Need pool building advice (and lots of it!)

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UKMatt

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Jul 9, 2008
7
Hi,
I am about to put in an offer on a new construction home. The house is just finished and we'd like to roll the pool into the mortgage so we need to finalize estimates before closing.

I have a ton of questions and I hope someone here can help - I have been reading lots of posts in the forum to try to catch up...

We are looking for the following (roughly):

1. A pool that is somewhat freeform but will allow, in the long dimension, decent swimming for exercise so we figured we'd want a 4 foot to 8 foot drop off from one end to the other with the length in that direction being at least 33 feet (10m). The 8 foot depth is for (moderate) diving.

2. We also want the pool to be a relaxing feature for entertaining so on the sides away from the 'lane' we'd like a shelf for sun bathing and perhaps a bench for sitting and relaxing.

Does that make sense as a starting point?

We have some questions:

We are not sure whether we want a waterfall or a spa with an overflow instead - can a reasonably priced spa give enough flow to get the kind of relaxing noise one gets from a standalone waterfall?

We think we want some automation of the pool (no manual messing around) and saltwater as well as fiber-optic light(s) for evenings.

We are buying in the Woodlands, TX... any idea what kind of price that would be?

Also, in terms of decking, how much more (for a given area) is stamped concrete over pea gravel? What about kool deck?

Any help you can provide would be most appreciated... we just relocated from California and we are juggling so many balls at the moment we need LOTS of help!

And we'll be sure to post pics of the process :)

Thanks
UKMatt
 
Matt,
Welcome to the forum (and Texas). I’m sure you will find the information you are looking for here, we did.

It sounds like we had similar requirements for our pool; long swim lane, 4’-8’ depth, tanning ledge, water feature. Our back yard is long (100’) but not very wide. With the setbacks required by the city we were left with only 16’ to work with. We worked with a couple of pool builders before calling in a landscape architect. You can see our progress at the link below.

Your ideas sound reasonable but you may want to consider making the pool longer if possible. Most people we talked with felt that for swimming laps you needed a pool between 40 and 50 feet. Anything less would mean changing directions too quickly, especially if you are doing flip turns.
We chose to have a moss rock wall and waterfalls along the back of the pool to get the running water sound. Our neighbor has an 18” raised spa with cascading flagstone spillover that provides plenty of sound.

Hope that helps.
 
landmark218 said:
Matt,
It sounds like we had similar requirements for our pool; long swim lane, 4’-8’ depth, tanning ledge, water feature. Our back yard is long (100’) but not very wide. With the setbacks required by the city we were left with only 16’ to work with. We worked with a couple of pool builders before calling in a landscape architect. You can see our progress at the link below.
Click to expand...

You're right - I have actually been following your pool build with great interest - I hope things are going well!

landmark218 said:
It sounds like we had similar requirements for our pool; long swim lane, 4’-8’ depth, tanning ledge, water feature. Our back yard is long (100’) but not very wide. With the setbacks required by the city we were left with only 16’ to work with. We worked with a couple of pool builders before calling in a landscape architect. You can see our progress at the link below.
Click to expand...

We are on a pie slice shaped lot with local setback requiring a pool be no closer than 10 feet from the rear fence. We therefore have about 27.5 feet front to back to play with. We'd like to have the pool fit roughly within the rear of the house (not extend past the ends) for privacy reasons... so that gives us 42.5 feet side to side with lots of space beyond for decking (which can extend past the house as we don't mind).

We were thinking of the full width being the lap lane and then the spa and sun shelf being on the 'sides', one near the house and one on the other side of the pool. We are thinking of only a spa because I think we can only afford either a water feature or a spa and our realtor says resale is better on the spa...

Did you share your pricing on the forum at all? I fully understand if you keep that information to yourself but if it's out there I'd love to get some idea of a comparison as you aren't that far from us...

Thanks very much for the help so far!

UKMatt
 
I think the sound from a waterwall is more relaxing as it has more of a random pitch/gurgle as opposed to a spillover that is typically a more constant sound.

That having been said, it's hard to relax in a waterfall -- I vote for the spa.


(and 33 feet would be too short for laps.)

Steve
 
stever said:
I think the sound from a waterwall is more relaxing as it has more of a random pitch/gurgle as opposed to a spillover that is typically a more constant sound.

That having been said, it's hard to relax in a waterfall -- I vote for the spa.
Click to expand...

Thanks - we were thinking of trying to maximize the noise from the spa when we spec the pool - maybe a spill over down some stacked stone rather than a planar spill over for example...

stever said:
(and 33 feet would be too short for laps.)
Click to expand...

Yep - the pool in our temporary accommodation is about 44 feet end to end and it's just enough for exercise I think.

UKMatt
 
Here's a 32' x 16' plan we are going with...though it doesn't have a sun deck.

pool_plan.jpg


Trying to model this one:

model.jpg
 

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