New Pool build --- Northern California **4/12/21 start date**

[n163ss]

I'm also in NORCAL in Marin. IMO the cover is a must. The big benefit is the saved water from lack of evaporation, chemicals and keeping the heat in the pool over night. You did not mention Solar. This is a no brainer. Without heat in the summer pool temps are 75' ish........too cold for me. We only have solar for heating and can maintain 85' May through mid Oct. After that the sun angle drops too much. We only use the pool 6 months of the year. Pool Covers Inc has been great to deal with. Money well spent. I would also skip the boost pump for the pool sweep and just use a Maytronics S200 Dolphin. It cost pennies per day to run vice dollars per day for the pool pump sweep. It also does a superior job of cleaning. There is no comparison. We just sold our place and are moving to the Big Island. As you mentioned tired of the fires, ash, smoke and our insurance underwriter would not renew for 2021. The new policy was was double ++ for less coverage. I may be selling my S200 if you decide to go that route.

 

[Desert Dog]

concrete demo, electrical thru attic, etc it causes price increase. In my mind I was like a darn near $20k price increase tho?? Bottom of quote he put "add additional $4k for concrete demo"

My electric goes through the attic too. I got a bid of somewhere in the $8,000 range to run the electric. I did it myself. Would have been better if I wasn't 6' and 200#. I did concrete demo as well. It is expensive to get rid of in CA and not fun at all to run a jack hammer. Lucky for me my brother in law has two jack hammers and a pneumatic trailer. He helped me with that but hauling it out I will never do again. Much easier to have an excavator do it. I was quoted $1,500 to demo by my Escavator but never got the price for him to haul away. He wanted to leave it on the property.

Just something to compare with what you where told. Good luck and let the fun begin!

 

[JC707]

Thanks Desert Dog!

1st builder I met said $4k to demo n haul away. 2nd builder I just met whom we chose was $2,000. I have 1 guy I want to talk with who has done some hauling for me in the past to get a quote as well.

I am thinking $2,000 is a good price as we have a large area of concrete demo to be done, maybe 40'X30' or so. If only my wife would have told me she would eventually want a pool in our backyard. Lol

 

[Desert Dog]

Our demo are was about the same as yours maybe a bit smaller. Then after the pool was put in we did a new 22' x 12' patio and tied into existing patio. The concrete demo was a huge mess.

 

[Sollace]

I vote with going ahead on your pool now. You never know how long it'll take, the delays, etc. etc. Ours starts up in November. No date yet.

 

[JC707]

Question for having enough room for planting small plants/trees.

When we met with builder she designed it in a way that had maybe 3.5' room away from fence which would be the planting area then next is the decking/walkway area of 4' then coping/water. This design decreased our pool length and we want the biggest we can fit in our small yard within budget

So we changed design for a 2' planting area and 3.5' walkway....which would increase our pool length a bit.

My question is .... is 2' enough to plant? And 3.5' walkway space large enough? My wife wants to push it to 4' walkway but I think 3.5' is ok. Thanks!

 

[JC707]

That yellow scribble is the planting area with the yellow straight lines the edge where concrete would begin. Ignore my crappy drawing skills please.

 

[Desert Dog]

If the walkway is 3.5', I would think that is fine. As long as that is that walkway. If your blue line is the water and you have 8-12" of coping, your actual walk way shrinks. Sure you can walk on coping but visually if your measurement includes the walkway and coping, your getting thin. Try laying it out with string or a couple of hoses and see what you think. Couple other things to consider. One is the planter. Two feet is not a lot of room unless you plan on just rock or mulch. Depending on what you plant, it can grow out onto your walkway. Other thing to considers your set backs. Assuming your fence is on the property line, how close is the pool? I believe around my area you need 5' of set back. Something to ask your BP if you want to make your pool bigger.

Another option to consider is not having a walkway on that side. Make the pool bigger and the planter. You would still have the coping to walk on for brushing the pool. The builder could tapper the walkway into the side of the pool or make some kinda of curve to make it look nice. You could then also add stepping stones through the planted area, if there is enough room, to connect it back to the other side.

 

[JC707]

Great ideas! I will talk this all over with the boss (wife) and tomorrow try to lay out some string and some painters tape and see what we come up with.

 

[JC707]

You are correct that fence is our property line. Setbacks...I believe its only 2 feet or so here in our city but I will check. I know our neighbor has a pool...I can see it thru our fence cracks (not that I am looking at it or anything ). It doesn't look but 4 or 5 feet away from our fence.

Planter area, I know my wife is dead set on planting things there. So we may need to bump the 2.5' planting space up some. She hates the look of a fence only...because I told her I am happy with just keeping our rock there, plain Jane style and she told me no. Heck I said I'll even stain the fence make it nice and pretty for her lol.

Edit: when you say setback...does that mean the dead space between our fence and whatever landscaping we do whether it be rocks/dirt/pool etc?

 

[Desert Dog]

Setback is the legal space needed form property line to structure. So my legal set back is 5'. Anything I build must be 5' from the property line. This does not include "ground work". Ground work could be plants, side walks, concrete patio. Any structure such as a pool would need to adhere to the set backs. Your building authority will check your building plans to make sure you are ok. They may even be listed on the plans.

 

[JC707]

Possible change in design. The raised wall area, deleting planting space up there and making it a sitting area. Only issue is fence is behind that area, would that be an issue? Also maybe can get away with 1 step up to platform instead of 2 to save money?

We rather not plant anything in that space to be honest. I am waiting to see how much extra that will costs which will ultimately be the deciding factor if change design.

 

[JC707]

@kimkats

Paging the design queen for my build thread.

 

[Desert Dog]

If I might say, I like both designs, but think I would prefer the additional seating. You could always add a couple of potted plants up there too. That would give you both options. I don't see an issue with the fence. Just be aware with what is on the other side. You could be up on display.

 

[JC707]

If I might say, I like both designs, but think I would prefer the additional seating. You could always add a couple of potted plants up there too. That would give you both options. I don't see an issue with the fence. Just be aware with what is on the other side. You could be up on display.

Lol so you're saying no thong bikinis (male or female) then while sitting up there? Hehe

My wife said exact same thing, she can add potted plants and call it a day. We are leaning on the change, addtional seating is great because our backyard is pretty small as it is.

We are just waiting on the additional costs.

What do you think of doing just 1 step up to that platform? Might save some $$ as well instead of 2 steps? I believe we are doing a 21" raised wall there.

 

[kcarlile]

I like the additional seating area. It makes a nice little sun deck.

 

[Desert Dog]

I think you could get by with one step but not sure if there is some code that would need to be followed. Best bet is ask your PB.

 

[Desert Dog]

Here is some inspiration. This is one of two pools I've done as OB. Kinda of same concept of what you are trying to do.

 

[Desert Dog]

Better pic:

 

[JC707]

Beautiful! And that settles that, definitely doing the little seating area up there and axing the planter space. Thanks for sharing the pics