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Sukee

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May 4, 2016
4
North DFW, TEXAS
Hello,

I created an account a long time ago, and never logged on or introduced myself....that I know of :rolleyes:. Anyway, as usual, I tend to do things backwards in life and make things much harder on myself. I really try hard to get all my ducks in a row, only to find out one must of been vacationing or something :eek:

I REALLY wish I would of been on here researching for a year or so because this process, that hasn't even really begin, has got me so stressed out. I thought this was supposed to be fun! I know our backyard and soils are going to be a challenge, and I really don't want it to turn into the money pit. I don't want to have any regrets. We want this to be an outdoor oasis for our family and friends to make tons of memories. I already have the added stress of dealing with miserable nasty neighbors. We hired a survey company to make sure and calculate our property line, but they refused to let them on their property to mark it specifically. The pool will literally be to the limit of what is alloted per our HOA.

We are on the fence with using a Chlorine System w/Ozone vs SWG. We had SWG at our other home, and ended up turning it into Chlorine and having to have all the decking recoating and the flag stone all sealed. We are using a ton of flagstone on this pool, and my husband does not want it to errode. However, my daughter and I both have health issues that will be aggrevated with Chlorine.

I'm going to start a bunch of catch-up reading on the forum. I'm sure I will have lots of questions, and hopefully I won't be a bugger! Thanks :) Sukee
 
Sukee,

Welcome to TFP... A Great place to be... :lovetfp:

Just so that we are all on the same page... A saltwater pool is a Chlorine pool. The saltwater is just used by the SWCG to make the chlorine.

So, from my point of view, saltwater pools have a better feel to them. Did you have any health/skin issues with your previous pool?

I'm puzzled why you think that the Saltwater had anything to do with your flagstone "eroding." Flagstone tends to flake whether used around a saltwater pool or regular pool.

How did you maintain your water quality with your previous pool? Did you test the water yourself or at the pool store? Did you maintain the pool yourself or did you have a pool service.

The pH of the water could have had an impact on your flagstone, as well as the stone itself. I believe that you can visually look at a piece of flagstone and tell the ones that will flake and the ones that will not.

Please post some pictures of what your new pool will look like. Also helpful if you can post a list of the equipment you will be getting.

While you are "catching up" on your reading, you might want to search this site for threads on Ozone systems. I suspect you will find mostly negative comments.

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.
 
Hi Jim,

Thanks for the welcome! :)

I had just heard if you have health issues it is best to swim in a SWCG. I only have half a thyroid left, and I have nodules in that lobe. We have a strong history of hypothyroid on both sides of our family. My youngest

daughter has eczema and can not detox chemicals well. Our previous pool was a SWG, and I can't really say if it aided in my health at that time or not. My husband did try to tend to the other one for awhile, and then we

hired a pool company to come take care of it.

We had just heard it from a couple of people that had pools that Saltwater was hard on the stone, and the decking. I think the guy that sealed all of it also told us that. My husband did say he was always dumping in a ton of

Muriatic Acid. He said he never did think the pH was ever really balanced. We kept the home as a rental home, and just turned off the salt cell to make it straight chlorine.

Yes, I will definitely post some pictures and specs. We have made changes and still do not have correct pictures showing what it will look like.
 
Welcome to TFP!

The issue with soil movement in the DFW area is how much it expands when wet and contracts when dry. If you build a pool on piers when the soil is not fully expanded and hydrated then after it rains and fully hydrates and expands the soil it will put upward pressure on the pool shell and can push the pool off the piers. If the piers are integrated into the pool shell then it can rip the shell off the piers. The key to managing soil movement of structures is to maintain consistent soil moisture levels at all times. Our pool cracked the first winter after it was built. We could see gaps between the ground and the pool up to an inch or so. We put in a micro irrigation system around our pool to maintain moisture levels. As that gap starts to form we increase run time or number of times per day that it runs. It runs 1 to 3 times per day for 10 to 20 minutes. I was slow to turn it back on last spring after all the rain last year and the pool cracked again. As long as I manage the sprinklers the pool hasn't cracked.
 
BUT you are here now!!! We have your back! Lets start at the beginning:

-picture of your yard as it is now

-picture of the design

-list of equipment

-sharing how you tested your last pool

I will tell you that with a properly balanced pool like taught here at TFP most health issues from chlorine do not happen.

Everything we do and teach here is science based with papers and pages of formulas available for reading (most of it is over my head LOL). It is all daily used in 1000s of pools including mine!

I would do the SWG. The ozone systems do not really work as well as the shiny papers says it does.

With a good test kit and what we can teach you your pool WILL be easy and good for you (at least better than your old pool cared for by the pool company).

Kim:kim:
 
Pooldv, My next question would be what do you do when most all of your backyard is going to be decking? Is it even possible to keep the hydration when you are covering most of the yard? We have one neighbor that has a

TON of piering. I think they literally piered the backyard tied into the piers under the house to the street. It is a plus that we sit on the other side of her home. Plus, our yard is not that big in back. Thank you for explaining

that to me.

Kim, Awesome! It will be great to talk to people that actually know what is going on. Our pool knowledge has been baised off of whomever is working behind the pool store counter. Those faces seem to change

every few months :) We have also had from neighbors, but everyones pools are a little different based on size and such. Excited to be here.

I'll get a picture of my yard tomorrow when it's daylight. ;) Our design isn't complete just yet, and we are going to change some things on our equipment list. I will type out tomorrow what we currently have listed, and see

what recommendations or what we forgot that ya'll might recommend.
 
Areas that are decked will retain moisture better than uncovered soil. It would likely be worth your time and money to engage a structural engineering firm to analyze your soil and make appropriate recommendations.
 
Hi Sukee :handwave:
Welcome to the forum

The posts above a right, a chlorine pool or a SWG have the same chemicals in the water

The difference is that a salt pool feels better on the skin. I dont have a swg but run 3000ppm of salt in my pool anyway, because it feels better on the skin

The thing most people react to in chlorine pools is the combined chloramines. These are what are produced when the chlorine has sanitised your water. They can become irritating in the parts per billion. You can tell when a pool has high chloramines by testing or by the smell. When you go to a pool and get that nasty 'çhlorine' smell it is actually the chloramines you can smell

The way we teach to balance our pools here has chloramines well below detection threshold. Also the test kits we reccomend for you to test and maintain your water with can detect the chloramines. If you are reading other posts on here they are referred to as CC's

Another important factor that helps with the water feel is keeping the ph in line.

I have bad excema and my partner has bad psorasis. Our skin prefers our pool water to our tap water. We have a manually dosed chlorine pool, but using the methods taught here we would have no issues with a swg either.

My personal opinion on ozone is that it has no or little benefit in a swimming pool. I would not install one, but that is my choice

I also agree with the postings above, some Tx flagstone is prone to flaking. It has high schistosity, which basically means it is built up in fine layers (kinda like flaky pastry) and these layers can and will separate easily. Often happens when they absorb moisture from rainfall, when then freezes and expands. You could explore other materials to surround the pool with that would be less susceptible or be careful with the flagstone you pick, if that is the look you want

I agree with pooldv about the structural engineering advice being essential by the sounds of things. They will most likely get a geotechnical engineer (soils engineer) to appraise your soil conditions and advise the structural engineer. The geotechnical engineer would also be well placed to advise you on suitable stone for your pool surround

I so hope with our advice and support your stress levels decrease and we can bring a bit more excitement about the pool back into your life :D
 
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