New Owner Build in FL near Orlando

[bbqjosh]

Starting off on our new backyard oasis! Over the last month I have been busy designing and burning up the phone getting quotes. We finalized our pool design which is one of the toughest steps (getting agreements from the Mrs!) We decided not to get a spa because it is so hot here in FL and most of the time we are looking to cool off. I had the aquatic engineering plans created, got my permit from the city, and filed my notice of commencement. Attached you can see the layout of the pool with the profile. We are doing a sport pool. I don't have a fancy 3D rendering because we are building ourselves, but I have CAD software so I did the layout. I will update with all the details and pictures as we go and I look forward to all the comments.

 

[Texas Splash]

Quite a project. Should be fun to watch.

 

[kimkats]

Where is the house in relation to the pool? What are the dots on the plan? I would also love to see the yard this beauty is going in.

Kim

 

[Jimrahbe]

We decided not to get a spa because it is so hot here in FL and most of the time we are looking to cool off.

Josh,

Don't feel bad about the spa... About 50% of the people who install an inground spa, never use them after the first year... The spa experience is not what most thought it would be like.


The most important decision is one that most people never even think about until it is almost too late.. How do you plan to sanitize your pool water???

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[bbqjosh]

Where is the house in relation to the pool? What are the dots on the plan? I would also love to see the yard this beauty is going in.

Kim

Hey Kim,

The house in on top of the page. I just zoomed in on the pool portion so it would show up nice. I'll post a zoomed out view with the house as I have that already prepared. The dots in the bench and beach area are umbrella holders and then there are four deck jets.

 

[bbqjosh]

Josh,

Don't feel bad about the spa... About 50% of the people who install an inground spa, never use them after the first year... The spa experience is not what most thought it would be like.


The most important decision is one that most people never even think about until it is almost too late.. How do you plan to sanitize your pool water???

Thanks,

Jim R.

Jim,

For sanitation we will have a cartridge filter and salt water generator. I will post the equipment real soon as soon as I catch up on all last months achievements! LOL

 

[kimkats]

So the long bench is away from the house............could be good for watching TV from there AND you will not have to worry about WHEN someone cannon balls after running out of the house!! I like how you have the steps right by the house on the shelf. The bench on the wall will also allow someone to use that as a step to get out of the pool on that end.

WELL done all of it!!

Kim

 

[bbqjosh]

So let's go back to the beginning. I am going to state the steps I went through incase someone in the future wants to do it themselves. So after getting quotes from pool builders, we felt like we were being pushed into a pool design that was not ours. We never got to discuss what we really wanted due to sticker shock from the pool builders. I can tell you that over 3 years of debating, prices have gone up a solid 10k. We tried to get the same basic design from the different pool builders and those designs came in at 47k to 100k and really these were just basic pools. So you can see it is the wild west here in Florida. Luckily we had a friend who decided to build his own pool in the past and helped put the idea in our heads that we could do it ourselves. So we picked up where the pool builders left off and tried to come up with the pool that we wanted. So after 100 design iterations with the wife, I decided I wouldn't let her change one more thing and sent my plans to engineering. It's a nice way to say your done once you have to pay for engineering! LOL There is no going back! Or at least that is what I said. We ended up with a 35' x 17' pool which is approximately 15.5k gallons. Then we took to the internet to find engineering. You want to search for aquatic engineering. We located one on the west coast of Florida and this is all they do (commercial and residential pools). They have ala cart pricing so I wasn't quite sure what I needed. I had my 2D plans handy and ended up ordering their standard engineering package which includes the ANSI 15 and ANSI 7 TDH calculations. One of the main items I needed to choose was the exact main drain I was going to use. They need that for the calculations so I ended up with a Heyward 8 inch dual drain. I also asked them to give me an idea of what equipment sizes I needed and they included that in their report. Once again it was decision time as they charge different rates for paper and digital packages. I picked two hard copies as that is what I needed for the permit package and then just scanned them for my own records. It took them about a week to turn it around and arrive at the house. So what's included in these engineering plans? It is the minimum safety requirements and design minimums to meet the 2017 Florida Building Code. One thing that caught my eye was 1 skimmer per 800 sf. I know I have seen a lot of questions on that in these forums. Also the returns are a minimum of 1 per 300 sf. It has the shell and beam size and rebar sizes for the Gunite. It has lot's of information and definitely will help guide you on the rest of your journey.

 

[bbqjosh]

So the long bench is away from the house............could be good for watching TV from there AND you will not have to worry about WHEN someone cannon balls after running out of the house!! I like how you have the steps right by the house on the shelf. The bench on the wall will also allow someone to use that as a step to get out of the pool on that end.

WELL done all of it!!

Kim

Hi Kim,

Yes, the long bench is away from the house. That will be my bench watching the TV on the patio. I can't wait!
At first, the pool designer put the bench on the other side and I was thinking about cannon ballers and I said no way. They will definitely be running from the house side.
We ended up with two corner steps because I have younger kids and an older dad with bad knees. Since we chose the 3.5' depth four steps were necessary to keep them from being 12 inch steps.

 

[kimkats]

Dad with bad knees??? You need to see about getting a hand rail as well. You will be glad you did when you see how much easier it makes it for your Dad and others as well. They make some pretty ones. I will help you pick them out if you would like.

Kim

 

[bbqjosh]

Dad with bad knees??? You need to see about getting a hand rail as well. You will be glad you did when you see how much easier it makes it for your Dad and others as well. They make some pretty ones. I will help you pick them out if you would like.

Kim

Hi Kim,

My dad has asked to install it for him. He has one at his house. I have never seen a pretty one so send me some info. Thanks!

 

[String2005]

We are trying to find a rail similar to this one to go from the concrete to the tanning ledge as our stairs are built in the lege like the picture, perhaps something like this would work for you as well.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Josh,

Here is a pic of a ugly installation but a great hand rail... This is what happens when you wait until after the pool is built to install it.

Pool Railing.jpg

• Jimrahbe
• May 15, 2017

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[bbqjosh]

We are trying to find a rail similar to this one to go from the concrete to the tanning ledge as our stairs are built in the lege like the picture, perhaps something like this would work for you as well.

Hello String,

That is a good looking rail. I definitely have seen and don't want the style like Jim has shown. LOL. My wife is weary about the rail due to us being in a horrible lightning zone. Our house has already been hit along with about 4 neighbors in the past 2 years. I am sure they make composites but haven't spent much time looking. I will put some time in and search the interwebs.

 

[bbqjosh]

After we got our engineering back, it is time to apply for the permit. I thought the permit application would be pretty easy until I got in touch with the building department. They did have a nice list of what they were looking for which caught me by surprise. They wanted two copies of all the equipment installation manuals. This amounts to hundreds of pages printed. I can't believe they wanted so much printed paper. The permit package was bigger than my thesis! LOL So I had to hit the internet and download and print all these installation manuals and it is all the equipment (pumps, swg, filters, heater, etc etc). Check to make sure they aren't triple language as it is even more paper. For my city, I needed to pull three permits (Pool/Spa, Plumbing, and Electrical). For the pool/spa you need to assign a valuation and this will determine your permit fee when you pick up your approved permit. For the electrical and plumbing I filled out the owner information and left everything else blank. They just assign a basic fee for these. You will need to get your permit and notice of commencement notarized. So here are all the contents I needed:
One Pool/Spa Permit
One Plumbing Permit
One Electrical Permit
One Owner/Builder Affidavit (Basically outlines what is expected of you and the risk)
Two sets of the aquatic engineering plans and report
Two sets of your 2D pool plans
Two sets of survey with hand drawn pool and pool equipment area with set backs to property lines
Two copies of residential safety act form (How you are going to protect your pool (fence, door alarms, in pool alarm, screened enclosure, etc)

I dropped my permit off at the building department on a Thursday and then I picked up the approved package up on a Monday. They sent me an email to pay my fee before I picked up the package.

They state that you can begin construction, but you need to file a notice of commencement before the first inspection. I decided to go to the county and file my notice of commencement the next day. You pay another small fee and it is recorded. This was done at the court of clerks office. So with all that squared away we are set to break ground!

 

[kimkats]

2??? Copies??? WOW that is unreal!!!!!! OUCH! Bet you had to keep feeding paper to the printer!

 

[bbqjosh]

Now for the equipment reveal:

We decided to go with a mix of Pentair and Heyward.

Heyward 8 inch dual main drains
Heyward Skimmer
Pentair Intelliflo 3hp VS pump
Pentair Clean and Clear Cartridge Filter 200 SF (I've read to go bigger in all the threads)
Pentair IG40 Salt Water Generator
Pentair Ultratemp140k Heater
Intellibrite Pool Light (Was going with 5 globrites until I read the forums LOL)
Pentair EasyTouch 4 w/2 actuators and screen logic
Four returns and one vacuum line

 

[bbqjosh]

2??? Copies??? WOW that is unreal!!!!!! OUCH! Bet you had to keep feeding paper to the printer!

Kim,

So many copies!!!! The city kept one and they gave me the others to put into the permit box. I really don't know why they do this, but they should accept digital copies. I imagine the people that install this equipment, do it daily and don't need my printed copies. Oh well, I apologize to the trees! LOL

 

[kimkats]

I REALLY need this one for this! LOL

 

[Jimrahbe]

Pentair Clean and Clear Cartridge Filter 200 SF (I've read to go bigger in all the threads)

Florida, the home of the dinky filter.. Is your pool going to be in a screen room?

Make sure you buy an EasyTouch with built in SWCG power supply. It comes with an IC40 and two actuators. You will also want ScreenLogic which does not normally come with a real EasyTouch..

Make sure you do not buy an "lite" version EasyTouch.. They are a cheap knock off of the real thing. And often come with ScreenLogic to trick you into buying it.. PSL4 or PL4...

Make sure your cell is at least 2 X the volume of your pool...

Thanks,

Jim R.