Hi, I've been using the forums to help me learn about pool maintenance and chemistry before my wife and I build a new pool in a house we bought recently. We've never owned a pool before so this process has been a lot of firsts for the both of us.
I had a few questions about pool equipment so that we could build the pool with the equipment we need to get the experience we want out of the pool. The most important thing for me is making sure that the pool feels nice for my wife to be able to swim in. I want to avoid ending up in a situation where we swim in our own pool and get burning eyes or feel that our hair or bodies are filled with chlorine like we would get from the pool in our previous apartment complex. In order to use the pool in our apartment complex, I had to use goggles otherwise my eyes would start burning fairly quickly.
I had been reading about CYA buildup from Trichlor and using either an SWG or liquid chlorine to keep CYA levels from getting too high. In general, I'm home most days. I have worked a remote job for several years and will likely continue working a remote job for the foreseeable future. This gives me a bit more time to do some simple maintenance during a random break I might take during the day or the morning since the pool would be right outside of my office. But, there are occasional times when I have to leave for 5 days on a business trip or there are times where my wife and I might go visit family and be gone for a week. I'm concerned that during those rare times, I would have to leave my wife to carry around bleach to fill the pool or, during trips where we are both gone, the pool would go unmaintained and grow algae. These times aren't very frequent but I want to make sure that we build the pool in a way where it would be possible to leave for a week and then pick up maintenance again the next week.
I understand that SWG's can end up being less work (still with regular testing, but less manually adding chlorine) for those types of situations. The concern I have with an SWG is I don't know how the pool water feels and affects the hair, eyes, and skin. I understand that it's a low amount of salt in the water compared to something like the ocean, but since my only experience with pools is commercial pools in public locations or apartment complexes, I don't know how to evaluate which would be better for our situation. Does anyone have any advice for which type of pool leads to less eye and hair strain? My wife is very particular about her hair and the chlorine in our pool in the apartment would negatively affect her hair's health. Now that we're doing this on our own, I want to make sure that she likes going into the pool. I guess what I'm really asking is what are the differences, even superficial ones, between a normal chlorine pool and one that uses an SWG?
Another thing is we are currently deciding between two builders. One of them does a traditional plaster while the other does PebbleTec or PebbleSheen. We've seen a pool with PebbleTec built by the same pool builder and it looked very beautiful. Does anyone have any experience with PebbleTec and PebbleSheen for how rough they are in comparison to a traditional plaster and does maintenance or free chlorine levels change between plaster and PebbleTec? I saw in the Pool School eBook that there were different levels for Vinyl, Plaster, and Fiberglass. I've been assuming that PebbleTec is the same as Plaster but I just wanted to make sure that was the case. For those who have done PebbleTec, would you recommend it?
Thanks for any help. If it helps, I live in Dallas, TX and we are planning to get a heater for the pool so our pool is going to have a season that lasts for most of the year considering the weather here.
I had a few questions about pool equipment so that we could build the pool with the equipment we need to get the experience we want out of the pool. The most important thing for me is making sure that the pool feels nice for my wife to be able to swim in. I want to avoid ending up in a situation where we swim in our own pool and get burning eyes or feel that our hair or bodies are filled with chlorine like we would get from the pool in our previous apartment complex. In order to use the pool in our apartment complex, I had to use goggles otherwise my eyes would start burning fairly quickly.
I had been reading about CYA buildup from Trichlor and using either an SWG or liquid chlorine to keep CYA levels from getting too high. In general, I'm home most days. I have worked a remote job for several years and will likely continue working a remote job for the foreseeable future. This gives me a bit more time to do some simple maintenance during a random break I might take during the day or the morning since the pool would be right outside of my office. But, there are occasional times when I have to leave for 5 days on a business trip or there are times where my wife and I might go visit family and be gone for a week. I'm concerned that during those rare times, I would have to leave my wife to carry around bleach to fill the pool or, during trips where we are both gone, the pool would go unmaintained and grow algae. These times aren't very frequent but I want to make sure that we build the pool in a way where it would be possible to leave for a week and then pick up maintenance again the next week.
I understand that SWG's can end up being less work (still with regular testing, but less manually adding chlorine) for those types of situations. The concern I have with an SWG is I don't know how the pool water feels and affects the hair, eyes, and skin. I understand that it's a low amount of salt in the water compared to something like the ocean, but since my only experience with pools is commercial pools in public locations or apartment complexes, I don't know how to evaluate which would be better for our situation. Does anyone have any advice for which type of pool leads to less eye and hair strain? My wife is very particular about her hair and the chlorine in our pool in the apartment would negatively affect her hair's health. Now that we're doing this on our own, I want to make sure that she likes going into the pool. I guess what I'm really asking is what are the differences, even superficial ones, between a normal chlorine pool and one that uses an SWG?
Another thing is we are currently deciding between two builders. One of them does a traditional plaster while the other does PebbleTec or PebbleSheen. We've seen a pool with PebbleTec built by the same pool builder and it looked very beautiful. Does anyone have any experience with PebbleTec and PebbleSheen for how rough they are in comparison to a traditional plaster and does maintenance or free chlorine levels change between plaster and PebbleTec? I saw in the Pool School eBook that there were different levels for Vinyl, Plaster, and Fiberglass. I've been assuming that PebbleTec is the same as Plaster but I just wanted to make sure that was the case. For those who have done PebbleTec, would you recommend it?
Thanks for any help. If it helps, I live in Dallas, TX and we are planning to get a heater for the pool so our pool is going to have a season that lasts for most of the year considering the weather here.