New Build Design Feed Back Request

[MARV19]

Dear All,
Greetings!. I’ve been a silent reader of this forum, since I joined a year ago. Thank you all for your time and contribution to this forum. It helps enormously people like me, who have no knowledge about pool building process. By joining this forum I learned and educated myself a lot about what to look for when u want to build a pool. I’m still learning though. I’m reaching out to you for your feed back on my design given below. I want to know:
how many floor and wall returns do I need for this size of the pool?
How many skimmers do I need?
DE filter Size?
Want to Automate Pool, Spa, lights, bubblers, spill ways, anything else?
sun shelf water depth recommendation?
SPA: 360 degree/ infinity
how many returns?
6 therapy jets
Do I need a separate pump for Spa alone?
I plan to contact 4-5 PB locally, but, before I do, want to get your feed backs. Thanks for your time.

 

[TampaKathy]

Hello from Tampa! (Well, technically I'm in Lutz, but close enough, lol). I am getting ready to sign a contract this week for my first pool. Just a heads up...some of the PBs are so busy that they aren't making appointments and the ones that are could have weeks or months to wait. Are you getting salt? lanai cage? Need at least 2 skimmers.

 

[ajw22]

Welcome to TFP.

What I would get is:

• 2 skimmers + main drain or side suction
• 3 returns
• 2" suction plumbing, 2" equipment plumbing, 2.5" return plumbing
• Pentair Intelliflo 011056 VSF pump
• Pentair Quad DE cartridge filter - Quad DE Cartridge Style Pool Filter
• Pentair Intellicenter bundled with Intellichlor IC60 and two Intellivalves - Pentair IntelliCenter i10PSIC60 Kit - Pool and Spa with Load Center and IC60
• You can probably get away with one pump but a dedicated spa suction and Intelliflo VS pump for 6 spa jets will get maximum jet pressure
• You want an air blower on your spa jets?
• Heater?

Things to read...

Construction Best Practices - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Equipment Pad Best Practices - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

How to select pool equipment - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Nikilyn]

@ajw22 You recommended a main drain but others on here say they aren’t needed. What would make you decide to have one vs not?

 

[ajw22]

@ajw22 You recommended a main drain but others on here say they aren’t needed. What would make you decide to have one vs not?

You don't need it but it can be helpful to have over the life of the pool. If not a main drain then a side suction in the deep end of the pool. I think it is more helpful for larger pools, like the one above, with deep ends then small play pools.

 

[spd500]

how many floor and wall returns do I need for this size of the pool?
How many skimmers do I need?
DE filter Size?
Want to Automate Pool, Spa, lights, bubblers, spill ways, anything else?
sun shelf water depth recommendation?
SPA: 360 degree/ infinity
how many returns?
6 therapy jets
Do I need a separate pump for Spa alone?

Welcome! I am also pretty new and still learning, but will give my thoughts. We just finished our build and still learning, but have learned alot from this group along the way. What we didn't learn from the group we have learned by not asking and doing it the wrong way and then paying to redo it the right way.

I personally like the idea of the main drain for a few different reasons, but you don't need one.

I did 6 returns and considered that a minimum for my pool to allow me to control circulation.

I have always heard a minimum of 2 skimmers unless the pool is screened in, and even then I would spend the extra money just in case.

I would get a cartridge filter instead of DE personally, I sized mine 150% of the planned pool volume

What you want automated will be more of a personal choice. But I strongly suggest that it be clearly defined within the contract or as an addendum to the contract exactly what each function will do. It is not enough to tell them that you want to control the bubbler and the waterfall without telling them exactly how you want to control them.

Our tanning ledge is 8" because we have a special needs puppy that can't handle any deeper water, I would have preferred 12" if not for that. It really depends on what you want to do with the ledge.

We did a 7 foot spa and 6 return jets and it seems like plenty to me so far

We have one large VS pump for the pool and spa both, and a slightly smaller VS pump for the water features. We could have done everything with one pump but would not have been able to use water features while in spa mode without the second pump.

 

[MARV19]

Hello from Tampa! (Well, technically I'm in Lutz, but close enough, lol). I am getting ready to sign a contract this week for my first pool. Just a heads up...some of the PBs are so busy that they aren't making appointments and the ones that are could have weeks or months to wait. Are you getting salt? lanai cage? Need at least 2 skimmers.

Hello TampaKathy,
Thank you for your feed back. With respect to getting an appointment with local PBs you are right on average 2-4 weeks waiting time. Yes, pool will have SWCG. Pool will be screened for safety. If u don’t mind could you please send me a PM to [email protected], just want to know which PB did u sign up?. BTW, I live in Wesley Chapel.

