Inground Vinyl DFW Texas

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RoadTrip

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Aug 14, 2015
29
Coppell, TX
Starting the paper flow and lining up the steps to splashdown :drown:. We started out with a custom design but after submitting our drawings to kit builders we've decided to go with an out of the box 20x40x32 Lagoon kit. They wanted $16K for a kit to do our design vs $9K for the standard kit with options. After I put this pool in our landscape design I'll post the concept drawing.

We got an estimate of $16K to build the pool (not including pool krete material). We don't want a deck built, that would have been an extra $3K. I think we're going to go ahead and DIY most of it for that price.

I got a rough estimate of $4,500 to do the dig and haul off. Does this sound reasonable for Dallas? I'm going to look for 2 more estimates on this. Anyone have a pool excavator they would care to recommend? I'd prefer someone who has inground vinyl pool experience.
 
I'm glad to see things are coming together for you. That will be a good size pool for you. There have been a couple of builds on this site of that pool. I'll be looking forward to following your progress.
 
$4500 sounds high, but its all about supply and demand, at least in my area - Texas might be higher. I paid $3200 for the dig,, haul to my back property and fill in the low spots leveling it out completely with a dozer.. It was a lot of dirt, 33x22x5 or 115 cubic yards of dirt.
 
The dig and haul off sounds about right to me. We were quoted for the dig and then $100/truckload on top of that, and with the size of the pool we were initially considering, that was going to add up. Your pool is pretty big too, so $4500 sounds in line with what I had been finding in our initial research into the vinyl liner pools, especially if yours is going to have a deep end.

As a comparison, one gunite pool excavator I've been in touch with charges $19/perimeter foot for excavation. I looked into a pool kit similar to yours and learned that the perimeter is about 125' or so, just to give you something to calculate. I don't think this excavator charged extra for haul off, but I'm not sure.
 
The last couple of weeks have been a blur. As I noted earlier our original design died a quick and painful death by turning into a budget killer.

We switched to a 20x40x31 Lagoon layout but that pool doesn't work either. This time the size won't fit without violating building codes. Our house is on a corner lot and the side street curves so we have a wedge shape to deal with. We originally decided to do a custom layout so we could build around it and deal with the lot layout issue.

So now we do have a final design with an 18x36x28 Lagoon. Our backyard design, that took us 8 months to do, has been redone twice in 3 days. We had to move the pool, pavilion and BBQ grill around to get everything where we wanted it. I'll post the new layout in the next couple of days.

Our site plan was dropped off at Oncor last night. Hopefully they'll be quick. I need Oncor and the city to get it approved and back by next Thur. We leave for a week on vacation next Friday and I need to get the pool kit ordered before we leave. The city says less than 3 days so if I get it to them by Tues I should be able to make it.

I've got an excavator lined up to do the dig for $1,800 (thanks JamieP). He'll dump the fill on my 90 foot long driveway and we'll do a free dirt campaign. One of the guys I work with is doing a landscape and grading project on his house so he might just take the whole pile. If my calculations are right, it's 114 yards.

If everything goes according to plan the dig will happen Sep 15 & 16. Walls up by Sep 20. Collar, plumbing, inspections by Sep 27. Bottom around Sep 30 (contractor $1,700). Bag-in and fill Oct 3.

One of my wife's favorite sayings "If you want to make God laugh, tell him that you've got a plan"
 
Decisions decisions

What are the real world pros and cons of running a waterfall off of the filter vs a standalone pump?

If I did use a separate pump could that be connected using the same electrical circuit as the filter pump? Could it be connected to a utility outlet? Or would it have to have it's own dedicated 30 amp circuit? I have an outdoor sub panel that will be wired with 1 30 amp 10/2 buried cable to the filter and 1 20 amp 12/2 buried cable for a utility outlet. I could add a 2nd 30 amp 10/2 if I had to. But I don't want to case that stuff is expensive!!!

Personally I don't like running the filter while people are swimming.
 
Really, it depends on the pump. Do you have your filter pump picked out yet? An option for running filter and waterfall off the same pump be a variable speed pump.
When running filter only, you can run very low RPMs and save electricity, then bump up the RPMs when you want the waterfall running.
 
If I run the waterfall off the filter I plan to use a valve to control flow to it. If I want it off I'll just shut the valve.

I really have no idea how much flow the waterfall will need. Having the valve should give me the ability to adjust the volume.

If I put in a 1/2 hp variable speed pump for the waterfall then I wouldn't have to run the bigger pump, filter, chlorinator when they really don't do much good anyway. But then I would only have 2 options for the volume to the waterfall. It seems to me that it would be a bad idea to put a valve in a line with no other path to bleed off the pressure.

These are just my thoughts for plumbing a waterfall into the system. I've never had a waterfall so I don't have any experience managing the flow for one.
 

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RoadTrip said:
Decisions decisions

What are the real world pros and cons of running a waterfall off of the filter vs a standalone pump?

