Finalizing Contract - Opinions Wanted!

[Flance]

Hello all, I am new to the group and have been so impressed with how helpful you all are with each other. I am hoping I can get some of that great advice now. My husband & I have pretty much narrowed down our PB, but since we are both new to this pool thing, I wanted to make sure that the attached looks good.

Since I wasn't sure where I'd want to spend $$ on upgrades, I asked PB to not include "standard pricing" for plaster, lights (2), & decking in pool price and list all options separately, as you'll see below. I have some concerns about the prices of upgrades. (Specifically the LED colored lights & plaster (leaning toward FL Stucco Petite or Pearl finish.)) I was able to get separate bid for travertine coping & pavers, which came in cheaper.

I appreciate your time & opinions! I am very excited and can not wait to start a post on our build!!



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[gocubs418]

Pretty vague bid, IMO. Nothing stating what size rebar or what size plumbing.

 

[duraleigh]

1. That's a nice, large filter...your PB selected a good one

2. I am personally not a huge fan of VS pumps but I am in the minority.....I think 2-speeds give you more bang for the buck.

3. Seriously consider leaving out the autofill if you are going to manage this pool yourself. I think they have more drawbacks than they are worth.

4. My strongest point would be to take out the dedicated suction line and that suction cleaner. Substitute them for a robot and you will never look back.

What is the owner supplied carbon tank water?

 

[kimkats]

OH yeah! A FLORIDA person! SWEET! HI

I will hit on the valves-that is very vague as well. What kind of valves and how many? What about unions to disconnect the equipment as needed?

I also did not see how many returns will be done.

What is the "fountain pump" for? If you get a good pump and good valves you should not need a "fountain pump". It is an extra cost and extra electricity to run.

strip sod is again VERY vague.

6 DOOR alarms? what about window alarms?

Do you have the design to share?

Your poor PB will not know what hit him after you ask all of the question you are going to have when we are done BUT your pool will be better for it!

Kim:cat:

 

[twinkiesmommy2009]

I can't comment on a lot of it as we're in Texas and going through our build now but you're in the right place! Welcome!! I will say the plaster doesn't seem too far off. We're paying a lot more for our pebble plaster with beads.

Also, this can be your build thread if you want. [emoji5]


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[Flance]

Thank you all for your comments, I appreciate your input. I will be sure to ask him these questions before our next sit down to finalize the contract. I do know the 6 Door alarms are combo door & windows. As for the fountain pump, I didn't
catch that. That is definitely not needed. I believe the carbon tank is a filtration system for the fill (with me suppling the water). I don't think that'll be necessary...that's gonna use way more water too. (Another good catch.) I'm not gonna consider the auto-fill or heater, but definitely the SWG & LED Lights (2). I'll have to look into the robot. Don't know much about that.

Here's the initial sketch. He had originally had the sun ledge as circular & I asked him to swirl it like that, but after thinking about it, I think it'll take away the room for two chairs. I may have him just round it off. We still need to finalize pool light placement. I'm thinking close to swim out bench & below sun ledge? Thoughts??

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[kimkats]

Lights---you do not want them in the "swim line". At night they would be in your eyes if you want to swim "laps". You do not want them shining towards the house or sitting areas. I like the idea of one by the swim out and one by the steps.

The sun shelf LOOKS great like that but some function is lost...........lay it out using your water hose and see how the chairs you think you will be using fits in it. Go from there.

Kim:cat:

 

[mgmoore7]

Hello
I have a similar size pool with similar features. See my build thread in my signature and final pictures.

Don't bother with the automatic pool cleaner. You will still want a suction line to be able to manually clean but the $560 is better spent on a robotic cleaner.

What is the fountain pump for? If for the fountains/bubblers in the sunshelf or even for some other fountain, those can just be plumbed like any other return but each should have its own valve. That pump is plenty powerful to run it all. I have the same pump with 4 returns, 2 waterfalls and 2 bubblers in my sunshelf. All of that can run at about 60% of full speed.

I think the color LED is worth it. I do think they are too expensive but they are quite fun. The kids and guests love the options for it to change colors. It also puts out a very pretty solid colored lights. We like the blue and how it reflects on our finish.

I would definitely do the SWG Chlorine system but he is charging quite alot for that.

I would not do the autofill either. In FL, we get enough rain in the summer to help with filling and that is free water that has not been treated with other stuff. I have been letting mine get high after rains and then it naturally falls with evaporation and splash out and then another rain comes... The few times I have added water, dropping the hose in for 30m is not that big of a deal.

Not sure if you are considering that heater but you might think about solar instead if that is a option for you. The long term costs is virtually nothing and the upfront is about the same as was quoted for the heater. I absolutely love my solar system.

