New Build - Woodlands Texas (north of Houston)

[gezerk]

Hello everyone. I have been lurking around the site for a couple of weeks reading about all the cool new builds. Finally got time to start my new build thread.

We are building a gunite freeform pool with a perimeter of 104" and an area of 644. The PB estimates about 30,000 gallons. We have a huge backyard, unusual for The Woodlands, so we had plenty of room for the pool. The pool was even larger at one point, but we shrunk it by 15%.

We have teenagers and really wanted a deep pool, so 8.5 feet deep. We should have probably reduced the depth when we reduced the size. Not much shallow end in this pool. I don't mind since I plan to stock it with Largemouth Bass when the kids all move out (don't tell my DW).

We are already at tile and coping. Flagstone coping, Pebble Sheen with Tahoe Blue (not a stock color but the PB says he can make it happen). Check my sig for the details.
Here is the plan:

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

I would highly suggest switching the pump to the equivalent 2-speed motor to save a lot of money on power when the high flow is not needed.

 

[gezerk]

I know we all love pics, so here are all the pics so far.

Worst part of the whole thing...beautiful old pine smack dab in the middle of the pool.

That's something you don't see every day.

The dig. Hand shaped with heavy lifting done by Bobcat.

Really starting to take shape.

Great soil for a pool ( I think). The clay was easy to dig and shape, but makes for a nice solid base. My daughter had been asking me for two months if we were really getting a pool. I kept telling her "I don't know, we are gonna try. You shouldn't get your hopes up" Today I told her we are definitely getting a pool.

Sun shelf. I think my 13 year old daughter and her friends are gonna love this!

Spa with 18" walls. The PB suggested 12". I opted for 18" because I thought the spa wall would make for a nice bench. Not sure how I feel about this choice. It's a real pita to step up onto the 18" and down into the spa. I am more of a sit and swing kinda guy anyway. We will have to see.

Rebar work. I like the looks of that!

I don't like the looks of this! Rained for two days. Had very little collapse. Most of it around the beam.

PB finally got a pump delivered. I thought it was a disaster until he showed me one of his other pools that was completely filled in. It's all about the perspective.

Plumbing happening! Return on the right, bubbler on the left. CAn't wait to see my mini Aussie go after that bubbler. She loves to chase the sprinkler. That should provide hours of entertainment.

Gunite. Woohoo. Seemed like we would never get to gunite. Erosion from the rain left me with a lot thicker gunite. Looks like I got the bonus.

Is it me, or does this look like fun? Ok fun for about 15 minutes and then I'd be crying like a baby.

Daddy sized double jet in the spa. Looking forward to soaking in there!

And then it was done. Strange I watered it every day twice a day and it didn't grow. Maybe time for a different fertilizer. (Please forgive me if that is the oldest joke on the forum.)

Starting to really look like a ppol. Getting really excited now. I promise it's not as big as it looks in this picture. Perspecitve playing tricks on you.

Arial view taken from my personal drone. Ok, ok, taken from my second story window. The spa is supposed to be oval. Looks like a flat tire. I hope that turns out ok. I remembered it looking different on the plan.

Equipment pad. Please pay no attention to the tri-chlor dispenser. I got here too late to know what a bad idea that was. I'll turn that off once CYA hits the right level. I would have a hard time switching to SWG at this point.

Jandy 2.5 HP single speed pump. PB was not fan of the VS. We'll see. Also the polaris 280 booster pump.

I am no expert, but it looks like I have three valves on the inlet side. On valve on the return side. I think the three inlet valves are main, skimmers and spa. The returns are spa and waterfall. Looks like I have all the returns on one loop. Too bad if so. I didn't know better when I started. Maybe not. There's a lot of plumbing in there.

One more pad view for all the equipment geeks out there. Not sure what it all does yet, but at least it looks organized.

Finally tile and coping today! Flagstone was called 'Cherokee'. I'll get some closeups when I can.

Spa looking good. We decided on the sawed edge as opposed to the hand chipped edge. PB said the upgrade would be around $1000. The sawed edge is supposed to be smoother on the back anyway.

Whew, that took a while. Sorry for the photo spam, but you are all caught up now. More to come, and thanks for the great community.

 

[gezerk]

Hi Jason,
I think that ship may have sailed. I am a notorious switcher as it is. I also had to balance decking versus VS pump since the budget is tight.

 

[jblizzle]

At the time I did not know you were this far into the process. BUT, the pump is installed with unions, so it would be easy to swap in a 2 speed version or just have them replace the motor. Running that big pump all the time is going to cost $$$$$$$$$.

Still plenty of room to cut out the chlorinator and put a SWG in its place ... someday maybe ... oh but you used the flagstone coping, so SWG may not be a good idea.

 

[mike481]

Great looking build. Since I'm in the woodlands for two weeks on business I had to look at your build as soon as I saw where you were. The woodlands is a pretty area but it is a pain in the butt to find anything hidden behind all the "woodlands".

My dog would love the sun shelf!!!

 

[gezerk]

The woodlands is a pretty area but it is a pain in the butt to find anything hidden behind all the "woodlands".

My dog would love the sun shelf!!!

The Woodlands is a pretty interesting place. It is hard to find anything. It was worse when I moved here. They had a restriction at that point that every building had to be hidden behind trees and all signs had to be made of wood and under 5 feet tall. I was lost for the first five years I lived here.

I am pretty excited to see how the dogs adapt to the pool. I would gladly accept any advice on introducing dogs to the pool, dog pool saftey etc. As weird as that request sounds, if their is one place to get that answer it would be here.

 

[gezerk]

Well the stone mason made a mistake and hand chipped all the stone for the spa (remember the $1000 upgrade). The PB could not have handled it better. He was concerned that the pool would not look right with the spa hand chipped and the coping sawed so he is going to cover the cost of hand chipping the entire pool. Nice to see that type of response. Restores my confidence in humanity.
Here is what the hand chipped flagstone looks like:

 

[gezerk]

More progress on tile and coping. This part was really stressful for me. I have a hard time waiting for the finished product. I am looking at every piece of stone and trying to decide if it's in the wrong place. I have to trust the crew they are obviously very experienced. I think I am going to make it.

Here are some pics:

Moss rock install. That is going to look so cool!

Tile in the spa. Not too excited about that half tile on one side of the spillway. The other side has a full time. I tend to really notice asymmetrical. That might just drive me crazy. I wish I had thought to ask them to start at the spillway and work back to the step. I would never notice a half tile at the step.
I do love the color of the tile. We think it will pull the blue from the water into the earth tones in the stone.

This is a mess. I can't wait to clean it up!

 

[Divin Dave]

good looking pool build you have going on there. Im digging the nice plumbing job.

As for the dog, the way to do it is take them into the pool and then guide him to the steps and out. Then repeat. The pooch will learn pretty quick where the out is.
There are also doggie pool ramps on the market in case the steps and depth of them dont agree with how big or small your dog is. The prob with the ramps is they greatly detract from a beautiful pool and landscape.

 

[gezerk]

Thanks Dave. I was pretty happy with the plumbing too. I have seen some pretty crazy plumbing jobs on TFP. Good doggie advice. We have three dogs so we will get our practice. It gets hot here in south Texas so I am hoping the pooches learn to use the pool.