If I did use a separate pump could that be connected using the same electrical circuit as the filter pump? Could it be connected to a utility outlet? Or would it have to have it's own dedicated 30 amp circuit? I have an outdoor sub panel that will be wired with 1 30 amp 10/2 buried cable to the filter and 1 20 amp 12/2 buried cable for a utility outlet. I could add a 2nd 30 amp 10/2 if I had to. But I don't want to case that stuff is expensive!!!

Personally I don't like running the filter while people are swimming.
Click to expand...

A couple of things.. you will really like to run the filter just before and during swimming.. it will get the bugs and anything that has flown into the pool out while your in :)

For power, you will need a 4 wire direct burial cable and the size will depend on how many amps you will need.. you probably want enough to do a panel at 60 or 100 amps, that way if you ever need or want to add something at a later time you will already have the power there... I did 6/4 60 amp direct burial and just the wire cost 800 dollars but it was 160 feet away from my house panel..
 
cowboycasey said:
A couple of things.. you will really like to run the filter just before and during swimming.. it will get the bugs and anything that has flown into the pool out while your in :)

For power, you will need a 4 wire direct burial cable and the size will depend on how many amps you will need.. you probably want enough to do a panel at 60 or 100 amps, that way if you ever need or want to add something at a later time you will already have the power there... I did 6/4 60 amp direct burial and just the wire cost 800 dollars but it was 160 feet away from my house panel..
Click to expand...

With my old pool SOP was to fun the filter for a couple hours if we were having guests. After a sizable party I would run it all night after :party:

I have a 100amp sub panel with a single 200v line out for a spa the previous owner had. I'm going to replace this with a new panel with a 30 amp line using 10/2 for the filter and 20 amp line using 12/2 for the utility outlet. The pump/filter area is 50 ft from the sub panel. But if I do the 2nd pump, that would be 40 ft from the pump/filter area or about 60 ft from the sub panel. So cost wise there is an incentive to run from the filter.
 
Status update

We got our Oncor construction site plan approval and have applied for our building permit. The city says less than 3 days to get the approval back.

We ordered the pool from Royal Swimming Pools last night.

[SIZE=-1]18' x 36' x 28' Lagoon Inground - Right curve
Steel wall with deck bracing
8" Gray Roman Sit-N-Steps centered shallow end entry w/2 handrails
1.5hp Pentair Superflo pump with 24" Hayward Sand filter and 1 1/2" plumbing
27 mil Bayview Blue liner

Schedule:
9/15 dig
9/17 pool kit delivery
9/19 walls and plumbing
9/26 collar
9/30 bottom
10/3 bag-in and fill
10/6 pool final

Decking and waterfall to follow

[/SIZE]
 
Bonding question

This whole bonding thing is confusing and full of holes. I get the bonding concept, but implementation is another thing all together.

Here's my scenario for bonding my pool and grounding my decking at the same time.

This is a steel wall vinyl pool so by code it's non conducting and only requires 1 bonding connection, not 4.

I will have an 18" wide concrete edge with a pebble bond finish around the perimeter of the pool. About 1/4 of the pool around the deep end there will be a concrete deck/pebble bond finish. There will be an in pool ladder anchored (aluminum) in the deck.

My plan is to run the bond wire (#8) to the ladder from the rebar lug and the ladder to the deck and perimeter edging. The bond wire connected to the wall and rebar and then run it along the over dig trench and follow the plumbing trench to the pump.

This should cover the water bonding shouldn't it? This would also cover the deck grounding, correct?

On the to ground rebar. Can that be buried? Can that be in the cement collar as long as it sticks out of the top and bottom of the cement collar into dirt?
 
Status update

My wife and I got back from our vacation so it's back to pool building. If you haven't done a cruise in Alaska you've got to put that on your bucket list :party:

To anyone outside of a pool forum this might really sound strange. My pool was shipped while we were away and is here in Dallas. They'll deliver it on Wed.

I submitted my pool permit app on Aug 27 and they expected it to take 3 days at the most. It still wasn't done when we got back. I called the city about it yesterday, I'll skip the narrative on that conversation and just say that they dropped the ball on that one. They finally got around to it so I have the permit in my hands. :whoot:

We had planned to have the excavator start today (Sept 15) but his vacation got delayed and he won't start until Mon (Sept 21). It's a 2 day job so I should be able to start assembling walls next Wed.

I've got me a crew to help over a couple weekends after the dig. Maybe we should say a motley crew who can't sing worth a lick. I think they're only coming for the suds, brats and burgers I promised when the day is done :cheers:

So if everything goes according to plan we should be able to bag-in the liner and fill Oct 10th. We're really pushing our luck with the rainy season. The last thing I need is a hole full of water without a shell to hold it :brickwall:

I know that I owe the group some design drawings and they'll be coming soon.
 
Just make sure the brews are AFTER the work is done! Make sure to watch several videos of putting in liners and have your "crew" watch also. Talk through who does what.............I know of some crews we would make money off of for the world's funnest videos with a job like this!

Kim
 

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