First time pool builder and owner

[mknauss]

You live in Minnesota. So you get rain, and your evaporation will be minimal. So a hose will be fine to fill with.

Other areas of the country, like where I live, we have an autofill. It keeps the pool full of water. Otherwise, in about two days, my pump would be sucking air. Not good.

 

[magiteck]

A hose? is that the question? I am so clueless on pools that please excuse if this is a very dumb question. Do most people fill another way? There is always the option to truck in water but I imagine it would cost a fortune and my husband is all about DIY. I imagine the chemicals are harder to get right when filling with a hose but he will be up for the challenge unless this is crazy.

An auto-fill is basically piped into the pool so that as water evaporates or gets splashed out, more just gets added. In the desert people are adding water all the time so it’s almost a necessity. Probably less critical in our climate, since it’s not as dry and Summer tends to bring enough rain. For me, I will only have to (maybe) add water once during the Summer. And a couple times a Summer I may have to actually drain some water after a big rain.

There are auto-levels that can be plumbed in which will manage both for you. I’m by no means an expert there, but my understanding is they will add/remove water as needed to keep it at a desirable level.

Edit: beaten by the Marty bot …

 

[Davegnh]

With kids I would definitely recommend the deck jets. I have four deck jets and they get used every time the kids go into the pool. I have them in the shallow end and they are non-stop fun. As a side benefit my dog loves biting the water as it comes out.

I can't remember if you mentioned any automation but I'd highly recommend it. You could do things like control the deck jets by your cell phone or turn on the water going to the slide. As well as controlling pump speeds heater settings etc.

I would definitely go for the saltwater chlorine generator in my opinion they're the best feature you can add to the pool.

 

[BDY]

Autofill may not be needed in your climate for sure - i was not thinking about Minnesota.

Depending how much rain you get an overflow line may be nice two.

Both of those your PB would know the local conditions best - both fall into the “nice to have for ease of maintenance but not required” category

 

[jesse-99]

When your pool water level runs low (splash out, evaporation, etc.) , there are 3 ways to get it filled:

1. Rainwater -- not very easy to plan for...
2. Hooking a hose up to your outside spigot and filling -- fairly painless but still a manual process....
3. Using an auto-fill on the pool that automatically adds water when below a certain set-point (think of a toilet valve float) --- the easist method, but requires plumbing in at time of construction

 

[newbie919]

As far as equipment and structure, are there any red flags with any of the below for an 18x40 rectangle? I need to find out if our LED lights are niche or nicheless so that is on the list of questions for our PB. They are coming to draw up our site plan today so I can post that as soon as I have it. Depth is still up in the air, we were thinking 6'6" at the deepest where the slide would go. We don't want to lose too much shallow end since we think that's where most of the adults would hang out, and I know the pool has to slant at a formulated angle to reach that 6'6" area. And then how much of the pool do we reserve for that depth?

One of our remaining questions was where to put the equipment pad and we were concerned about noise, but he said the equipment is pretty quiet. So in that case is it better to have it closer to the house and hose for accessibility?

Another pool builder who seemed a bit disgruntled scoffed at who we said we were using and said that our steps will be "springy" but I shared this with our PB and he said they build steps the same as everyone with backfill so they are solid, but sometimes the backfill settles and then you have a bit of a bouncy step situation. Other questions I should ask about this to confirm they're being built correctly?

18x40' Rectangle, 90 degree corners
Depth: 6.5' at the deep end for slide (considering Turbo Twister unless you think it would be too big for this pool size)
h2o Pool Walls: Steel 6" thick top, side, bottom braced 14 gauged galvanized inc
Liner: Vinyl inc Latham ( don't know which thickness is standard, I need to ask)
Bottom: Pool-Krete inc
Wedding cake steps with single Bench all the way across 18’ width
Footing: Heavy duty concrete bondbeam inc
Deck Support: Concrete Piers inc
Wall Foam: Protective on all steel inc
Light(s): Standard 12" diameter LED multicolor (10 colors, 5 rotation cycles) ($ 1,999.00)
Filter: Jandy 460sqft cartridge system inc
Pump: Jandy e-pump (energy efficient, quiet) inc
Heater: Jandy 260k BTU draft induced, electric ignition ($ 3,299.00)
Skimmer(s): 2 widemouth inc
Concrete skimmer to match pool deck: $600 each
Return(s): 4 total inc
Floor Drain(s): 2 anti-vortex inc
Valving: Jandy individual inc
Water Purifier: SWG
Control System: Included with SWG
Ladder(s): None, 3’ deep-end swim-out
Handrail(s): Stainless inc
Slide: Typhoon plumbed with water line installed ($ 4,499.00)
Undertrack Autocover: Coverstar undertrack system ($ 11,998.00)
Automatic Cover Lid: Concrete (extra)
Pool Coping: Concrete (extra)
Automatic Cleaner: Polaris 280t with booster pump (runs under autocover) ($ 999.00)

In the middle of a build 2 nicheless lights in a 14x35 are not enuff. 6'6 depth with a teeenage and young adult is deep enuff. VS speed pump is great at cost savings. NC has super hi pricing for pools and I am paying $9 per sq ft for concrete.

 

[newbie919]

When your pool water level runs low (splash out, evaporation, etc.) , there are 3 ways to get it filled:

1. Rainwater -- not very easy to plan for...
2. Hooking a hose up to your outside spigot and filling -- fairly painless but still a manual process....
3. Using an auto-fill on the pool that automatically adds water when below a certain set-point (think of a toilet valve float) --- the easist method, but requires plumbing in at time of construction

wish I had done this