South Texas Gulf coast and thank you for adding me to your forum. I'm new to pools, in fact mine is being dug next week. I hope to lean on the more experienced members here, especially salt water pool owners, to help get started. I want to learn how to maintain my pool on my own.
Hey Waco! Welcome to TFP, and congrats on the start of your pool. We have a forum for new builds. Get a thread going over there and you'll get lots of help, before, during and after your build. If you post your plans and spec's our experts will take a look. Now's the time to make sure everything is A-OK.
Welcome to TFP! You've come to the right place. We are experts and pool enthusiasts that want to help people learn and put into practice TFP pool methods. We use inexpensive generic chemicals you can get from big box stores to treat our pools. It works great and is dirt cheap. TFP methods are based on sound science and used by thousands. We have experts here in everything related to pools from construction to maintenance and everything in between. Also, we don't sell anything so the advice you get from us is never conflicted.
I switched to salt about 2 years ago after 5 years of liquid chlorine. Your builder or pool store may tell you to use solid tablets. Don't do it. I bet half the people on here did that and ended up with big problems that were solved by using liquid chlorine or a salt pool. Salt pools use very low amount of salt (about 10% of the level in sea water) and they have a cell that converts salt to free chlorine. So under normal conditions you never have to add chlorine. It makes pool care waaaaay easier! And my wife loves it. She says it feels like a spa. Our kids and grand kids love it too. The salinity is about the same as human tears so it doesn't burn. When you go with a salt pool there are a lot of choices on equipment. What equipment is your builder proposing?
Welcome to TFP! For a wealth of pool care information please check out our free Pool School. If you are in need of specific help then we encourage you to Register and ask us here in the forum!