Now plat! You have to share the WHOLE pool build experience! The people need to see it all! Good, bad, ugly it is all a part of it.
AND we love a good "story"! LOL
Kim
AND we love a good "story"! LOL
Kim
Houston, TX Pool Build Diary - From Design to Dive-In
- Thread starter platipus
- Start date
I agree with Kim! This is going to be too awesome of a build thread for it to be chopped up by time. There's always something to share!!! We all learn from the whole of it.
And as far as a 'story' goes..... You obviously have a great knack for story telling!
Hang around, you might enjoy it!
Suz.
And as far as a 'story' goes..... You obviously have a great knack for story telling!
Hang around, you might enjoy it!
Suz.
LOVE the water wall!
Not sure if the top sprays are a design element added by the companies or a something you requested, but I thought I would throw out my two cents on them. I love them and from a design standpoint they look nice. In reality, they are REALLY loud. I now wish I had scrapped them from our build. We never turn ours on, and we wouldn't have the holes and fittings to look at in our walls.
Not sure if the top sprays are a design element added by the companies or a something you requested, but I thought I would throw out my two cents on them. I love them and from a design standpoint they look nice. In reality, they are REALLY loud. I now wish I had scrapped them from our build. We never turn ours on, and we wouldn't have the holes and fittings to look at in our walls.
Always leave the audience wanting more...
:eye:
OK, OK, OK...
So we did tours today of pools from the builder that we think we are going to go with. We saw three pools that were all very well done and all of them within 1/4 mile of each other on the same street. Tile work was very nice with clean grout lines, well done corners and very symmetric. Plumbing work was clean and seemed well laid out on the pads. We even ran into one of the property owners who was just having her pool finished and was waiting on the final permit for the heater. She had nothing but good things to say about her build and the builder. She even commented about a pool currently going into one of her neighbors who went with another company and that the fit and finish work was just not up to the same level as what this builder did. So I will add that one to a positive reference check.
The builder provided a sheet of references in their packet when we first met with them, so we have a large list to choose from. I'll talk with two or three of them to look for consistent build stories and that will take care of that.
I'm sending them the Big List of questions so they can respond when we meet again next week to go over some final details and have them present a contract for us to review.
One thing I really liked is that un-prompted when we were chatting at one of the pools about the build process is that he said their contract includes a 5% hold-back for punchlist completion. This is one of my questions from the Big List and is also a deal breaker for me. If a contractor is unwilling to do a 5% final payment post-punchlist, there is no chance I would sign a contract with them. That is your only leverage to get those last bits done in a timely manner. I seem to remember reading here that a lot of pool builders are hesitant or even unwilling to do this so I was prepared to take a hard line on this and was pleasantly surprised that it was offered up without asking.
So for now, it will be quiet for at least a few days until we meet again to review their answers to the questions and look at the contract. My wife and I are going to depth test our neighbors pool this weekend. We want to find the optimal depths for both of us to see if there are any tweaks we want to make to our planned 4-5-4 social/sport design.
You are absolutely right about the noise. We've had friends complain about the exact same thing on their pools and they often leave features off when having gatherings for this exact reason. I think this will be something we will end up tweaking. Maybe we lower the height of the scuppers and sheer descents. As far as the one tall waterfall wall. That is at least about 50' from our main patio lounge seating area. I took that into consideration when I added the element thinking that the 50' distance would still give us a nice visual element but not be so loud you couldn't have a conversation.
Hope everyone has a fun and safe Labor Day Weekend!!!
-plat
Or you can give your guests all Bose noise cancelling headphones to wear while hanging out.
OH NO! LOL
Any updates on your build?
I also live in Kingwood (Kingwood Greens) and my PB agreed to a 10% punch list hold back which still has not been paid yet. Not due to him but the City of Houston which took forever to complete the storm water retention requirements and then the final approval of the design. We signed the contract in January and it took 4-5 months just to get the City of Houston to give us our storm water letter so the calculations could even be performed. Until we got the City of Houston approval the PB could not start.
I saw your list and all very good questions but I would have a couple of more requirements on whoever you select. First, he will use subcontractors so ensure there is a release of lien in case the PB does not pay them. I also drafted an addendum to my contract which provided that my PB would represent and warrant that he would pay all subcontractors on a timely basis and that in the event a subcontractor filed a lien he would indemnify me. I also included a provision where I had to be provided with a certificate of insurance naming my wife and me as named additional insureds in a specified amount in the event of property damage or injury. The addendum also provided that work could not begin until I received the policy certificate which he provided.
Otherwise, good luck. Know going in it will be a long process and it will be a mess for a while with dirt, debris, etc. But in the end you will have a very fun toy that will require your attention. At my last house I was talking to my pool guy who handled all my repairs and he said think of a pool as owning a car. It will require routine maintenance and every so often it will require an additional expense based on age and how well you take care of it.
