Houston Pool Remodel

[houstonguy]

I've posted my project on another site but came across this one as well. Since I was able to find a lot of good remodel projects detailed online I figured I'd post on here as well to help out the folks out there in similar situations.

We bought a house with an older pool 2 years ago. The house was a flip and the pool was apparently in pretty rough shape. The sellers decided to acid wash and paint the pool to get it looking better but were up front about the fact that it would need to be resurfaced in the next few years.

The paint started to chip off pretty quickly but we weren't in a huge hurry to have it redone. However since we recently had a baby and a lot of our friends and family already have small children we decided it needed to be fenced in and we might as well take care of everything at once.

We decided to use The Pool Man out of Tomball. The work started last week and is moving pretty quickly. Here is the list:

New waterline tile
Pebblesheen Prism Blue
New Light Fixture
Dual Main Drain
Sundek on Existing Deck and Coping (contrasting colors)
Mesh Safety fence

We're really happy with the results thus far.

Pool Before

Old Plaster Chipped Away & New Tile Installed

Prism Blue Pebblesheen Applied Today

Here is the link to the Picasa album where I'm keeping all the photos of the project.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jluede/PoolRemodel?feat=directlink

 

[polyvue]

I've posted my project on another site but came across this one as well. Since I was able to find a lot of good remodel projects detailed online I figured I'd post on here as well to help out the folks out there in similar situations.

Hello, houstonguy, welcome to TFP!

 

[Pisces]

Nice nice remodel job! Love the tile, and you'll really love the Pebblesheen. Tomball Pool Man is supposed to be one of the best. Congrats and enjoy the "new" pool!

 

[houstonguy]

New pics of the progress...

Took about 48 hours to completely fill and water was very green.

It's slowly turning more blue but the chemicals are still off (no chlorine or CYA) so I don't think this is the final color. It still has more green in person than shows in this photo.

Prep work for Sundek has started. Previous owner had put pea gravel mix down on top of parts of this slab to level it out so they went ahead and scraped all of that off to get down to the bare concrete and will build it back up a little with the Sundek.

More Photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/jluede/PoolRemodel?feat=directlink

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Are you sure your PB didn't add chlorine? If the water is that green upon filling then it's possible you have metals in the pool and will need sequesterant on a regular basis. Did your pool guy discuss this with you? Did he add sequesterant and that's why it's not as green?

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Oh , Welcome to TFP! The project is looking great.

 

[Butterfly]

Beautiful pool! Are you gonna' trim that palm?

Keep the pics coming!

Welcome to the forum

 

[houstonguy]

PB was here on Monday afternoon and worked on some of the equipment. (Cleaned DE filter, cleaned out skimmer lines, etc.) He added DE back in and said to let the pump run. He also tested the water and added some acid and did put some chlorine tabs in the pool. Someone was out working on again Tuesday but I wasn't here so I'm not sure what they did...only way I know is that they left a hose connected to the backwash pipe. Sundek was here yesterday doing prep work not sure if anyone else was.

I tested it last night out of curiousity. Ph and Alkalinity are a little low. Total and Free Chlorine are both below 1. CYA is 0. Hardness was fine.

Wouldn't just the filter running be enough to clear up the water quite abit. Especially since our Houston water doesn't exactly come out of the tap that clear. At least not in our neighborhood.

@Butterfly - I know the Palm needs some work. Two snow days and multiple below-freezing periods have wreaked havoc on it. I'm just glad it's still alive. I figured once the pool is done we'll get the yard back in shape.

 

[austinsailor]

Hi houstonguy, remodel looks good so far. Wanted to ask if you waterline tile was called "random 102" or something close to that? We're close to starting a remodel and your color choices are similar to waht we are looking at.

Also nice to see the plaster completely chipped out, none of the remodel companies around here want to do that these days, everybody just chips out the bad areas and powerwashes before replaster.

looking good!

 

[houstonguy]

Thanks austinsailor. Yes, it is a random series tile from Mastertile. But is the 104 - brown. 102 looks like the blue version and there is also a green and a beige/light tan style. I considered the blue and green but liked the brown best and knew it would be most forgiving as far as coordinating with everything else.

