Florida woman finally building a pool!

[ckinchen]

Finally! Seems like it has been forever but finally they will start digging next week. I have never been so happy to have orange spray paint all over my grass . And the unexpected expense! I guess my outside electric panel is "on/off", whatever that means, and they will need to have an electrician pull electricity from somewhere else. Hopefully that's not pricey.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Nice pics!! And how great that you already have such nice greenery around the back for privacy. Please keep sharing pics and details of this build as it progresses, ok??

Maddie

 

[Nikilyn]

Such an exciting time. We were supposed to have ours dug yesterday, Wed., but they had to postpone due to a hard dig. We are now scheduled for Tues. Do you know which day next week yours is?
I've never heard of an on/off panel. I'm going to have to ask my husband about that one.

 

[ckinchen]

Nice pics!! And how great that you already have such nice greenery around the back for privacy. Please keep sharing pics and details of this build as it progresses, ok??

Maddie

Thank you. We decided instead of putting white PVC fence there we will do the black aluminum there and just the white PVC elsewhere. One of the people who gave a fence quote suggested it and it is almost the same price as the PVC but I love looking out at those trees so will be nicer that way. We can see between the base of the trees so not completely private so maybe will grow vines or something to cover the fence part for complete privacy, at a later date of course. Definitely plan to document it all and share my journey!

 

[ckinchen]

@Nikilyn So the project manager said next week but I guess I need to find out exactly what day. Sprinklers being shut on Monday, I assumed since he said it would be a week and he came on Wednesday there is no way it would be earlier but I will ask him. I spoke to my brother in law who is an electrician and he said some homes have the electrical panel on the outside of the house, and some in the garage. Its where the breakers are. What I have outside is just the "main" power connected to the utility meter and I don't have any breakers out there. He said it is possible that we may be able to pull power from the main outside, but just depends on the main we have, cant do with all. That is what they did for my well pump but he said they may have done that illegally (I had no clue). It may run me another 1000-2500 to run power from my garage. So not the news I wanted but hopefully there is a way to add a breaker to the main outside, and cheaply. And the kicker is my house was prewired for a pool, but since we are building on the side of our house since the back is a 20ft drainage easement and the county would not allow, that pool power prewire box will need to be moved since can't have power that close to the water. I now know way more about power than I ever imagined!

 

[Nikilyn]

Wow! I’ve never heard of the box not having the breakers in it. Is it an older house?

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Black fencing is ideal. Black almost disappears from view. I have black chain link around my back and under trees and you can't even see it.

Maddie

 

[Nikilyn]

I wanted to add a white pool fence but now I’m wondering if I should do black instead.

 

[Heavenlytunes]

That's what we did. 5ft pool mesh chain link fence. The diamonds are smaller so is
non climbable. You don't really notice

 

[setsailsoon]

ck,
I would try to get the power price asap. Change orders can be more expensive than you would expect. If you're getting a a heater is there a problem with gas supply? Now would be a good time to verify this. I have the same situation with the power supply/meter. It's on one side of the house and there are large supply wires that run across the attic to feed the breakers inside our garage on the complete opposite of the house. Pool panel, well power, and a high load welder power supply had to be pulled from the breaker panel and could not be pulled from the meter side. I think it had to do with the kind of disconnect the builder had supplied. Lucky for me the pool panel is on the other side of the breaker panel wall. Seems like it's common in Florida, we have about 80 homes in our development that are done this way.

How many amps are they planning for at your pool panel? Depending on your pool size and features it could be important to know this right now. It's a lot cheaper to go up a wire size now than to replace later if you ever want to add something additional in the future. Is this by chance on the same side as your well power panel?

Congrats on the new pool. We're a little south of you on the east coast and absolutely love our pool. We swim several times per week year round. Heater gets a good workout this time of year. Solar does the bulk of the heating rest of the year and we just use the heater to top off spa temp. We converted to salt a couple years ago and my wife won't let me ever change back. She says it feels like a spa. I like it because it makes pool maintenance a LOT easier. Have you considered any of these options?

