can discuss with the architect.

Pardon me for asking... What's the plan for that one corner where the tile doesn't align? Or am I seeing things? That's unfortunate. Is that third tile to the right shorter than the others, to allow the corner to align? If so, they missed. That's not OK. They need to bust out all three of those tiles and do it right. Don't let them "glue" on a little sliver of tile. That won't hold up to foot traffic and won't look right. Did you end up with any extra tiles? That's not acceptable workmanship, IMO, if the corner is off by an 1"...
Click to expand...
Thank you for the great ideas. We’re having the landscaping company fix the irrigation as well. The landscape architect came today and will be drawing up a few options. As for the 1” difference that’s because there will be decking and a couple of steps there. We still have the option to cut the tile around the pool to match if we don’t like it.
 
dprorie said:
Thank you for the great ideas. We’re having the landscaping company fix the irrigation as well. The landscape architect came today and will be drawing up a few options. As for the 1” difference that’s because there will be decking and a couple of steps there. We still have the option to cut the tile around the pool to match if we don’t like it.
Click to expand...
OK, whew!
 
Was the original plan to "finish" the exposed wall or was it going to be backfilled with soil up to the coping level anyway? I agree with the others though that either way it can be made to look just fine with a suitable deck or landscaping.
 
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