New Pool in Orlando

OrlandoBull said:

With my screened pool and 20sf filter, I probably did it every 6 months... mostly pollen season. I probably changed to a new cartridge 3 times in the 5 years or so in the house. Maybe more frequent cleaning could have reduced that, but generally, 6 months for cleaning and change every 18 months or so was my maintenance on the filter.

When I had my unscreened pool, I had maybe a 150sf filter. I would clean that one maybe every 3 months. During crepe myrtle dropping season, I had a neighbor with a tree that was close enough to clog things, so, that may have been every couple of weeks during that time to deal with stuff that made it past the skimmer. I am going with a 200sf filter on mine, and a 150sf filter on my feature pump. When I was researching, the larger filters are actually rated for less flow for some reason which was weird to me.

Good to hear on the screen. I understand the thoughts there, definitely makes the pool a little cooler.

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Okay, that’s all good to know! I’m waiting on the equipment list from the PB to see what equipment they are planning on using, but they did install my friend’s equipment today, so I may take a look when I get a chance.

FLGatorJoe said:

I took a quick look at your quote and for that amount, see if your builder can throw in a LED light in the bubbler it looks awesome at night also a few more spa jets. For your size spa 6 jets would be nice. The quote didn't say the HP on the blower.

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It has a total of seven jets. The number you see there is “additional jets” and they include four. Iwill have three LED lights in the pool, one in the spa and two Magic Bowls for lighting, so I think i should be okay without the led bubbler. From what I understand, they are great until the led breaks. The pool lights and Magic bowls are all able to be removed and replaced. The bubbler, I’m not so sure about.

ajw22 said:

Flow requirements are:

• Bubbler - 15 - 30 GPM depending on desired plume height
• Waterfall - 15 GPM/ft or 30 GPM for 24"
• Magic Bowls - 15-20 GPM/bowl or 30 - 40 GPM for 2

So your needs if everything is flowing together is 75-90+ GPM.

I think you should be using an AFP-120 water features pump.

WaterFall Specialty Pumps

The Pentair Waterfall Specialty Pool Water Features Pump has a closed impeller, low-head pump ideal for water features such as fountains, waterfalls and other special pool features.

www.pentair.com

Let's see what @mas985 thinks.

https://www.pentair.com/content/dam/extranet/pentair-pool/residential/brochures/colorvision-bubbler-with-separately-sold-globrite-led-lights-brochure-english.pdf

https://www.pentair.com/content/dam/extranet/product-related/product-manuals/pool-and-spa-equipment/magicfalls/MagicFallsWaterEffectsOwnersManualEnglish.pdf

https://www.pentair.com/content/dam/extranet/product-related/product-manuals/pool-and-spa-equipment/magicbowl/MagicBowlOMpdf.pdf

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My PB uses Jandy equipment but I will make sure a similarly rated pump is used. Thank you for the detailed information!

@HermanTX, when you talk about valves are you referring to something like a Jandy valve (shown below)?

HermanTX said:

Yep, just a simple inline valve that can be adjusted to various openings to control flow.

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Okay, gotcha! I’m not much of a pool guru, but I am familiar with those!
Small update: I measured the clearance on both sides of my house for excavator clearance and I had 6’ 4” on both sides between air conditioning units and the neighboring homes. I checked with the PB and he verified that 6’ 6” is the minimum for the 6’ depth/small machine dig. After check on AC removal costs, as an alternative option, I got prices ranging from $650-2800. Then I got to looking at the unit and realized that there was a good 4-6” between the house and the unit. Using a chock and a long jack handle for leverage I was able to move the slab and unit over about 4” so the dig shouldn’t be an issue now. Here’s to a little elbow grease to save a few thousand dollars!

Tomorrow is the day...Going to pick out tile, pavers, etc. Wish me luck!

Big news: We’re signed!!! We went to the design center today not even knowing if we were going to go with tan pavers or gray and after about an hour and a half we had it figured out. Below, from top to bottom are the travertine coping, pebble finish, waterline/spa tile and pavers.


I didn't make a lot of last minute changes, but I did make a few, mainly with the spa. I moved one jet off of the wall closest to the house and put it right next to another jet on the long wall. This should allow one person to enjoy the heat of the spa while giving them a break from the jets. It will also give me a "Double jet" similar to what @Nikilyn has (Thanks for the suggestion!). He also had no seating on the wall with the spillover, so I had him add the "Bench" to either side, which should give me an addition two "Seats." The last change was adding another nicheless light to the pool area. I thought he had me quoted for three in the pool and one in the spa but it was three total. According to Jandy's website, three is the magic number. Since I am not doing a screen at the moment I had to do something to meet code for child safety. I didn't want to do just the window and door alarms and I didn't want a fence all the way around the pool with a bunch of little holes in my nice pavers, so we decide that the best option was to door the window and door alarms for code and to put the fence along the perimeter of my existing covered porch for my own peace of mind. This satisfied the needs of Uncle Sam and cost me about half as much as going all the way around the pool. The yard will also be fenced to keep people from coming in from the outside.


The pavers are Tremron Mega Olde Town Glacier and the pool finish is Wet Edge Caribbean. Not sure what brand the tile is but I was very happy that all this (including the travertine) were options that were included in the quote. The pavers will be laid in a herringbone pattern and should look something like this:


They are saying end of August the project should be complete. That includes 45 days for permitting, another 30 days until excavation and now the time for the rest has gone from 16 weeks last week to 18 week this week. Hopefully they can stick to that timeline.

Nikilyn said:

Glad I could help .
I've never seen waterline tile line that. Can't wait to see it in. What color is your pebble?

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I went with Caribbean from Wet Edge. It’s a lighter blue from their Satin Matrix line. In the picture it is right above the waterline tile. I imagine the waterline tile will look really good on the raised spa and for the waterline, but might be a pain to keep clean. I guess I’ll find out!

sureshot015 said:

The tile is NPT Carrara Grigio Gray.... guessing you’re using dreamscapes pools?

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You are correct, I’m building with Dreamscapes. Thanks for identifying the tile too.

sureshot015 said:

Recognized the choices! We did wet edge Caribbean, Carrara nero, silver travertine and alpine mega old town. Waiting on our permits now.

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Very cool! I couldn’t find the alpine on Tremron’s website. What color is it? Oddly enough they built a pool for some friends of mine last year (on our street) and are currently building a pool for some other friends on our street. They are at the plumbing stage right now.

@HermanTX I did check with Wet Edge to see who the subs are in my area that are certified by Wet Edge. Of course, I forgot to verify who my PB sub contracts out to, but I’m committed at this point so it’s a little late for me. Thankfully this PB has many many positive reviews and everyone I’ve talked to personally has been happy with the end product.

sureshot015 said:

Don't know where i pulled Alpine from, lol .... our are Mega Old Town Glacier

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Very cool! Same as us. We thought about doing the Stonehurst texture but thought it would be irritating with chairs on the pool deck. It looked very natural but it seemed like the texture would make chairs and tables wobble.

On another note, I didn’t make any real progress, but I did play gopher in my back yard yesterday and figured out my rerouting for my irrigation. And used some spray paint to map out where the pool would be, just for fun!

It’s been a while but I finally have some news. Permits went through and I capped the sprinklers a few days ago. According to the PB, they should be excavating in 2-3 weeks, which would be great! Need to figure out an interim solution to keep my grass from dying in the affected sprinkler zones (no sprinklers in Florida means dead grass). I’m thinking I may make my new sprinkler pipes that go along the back of the pool and put a fitting on it to use the garden hose so it can be disconnected when work needs to be done on the pool. Also, having second thoughts about a few things. Apparently there’s a shortage of tan vinyl fence and the fence is currently going to be by exterior pool barrier. Between that and going to a few friend’s houses that have the screen enclosure, I am thinking I might do the screen enclosure instead. Also, thinking I might switch to salt instead of chlorine. Not sure if there is an advantage to doing it through the pool builder vs adding circupool later.