Crete or liner pool?

[waste]

Now that I got your attention, our new friend Bryan (sfgann) had a post here on liner steps, etc, that no one else decided to answer, so I did

It seems the real reason for the question was to determine the pro's and con's of liner vs. crete pools. Below is the answer and original PM he sent me as a follow up?

View message
sfgann

Message subject: Re: Vinyl liner steps Sent: Tue Mar 24, 2009 4:54 pm
It sounds like you have done your fair share of liners, what is your opinion on them, im about 2 days from deciding to go with liner or gunite, its been a long tough decision, i never knew there was so much to getting a pool. Any advice info would be greatly appreciated. We are going with a 12 X24 size pool if that helps

Thank you
Bryan
Subject: Vinyl liner steps

waste wrote:
Welcome to TFP!!

The trouble with the sunshelves are the same as those presented by steps - trying to get a liner to perfectly match the 90* angles is tough to perfectly manufacture, so many times you will end up with small wrinkles at the edges. If the steps or ledge wasn't installed perfectly level and the risers all being uniform, it exacerbates the problem. A warm, sunny day makes installation MUCH easier with less chance of wrinkles.

I hope this helps you somewhat - if you need more info from me, I'll tell you what I know (I've installed well over 1000 liners) :-D

To which I responded

Message subject: Re: Vinyl liner steps Sent: Tue Mar 24, 2009 7:24 pm
To tell you a little of my pool building history, I started with formed concrete pools, then went to a company that specialized in shotcrete pools, but did a number of IG liner pools as well. As the primary concern was the more profitable shotcrete (gunite) pools, the liner pools were treated like 'red haired step children'. After my experience with that company, I swore I'd never have a liner pool! However, when I started working with my current company specializing in IG liner pools, I soon realized that a liner pool can be every bit as good as a crete pool and costs much $$ less.

The short of this is: if the company you get to build your pool specializes in 1 or the other kind -go with the type they specialize in!!! If you're choosing between 2 companies that each specialize in one or the other, get plenty of references, check them out with BBB and, if possible, see how their relations are with their suppliers. (I'm pretty sure that there is an article on "How To Choose A Builder" in the 'Further Reading' of Pool School) There is also a thread on "How Not To Choose A Pool Builder" -- if you need help searching for them, post it on the forum and we'll help you (Start a new thread in the pool construction section and lots of folks will chime in with their opinions - as a matter of fact, I'll start the thread for you with what you wrote to me here :-D )

Congrats both on coming here to learn and also on buying a new pool We'll do our best to keep the 'buyer's remorse' to a minimum.
In the mean time, until you can get a little more input from us, please hold off on signing a contract (and don't let them bully you, tell us what they're saying and we'll tell you how to deal with them )

As there is a 'deadline' for info, I wanted to get this out there for y'alls consideration ASAP

 

[Casey]

BUmping for ma23peas...