 

[MARV19]

Welcome to TFP.

What I would get is:

• 2 skimmers + main drain or side suction
• 3 returns
• 2" suction plumbing, 2" equipment plumbing, 2.5" return plumbing
• Pentair Intelliflo 011056 VSF pump
• Pentair Quad DE cartridge filter - Quad DE Cartridge Style Pool Filter
• Pentair Intellicenter bundled with Intellichlor IC60 and two Intellivalves - Pentair IntelliCenter i10PSIC60 Kit - Pool and Spa with Load Center and IC60
• You can probably get away with one pump but a dedicated spa suction and Intelliflo VS pump for 6 spa jets will get maximum jet pressure
• You want an air blower on your spa jets?
• Heater?

Things to read...

Construction Best Practices - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Equipment Pad Best Practices - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

How to select pool equipment - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Hello Mr.Allen,
Thank you for your time and for your feed back, appreciate it.

 

[MARV19]

Welcome! I am also pretty new and still learning, but will give my thoughts. We just finished our build and still learning, but have learned alot from this group along the way. What we didn't learn from the group we have learned by not asking and doing it the wrong way and then paying to redo it the right way.

I personally like the idea of the main drain for a few different reasons, but you don't need one.

I did 6 returns and considered that a minimum for my pool to allow me to control circulation.

I have always heard a minimum of 2 skimmers unless the pool is screened in, and even then I would spend the extra money just in case.

I would get a cartridge filter instead of DE personally, I sized mine 150% of the planned pool volume

What you want automated will be more of a personal choice. But I strongly suggest that it be clearly defined within the contract or as an addendum to the contract exactly what each function will do. It is not enough to tell them that you want to control the bubbler and the waterfall without telling them exactly how you want to control them.

Our tanning ledge is 8" because we have a special needs puppy that can't handle any deeper water, I would have preferred 12" if not for that. It really depends on what you want to do with the ledge.

We did a 7 foot spa and 6 return jets and it seems like plenty to me so far

We have one large VS pump for the pool and spa both, and a slightly smaller VS pump for the water features. We could have done everything with one pump but would not have been able to use water features while in spa mode without the second pump.

Hello SPD500
Thank you very much for your very useful info and suggestions. I would appreciate if you could explain to me why you did not or don’t prefer DE filters. I thought PentAIr’s new cartridge style DE filter is a cool technology, of course I don’t know anything about how it works, but design wise it looks cool.

 

[TampaKathy]

Hello TampaKathy,
Thank you for your feed back. With respect to getting an appointment with local PBs you are right on average 2-4 weeks waiting time. Yes, pool will have SWCG. Pool will be screened for safety. If u don’t mind could you please send me a PM to [email protected], just want to know which PB did u sign up?. BTW, I live in Wesley Chapel.

Sent you a PM thru this site.

 

[spd500]

Hello SPD500
Thank you very much for your very useful info and suggestions. I would appreciate if you could explain to me why you did not or don’t prefer DE filters. I thought PentAIr’s new cartridge style DE filter is a cool technology, of course I don’t know anything about how it works, but design wise it looks cool.

I prefer not to have to deal with the additional product with the DE system and have seen countless cartridge filter setups on pools that do a great job of keeping the pool sparkling clean.

I had not seen the Pentair setup, it looks pretty nice actually. One thing I have always wondered was why there is no option for a backflush on cartridge filters for "in between" cleanings and this system has added that feature. I have heard of people adding DE to cartridge filters many times because they feel like it helps to "polish" the water better, it seems like this is following in that trend. I would probably consider something like this, it does look much more appealing than the older style DE filters that I have seen.

 

[spd500]

These are the filters I think of when someone mentions a DE filter, and I wouldn't want to deal with them :

DE Filter Cleaning Tutorial

This tutorial is geared toward the traditional grid-style DE filters. If you have a cartridge-style DE filter, you may want to switch over to JoyfulNoise's QuadDE Tutorial. When DE filters are backwashed, not all of the DE/fiber cellulose (henceforth, the term DE will be used to refer to both)...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[JJ_Tex]

Just to defend DE filters a bit, they may not be as easy to maintain as a cartridge, but they are not cumbersome to maintain.

I backwash mine every 1-2 months, and it takes about 10 minutes. Most of that 10 minutes is spent standing at the equipment pad scratching my butt and watching for the sight glass to turn clear. Then you put it back to filter mode and add 6 scoops of DE to the skimmer and call it a day.

The above instructions are for a deep clean. I've done that once, just to say that I did it. It took about an hour, with most of that time running back to my computer to look at those directions and/or youtube. I will probably do that every year just to be safe, but didnt feel like it really needs it.