New Construction: Cathedral City CA

[Yorker]

The SpeedStir is a must. Patting my head and rubbing my stomach at the same time makes me dizzy so swirling and dropping at the same time makes me crazy. The SpeedStir solves that!

Other items are up to you. I have never bothered with a salt test as we never have a pool that overflows. When I add my salt it stays essentially the same until I drain the pool and start over. The salt does not leave the pool due to evaporation, which is essentially the only reason we have to add water to our pools.

You do not need the XL option. What comes in the kit will get you through one season. Buy new reagents every spring.

Some love the sample sizer. I just don't think you have to have that kind of accuracy. Depends on how precise you want to be.

Are you getting a robot? If not, get the Whale Tail brush. The thing is magic at brushing the walls.

Take care

THANKS!

I'll order the TF-100 today. I think I read somewhere that they give a discount to TFP members, we'll see.
We do want to get a robot (I assume that is the automatic pool sweep). Our PB quoted a Hayward 4 Wheel Pool Cleaner w/ Leaf Catcher for $550, but we still need to research on TFP as to what to look for in a robot. I did read up on the Whale Tail Brush, it was not very expensive, and might be good to have as a backup.

Not sure if I read somewhere that you should not use a robot until your pool has completely cured ... but more reading will address that. I do have a robot question you may have an answer to. We will have 3 wide steps entering the pool (14' wide x 2'). Will the robot automatically get those as well, or will those need to be manually swept?

 

[mknauss]

A robot and pool sweep are different types of cleaner. A robot is self contained. It vacs, brushes, etc and has its own filters. A pool sweep/vac uses the pool pump to provide the suction at the cleaner and the main pool filter to trap the debris. It uses far more electricity vs the robot.

Neither system will get your top step. They might get your second step. Robots typically need 10" of water or so to operate.

Be sure to indicate you are a TFP supporter for your discount.

 

[Dirk]

Not sure if I read somewhere that you should not use a robot until your pool has completely cured ... but more reading will address that.

My replaster guy said it was OK to run my sweep, though I found plenty of internet stuff that said not to. Robots may be another matter. Pebble is tougher than plaster in that regard, too (mine is pebble). Research is good, but the more important factor is the warranty. Regardless of what you might read or learn, do what your PB says. If he says no sweeps/robots, but you read and decide it's OK and do it anyway, he'll wash his hands of you if there's a problem with your plaster/pebble, even if it is not robot-related... Better to play it safe.

 

[Dirk]

My replaster guy said it was OK to run my sweep, though I found plenty of internet stuff that said not to. Robots may be another matter. Pebble is tougher than plaster in that regard, too (mine is pebble). Research is good, but the more important factor is the warranty. Regardless of what you might read or learn, do what your PB says. If he says no sweeps/robots, but you read and decide it's OK and do it anyway, he'll wash his hands of you if there's a problem with your plaster/pebble, even if it is not robot-related... Better to play it safe.

This is the grey area in pool maintenance. I genuinely believe (and advise) to ignore all pool professionals and just do what the experts here at TFP tell you. But the one exception is anything warranty related. Even if it's counter to TFP advice, you're gambling your pool warranty if you cross your builder's instructions. It can be a tough call...

 

[Yorker]

The dig starts tomorrow... I'm hoping I don't go crazy (ier). You all have been such a great help this last year, and know you'll be there to talk me down (or smack me).

I do have a question, I realized that I sent an email to the folks at TFTestKits.net a couple weeks ago inquiring about the discount, and just realized that I never heard from them. I may have also left a voice mail (but not sure). I just left a voice mail a few minutes ago. Hope to hear from them soon. Has anyone else experienced then not responding?

 

[kimkats]

They are GREAT at responding! Hold on a min and I will ping them.

Did you check your email junk mail? They send the discount code by email and it goes there quite often for some reason

Kim

 

[Leebo]

The dig starts tomorrow... I'm hoping I don't go crazy (ier). You all have been such a great help this last year, and know you'll be there to talk me down (or smack me).

I do have a question, I realized that I sent an email to the folks at TFTestKits.net a couple weeks ago inquiring about the discount, and just realized that I never heard from them. I may have also left a voice mail (but not sure). I just left a voice mail a few minutes ago. Hope to hear from them soon. Has anyone else experienced then not responding?

I’m assuming the discount you’re speaking of is from your Silver Donation.......if not let me know.

I looked and found the email that was sent last June to the email address on file from PayPal. I went ahead and resent it to you as it’s got all the information needed for your discounts. If you’re still having issues drop me a yell and I’ll get with Rebecca to make sure you’re taken care of.
Lee

 

[OTPirate]

Yep, I will give you a call tomorrow. Sorry if I missed your call. I'll PM you as well.

 

[Yorker]

Thanks Lee, I checked my email and don't have anything recently or from Last April. Very odd. I did receive a message from Rebecca, so I'm sure we'll work this out. Thanks for you response. I'll be testing my water before we now it!