Chris

 

[TampaKathy]

Who said the additional charge would be $1k to $2.5k...was that the PB? Did he not ask where the breaker was before giving you a quote to build the pool? Originally my PB was going to put the pool equipment on the side of the house where my breaker box is but then I decided I really wanted it on the other side of the house. The upcharge to run the wiring 40 feet farther was only a few hundred dollars. If they can got thru your attic, I would be asking why it's so much. If they have to dig and run it around the house, the price might make sense (not that I'm an electrician, lol). Your wiring sounds typical to me...I've owned a 30 year old house and now a 2 year old house in Florida and they both had the breakers in the garage...both far from where the electric comes into the house.

 

[ckinchen]

@setsailsoon The house was built in 2002, so not that old. DR Horton. I wish we could find out how the power was routed, sprinkler guy needs to redo some stuff as well and reconfigur so if it goes via front of house he said that would would be easier. My brother in law is an electrician and he is the one who told me 1-2.5k, but really depends on the main.
No gas, not heater either, at least for now. No screen so we should be ok, but maybe in future will add solar.
There isn’t an attic where the main panel is so I think that is why the will have to run through front of house and then through garage. No idea oh how many amps need. No spa, I think it 10k gallons, 14x32, one sheer decent, and salt water. And now, pool is being build on side of house due to a drainage easement, and no, well is on opposite side. Not quite sure how power was run from main to well, they may have rigged it illegally.

@TampaKathy My brother in law is an electrician and said that’s a ball part, just depends if we can add a breaker to the main or not. I am waiting for the pool builder to tell me their cost. I am sure if my brother in law can do cheaper for me he will. All the pool builders would ask me where the electrical was and I would show them, but I guess they assumed there
was a breaker there, all the quotes gave 40 feet, but none checked the electrical and I got 6 quotes. I think in Florida it might be common to put power on side for pool, problem is the power is on the wrong side. If just wiring I think it could be cheaper, but from what my brother in law is saying might be needed they would need to dig through my walkway in the front of the house and route it to the garage and since no attic on that side of garage I think they would need to go through the wall. So really need the pool builder to let me know what can be done.

 

[ckinchen]

So the day has come...sort of! Today they are removing the grass and the concrete. I don't think they are finishing the full dig. We are putting the pool on the side of our house and extending our lanai/patio area. They have dug all the grass there but one thing that was a question is whether the concrete walkway was part of the foundation or not. I was hoping not since easier to remove. But looking at the pictures it looks like it was part of the house foundation. I think they will need to saw it out or do something to get that piece off which I imagine will cost more. But at least we have officially started the process!
@YippeeSkippy here are some pictures. @Nikilyn did they dig yours yet?

 

[Nikilyn]

They did dig ours and yesterday and then it poured today for the first time since Aug . I would tag my build post but I don’t know how. It’s Owner/builder in Gilbert, AZ for 2nd time.

 

[ckinchen]

@Nikilyn I found your build. I have no idea how to tag to a post either..took me a while to figure out how to tag people . But I clicked the watch so I can follow your build too. Did you confirm with your builder that your equipment pad is concrete? I know here they recommend that and sales rep said yes, but construction supervisor said its not poured concrete, its actually "portable pads" that have concrete and other material. So not sure if that is a bad or good thing but he is going to find out more about it. Told him I want concrete. And waiting on quote on electrical. I know something with the panel will need to be done so just waiting to find out what that $$ will be.

 

[Nikilyn]

We actually have the concrete pads sitting in our garage along with the rest of the pool equipment .

 

[ckinchen]

@Nikilyn So does it look like solid concrete? I am confused if its an issue or not but I recall reading here to make sure that it is concrete. I may do a separate post once I get the answer on what it is, just worried the supervisor said its concrete and something else, so not 100%. I may be worrying about nothing too!

 

[Newdude]

I would tag my build post but I don’t know how

I found your build. I have no idea how to tag to a post either.

Just copy the webpage address at the top of the page and paste it into the convo. The TFP bots will do the rest, like this.

O/B in Gilbert, AZ for 2nd time

We are getting a hole today :kim:!!!

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[ckinchen]

Thank you @Newdude !

 

[ckinchen]

Gosh! This has been a test of patience! But finally have layout done. It is exciting to see what it looks like. When they fill does it end up being smaller? I am happy with the size although we didn't have any more space to use.