1st Pool Build | Sugar Land - Skimmer Repairs Done - Hardscape Finished

[JJ_Tex]

Thoughts on keeping that seating area up near the spa? We are back and forth on that. We can allocate that deck space on the side of the house to put deck boxes etc if we wanted. That way it leaves more green space for kids if we wanted now that it's thinner. On the flip side it adds a little depth and seating near spa if people are hanging out. I could always make it a bit thinner. At the moment it's essentially 7' x 13'

I guess it really just depends on what you would use more. I will tell you that we use our seating area by the spa more than I thought especially in the winter. We put a fire pit there and some chairs so it gives you a place to sit and talk to the people in the spa. This past weekend we had people over for the superbowl, so we heated the spa for the little kids and the adults sat in the seating area. Hope that helps.

 

[stack24]

IntelliCenter Complete Systems

Prices for Intellicenter systems. You need to add PB markup, typically just double the price you see on the list.

Thank you very much for that. That really helps a lot. Trying to figure out as much as I can close to cost that way I can see where I can try and knock off some pricing from them.

So essentially I would need this version PENTAIR INTELLICENTER I8PS KIT - POOL AND SPA WITH LOAD CENTER or will my setup the I5PS do?

I guess it really just depends on what you would use more. I will tell you that we use our seating area by the spa more than I thought especially in the winter. We put a fire pit there and some chairs so it gives you a place to sit and talk to the people in the spa. This past weekend we had people over for the superbowl, so we heated the spa for the little kids and the adults sat in the seating area. Hope that helps.

That was our thinking as well. We would do like one of those smaller portable style fire pits becuase it probably won't be used enough to spend big bucks on that. That info helps a lot. Thank you again for all your opinions and feedback.

 

[mknauss]

So essentially I would need this version PENTAIR INTELLICENTER I8PS KIT - POOL AND SPA WITH LOAD CENTER or will my setup the I5PS do?

Depends on how many items you wish to control via relays. One relay is for the primary pump. Another one for each set of lights (multiple lights can be through one relay as long as they are tied to one transformer. They will all be controlled together.
I would suggest getting the Intellicenter with the built in SWCG. Hard to imagine a reason to NOT get a SWCG.

 

[stack24]

Depends on how many items you wish to control via relays. One relay is for the primary pump. Another one for each set of lights (multiple lights can be through one relay as long as they are tied to one transformer. They will all be controlled together.
I would suggest getting the Intellicenter with the built in SWCG. Hard to imagine a reason to NOT get a SWCG.

This is something I am going to push the PB on. They always get uncomfortable when you bring SWCG into the mix down here in Houston. None of them want to deal with it and try to sway you away or say they won't warranty stuff (which I know is BS in terms of equipment) But other aspects they say they don't. End of the day it's whatever we want.

If for whatever reason I don't go the SWCG route. I believe I read somewhere to tell them to plumb it a certain way to leave room to install one later to change it out?

 

[mknauss]

If for whatever reason I don't go the SWCG route. I believe I read somewhere to tell them to plumb it a certain way to leave room to install one later to change it out?

Have them leave a 24 inch give or take straight span after the heater (if you are having one). If installed later, you will have another control box on the wall. If done now, the control/power source will be built into the Intellicenter.

 

[stack24]

Have them leave a 24 inch give or take straight span after the heater (if you are having one). If installed later, you will have another control box on the wall. If done now, the control/power source will be built into the Intellicenter.

Appreciate it!

 

[Dallaspoolneed]

That pool design is awesome, very similar to the pool we are building in Dallas, except we have a 15 x 32 pool with a 9 x 9 SPA, our backyards seem similar so I like the rectangle look better for the shape of the yard.

 

[stack24]

That pool design is awesome, very similar to the pool we are building in Dallas, except we have a 15 x 32 pool with a 9 x 9 SPA, our backyards seem similar so I like the rectangle look better for the shape of the yard.

Thank you very much! Yeah since we are a one story house on these lots we have less space than neighbors and stuff but i think this design works well for what we have. Look forward to seeing how yours comes along.

 

[Dallaspoolneed]

Thank you very much! Yeah since we are a one story house on these lots we have less space than neighbors and stuff but i think this design works well for what we have. Look forward to seeing how yours comes along.

