Re: Im a little CONCERNED about this quote for a 14x28 Vinyl...
When we decided to build last year here outside Baltimore, MD, we originally wanted fiberglass. It seemed somehow simpler and neater. We did a ton of research and got a variety of quotes for both gunite and fiberglass, and gave a brief look to vinyl, too. There were a couple of reasons we decided to avoid fiberglass:
1. The life and soundness of the fiberglass pool is entirely dependent on the quality of the installation. Duh! But it kinda bears emphasis. It is not installed like gunite or vinyl, and requires some specialty thinking and engineering. In our area, of all the builders we talked to, they collectively installed maybe a dozen fiberglass pools a year versus literally hundreds of gunite and vinyl pools each. To my ears this means that the local experience with fiberglass is extremely limited...and it makes me wonder if anyone has had enough practice to get good at it.
2. Fiberglass (by my research) seems to fair best in climates with minimal freeze-thaw cycling. The pressure on that shell is enormous (which is part of the reason they put all that steel in gunite). Freezing and thawing just increases the number of opportunities for something to go wrong.
3. Repairing a fiberglass shell one it ruptures is difficult to impossible, at least on a permanent basis.
4. Most fiberglass manufacturers have their gel coatings worked out to where colors are guaranteed for a decade or two. But not all. Manufacturing quality varies GREATLY from vendor to vendor, so be careful.
5. The decking approach is a little different than with gunite. Fiberglass pools (most of them, anyway) require a collar of concrete around the lip to literally help hold it down. So the ability to do a traditional coping look can be limited, depending on exactly what your situation is. Cantilevered deck can look great and server the collar purpose, but some people hate it.
It was #1 that primarily persuaded us to go with gunite. For the record, I don't mean to imply that gunite is superior to fiberglass (or vinyl, which we also considered). They each have their appropriate use and both have been used successfully for decades (well, 100 years for gunite). As with so many things in the pool universe, a lot depends on the quality of the equipment and the care of the installer. My advice is that unless you can find someone who has put in 10 - 20 of the fiberglass pools per year for 10 - 15 years (which would show both experience and how well his/her products survive in your area), I'd go with vinyl or ol' gunite.
tell 'em you want it plumbed in rigid PVC, or see above down the road 
