Sticker Shock

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DrewStandley

0
Apr 9, 2011
2
New to the forum. Gathering bids on my in-ground gunite pool in Houston, TX and I'm aghast at how much my bids are coming in for.

Specs:

Formal square edge style design appx 29' x 41'
960 sq ft
148 perimeter
5' deep, 3' shallow
7' square spa raised 6" with negative edge
14' x 7' sun shelf with 3 bubblers
Plaster bottom
Stacked cultured stone wall 8' long x 24" tall with 3 24" sheers
3 36" square by 30" tall stacked cultured stone columns
appx 1500 sq ft of travertine paver deck set in French pattern
Trav bullnose coping
400k BTU heater
Intelliflo 4x160 pump
2 Whisperflo 1.5hp pumps
DE filter

I'm sure there are some other things in the list but can't think of them now.

Anyway, my bids are in the $100k range. Seems ridiculous.

Thoughts?
 
Welcome to TFP :wave:

A 30x40' pool is rather large and gunite pools are not cheap, as you are now finding :lol:

Especially depending on the types of finshes you are looking for. A high end looking pool will tend to have a high-end price tag attached to it. Negative edge/spa, etc add a lot of $ to what may be a $35-$40K straight 20x40 gunite plaster pool with no features.

As a point of reference the below pool ran about $175K on LI, NY, but as you can tell, required a significant amount of stone work and has quite a bit of extras, but is certainly not as large as 30'x40'. Good luck with the build :goodjob:

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I GC'ed it my self. My owner builder pool with significant effort in getting highest quality materials cheap (liquidation, sale, etc) was quoted at $170K; it will come in under $70K. Check out my thread "California Dreaming" under new pool bids. If you have the stomach for it and some free time it can go smooth and you can save 50%+. Some of the builders here will make you believe it's not possible; well it is. Good luck friend.
 
That does seem a little high, but I'm sure prices vary all over the country.

My Base pool with the equipment was about $37,000, the spa was another $6,000. We added a bunch of stuff (Pebble Plaster, PDA remote, cantilever coping, etc.) that pushed it up about $6,000. Concrete Decking (colored and stamped) was $5.25 SF. Pavers were $8.10 SF. We did the whole yard, so I assume I got a slightly better deal than just the Pool/Spa/Deck pricing.

My PB wanted an additional $10,000 for a 17' vanishing edge on the pool. We passed on that option.
 
Yes indeed, this can cause sticker shock. Now, I can't think of the term for that sick feeling we got along the way as we ran into various reasons to add to or modify the original specs, causing our cost to become "Bid" + 50%.

Read as much as you can on this forum and get the education we didn't have when we started to solicit bids.

Good luck to you!

Lana
 
For the Houston area that's not a bad price as long as the craftsmanship is very well done...I don't know where you are in Houston but i know a bunch of high end builders where that price is well worth it...
 
Sounds reasonable with the size and travertine coping + decking. It is a fairly large deck. You should be able to get the costs itemized. You will probably find that the decking+coping (if it is good quality travertine is at around 40% of the price)
You should check references and see the quality of their work.
In my opinion, quality may cost a little more (though not that much more if you really compare apples and apples) but you will enjoy the quality for many years to come.
Just my 2 cents......
Good luck with the project.
 
One other thing to consider. Lots of contractors will charge a premium for "Change Orders". If you change from Concrete to Pavers it will cost more than just the difference on that item. I discussed this with my PB before construction and he is VERY cool about changes. He only charges the actual difference in cost. He even credited me for the Ozone and Nature 2 systems I canceled (and the actual Ozone unit was on my porch for 3-4 weeks).
 

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My pool is 18x36 as shown. The pool construction cost $56K and the entire project for wall and pool house so far is $98K and I've got about $10K more in material left to finish up. I did all the work on the wall and pool house. Welcome to REALITY. If you do things yourself, you'll save a TON of money.
 

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All I can say is wow that is alot of $ for a pool. I just finished up on my pool done by Premier Pools and spas, 19x38 gunite 565 surface 99 perimeter 1023sf interior volume with all Jandy equipment, 2hp 2 speed pump, 580 cartridge filter, ozone nature 2,Paramount pv3 infloor 19 heads 5 returns and 2 skimmers. I have 3 18 inch sheers 1 periscoping fountain 34 feet of benches and steps with trim tile. The raised area is 22 feet of 12 inch and 13 feet of 6 inch coverd in real stacked stone. Peeble sheen blue granite and a 36 inch trazocrete table. I didnt do any fancy automation but did do 2 savi leds. The pool above was under just under 30k. I used a seperate contractor for my decking which is just about 1000 sq feet of adobe that was another 10k. I really wanted to do an inground spa at first but they are just for looks, I am so glad I didnt do one, You need to hagle with the sales people it saved me about five grand and I could have done this pool even a little cheaper with Cal Pools but they would only let me do travertine tile for the decking.That pool above with all the stone work is amazing but wow 175k. I would take your time in choosing a builder, I talked with over 30 builders and took a long time in making the choice. Can your homes value handle a 100k pool ?[attachment=1:39u9eltq]006.JPG[/attachment:39u9eltq][attachment=0:39u9eltq]007.JPG[/attachment:39u9eltq]
 

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Bigchevy,
I assume you are in the phoenix area?
We probably have the cheapest pools in the nation by a long shot due to the number that get built, the amount of competition, and the close proximity to many materials. IE Pebble tec is cheapest here because it is made in the valley, ect.
For you Wow, you saw 30 contractors. The exact reason why I dont advertise.
 
Just-a-pb
With the quality of pools you build you certainly don't need to advertise. :bowdown: :cheers:
I fully agree with you that quality costs and more often than not you find that the cheapest offer is not the best offer in the long run. Small details may make you smile everyday or frown everyday depending on how they are done.
It is probably never a 'wise' decision to put in a pool if you only look at home value but I think your home will be easier to sell when you get to that point - even if you don't get 'all the money back' that you put into the pool. Hopefully you will also have enjoyed many great hours in your backyard that will make it all worthwhile.
Pick a PB you trust and try to get as much as possible itemized. Of course you want the PB to make some money - otherwise he will not be around for long if you ever need him for warranty work.....
 
Found a reputable pool builder who also does high end custom homes. We have itemized every cost as well as his fee/profit for the job. We're saving about $30k on the project since there is full disclosure on the sub costs. Everything checks out apples to apples compared to the other more expensive builders with regards to materials, subcontractors, etc.

More than anything I'm just ****** that there is $30k worth of profit in the other builders' bids considering the amount of actual work that goes into them managing the project. I have a feeling that we were being priced based on neighborhood (high end gated community) and what my neighbors were willing to pay for their pools.

I confronted one well known local builder about his pricing and my unwillingness to pay cost plus percentage. I was willing to pay sub costs plus a flat contracting/design fee. He became very irritated and confrontational at my requests even accusing me of trying to scalp his subs so that I could do the project myself. It simply wasn't the case but he obviously didn't believe me. I wanted to verify his insurance, the subs insurance coverages, the subs hiring/employment practices (with regards to illegal labor), and the actual amount the subs were charging. This was met with much hostility by the PB. I guess this is a no-no? Is this information secret? We broke off our negotiations a couple weeks ago.

So, I will be starting a new thread once we start construction so everyone can see the progress.
 

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