New build - Atlanta, GA

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bluestarsway

bluestarsway

0
Gold Supporter
Mar 6, 2017
17
Atlanta
Have been lurking (and learning!) for some months now. We finally have our $$$ all lined up to start moving forward with our PB. No contracts signed yet, but they've run levels and marked it out. They have done some mock-ups for us and I just photo-chopped one (roughly) to give them a closer idea to what we want. For reference, from back of house to pool edge is approx 35'. The cement above the double steps is pre-existing and there's a grill there somewhere. Two steps down will make everything come to level.
mock.jpg

The actual pool is San Juan fiberglass "Great Lakes" version, which is 16' x 37' with 7' tanning shelf. It goes to 6'4" depth. We have gone back and forth on if we should get a deep end, but don't want a diving board and don't have kids. We just want to hang with friends and play pool volleyball, float around and such. Gunite is out of our price range and we want our dogs to swim, so fiberglass it is.
greatlakes.JPG

Very general contract terms:
Price for the Great Lakes pool from San Juan Fiberglass would include Permitting, Crane, Grading, Excavation, Plumbing, Backfill, Filter, Pump, (4) Returns, Standard Electrical, (2) White L.E.D lights, 400 sqft of concrete around the pool (4' around), Handrail, (2) Skimmers, Standard Pool Cleaning Kit.

Some of the equipment:
  • Pentair SD70 Sand Filter w/ 1.5” multiport valve
  • 1.5hp Pentair Superflo Variable Speed Pump
  • White GloBrite LED lights (2 included in price)

Add-ons:
  • Install an irrigation meter and run that from the street back to pool.
  • "Premium" Salt System (not sure the exact details here...)
  • Umbrella holder on sun shelf
  • Coping along edge

Questions I am trying to sort through:
  • Should we get more lights? Most people are saying 3 for similar pools. Worried about shadowing from the tanning ledge blocking light to step area, but don't want lights glaring at our back patio!
  • General layout? We good? Thoughts?
  • We're thinking brushed concrete, maybe some natural salt-friendly stone or pavers for pool edge and firepit (to break it up a bit). Some people swear by pavers though and my PB doesn't do stamped concrete near pools (says too slippery). Are pavers worth the expense?
  • Do we have to have a handrail at the steps end and, if not, should we keep it? I personally don't like how they look.
  • Am unsure about how easy it would be to get out using the smaller, corner ledges. Should we put in a ladder?
  • Color LEDs -- are they really that awesome? County law appears not to allow it, but that may be just for commercial pools.
 
Hello and welcome to TFP! :wave: That looks like a very nice pool. LEDs? .... well, I have 3 small ones and they do well. I have the option to go through various colors or just stay on one. We usually stay on white since it looks so nice at night. We also have a B-ball hoop. Ours is portable and placed in the corner where everyone can easily stand, play, and shoot. Once you get to the middle of the pool, depending upon the angle, it may get tough for some people to play. Overall though, looks very nice. I'm sure others will reply as well. Great to have you with us.
 
I'd suggest rethinking that bit about going without a handrail. Having had 3 orthopaedic surgeries in one year last year taught me that the cool water felt so nice on my swollen joints, but there would be no way for me to get in or out without that handrail. Plan ahead is all I'm saying. One never knows. They do make some more designer type shaped hand rails you could look at and see if one hits your fancy.

I also had a ladder placed in the deep end of my pool because since I do have young kids swimming, I worried they'd get tired in the deep end and struggle to go all the way back to the shallow end to climb out. It gets a fair amount of use but not as much as the shallow end. (Mine is a type of ladder that hinges up/out so that my autocover can close)

I wish I had a 3rd light myself.

Yippee :flower:
 
Hi Texas! :D I definitely want to do a bball hoop too. Haven't figured out what one or what volleyball situation yet, but that did make me rethink my idea for having it attach to in-ground mounts. It is possible we may use the pool and change our mind, so having the movable base makes sense.

Yippee: thank you for the feedback! You do make a good point and, even if at this moment we don't need a handrail, we may grow to need it. Certainly I'm sure some guests would appreciate it, too. I did look up some "designer" handrails and didn't see anything I much liked, but I could do some more digging. I think we're going to end up putting in at least one ladder -- might be easier than dealing with the corners.

Just donated to become a Gold Supporter, too :D
 
Thanks for the support!!

We have a portable hoop that we like. It's on post 146 of our build thread in my signature.
 
Hey there bluestarsway! We just finished our fiberglass pool build this month! If I can help answer any questions please let me know. Our pool is also 16x37 and we have 4 led lights in the pool (what builder included in package). I really like it, but 3 would probably have been sufficient. I feel like 2 may leave some of the nooks and crannies a little dim. To address the hand rail issue, I would definitely include one for a couple of reasons: 1 after being in our pool just 3 times...fiberglass is slippery (don't get me wrong, it feels great!), but a bit slippery and having something to hold on to would be helpful. 2 the very day we finished a landscaping project around the pool I hurt myself stepping in a soft spot in the dirt around the retaining wall. So now I have a hurt foot with torn tendons and there is no way I would be able to get in the pool without it! We do have a ladder in our deep end, not really for adults, but we do have two young kids and we wanted to make sure they had another way out of the pool.

