New build, Houston (Cypress), Tx

Jump to latest Follow Reply
I have been thinking about your slide. It does resemble a giraffe. So I think you should just get rid of it and I am willing to just take a bullet for the team and take possession of it so that you will not have to look at that disgusting thing anymore! Just let me know when and I will be there to get it. Ha!
 
Huskers16 said:
That looks AMAZING!! Now that the decking is done and it looks like you got some rain I was wondering if it was slick with it having the sealer on it? That is what we are contemplating because we have been told that once you seal it the decking can become very slippery. I also wanted to know if those are natural gas tiki torches that they installed?
Click to expand...
Thank you!

So the decking is a little more slick than I was hoping. In places it's fine and in others it is a bit slippery. My PB has a few little things to finish so I'll ask if it will become less slick over time and if not if there's another sealer I can apply over the top.

It's not super slick and like I said in places it's fine so I guess it depends on where the texture is and the sealers coverage in those areas.

The torches are just regular tiki torches (not gas). My wife really wanted to put them up but I was worried they might look cheap but I don't actually think they do. I've pretty much had my way with the pool so I wasn't going to argue on this with her and am glad I didn't.

We filled the planters with pebbles as we kept the palms fairly deep in them to minimize the risk of them ever overflowing from heavy rain. For 3 planters we're through 14 bags and could still do with another 4-6 bags... :shock:
 
KenGood said:
I have been thinking about your slide. It does resemble a giraffe. So I think you should just get rid of it and I am willing to just take a bullet for the team and take possession of it so that you will not have to look at that disgusting thing anymore! Just let me know when and I will be there to get it. Ha!
Click to expand...
Ha! Not a hope. It's mine. Mine I tell you! :mrgreen:
 
Sorry, was busy and only posted a short response. It's a Katchakid fence. It's a tension based system and is relatively straightforward to remove. There's no way a child could do it though - it actually takes a good deal of strength and dexterity to remove the little latches that fix it to the wall. The fence posts sit in slots drilled into the concrete. If we remove it, we have little caps we can put over the holes.

The gate also requires two hands to open from the inside and at 4 ft tall, my son can't climb it. We went through a lot of headaches on this fence. In the end, we insisted on the layout as you see it -this is not the layout that the katchakid representative was pushing. They wanted to wrap the patio but instead of taking it to the back door, wanted to cut across the deck at that point and take it all the way to the back fence of our yard so that there was direct access to the rest of the yard and grass but that the pool was still fenced off. Their solution was obviously a lot more expensive (not the reason we didn't do it though) and made the whole side of the deck it cut through completely redundant as there was insufficient space on either side to do anything useful. It also would have meant pouring concrete footers in the grass and having to lay down pebbles on either side of the fence to stop lawn equipment damaging the posts. The other point is that it would have allowed our son to be in the back yard and out of site which we didn't want to do either. In the end we stuck to our guns and did exactly what we wanted to do which we think best serves us and our child.

It's interesting to me and my wife that all of the child safety gates we have seen in our area, all block off only the covered patio.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Thanks Ken, I do too despite all the stress involved!

So I mentioned that we weren't entirely happy with the slide and nor was the PB. The slide crew came out and refinished it all for us.
According to them, some acid from the pebble finish crew must have got on the slide surface and caused the spotting and deterioration. It was refinished at no cost to me in any case. Really happy with the way the PB dealt with it for us. It's been done since Monday and has shown none of the deterioration that was present previously so really pleased with how it looks now.



 
What do you color your water with? :cool:

Love the new slide surface!
 
bmoreswim said:
What do you color your water with? :cool:

Love the new slide surface!
Click to expand...
Thanks!!

I dropped some blue food dye into it as I wanted a deep blue color! :lol:

This is why it's so difficult to pick a pool color! It's an early morning shot and it looks a much deeper and darker blue than it does normally. Right now it's much lighter than that photo but we are very happy with the color.
 
257WbyMag said:
Love the slide! :goodjob:
Click to expand...
Thank you. Us too! :whoot:
I don't know if the novelty may wear off but all of us are continually getting out to go down it.

On a side note, I would highly recommend anyone putting in a waterfall that plans to jump off it going to 7'+

We're at about 7'3" at the deep end which reduces to more like 6'3" or so directly in front of the waterfall.

I've jumped off it a few times (as has my wife) and my feet find the bottom every time. This is with me jumping into the deepest section. There's more than enough water directly in front of it for kids but I'm 240lbs and wouldn't want it any shallower. The top of the waterfall is about 5' above the water line.

At 7' it is dive friendly. I can find the bottom if I'm trying but not on regular dives. It wasn't built as a diving pool otherwise I'd have probably gone to 8' but I like to dive in and it's more than adequate for my needs on that front. Going deeper would have created more slope and less shallow end and I decided it wasn't really needed for what we were intending to use the pool for.
 
Just a quick update on the slide. It still looks great. Really pleased it was refinished as it was detracting from the whole look of the pool to me.
The new finish has had none of the problems of the first finish and looks the same now as it did when they redid it.

Terrible photo (morning sun again) but you can see the surface has no marks or deterioration on it. I can only assume the slide guys were right and it did get some acid on it (though I was unable to feel any of the deterioration on the surface with my hand). In any case, I'm happy.


To anyone that reads this and is on the fence about putting in a fire pit, I say go for it. I can't believe how much use it's getting. It's become the evening social gathering place to just sit, relax, drink a cold one and chat. It's not even that cold yet here in Houston so I can only imagine it's going to get more and more use through the winter months.

I actually ran the heater yesterday for the first time to bring the pool up to 84. Heated surprisingly quickly - took about 6 hours to come up about 8-10 degrees or so (I'm not sure how accurate the temp sensor is - need to find an in-water one I think).

The katchakid fence is great. We're really happy with the decision to get one and to stick to our guns and run it around the covered patio only. My son and a friend happily played in there for an hour last night whilst the adults sat around the fire pit. It doesn't obstruct vision at all (I mean you can see it, but you can clearly see through it) and meant we could see the boys and they could see us. It was great to not be worrying about them near the fire or pool and they were happy as the covered deck area has turned into an outdoor game room. The fence is also definitely child proof (which I expected but it was nice to have this confirmed). We've had 4 and 6 yr olds trying to open it and they've been unable to which makes me happy. Doesn't replace constant vigilance though.
 
The slide is just beyond words. Love, Love, Love it every time I see it. Thanks also for the comments about the fire pit. We are putting one in as well. Glad to hear that it will get a lot of use.
 
We have also had some problems with the finish of our slide. Hopefully today will be the day it comes out right. I hope mine looks as good as yours in the end.

I think if you keep posting pic's of the slide Ken will be adding one before long. Ha!
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply