Hello TFP Forum,
I have been tirelessly researching putting a pool in for over three years now since we bought our home. Initially, I wanted to purchase a home with a pool but with our time constraints and geographic constraints, I figured we would wait until we could afford it and design and put our pool in when we could do it. I went through an intense interview process and quote process of four different pool companies here in West Michigan and after many meetings and calling references, settled on Cove Pools in Grand Rapids, MI. I am attaching our diagram to this so that you can see our preliminary plan design and I will post updates as we get closer because the actual build doesn't start until Sept. 14th of this fall. I decided to go with a fall build because of the end-of-year specials you can get on equipment, cheaper concrete, cheaper landscaping, the ground will be harder so not as much tearing up of the yard with equipment and when I open it in the Spring, it will be ready to go!!!
We are going with a 16'x24'x42' True "L" vinyl pool with Cantilever cement edging vs. the white coping for an upcharge of $1600. The pool includes steel wall braces with lifetime warranty, vermiculite and Portland cement bottom, 1 merlin 27 mil liner, 1 duo main drain, all plumbing and valves, Pentair variable speed pump ($1585 upcharge vs. 1 HP Pentair pump), Pentair Sand Filter with Zeobrite instead of sand ($69 upcharge), Nature 2 Ionizer ($220 upcharge to reduce chorine use throughout the summer), 1 Pentair chlorine chemical feeder, 1 stainless steel ladder, chemical start-up kit including solar pill, leaf skimmer, brush, 1 Smartpool Scrubber 60 automatic pool cleaner, safety rope, 1 8 foot step in the shallow end, 1 handrail for steps, 2 Jandy white LED lights (shallow end and deep end for an upcharge of $1391 vs. paying $712 for two incandescent lights), 1 6 ft. spring diving board ($865 upcharge), 2 deck jets in shallow and 2 deck jets in deep end (upcharge of $1160), mesh safety winter cover with anchors ($2300 upcharge), 1 Raypak 1 133,000 BTU Heat Pump ($4000 upcharge). The total price of the pool kit including tax with all of the upcharges comes to $26,775. Cove pools is throwing in the Automatic Pool Cleaner, Basketball System and giving me the winter mesh cover at their cost of $2300 and these figures are included in the total above.
The price to come out and install everything comes to $13,225. I am paying an extra $2400 for extra cement because the install comes with 4' of concrete on the sides, 6' on the shallow and deep ends but I want 20' of concrete on the deep end because the 2nd phase of this project is going to be building a lean off of my shed and installing an outdoor kitchen with TV on the North side of my shed so I will need the extra concrete, installing a strip drain halfway from the pool to the deep end, I am going with 4' of concrete on the West Side of the pool with the ladder, 8' of concrete on the shallow side, 10' of concrete on the "L" side with lounge chairs @ $3.75/sq. ft. for the concrete. I also am paying Outback Fence Co. $2400 to install a black vinyl chain link fence around the perimeter of the pool and into the shed. By spring I will also have a 1/2 bath in the shed so there will be a changing room, toilet and sink so people don't have to run into the house.
The total price for everything is coming to $44,375 and this also includes $1200 to have electric and plumbing run from the house to the shed that is 150' away, permits pulled and allowing $750 for landscaping because I mainly need mulch and lights since I am transplanting a lot of the plants needed.
Let me know if any of these numbers are way off to anybody. I researched both going with Chlorine vs. SWG and going with the Heat Pump EXTENSIVELY this past year and called over 25 references each. Each person I spoke to would never go back to a gas heater after having this Raypak Heat Pump. They said it does take more time to heat up initially (roughly 24-48 hours but their cost to run the heat pump per month with the VSP comes to $50-$60 extra per month vs. $200-$400 per month with a gas heater. In fact the pools we went and looked at that had gas heaters weren't even running them because of the cost to do it. The people with the heat pumps were running them mid-morning to noon with the VSP and their pools were 82-84 degrees. They told me they swim from early May to end of September usually every year. I didn't know that actually Canada is the leading seller of Heat Pumps, so that kind of puts an end to the argument that heat pumps are only good for the people in the South. They also told me the Solar Pills do a great job of not allowing evaporation at night and keeping the temperature of the pool. The people also told me with the Nature 2 system, that they went from going through 3-4 of the 25lb pails of tabs per summer to now only using 1/2 pail in one summer and with the chlorine feeder, they don't have to worry about it if they go on vacation for a week to a week and a half. I will update everyone as we get closer to the build and my wife, 2 kids and myself are anxious to start swimming next spring and do away with our community pool membership that is 3 miles away from the house. Thanks everyone and your feeback is welcome!!View attachment Pool Build Scan 2015.pdf
I have been tirelessly researching putting a pool in for over three years now since we bought our home. Initially, I wanted to purchase a home with a pool but with our time constraints and geographic constraints, I figured we would wait until we could afford it and design and put our pool in when we could do it. I went through an intense interview process and quote process of four different pool companies here in West Michigan and after many meetings and calling references, settled on Cove Pools in Grand Rapids, MI. I am attaching our diagram to this so that you can see our preliminary plan design and I will post updates as we get closer because the actual build doesn't start until Sept. 14th of this fall. I decided to go with a fall build because of the end-of-year specials you can get on equipment, cheaper concrete, cheaper landscaping, the ground will be harder so not as much tearing up of the yard with equipment and when I open it in the Spring, it will be ready to go!!!
We are going with a 16'x24'x42' True "L" vinyl pool with Cantilever cement edging vs. the white coping for an upcharge of $1600. The pool includes steel wall braces with lifetime warranty, vermiculite and Portland cement bottom, 1 merlin 27 mil liner, 1 duo main drain, all plumbing and valves, Pentair variable speed pump ($1585 upcharge vs. 1 HP Pentair pump), Pentair Sand Filter with Zeobrite instead of sand ($69 upcharge), Nature 2 Ionizer ($220 upcharge to reduce chorine use throughout the summer), 1 Pentair chlorine chemical feeder, 1 stainless steel ladder, chemical start-up kit including solar pill, leaf skimmer, brush, 1 Smartpool Scrubber 60 automatic pool cleaner, safety rope, 1 8 foot step in the shallow end, 1 handrail for steps, 2 Jandy white LED lights (shallow end and deep end for an upcharge of $1391 vs. paying $712 for two incandescent lights), 1 6 ft. spring diving board ($865 upcharge), 2 deck jets in shallow and 2 deck jets in deep end (upcharge of $1160), mesh safety winter cover with anchors ($2300 upcharge), 1 Raypak 1 133,000 BTU Heat Pump ($4000 upcharge). The total price of the pool kit including tax with all of the upcharges comes to $26,775. Cove pools is throwing in the Automatic Pool Cleaner, Basketball System and giving me the winter mesh cover at their cost of $2300 and these figures are included in the total above.
The price to come out and install everything comes to $13,225. I am paying an extra $2400 for extra cement because the install comes with 4' of concrete on the sides, 6' on the shallow and deep ends but I want 20' of concrete on the deep end because the 2nd phase of this project is going to be building a lean off of my shed and installing an outdoor kitchen with TV on the North side of my shed so I will need the extra concrete, installing a strip drain halfway from the pool to the deep end, I am going with 4' of concrete on the West Side of the pool with the ladder, 8' of concrete on the shallow side, 10' of concrete on the "L" side with lounge chairs @ $3.75/sq. ft. for the concrete. I also am paying Outback Fence Co. $2400 to install a black vinyl chain link fence around the perimeter of the pool and into the shed. By spring I will also have a 1/2 bath in the shed so there will be a changing room, toilet and sink so people don't have to run into the house.
The total price for everything is coming to $44,375 and this also includes $1200 to have electric and plumbing run from the house to the shed that is 150' away, permits pulled and allowing $750 for landscaping because I mainly need mulch and lights since I am transplanting a lot of the plants needed.
Let me know if any of these numbers are way off to anybody. I researched both going with Chlorine vs. SWG and going with the Heat Pump EXTENSIVELY this past year and called over 25 references each. Each person I spoke to would never go back to a gas heater after having this Raypak Heat Pump. They said it does take more time to heat up initially (roughly 24-48 hours but their cost to run the heat pump per month with the VSP comes to $50-$60 extra per month vs. $200-$400 per month with a gas heater. In fact the pools we went and looked at that had gas heaters weren't even running them because of the cost to do it. The people with the heat pumps were running them mid-morning to noon with the VSP and their pools were 82-84 degrees. They told me they swim from early May to end of September usually every year. I didn't know that actually Canada is the leading seller of Heat Pumps, so that kind of puts an end to the argument that heat pumps are only good for the people in the South. They also told me the Solar Pills do a great job of not allowing evaporation at night and keeping the temperature of the pool. The people also told me with the Nature 2 system, that they went from going through 3-4 of the 25lb pails of tabs per summer to now only using 1/2 pail in one summer and with the chlorine feeder, they don't have to worry about it if they go on vacation for a week to a week and a half. I will update everyone as we get closer to the build and my wife, 2 kids and myself are anxious to start swimming next spring and do away with our community pool membership that is 3 miles away from the house. Thanks everyone and your feeback is welcome!!View attachment Pool Build Scan 2015.pdf