Right now, its just a hole in the ground ... $24,000 hole (that's my progress payments thus far )

 

[stack24]

The alternative is to let them put in a Inline Chlorinator (about $90) but insist the plumber follow your instructions for all plumbing. The SWCG manuals have the need lengths of straight run in the pipe (for before the SWCG and length of the SWCG with unions). So just decide where the SWCG will go (preferably after the heater but before the 2 way valve on the return (2 way valve decides if return flow goes to spa or to pool). Buy the SWCG yourself and DIY or hire a plumber to come back and insert it. If you set it up with a long piece of straight pipe then it will be easy to make 2 cuts to insert the SWCG.
Furthermore, you can buy/make a dummy length of pipe with unions and have the original plumber put that in where the future SWCG will go. Then later just remove the dummy pipe, insert the SWCG (as it has unions) and hook it up to the automation. You probably come out cheaper that way as well if you buy it yourself plus pay for a second visit by the plumber if needed.
Note - I mention putting in the Inline Chlorinator because I assume the PB will insist on some method to add chlorine. If you can drop that piece altogether would be best.
Note - Keep that dummy pipe so if your SWCG has issues in the far distant future, you can always put that in to pull out the SWCG and use liquid chlorine until you can put the SWCG back in.

I wanted to revisit this in case we go this route after our initial 1 year with a chlorine pool if we don't start with the SWG. I have been looking at all the systems online and looked at the manuals.

In our bid we will be installing the Intellicenter 8 system. If I buy the Intellichlor Salt Cell after the fact, I would also have to buy the Power Center PC 100 Correct? Or does the Intellicenter 8 system with Load Center have all that I need to just put in the SWG?

BTW this is the sheet they would make me sign if I wanted a SWG install and seems most builders in Houston do. Looks like it doesn't have anything in terms of the equipment cause I called them out on that part saying there is no way they wouldn't warranty their equipment. It's their own product.

I'll be installing Concrete Spray Deck around the pool, white travertine coping, and porcelain water line tile.



Thanks in advance.

 

[ajw22]

There are two different versions of the IntelliCenter. The version that cones with the bundled SWG has the Power Center built in. If you get the non-bundled version it will not have the Power Center components and if you later want the SWG you will need the separate Power Center box.

If you think you may want the IntelliChlor I would buy the bundled SWG version and put the cell to the side and not install it. If you decide after a while that a SWG is never in your future you can sell the cell. People are always needing replacement cells.

 

[march2012]

Don't base your pool depth in your kids being little. They will grow up faster than you know. They will swim all over the pool and not care how deep it is. They will also want to jump in the deep end and will probably want it deep. They like seeing how deep they can go. At least mine did and that's what I remember doing too. Most of ours are grown and when we were talking about how we were doing this pool they wanted it deep. My 26 yo son said he wishes out could be a play pool to play volleyball and be deep to jump but if he had to pick one it would be deep. The others agreed.
As for water splashing on the stucco, it's going to splash on the stucco when it rains no matter what you have. We have rocks all around our house, like most Arizona houses do, and dirt splashes up on the house even with the rocks. I would think having the deck there would actually keep the house cleaner. JMO though.

We made the water depth in our shallow area 4' and the deep area 6' so 4, 6, 4. One thing to consider is that pool builders will typically specify the deep portion as literally a point. Which means the 5.5 ft area is a sliver in the middle. We had to specifically ask for our 6 ft area to be wider, around 4-5 ft wide. Our last pool was 3.5 5.5 and because the 5.5 was so narrow, the pool felt a little too shallow.

 

[march2012]

Thank you very much for that. That really helps a lot. Trying to figure out as much as I can close to cost that way I can see where I can try and knock off some pricing from them.

So essentially I would need this version PENTAIR INTELLICENTER I8PS KIT - POOL AND SPA WITH LOAD CENTER or will my setup the I5PS do?



That was our thinking as well. We would do like one of those smaller portable style fire pits becuase it probably won't be used enough to spend big bucks on that. That info helps a lot. Thank you again for all your opinions and feedback.

We really like our solo stove bonfire (we just bought the larger yukon). It has air venting that dramatically reduces the smoke release by the fire as all the smoke gets burned.

 

[stack24]

CONTRACT SIGNED!

So after some back and forth about pricing and adjusting a few minor things we have finally signed the contract to build our pool. Thank you for everyone for all the help. Below is the latest design after a few minor changes. We still will be making some minor adjustments because we won't start our dig until later in April due to scheduling for GUNITE etc. Below is the pretty much final design of of the pool and some items that we are still ironing out. We dropped the side walls to 6" and the feature wall stayed 1" to give it a uniformed look while the Spa stays at 12" raised (we contemplated making spa level tos ave some money, but the look wasn't really all that great)

Here are some lingering thing I would love suggestions on.

