Which Kind of pool / material ?

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C

Cliff0605

0
Sep 2, 2015
5
Grapevine / Texas
Hi

I have just moved over from the UK in which to marry my wife in Texas 5 weeks ago, and plan to buy a new home in the next t months possibly with a pool, but the home does not have to have one if the price is right, therefore what I save on the house I can consider putting to having my own in ground pool installed.

Do not know a lot about them as never had one before, one friend recommended salt water another recommended chlorine.

For what I read I know there are pools that are built with a variety of different materials, but not sure which one to pick ?
Some materials are more longer lasting and some need more maintenance than others !

I have joined your site in search of all the best guidance in getting the right pool built with the best material at possibly the right price.
I know the prices can vary due to size and materials used to build it.

Just want a pool for residential use out the back approx. 30 foot.

I appreciate any advice or recommendations you give, any Good / bad experience of the materials in your pools built


Thanks


Cliff
 
Welcome to TFP!

Congratulations on the new wife.

I will dispel one common misconception - a salt pool is a chlorine pool. The salt tin the water is turned into chlorine by a device in the plumbing called a Salt a Water Chlorine Generator (SWCG or SWG, you see it both ways). So, salt is chlorine. You want chlorine. Don't believe fancy dancy salesmen who say they have an easier - better system. Nothing beats chlorine!

There is a link at the top,of the page for Pool School. I would suggest starting to read there and ask lots of questions.
 
Cliff0605 said:
Hi Tim,

Many Thanks, for the information, I have not had any salesmen involved yet, as I want a little education of my own first, on what they are talking about rather than just take their word for it and get ripped off !
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you have migrated to the colonies now - no salesman would ever try to rip you off on this side of the pond :rolleyes:
 
Since you have the option it is often much less expensive to find a house with a pool then to build one after the fact. Of course building you get exactly what you want/can afford, there are tradeoffs on either side. If you want to save some money try to find the house with the pool. As for materials you will find proponents of the 3 major types here boils down to preference and sometimes cost. I live in California and we are building an in ground with Gunite and Pebbel Fina. The majority of pools where I live are built similarly and it’s what I grew up with. We don’t plan on selling any time soon but makes sense to me to build what is most common for the area.
 
atttech-2 said:
Since you have the option it is often much less expensive to find a house with a pool then to build one after the fact. Of course building you get exactly what you want/can afford, there are tradeoffs on either side. If you want to save some money try to find the house with the pool. As for materials you will find proponents of the 3 major types here boils down to preference and sometimes cost. I live in California and we are building an in ground with Gunite and Pebbel Fina. The majority of pools where I live are built similarly and it’s what I grew up with. We don’t plan on selling any time soon but makes sense to me to build what is most common for the area.
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My wife and myself were just browsing at properties the other day and one pool was made with Gunite and I liked the color and texture,
but there again did not know much about it regards to the cost of the material compared to others and the life span or maintenance
it has compared to other materials pools are built with.
 
There are a number of types of construction for inground pool, primarily fiberglass shell pools that are drop in construction, site built vinyl liner pools, and concrete and plaster construction, most often these will be gunite or shotcrete shells build on site. Having said that there are regional tendencies in type of pool construction, for example vinyl liners pools are fairly popular in the northern states, particularly the north eastern states as you have less concerns about damage from frozen ground with them. However this will not be a concern in the DFW metroplex area, as while it does freeze it never stays below freezing long enough for the ground to freeze solid to any appreciable depth. In all the major cities in Texas, there are 2 or 3 traits that dominate inground swimming pools, these are gunite/plaster construction, I would guess over 90% of modern pools in Texas, they mostly will have natural stone surrounds or accents (Oklahoma Flagstone and Travertine are popular), and outdoor living / cooking areas are very popular and often located near pools. These traits are so strong that one can look at a pool build photo and have a fair chance of guessing if it is in Texas or not based on just these factors.
 
For the Dallas area I would say the vast majority of pools are Gunite construction, Pebble.. is a finish not a construction technique think of it more like the paint on an automobile and is an upsell option over the basic Gunite and plaster pool. There are a number of upgrade finish, trim and decking options that can be added to a basic gunite pool. I would tend to say the pebble finish either genuine Pebble-tec or one of the lower cost knock offs is probably the most popular at the moment, but Quartz is another popular upgrade option over the basic plaster. Then there is trim stuff like waterline tile, or stone again here there is a wide range of choices and costs to match. Many people like glass tile, which can be spectacular looking when done right, and hideous when done wrong, then of course there is stone decking, waterfalls, grottos, which sometimes also incorporate waterfalls, ....

When I think of a pool in either the Houston or DFW area, here is what comes to mind:

A freeform gunite pool locate in a typically small modern backyard sized at less than 50x50 ft, often much LESS, the pool will dominate the free area in the yard. This pool will be fancier than the basic pools found in other regions, will include some natural some accent or decking. It will be located near the house and near an outdoor entertaining / cooking area, this area will typically be under roof, but open on 2 or 3 sides. (many people build the pool first, then go back and add an outdoor kitchen area later) These pools will often have some sort of a diving rock (a boulder like stone for people to jump off of into the deep part of the pool), these are often installed to get around insurance regulations against diving boards.

Another thing to keep in mind is that many nicer homes in Texas cities are build in large development tracks and are regulated by home owners associations, these home owners associations dictate most aspects about what the home owner can do to their property, regulating what color to paint, what types of plants are acceptable and most must provide approval for any swimming pool being built, this often includes requirement to submit detailed plans for the HOA approval. This again is a good reason to shop for a home that already has a pool.

Ike

p.s. this is not to say that it describes all pools in the area, but if you take some time and look at the build threads for pools in both the DFW and Houston area you will see that these are the traits that tend to stand out. There are of course exceptions, we had one build thread here that comes to mind for DFW where the pool was small and rectangular instead of freeform, but that is the exception.
 

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Isaac-1 said:
Here are a few DFW and Houston metro area pool builds for you to look at

Another Pool Build in Cypress, TX

New Build in Corinth TX

Another DFW Pool Build... Mansfield - Page 2

New dig June 11th TX

there are many others, but this should get you started looking
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Hi Isaac,

Many Thanks for the links you had provided, and as you stated at times you maybe better finding a home with the pool installed and possibly get a larger pool coming with the house. If you look for a house and like the house (There is No Pool). It is surprising the amount of properties for sale but only approx. 5% has a pool.
 
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