New Pool, North Atlanta, GA

[Turbo1Ton]

My gas and electric are just a rolling average of the previous 12 months. They can fluctuate a little bit each month, but the idea is to smooth out the fluctuations. I am not paying more/less per kWh or dekatherm than anyone else.

--Jeff

 

[miltonmom]

Your pool is looking great! We are at the waiting on PebbleSheen stage, fencing in, decking complete. Hopefully we will get one swim in!

 

[markayash]

I’ve been receiving those gas and electric bill offers of flat billing where my utility bills are smoothed out for the year and I’ll only pay $80/month or whatever it is. It usually works out to be more in total than I’ve been paying over the last year, but we’ll be starting up our pool in the next month or so and I’m expecting my utility usage to go up. The flat payment plans state there’s overage charges at the end of the year so these flat payment offers are starting to sound interesting. Has anyone else successfully stuck it to the gas and electricity man with these plans before?

If you have a VS speed pump it isn't bad around here. My pump is using around 300 watts which if you think about it like leaving 3 old style lamp on .
I have a 400K heater and was surprised 2 years ago when I heated mine from 65 to 86 for the band kids. Heater ran wide open for almost 2 days and I estimated it cost me an extra $20. My gas bill averages around $70 normally but still was worth it to let the kid's swim and have fun.

I would rather pay for what you use vs letting them average it, just my personal opinion

 

[BritDan]

Your pool is looking great! We are at the waiting on PebbleSheen stage, fencing in, decking complete. Hopefully we will get one swim in!

Thanks! We're chugging along. The first dip will like be a polar bear dip in the winter but we're close!

Thank you for all the feedback on the utility usage and billing - much appreciated. I suppose the only potential advantage of signing up for the flat billing right now is that the utility companies are figuring out my average usage on prepool bills. The heater and the pump will certainly up my usage of gas and electric so can I take advantage of that for this first year of having a pool?

Example, over the last 12 months my total power bill comes to $999.23 or $83.27/month. The flat bill quote for power is $100.52/month - so $17.25 extra per month. But I assume that running my pump for 12 hours a day will cost me more than $17.25 a month, right?

And the same with gas, last 12 months we paid $900.31 or $75.03/month. The flat bill would be $95/month so just shy of $20 extra. But I'd use more gas than that just to heat the spa up on a regular basis wouldn't I?

I'm sure they'd get wise next year when the come to offer me flat billing again but maybe I could take advantage for this first year - whadoyathink?

 

[markayash]

Thanks! We're chugging along. The first dip will like be a polar bear dip in the winter but we're close!

Thank you for all the feedback on the utility usage and billing - much appreciated. I suppose the only potential advantage of signing up for the flat billing right now is that the utility companies are figuring out my average usage on prepool bills. The heater and the pump will certainly up my usage of gas and electric so can I take advantage of that for this first year of having a pool?

Example, over the last 12 months my total power bill comes to $999.23 or $83.27/month. The flat bill quote for power is $100.52/month - so $17.25 extra per month. But I assume that running my pump for 12 hours a day will cost me more than $17.25 a month, right?

And the same with gas, last 12 months we paid $900.31 or $75.03/month. The flat bill would be $95/month so just shy of $20 extra. But I'd use more gas than that just to heat the spa up on a regular basis wouldn't I?

I'm sure they'd get wise next year when the come to offer me flat billing again but maybe I could take advantage for this first year - whadoyathink?

The good thing about Atlanta is you can pretty much turn the pump off around Oct or Nov and add a little chlorine every month and it will stay clear as glass. I spin mine back up around Late March

 

[Newdude]

I suppose the only potential advantage of signing up for the flat billing right now is that the utility companies are figuring out my average usage on prepool bills.

Yes. And make no mistake, there will be no free lunch. When you use more, they will recalculate and bill you the difference. They usually offer to spread that out as well so folks don't have to cough up the $600 (or whatevs). The reason for the average bills is because in the peak summer and winter when the bills are the highest, alot of people don't have the extra funds at hand. Like the Dec bill, with the shortest days needing the most lights. And it's cold so you are home watching TV and baking a Turkey all afternoon. That bill hits 2 weeks after Xmas when anyone with kids is probably shorter than they'd like to be. In summer it's the ACs and the pool right after you just paid a small fortune for 2 summer camps for the kids. So averaging out the big bills works for alot of people.

 

[CORTEX404]

BritDan,

Have you been happy with your builder? We're in Acworth and have them on our list. (sorry folks, I can't PM yet)

Does anyone in the ATL market see prices going down in the next few years? We're deciding if we should just go ahead and take it on the chin or wait a few more years to build. If we wait, with the help of this forum, I'll probably end up with a better build. However, no one in the family is getting any younger...........decisions, decisions.

 

[markayash]

BritDan,

Have you been happy with your builder? We're in Acworth and have them on our list. (sorry folks, I can't PM yet)

Does anyone in the ATL market see prices going down in the next few years? We're deciding if we should just go ahead and take it on the chin or wait a few more years to build. If we wait, with the help of this forum, I'll probably end up with a better build. However, no one in the family is getting any younger...........decisions, decisions.

Materials are expensive now, I don't understand it but we are putting off remodeling our kitchen in hope things level off.
On waiting I think it depends on you and your family, my kids are grown and moved out but we still enjoy sitting outside around the pool. My experience is once the kids hit high school they didn't use it much
Issue now with all this rain is the mosquitos are nuts, I have treated but guessing it washes away and new mosquitos are hatching by the 100's.