- - - Updated - - -

I just it periodically and have not seen anything - though I have not checked in the past week or so --- but after seeing your post, I checked it and unfortunately it was not there. I have been in direct contact with Rebecca, so I know will get things worked out soon,

 

[Yorker]

Thought I should post our progress from time to time. Glad I called the builder today. There was a cutout along the south west corner of the pool. Come to find out that it was for the skimmer. Which we had discussed would be best to be on east side of the pool due to the direction of the wind... They're moving it now.

 

[kimkats]

GREAT catch. Purr-fect and easy time to fix that boo-boo!

Kim

 

[Yorker]

Day 3 and rebar is in. They say I need to decide on jet height on Monday morning, but they have hot given me any sketches for any interior dimensions of the spa, other than it is 7x7. They mentioned an 18” height and depth of the seats. They also said maybe 24” depth - but I think that is too wide.

We are having a 15” high raised spa that includes a 3.5” concrete sit/spin on top. We are concerned about how high (or low) our bodies will sit on the seat in relation to the waterline and the height of the spa’s coping. We initially were thinking that we would sit high enough of the seat that we could rest our arms on top of the coping. but we’ve been measuring and it seems in order to do that we would need to sit so high that the waterline would seem too low on our chests.


We did read this post (Multi-level (multi-height) spa seating??) and know we want a few different height seats, but first we need some suggestions for our seats. There are just two of us, we’re 6’ and 5’9. I’ve attached a sample of what we are thinking at this point.


Any wisdom you can impart will be much appreciated.


York

 

[kimkats]

Make sure you are talking about water height as well when you work on the seat height.

I have a PM into someone that staggered his spa seats. Hold on a bit while he gets back to you.

Kim

 

[Yorker]

Make sure you are talking about water height as well when you work on the seat height.

Kim

Thanks Kim! I'm realizing that the leaning back with our arms resting on the coping is just not going to happen (guess it has been too long since I've been in a spa... or paid attention.

The PB said (sorta offhand), that the waterline was 42" from the floor, I will need to confirm with that. Here is what I came up with this morning.

 

[kimkats]

You know it is not too late to change your mind and put in a stand alone spa................just fill in the "cut out" for the built in hard, stone, not be able to rest arms on side of spa. Then you can get a spa that has curves where there should be curves and jets................ahhhhhhhhhhh in just the right places for sore backs and shoulders.

I am sure the fella I pm will be along as soon as he gets online. I am going to leave this for him as he has lived it where I have not.

Kim

 

[Dirk]

OK, I couldn't resist, even knowing it's pretty awful to jump in this late in the game with some contrary ideas. But I gotta say Kim is on to something. You're attempting to design a spa, from scratch, seemingly without much help from your PB, when there is an entire industry, with dozens of participants, who have spent decades designing the perfect spa experience, with bells and whistles and features and seats and recliners and comforts and controls that a built-in could never even hope to emulate.

Just sayin', if it were me, before I'd attempt to reinvent a hot tub, I'd be trying to figure out how I could integrate a pre-fab one into my pool design in such a way that it would approximate the look of a built in, but allow for replacement or repair at some future date. It could be very close to the pool, even lowered into the ground a bit, I should think. And I'd have all that amazing state-of-the-art goodness of a pre-fab, and a way to repair it should the need arise. Best of both worlds, IMO.

Is this ever done? I would think they should all be done this way, so maybe there's a reason why not.

Is it too late to even contemplate such an idea? My apologies if so...

 

[kimkats]

Dirk, I am looking for a post about one that did just that. They had a fiberglass spa insert put in instead of the plaster pour one. I have not found it yet but will keep looking.

Until then look at these:

New Bullfrog Spas JetPaks for Concrete Spas | Luxury Pools

Kim

 

[Yorker]

Kim and Dirk!

You are both pure evil !! We DID go down that route. Early last year. Especially after spending sometime in a friends hot tub. While we were tempted... deeply tempted, we decided it was not for us. I know I saw photos of Google that certainly looked like they were built in. But alas we moved on.

I went to a friends spa today and took measurements and they are pretty much what I showed in my last sketch. It was too cold to get into today - but we have been in it before and felt comfortable with the the different dimensions. Though their seating is all 19.5" high. They are around 5'7" and said the the water height was fine for them and their shorter friends. We still want two or three different heights in bench. Also, our friends spa only has 4 jets and we will have 12 (two dedicated for calves and two for feet) split between two 3hp variable speed pumps.

Just got back from the tile place only to discover the waterline tile we had finally selected has a huge color/pattern variation. So now we are considering a different tile.

Here's where we are on day 3:

 

[kimkats]

Who us?????????? NAhhhhhhhhhhhhh we just want to make sure you know of any and all choices you have. That way you can make a very informed decision :slidehalo:

Your pic did not work Can you pretty please repost it???

Kim

 

[Yorker]

Just re posted - hopefully it shows this time.