As for chipping out the plaster. Since the pool had been painted a couple years ago it was either that or sandblasting. Thought they were going to sandblast but they ended up not.

Good luck with your remodel. Let me know if you want any specific pics of the tile now that the water is in. The guys were out starting the sundek application this morning so the final look is coming in the next day or so.

 

[austinsailor]

Thanks for the info.
Curious what you are going to do with the sundeck, color- and pattern-wise? We're still trying to decide. The pictures are great, keep 'em coming.

 

[houstonguy]

We settled on Franciscan tan for the decking and the darker Mission tan for the coping. Since we had a few cracks in the decking we are just doing the custom scoreline to try and hide those. I'm hoping it will all come together nicely

 

[Woodberg]

Welcome to TFP Houston Guy. I'm the one who lives in Candlelight Forest who sent you a message on THS. Your pool remodel is looking good. Regarding the green tint of your water, we have Blue Granite Pebblesheen and ours also started out greenish. We had specifically picked Blue Granite so there wouldn't be any green. Anyway, once we got our chemicals straightened out the green went away. I've been following the TFP principles since last year when our pool was finished and we've had great luck. If you have any questions you'll find a wealth of knowledge on this site.

 

[houstonguy]

Thanks. Yeah, as of yesterday the water was already pretty close to what we expected so I don't expect the final color to be a problem at all.

They should finish the sundek today but I'm away until Sat so won't get to see the finished product til then. Only thing left after that is the fence.

We did go ahead and have them re-work some of the plumbing at the pad b/c it was done oddly and one of the valves was letting air into the line. Now we have a separate valve for the main drain, skimmer, and side suction.

 

[houstonguy]

Sundek is done. We're pretty happy with how it turned out. I think an even darker color on the coping might have looked better, but it looks good the way it is, so I'm not going to second-guess too much.

Definitely a big improvement over what we had before. We still need to get the fence installed, work on the landscaping and put the patio furniture back in place.

Sundek, tile and water combo.

Before.

After. Custom scoreline to hide existing cracks and prevent them from reappearing.

The water has definitely lost its teal color and is now a true blue.

More pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/jluede/Pool ... directlink

 

[houstonguy]

Finally got some pics of the finished product. Well, the yard still needs some help, but the pool, patio and pergola are done.

A few others and the rest of remodel photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jluede/PoolRemodel?feat=directlink

 

[AggieTexan]

Your pool looks great! I'm partial to The Pool Man because they renovated our 40 year old pool a couple years ago and did a fantastic job.

I like the decking colors you chose. Our deck needs to be recoated and the mastic needs to be replaced ($$$$$) . We actually did the deck before the pool, and had a lot of problems with the company we chose for that job (pre Pool Man days). We've also been "Iked" since the deck was installed, and we've had some construction done that wasn't kind to the Sundek topping! When we do it I want to go darker, because we have a lot of trees, and trees=dirt! It's a constant battle to try to keep the deck clean.

If you're interested, here's a link to the renovation of my pool back in 2007:

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/alb ... 8090WbPoka

 

[Butterfly]

Very, very nice remodel and great job with the pictorial!

That pergola is gorgeous.

 

[houstonguy]

Thanks Aggie and Butterfly.

Yes, the light Sundek does tend to show dirt, mostly in the patio area where there is a lot of traffic from us and the dog. In our case, the scorelines and textured pattern traps a lot of dirt. A darker color would be worth considering for sure. Although, I wasn't too impressed with the color choices that Sundek offered.

FYI, Bullion Coatings does the Sundek jobs for the Pool Man so it could be cheaper to contact them directly if you decide to have it redone.

 

[mynewpool]

Looks good houstonguy. I am glad to see there is a good remodler around the area. What area of town are you in? You may be close to me as I am in spring.

Also if you do not mind me asking, how much did that cost you to do that? You can send me a message as well if you like? I am more interested in the resoration of the pool and area around the pool. We are going to have to get it done and was wondering price.

Thanks.