New DIY in The Woodlands, Texas

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Your pool is gorgeous and huge!! I wish we had the yard for a larger pool. I don't remember seeing pictures of your tile and stonework. I love them both!! They go beautifully together. Absolutely fabulous pool! You're on the home stretch now - great job! I may have to hire you to finish our pool!! LOL!

Not much longer now! Take care. Suz.
 
Thanks Suz! So far we are pleased. Obviously, it's easy to nitpick, but all-in-all I can't say there is anything we hate. We can't wait to be able jump in and experience it! I suspect it will get a whole lot more 'real' after we have our concrete poured. We get into the plaster pretty quickly - which helps. We have to wait a couple of weeks before we can do the spray deck, so I made the decision to finish the pool and we can dirty up the concrete a little (with grass and such) while we wait on the deck to fully cure. I suppose it will be closer to Independence Day before the pool is in full operation mode.

I think my wife is getting tired of me tracking in sand by now so that deck certainly will be nice.

I'll post more to follow.
 
I love that back wall design! I would want something exactly like that I'df I ever got a pool. Just curious how much your budget was for your own pool build if you don't mind me asking? Feel free to PM me if you don't want to publicly post.
 
pacman777 said:
I love that back wall design! I would want something exactly like that I'df I ever got a pool. Just curious how much your budget was for your own pool build if you don't mind me asking? Feel free to PM me if you don't want to publicly post.
Click to expand...

Thanks pacman! We went with the back wall like that for a few reasons... 1) We are in a cul-de-sac and have a funny, pie shaped yard. We wanted as much pool as possible without wasting space and having useless areas. 2) We didn't have the space behind our pool for decking due to a 10' utility easement because we back to a greenbelt. 3) We have a fair amount of slope in our backyard in the wall direction. The pool will be level on the shallow side and could drop by up to 2' in the area the wall curves (although we have built this up to no longer drop... there is just going to be more slope).

The only thing I will bring up on curved walls (spas included) is that your tile/stone choices might become limited as one has to account for that.

On the budget, we received quotes from PB's (at least 7) for smaller pools than this (and lesser equipment) in the range of $57-78k. We will come in less than the lowest bid (which also happened to be the best value), and with the better equipment and a great learning experience for future projects. Building this certainly has had its stresses, but I hear that doesn't seem to change much even when you are using a PB. In fact, I think the DIY route forces you to understand that you need to control the situations and/or you have to live with the results. With a PB, I can see people getting lured into assuming the PB is looking out for them - when I can assure you that isn't always the case. (In fact, at a certain point, every dollar the PB saves goes to them - so they have incentive to cut corners.)

I hope this helps.
 
BoDarville said:
You've made a surprising amount of progress considering you've been dealing with "rainmageddon".
Click to expand...

Thanks Bo. The rain caused significant heartburn prior to gunite. I took the family to Orlando for 2 weeks about 5 days after gunite. Because of this, the rain might have actually helped us out for a few reasons... 1) the rain helped keep my gunite wet for the whole time we were gone, further improving the curing. 2) It disrupted most of the other builds in the area - which helped me secure post gunite work.

We are supposed to have sun the next 10+ days (so far 2% is the most rain in the 10-day forecast), so I'm hoping to be filling on the 11th, just in time for a kids b-day.

Appreciate you following.
 
jekyll said:
I really like how you put the spa in the deep end. I wish I would have thought of that, it make the shallow end much bigger.
Click to expand...
That and it looks like it will be fun to dive from the floor of the spa into the pool.
 
bmoreswim said:
That and it looks like it will be fun to dive from the floor of the spa into the pool.
Click to expand...

Thanks jekyll and bmore! Originally, the plan was to put the pool where the current sundeck is and move the sundeck over into the shallow area. The reason for this was because that area would give us a private spa, but there were also downsides. More specifically, we wanted more shallow than deep. We ended up giving in a little on the full privacy of the spa and went for function. Moving the spa was able to eat into the deep end (therefore giving us way more shallow) and also does double as a jump in spot. Additionally, it gives us an extra visual feature and a water feature with the water pouring over (if we aren't heating the spa, I can run all of my pool return energy through the spa and it's on a 3 hp VS pump).

We did have some challenges during the dig and the sunshelf ended up a little smaller than we had wanted, but what do you do at this point... It's still ~6x10. I also wish we had placed a bench along the back wall in between the columns. Next time! :)

The build has been challenging but rewarding. I'm very glad I've gone through the process so far.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply