Howdy all. It's been a few months since I first posted with questions and my design/concept. We had to take a short break just as we were getting into the bidding process due to an injury in the family, but all is well once again and we're back in the game and ready to go.
The original design idea for our pool was to have a separate but attached swim spa to the main pool in order to be able to heat it during the colder months with less energy usage. Needless to say, this turned out to be a very expensive option on top of an already feature-rich (and expensive) design. So in order to trim some fat (and after some initial nausea when we saw the first bids), we scrapped the separate swim spa area. We are still looking to do this build with the RiverFlow Swim Current Generator system.
Pictures speak more than words, so here is the new and improved design we went to bid with. This first drawing includes the existing patio area to the right of the pool.
Here is a tighter zoom of the pool design.
To date, we have contacted or tried to contact 8 different builders.
2 Never returned our original calls
1 Never showed up for the initial meeting and then did not respond to a voicemail asking where they were
1 Bowed out up front once they saw the complexity of the pool because they had a pretty full plate (I respect that because they at least did it quickly once they had met with us)
1 Disappeared after their bid submission when we asked for some revisions to the design
2 of the original companies we are currently in the bid process with
1 new company was added to the mix after #5 disappeared and is still with us
So that left/leaves us with 3 active bidding companies which is what we wanted in the end.
What we have discovered so far is that we evidently have expensive tastes. Because I provided the original design to work from, it has worked out that all 3 of the current bids, plus the original bid of one of the drop-outs and then also a verbal "ballpark" price from another drop-out all put pricing within about $10k of each other. We really thought we could do this for right about $100k, but that is not seeming to be the case. To get most everything we wanted (not everything even), we are seeing the same very close price or estimate from 4 different builders all above the $100k mark.
The price we are limiting ourselves to still does not get an in-floor cleaning system (another $5k - 6k) or any laminar flow jets (another $4k - 5k) as we were hoping to do. We are trying to understand why this is working out to be so expensive and what we are seeing is that the raised beam is expensive and then also the automation, extra LED lighting and range of pumps required for the separate scuppers, sheer and waterfalls on their own circuits. The RiverFlow system is also $15k installed, so really it just adds up with all of the options and design elements we have included.
So be it.... We're plowing ahead one way or another!!!
-plat
The original design idea for our pool was to have a separate but attached swim spa to the main pool in order to be able to heat it during the colder months with less energy usage. Needless to say, this turned out to be a very expensive option on top of an already feature-rich (and expensive) design. So in order to trim some fat (and after some initial nausea when we saw the first bids), we scrapped the separate swim spa area. We are still looking to do this build with the RiverFlow Swim Current Generator system.
Pictures speak more than words, so here is the new and improved design we went to bid with. This first drawing includes the existing patio area to the right of the pool.
Here is a tighter zoom of the pool design.
To date, we have contacted or tried to contact 8 different builders.
2 Never returned our original calls
1 Never showed up for the initial meeting and then did not respond to a voicemail asking where they were
1 Bowed out up front once they saw the complexity of the pool because they had a pretty full plate (I respect that because they at least did it quickly once they had met with us)
1 Disappeared after their bid submission when we asked for some revisions to the design
2 of the original companies we are currently in the bid process with
1 new company was added to the mix after #5 disappeared and is still with us
So that left/leaves us with 3 active bidding companies which is what we wanted in the end.
What we have discovered so far is that we evidently have expensive tastes. Because I provided the original design to work from, it has worked out that all 3 of the current bids, plus the original bid of one of the drop-outs and then also a verbal "ballpark" price from another drop-out all put pricing within about $10k of each other. We really thought we could do this for right about $100k, but that is not seeming to be the case. To get most everything we wanted (not everything even), we are seeing the same very close price or estimate from 4 different builders all above the $100k mark.
The price we are limiting ourselves to still does not get an in-floor cleaning system (another $5k - 6k) or any laminar flow jets (another $4k - 5k) as we were hoping to do. We are trying to understand why this is working out to be so expensive and what we are seeing is that the raised beam is expensive and then also the automation, extra LED lighting and range of pumps required for the separate scuppers, sheer and waterfalls on their own circuits. The RiverFlow system is also $15k installed, so really it just adds up with all of the options and design elements we have included.
So be it.... We're plowing ahead one way or another!!!
-plat