1. Still haven't decided if we want to keep that seating area and deck near the spa or just leave it clean and some extra grass area for the kids and move the decking allocation to the side of the house to use for storage and deck boxes. Mainly becuase we have a decent amount of covered patio seating already and the area near the sun shelf is another added area.
2. After some suggestions on the board. I spoke to to them about leaving either extra pipe for a later install of SWG and possibly having them plumb everything for a SWG pool and I will pay for the Intellicenter 8 with SWG kit and leave everything chlorine for now to not worry about their waiver for their warranty and then just installed the SWG set after the one year. This way I don't have to get the SWG and power supply later.
3. We don't know what we are going to do with the color of the plaster yet, he just put in a placeholder for the included level, or if we want to actually pay extra for a higher level of color which will be $800.
4. We are thinking about not putting loungers in the sun shelf area anymore since we have other seats on the deck so we can now reduce it from 6' to 4' to give us 2 feet more swimming area
5. Since we won't have loungers, I think we should move back down to 2 bubblers instead of three, it's not really a big deal with the price since it's only $150 for it. But was wondering will the pool pump be enough to actually give these bubblers some action becuase that's what they are plumbed to. The Sheers have their own dedicated pump.
6. The 3 18" sheer are going to be attached to a 1/2 HP pump. They said that is plenty to make them flow properly. Is that correct or should I go higher? i don't want it to look weak and not actually flow nicely.
7. We currently have 2 Microbrite in the pool and 1 in the spa, should that be enough? The size of the pool total is 35' the spa is 4.5' and sun shelf lets say 4' so the swimming area is going to be about 26.5' for 2 microbrites.
8. Still discussing changing out the Pentair Racer and going with full Robot
9. Depth profile we are still discussing, he has it set to 3.5 - 5. But I think I want it to be 3.5 - 5.5 to give us a bit more depth for kids to swim.

Thank you for all of your feedback and comments because it has helped me get at least to this point.

 

[Bvacchiano]

In my opinion two lights in the pool itself are not enough. I have 3 in the pool and one on my sunshelf and I wish I had another. My pool is similar to yours in size. You won’t realize it until nighttime when you pop them on then you will notice.
I’d want to know my choices upfront for plaster. In my opinion it makes the pool. I wouldn’t wait too long on that decision. Make sure he spells out the “upgrades” for you. Honestly in my opinion one of THE most important decisions! I mean it’s the first thing you notice on a pool.

 

[stack24]

In my opinion two lights in the pool itself are not enough. I have 3 in the pool and one on my sunshelf and I wish I had another. My pool is similar to yours in size. You won’t realize it until nighttime when you pop them on then you will notice.
I’d want to know my choices upfront for plaster. In my opinion it makes the pool. I wouldn’t wait too long on that decision. Make sure he spells out the “upgrades” for you. Honestly in my opinion one of THE most important decisions! I mean it’s the first thing you notice on a pool.

Thanks for the info. Yeah I looked at another thread on here and someone said there was an equation for how many lights would work. Like taking the SQFT of the pool multiple by 4 and then the number of Lumens of each microbrite which are 500 a piece would give you how many would be good to have.

Yeah I have seen the upgrades in terms of the plaster for the $817 and some of the nicer colors are in there.

The good thing with this builder is that in the contract it's been discussed that we can adjust and edit the plans for a while. Since our dig doesn't even start till end of April it gives us a lot of time to actually tweak it and fine tune it.

 

[ajw22]

Thanks for the info. Yeah I looked at another thread on here and someone said there was an equation for how many lights would work. Like taking the SQFT of the pool multiple by 4 and then the number of Lumens of each microbrite which are 500 a piece would give you how many would be good to have.

See Pentair LED Pool Lights - Further Reading

 

[stack24]

See Pentair LED Pool Lights - Further Reading

Perfect. Thank you!

Looks like I need 2.8 so for sure a jump up to a third one makes sense on the pool section/sun shelf section.

 

[stack24]

It’s slowly getting real. Even though my dog won’t be for a while.

Not really a crazy update but it was definitely a happy day since I know I shouldn’t have to worry about a gas and electrical reroute after they came out and marked them. Was so anxious on that part.

Are there any other items they have to mark before the dig that I should be taking I to consideration?

 

[renesme]

One thing that was advised to me: Get the cable/internet provider out there to tack the cable to the fence before the dig. The cable is fairly shallow (couple inches) in the ground and even if it isn't in the way of the pool, having a bobcat or other equipment drive over it could cause it to be severed.