As for the concrete styles, we have brushed colored concrete around our pool with a stamped colored concrete coping. We liked the look of travertine around the pool until we saw the price. Haha We are very happy with the stamped colored coping, but if your PB won't do that I would try to find another way to "set off" the perimeter of the pool. When they did the coping it went from "that's a nice pool" to "WOW" for us.

P.S. We have the same variable speed pump and are so thrilled with it! The PB put in a normal pentair pump for about a week while ours was coming in and it was quite loud. The VSP came in and it is SO QUIET and easy to program. Very happy with that choice!

Good luck with the final details, you are going to LOVE IT! :)
 
bmoreswim: wow, that's a legit bball hoop! Guessing it has a water fill?

ny2nc: Oh man, so sorry about your ankle! Sounds like that is going to take a bit to recover. Glad you have a pool to help with the recovery. The feedback has definitely encouraged me to leave the handrail, as I wouldn't want anybody slipping and ruining a good pool day (including myself).

I was thinking maybe if we stained the concrete that would help. Do you have a picture? Our house is red brick (60s split-level), so part of me thinks it would be good to have the pavers or whatever in the coping compliment the house color. Something as light as flagstone might be a bit out of place.

Here is a pic:

20170412_143929.jpg
 
Thanks, the bum foot hasn't been much fun...hopefully I'll be healed up in another week or two! I do have pictures...we are in the midst of some more landscaping and all, but my pool build thread is here: https://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/131456-Soon-to-Be-Fiberglass-Pool-Raleigh-NC and there are numerous pictures throughout with links to my shutterfly account. Our brushed concrete is colored "Autumn Beige" and the stamped coping has an accent color over that called "La Crescenta" our colors are from Chromix. Having pavers complimenting the house color is a good idea! You have a great yard for a pool! :)

Here is a link to a little corner of our pool showing the concrete colors: https://pix.sfly.com/ZiaV66


bluestarsway said:
bmoreswim: wow, that's a legit bball hoop! Guessing it has a water fill?

ny2nc: Oh man, so sorry about your ankle! Sounds like that is going to take a bit to recover. Glad you have a pool to help with the recovery. The feedback has definitely encouraged me to leave the handrail, as I wouldn't want anybody slipping and ruining a good pool day (including myself).

I was thinking maybe if we stained the concrete that would help. Do you have a picture? Our house is red brick (60s split-level), so part of me thinks it would be good to have the pavers or whatever in the coping compliment the house color. Something as light as flagstone might be a bit out of place. Adding a link to picture of the yard (won't let me embed right now), post-tree removal.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByufjGoTvI7edTJYMHVRYzU2aGs/view?usp=sharing
Click to expand...
 
Yes the hoop base is water filled which gets siphoned out at closing. Then stored away.
 
ny2nc said:
Thanks, the bum foot hasn't been much fun...hopefully I'll be healed up in another week or two! I do have pictures...we are in the midst of some more landscaping and all, but my pool build thread is here: https://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/131456-Soon-to-Be-Fiberglass-Pool-Raleigh-NC and there are numerous pictures throughout with links to my shutterfly account. Our brushed concrete is colored "Autumn Beige" and the stamped coping has an accent color over that called "La Crescenta" our colors are from Chromix. Having pavers complimenting the house color is a good idea! You have a great yard for a pool! :)

Here is a link to a little corner of our pool showing the concrete colors: https://pix.sfly.com/ZiaV66
Click to expand...

Lovely! I really like the look you were able to achieve with the coloring :) We are supposed to meet with PB tomorrow to lock everything down and (hopefully!) feel comfortable enough to get some stuff signed. Every day this takes keeps us that much further from our pool, but I am appreciating that this is a big investment and best to be thoughtful. Going to try and negotiate a bit for some "freebies", so hopefully they'll be amenable to that.
 

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After considering cement for most of the decking, we've changed our mind. Trying to figure out pavers is a total pain and our PB said he likes Belgard or Pavestone. All of the places to really go look at them are pretty far out in to the 'burbs, but of course it would be ideal to actually SEE it. A little worried how to blend with our red brick house and existing, worn concrete nearby. Seems I should stick with grey, blue or tan - welcome any suggestions/feedback! Examples below, but I'm thinking some of the Belgard colors are too dark -- particularly if we ever were to put a sealant on it.
pavers.jpg
 
Just had the pool flown over our house yesterday. Very nerve-wracking, but mostly super cool to see. We set up a Nest Cam in the back to do some time-lapses, too. Hard to believe it's finally here!
 

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We installed a Nest cam so I can time-lapse everything. Currently, they are working on grading. One super, super frustrating thing was that we weren't aware of the whole dirt removal thing. I am now painfully aware of how expensive it is to get rid of excess dirt.

Pipes and the lighting conduit were run last week over to a newly poured cement slab (out of camera range). I think they'll be connecting the electrical to our panel in the next few days, so that they can get the water circulating and vac it out a bit. Just ordered my TF-100 starter bundle. SO much to learn!
 
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