New pool bids - Woodlands, TX

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sirius.pain

Member
Feb 5, 2020
8
Houston
Alright! So we got five PBs to come out and talk with us. Two were booted because of unprofessional behavior and inability to provide details on estimates etc. Our quotes include spa and non-spa option because we were not sure about what would be best for us in Tx. Pool Images have been edited to remove some of our personal information from them.

With young children, we have bubblers in the pool. PB2 was against SWG (corrosion) but was very professional and reasonable enough to detail out the quote and include cost of SWG as a separate line item.

The details are as follows:

PB1

EQUIPMENT SPECIFICATIONS

Pool Filter: 1 Pentair Cartridge 420 Sqft Clean & Clear
Pool Pump: 1 Intelliflo Variable Speed
Pool Cleaner: 1 Pentair Kreepy Racer Cleaner
Heater: 1 Pentair Mastertemp 400K BTU Nat.GAS
Chlorination: 1 Powerclean Inline VS Chlorinator
Remote system: 1 EZ Touch System 8 Pool/Spa No Salt
Pool Lights: 2 Intellibrite LED Pool Color
Spa Light: 1 Intellibrite LED Spa Color
Spa Jets: 6 Hydro-air Jets
Spa Blower: 1 Jandy 1.5HP 240 blower (Not Pentair product/ 1 Yr warranty)
Pool/Spa Main Drains: 2 Anti-entrapment Safety Drains VGB Compliant @ deep end
Pool Skimmers: 2 Skimmer SQ U3 2" Slip TAN
Pool/Spa Returns: 6 Directional for Maximum Circulation
Iphone adapter: 1 With existing cable wired by equipment pad

PLUMBING SPECIFICATIONS
Hydraulic Design: Separate Lines for all Skimmers & Main Drains Standard
Pipe: All Schedule 40 PVC (Solvent-weld)
Valves: Pentair 2" x 2 1/2" (Neverlube)
Fill Line: (Manual) ¾” Anti-siphon Pool Fill Line Included (Typically located at pool equipment)
Overflow Line: Included / Tied into Deck Drainage System
Backwash Line: To Sewer Cleanout if DE Filter

PB2

3.5’ to 5.5’ Depth, All dirt from dig removed from site and hauled away
Gunite pool shell for added strength (no shotcrete)
12” Beam Travertine Custom Stone Coping
3 Steps at shallow end of pool
Oversized Tanning Shelf at shallow end of pool
(3) Bubblers on Tanning shelf at entry
Long underwater Bench seat at entry
6” Row of waterline tile $6.00 per foot allowance
2”, 2.5”, & 3” In-wall plumbing system as designed for proper hydraulics
2 VGB Main drains (Complies or exceeds all minimum Government Safety standards)
8 Directional return inlets
Independent pool cleaner line
Switches for Lights and Bubbler Control
Pentair Whisperflo 2 HP circulation pump
Pentair Whisperflo 2 hp bubbler pump
Pentair Clean and Clear 420 cartridge filter
(3) Pentair Microbrite LED Color pool light with transformer
IntelliChlor salt system
30 Day pool service after interior finish
Electrical Hook Up
(2) Trees to be removed
Overflow for pool
Deck drains as needed
AutoFill system
(2) Skimmers
8” On center Steel for added strength

PB3

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Images

PB1
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PB2
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PB3

Old school sketch for initial review:
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I’d rather cut my arm off than not have an SWG in HOUSTON. Best thing I did for my pool. The other being the Chiller I put in. I’m not a fan of swimming in a bath tub for 6 months but that’s just me. You’ll be hating life when you are dumping Liquid Chlorine in your pool EVERY DAY from March-October. Yes I realize you will have your tab feeder. I’ll leave that to the other 50 people that will chime in on that.
if you do decide to go with an SWG might want to reconsider the flagstone coping.

no matter what, I’d make sure you get the Pentair Intelliflow pump. You will get 30 chime ins on that as well.
 
I bet that pool cleaner is water driven, which means your pool pump has to be running for the cleaner to operate. Delete that and buy a robot instead. It’s electric but low voltage, cleans better than the typical water driven cleaner, and does not need the pool pump to operate.

I’m also in Houston and in the process of building my first pool. It’s just about finished (knock on wood). I went with a salt system for all the reasons you‘ve hopefully read about. Interestingly, my pool builder also installed a basic in line chlorinator so that I can use chlorine pucks if I want to. Barely any extra cost and I don’t have to use the in line chlorinator if I don’t want to, but it also gives me an alternative just in case my salt system has an issue for whatever reason.

I skipped the spa because I wanted to put the money towards the main pool, my wife would never use it, and I wanted a heat pump with chiller instead. The spa would have required a gas heater, meaning I would have had a gas heater and a heat pump. It seemed like an unnecessary expense for my usage.

For me, the heat pump with chiller was a requirement because my pool is set up to swim laps, and I wanted to keep the pool cool in summer and warm in winter for long swim sessions. I typically swim 3-4 times a week.
 
sp,

I have three saltwater pools and would almost fill them all in rather than not have them be saltwater pools.

Get the new IntelliCenter instead of the old EasyTouch with ScreenLogic.

Ditch any water powered cleaner and buy your own low voltage robot cleaner.

I am no longer a fan of DE filters and would go with a large cartridge filter.

I personally like the geometric design best...

I am not a fan of in-ground spas. I have a standalone above ground spa and find it much more comfortable and usable then a gunite spa.

I will never use flagstone for coping again.. One of my rent house pools has flagstone coping.. Long before it was converted to saltwater the coping started to shed very thin layers of stone dust... It is still doing it today.. I have good stones and bad stones right next to one another.. If you could just pick the good stones it would be OK, but not sure that is even possible.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
I will gather all my replies and questions in one.
We love the geometric design - the free form option was to see if there were significant cost savings (they aren’t significant enough).

Mostly going to go for SWG and travertine not flagstone.
One of the things that’s confusing us is that PB1 and PB3 are ones we favor more and they are a few thousand from each other. But their equipment selection is completely different and being first timers we are out of our depth.
 
It’s definitely a confusing process, especially when the bids likely have differing levels of detail. I would try to finalize the design you want and then have the PBs bid on that exact design. That way you’re making a comparable comparison.

Then post the bids up here. You don’t need to put the price, but list the details of what they’re providing and the price difference between the bids. Folks here are very helpful.
 
Dtkokay said:
I skipped the spa because I wanted to put the money towards the main pool, my wife would never use it, and I wanted a heat pump with chiller instead. The spa would have required a gas heater, meaning I would have had a gas heater and a heat pump. It seemed like an unnecessary expense for my usage.

For me, the heat pump with chiller was a requirement because my pool is set up to swim laps, and I wanted to keep the pool cool in summer and warm in winter for long swim sessions. I typically swim 3-4 times a week.
Click to expand...

How do you find the heat pump. My house and the pool location do not receive much direct sunlight - I am assuming the heat pump will work off latent heat transfer. Would a shaded spot, even in TX be a no go for a heat pump?
 
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