 

[twinkiesmommy2009]

I agree on the loss of functionality on the sunshelf so you have to decide which is more important to you. Functionality or the aesthetic look you're going for. I have a sunshelf on mine that started similar to yours and evolved quite a bit before it became what it is now. You can see in my build thread. Don't be afraid to play with the design until you get it just how you like it. Print copies and draw on it.


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[mgmoore7]

In regard to the sunshelf. You will have to decide what the intended use of the sunshelf is. Is it to sit there with a lounge chair in the water and how many chairs to do you want. Is it to have a place for little ones to play, adults to sit and put their feet in....

The total size of the pool needs to be considered as well and what / who will be using it. Each sq ft of the shelf takes away from the size of the area in the pool.

For my pool, we were not concerned about sitting a chair in the shelf. It is for astetics (including the bubblers), a place to put your feet in and for kids to play and for adults to get in the pool a little without all the way. It had to be a compromise. If we had a bigger pool, I would have liked to make it bigger but for our size pool we are happy with what we did.

 

[atttech-2]

One thing I wish we had done and I see a lot of other say the same is increase the shallow end depth to 3.5 or even 4. When not on the shelf the adults tend to hang out in the shallow end and a bit deeper would be more comfortable for standing.

Defiantly make sure the shelf is deep enough to hold the chairs you plan on using and if possible have them available when they are piloting the pool on the ground withe marker paint so you can make any adjustments. If your builder is like ours was you can adjust the shape of the shelf and placement of steps in real time when they shoot the gunite.

The equipment for the SWG system is around $900 retail and they are not hard to install. There is something to be said for turnkey builds but if you want to try to save a little money you could ask the builder to plumb the equipment with straight run of pipe so you can add the SWG later. Even if you don't want to do it yourself you may want to call a pool service company and ask what they would charge to install one.

 

[newtovenice]

Hello

Not sure if you are considering that heater but you might think about solar instead if that is a option for you. The long term costs is virtually nothing and the upfront is about the same as was quoted for the heater. I absolutely love my solar system.

When asking about heaters, every single PB (6) steered us to electric. They all said solar does not work in winter months in FL. Are they getting rebates from FPL? It seems like your experience with solar has been positive.

 

[twinkiesmommy2009]

One thing I wish we had done and I see a lot of other say the same is increase the shallow end depth to 3.5 or even 4. When not on the shelf the adults tend to hang out in the shallow end and a bit deeper would be more comfortable for standing.

Defiantly make sure the shelf is deep enough to hold the chairs you plan on using

Oh, I second that! We considered 3' but after using a tape measure and checking depths on our bodies we decided the shallowest would be 3.5'. I highly recommend using the tape measure to see different depths and where it comes on your body. I'm only 4'9" and 3' felt too shallow for me.
We did our shelf at 9" because I wanted water to at least cover my butt if I was sitting on it. Lol



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[mgmoore7]

RE: depth, 3.5 should br the shallowest

 

[mgmoore7]

When asking about heaters, every single PB (6) steered us to electric. They all said solar does not work in winter months in FL. Are they getting rebates from FPL? It seems like your experience with solar has been positive.

Well if you are looking to keep your pool warm 12 months out of the year, then yes, electric may be the way to go. I would wonder if since solar is typically another company, they don't make any money on the install and resale and thus they won't push it.

I have not had solar through the winter yet so I don't personally know. I do know that I did a bunch of research and found that 10 mths of swimming temps should be easily possible and depending on weather and the # of panels, maybe more. This last year, swimming on Christmas day would have been easily possible.

If you have the money to spend on the electric bill, electric may be just fine but I don't have any idea how much that would be.

 

[Xian]

Well if you are looking to keep your pool warm 12 months out of the year, then yes, electric may be the way to go. I would wonder if since solar is typically another company, they don't make any money on the install and resale and thus they won't push it.

I have not had solar through the winter yet so I don't personally know. I do know that I did a bunch of research and found that 10 mths of swimming temps should be easily possible and depending on weather and the # of panels, maybe more. This last year, swimming on Christmas day would have been easily possible.

If you have the money to spend on the electric bill, electric may be just fine but I don't have any idea how much that would be.

My wife and I are working with PB's right now in the St Augustine area and got the same information from a couple of them WRT heat pumps. After digging a bit deeper it appears their push toward a heat pump is for a couple reasons: 1- if you're doing a built-in sauna then you'll need a heat pump anyway. 2- if you want to swim 12 months, it's tough to pull off with solar. For us, we're fine not being in the pool for December thru February so solar makes sense for our application. Heck, some of our friends locally managed to swim up until early January this past year given the unseasonably warm start to winter.