 

[CORTEX404]

Materials are expensive now, I don't understand it but we are putting off remodeling our kitchen in hope things level off.
On waiting I think it depends on you and your family, my kids are grown and moved out but we still enjoy sitting outside around the pool. My experience is once the kids hit high school they didn't use it much
Issue now with all this rain is the mosquitos are nuts, I have treated but guessing it washes away and new mosquitos are hatching by the 100's.

Our backyard is mosquito paradise apparently. This is another concern of mine. I was wondering if the spray worked but I was concerned about the hatch rate and infiltration from the neighbors yard.

Not sure what to do at this point. After reading up on pool prices pre-Covid I feel like I'd be paying 20k more than I would have in 2019

 

[BritDan]

BritDan,

Have you been happy with your builder? We're in Acworth and have them on our list. (sorry folks, I can't PM yet)

Does anyone in the ATL market see prices going down in the next few years? We're deciding if we should just go ahead and take it on the chin or wait a few more years to build. If we wait, with the help of this forum, I'll probably end up with a better build. However, no one in the family is getting any younger...........decisions, decisions.

Hi there, like many on this forum, our PB uses contractors for all of the work. As far as I can tell, the work has been great. Especially when you read some of the horror stories others have been posting here. communication is terrible though: very slow to respond to questions; unannounced subcontractor visits and activities etc., but we’re down to the last few tasks now. Our dig day was june 9, so if we’re done in the next 3 or 4 weeks then that will be 4 months of work. Not too bad really, especially considering the weather in Atlanta this summer.

 

[darkrider]

I debated this myself, but don't see pool pricing coming down any time soon. It's a combination of inflated real estate pricing, Covid related demand with people staying home more, and material and equipment supply shortages. Even with some improvement in the material and equipment supplies, and eventual decline in the real estate market, the demand in the Atlanta market is going to stay hot. It would take a pretty major recession to cool things off, which is a possibility. However, you will be waiting a minute on that, and even then it becomes a question of whether you would also be personally impacted.

 

[LBT]

I don't see pool pricing coming down any time soon. The demand is so high right now and the PBs are going to continue to take advantage of it. I think these prices will be the new normal.

 

[Newdude]

I don't see pool pricing coming down any time soon. The demand is so high right now and the PBs are going to continue to take advantage of it. I think these prices will be the new normal

It’ll be exactly like the airlines. We will get fleeced and fleeced and fleeced and at the next recession it’ll be ‘OH POOR ME !!! Please support me’. From them.

 

[BritDan]

I think I stared this weekend feeling like it was one of the lowest, most dirtiest points in this pool building process. The deck stone arrived earlier in the week, the concrete had been poured, and the stone team arrived to start the install. They used a skid steer to move the stone crates closer to the pool area and dragged a tonne of that fabulous red Georgia clay all over our driveway. As the started installing the stone the got cement and sand just about everywhere and as I looked at progress after the first day I was super depressed. It looked like chaos. But as the weekend progressed and the stone get laid down, the pool started coming together. And aside from a mad crazy dust storm as they shaped the stones around the perimeter of the deck (sorry neighbours- better times are ahead!) the deck started to look great. Once the stone team had cleaned up a bit I got the chance to get out there and take a look. I5 looks fantastic!!!
they’d finished by about 1 on Saturday so I got them lunch and a beer before they headed out. I then got the chance over the rest of the weekend to get my sauna/changing room cabin she’ll built. I think it’s looking good!

landscaping will come a lot later - likely next spring.
next up is the fence. That should happen this week. We’re in the home stretch!

 

[CORTEX404]

Looks great! Did you build the Sauna/cabin yourself?

 

[BritDan]

Thanks! It came as a kit but I've been assembling it. Lots do to in the inside but great progress so far.

 

[BritDan]

The PebbleTech team came today, bright and early at 7am. They’ve done an excellent job as far as I can tell:
just getting themselves started. We are going with ocean blue and added the blue blend glass beads.

I wanted to try to capture some before and after shots for the glass beads but much like others have said: you camera just doesn’t pick up the sparkle from the beads. You can definitely tell in person though. In the above pic you can’t really see much as this guy is smoothing over the top plaster layer that they then rinse away as they smooth the material out.

you can somewhat see a glint on the wall to the left of this guy but in person it really did sparkle.

same again here. What appears like white specs are really shiny sparkles. It’s very cool.

so that’s us for now. Acid wash tomorrow then fill ‘er up (for 3 days!)

 

[Texas Splash]

That's looking nice.

 

[BritDan]

All Done! It took just over 2 days to fill everything so we’re at about 18k gallons. We love the colour!
That’s Alma onthe steps - she’ll be the swimmer. Chess, in the below pic, he likely won’t swim. He’s not so brave around Water!

gratuitous aerial shot. This is full almost full as you can see. but anyone concerned about not being able to see the pool floor with a darker shade, you certainly can.


my son and I jumped in. The weather was 70ish and I think the pool was about 68-70 according to my cooking thermometer. It was fresh for sure but you‘ve got to jump in! Wasn’t so bad after a minute or so. And the water colour when you’re in the pool was amazing - just like when you fly over the Caribbean!

PB will be here tomorrow to start the equipment up and give us the brush and much needed leaf net. I think he’s dropping in some chlorine tabs initially. I’ll crack open my test get and get some readings later in the day to see where we are. Pool owner day 1: check!

 

[darkrider]

The final product turned out beautiful BritDan! Once the plaster stabilizes and you can run your heater, you should be able to extend your season into December or so.