I also live in Kingwood (Kingwood Greens) and my PB agreed to a 10% punch list hold back which still has not been paid yet. Not due to him but the City of Houston which took forever to complete the storm water retention requirements and then the final approval of the design. We signed the contract in January and it took 4-5 months just to get the City of Houston to give us our storm water letter so the calculations could even be performed. Until we got the City of Houston approval the PB could not start.
I saw your list and all very good questions but I would have a couple of more requirements on whoever you select. First, he will use subcontractors so ensure there is a release of lien in case the PB does not pay them. I also drafted an addendum to my contract which provided that my PB would represent and warrant that he would pay all subcontractors on a timely basis and that in the event a subcontractor filed a lien he would indemnify me. I also included a provision where I had to be provided with a certificate of insurance naming my wife and me as named additional insureds in a specified amount in the event of property damage or injury. The addendum also provided that work could not begin until I received the policy certificate which he provided.
Otherwise, good luck. Know going in it will be a long process and it will be a mess for a while with dirt, debris, etc. But in the end you will have a very fun toy that will require your attention. At my last house I was talking to my pool guy who handled all my repairs and he said think of a pool as owning a car. It will require routine maintenance and every so often it will require an additional expense based on age and how well you take care of it.
I watched your build thread since you were in Kingwood as well. Beautiful pool by the way!!
Your points are well taken on the contract. These are all things that we did ask/include in the list because of the same concerns you had I am sure.
12. Do you carry general liability insurance? How much? Will you provide proof of coverage prior to any contract signing?
13. Do you carry workers’ compensation insurance and can you provide proof?
14. How are your subs insured? Can you provide proof?
15. Will you provide a written Lien Releases for yourself and all sub's prior to final payment?
16. Will you include a subcontractor/vendor Proof of Payment clause in the contract?
I 100% agree. These are critical things to protect oneself from the unscrupulous and/or incompetent builders out there.
As far as updates, permitting starts on Tuesday. We know the last stop is stormwater and everything will grind to a halt there. Our lot is 300 feet over the 15,000 cutoff to do this the easy way... Lucky us. :taped: Maybe we can "gift" those 300 feet to the Trails Committee? Ha!
I've been busy and not able to log in for a while, so my apologies for the big time gaps... There also isn't much update from where we were at my last post. The builder we chose checked out great. He had the right answers to the Big List of Questions and their references we called were all positive if not glowing.
We had to re-survey our lot to get started and we just did that 2 weeks ago. We'll know more next week after the stormwater halt and we start with the engineer to review and draw up the plan. I am hoping (based on what our builder is saying) that it will only take about 2 months for all of that and then we'll be another 2 - 3 months to complete construction. That hopefully puts us in March for startup which is perfect because we'll be out of the freeze risk by then and can do an early Spring landscape install so we have an entire season to let the plants settle in and grow. We'll also have a full season of pool use as well.
That's really it for now. Thanks!
plat
Just 300 feet over 15,000? Is it worth getting a new survey? Trust me if you can avoid the City of Houston stormwater group you will want to at all costs.
The original survey we had when we purchased had us at 15,160 or something like that. The newest once came out a bit larger at 15,300. I think we're stuck. The funny thing is that we are end of cul de sac and end of development (we are on the downhill end of the street backing up to East End Park). Any stormwater work we do will redirect water that would normally flow towards the lake into the stormwater system instead. Brilliant right? Big City "government" wins again.....
We knew this was going to be a challenge going into it so we're prepared to wait. I'm sure I'll be complaining about it soon enough though.
Thanks!!
plat
Beautiful design and GREAT QUESTIONS!! We are beginning the process and I'll definitely be using these. Looking forward to watching your progress!Blessing, Denise
Unscrupulous pool builders across the country will know and fear my name! :batman:
plat.
Not much. We are in the permitting process. Everything went as our builder said it would. Approvals across the board until they hit the Houston Stormwater office. We sit now for about 10 more days until they come back and tell us we need a stormwater engineering plan. From there we pay an engineer to come up with a detailed and very precise plan to dig a ditch with a pipe in it... and then move on from there.
We're a little nervous about this as the City of Houston has gone nutty with the whole stormwater thing. At the homeowner scale, the required stormwater detention nonsense is like dipping a red solo cup in the ocean and telling people you lowered the sea level.
Yay. Government. They're here to help. No really....
plat.
So does everyone have to go through the Stormwater Office or only lots over a certain sf? You have probably already answered that but I can't remember! lol!
If you are within City of Houston and have a yard greater than 15,000 square feet then yes. My guess is you should be ready for first dig by early March 2016.
