Pool Remodeling (updated title)
We've had two pool builders visit the pool this week to get started in providing us options for remodeling.
The first one didn't start off well. They scheduled the appointment 10 days out and then didn't show up during the 2 hours window they gave us. When I called the next day the lady said I wasn't showing on their schedule. I said well I've got your card in front of me where you wrote the appointment down. Then she says they had a couple appointments accidentally get deleted and mine must have been one of them. So she asked if I would like to be rescheduled and I was like...sure...I'll try to be there. So they scheduled it for Monday 3 days away with a 4pm-6pm window. So I goto work early so I can be home in time for the appointment. My wife calls midday and says the guy called and is in the area and wants to come by at 1pm. So I said fine and emailed her all the things I'd like to be considered. From what she relayed to me about the appointment I'm just not liking what I'm hearing. He had no ideas for remodeling the area and said basically they just do the pool surface, deck, and pump/filter and anything else we want done would need to be sub-contracted out so we might as well save money and find the subcontractors ourself.
The day after the first failed appointment I was upset so we started calling other pool builders and finally got one that seemed interested in renovation work. He scheduled to come out on Tuesday the day after the other guy was coming. I was able to be there for the appointment and really liked everything I was hearing and he had some ideas for things I could improve that I hadn't even thought about because I thought it would be too hard to do with an existing pool. He was like hey once we drain it we can do pretty much anything you want. He suggested we could cut a hole in the deck for our fill valve and have it down in a skimmer type hole instead of out in the side of the pool where it's visible and he also offered to install a suction port so I could run my Kreepy dedicated instead of having to re-config the skimmer each time I hook it up.
The second pool builder was really impressed with my water. He said wow your water is so clear you must be a chemist or something. I said yeah I took over my pool maintenance a couple months ago and I basically follow what I learned at a website called Trouble Free Pools. I told him I never shock my pool I just test FC and pH daily and I add bleach or liquid chlorine to the pool to maintain my free chlorine level and I add muriatic acid every two or three days to keep the pH in check. So as we were discussing options I mentioned I was considering installing an SWG when I upgrade. He was really pushing me away from going with that. He said he built his personal pool to be a saltwater pool and ended up converting it back to chlorine but he didn't give any details of what his complaints were. But then he started pushing what he uses on his personal pool now which is something he called an ozone chlorinator or something like that. He described it as something that can kill off the bad part of the chloramines and leaves the chlorine free to go back into the pool and do it's job. So I asked how does chlorine get added to the pool and he described something that sounded like a puck cartridge. I said well everything I've learned teaches me that any type of puck or powder is going to add more unwanted byproducts to the pool than bleach. So I started asking him how does he keep his CYA level from going through the roof and he said he doesn't even know what the CYA number is and that he doesn't worry about because his pool always looks great. I was like yeah but you did seem to be impressed with the results I have in my pool water before I told you how I was maintaining it. So anyways he was real polite about it and said well I'll just leave the ozone thing on there as an option for you to consider.
We've had two pool builders visit the pool this week to get started in providing us options for remodeling.
The first one didn't start off well. They scheduled the appointment 10 days out and then didn't show up during the 2 hours window they gave us. When I called the next day the lady said I wasn't showing on their schedule. I said well I've got your card in front of me where you wrote the appointment down. Then she says they had a couple appointments accidentally get deleted and mine must have been one of them. So she asked if I would like to be rescheduled and I was like...sure...I'll try to be there. So they scheduled it for Monday 3 days away with a 4pm-6pm window. So I goto work early so I can be home in time for the appointment. My wife calls midday and says the guy called and is in the area and wants to come by at 1pm. So I said fine and emailed her all the things I'd like to be considered. From what she relayed to me about the appointment I'm just not liking what I'm hearing. He had no ideas for remodeling the area and said basically they just do the pool surface, deck, and pump/filter and anything else we want done would need to be sub-contracted out so we might as well save money and find the subcontractors ourself.
The day after the first failed appointment I was upset so we started calling other pool builders and finally got one that seemed interested in renovation work. He scheduled to come out on Tuesday the day after the other guy was coming. I was able to be there for the appointment and really liked everything I was hearing and he had some ideas for things I could improve that I hadn't even thought about because I thought it would be too hard to do with an existing pool. He was like hey once we drain it we can do pretty much anything you want. He suggested we could cut a hole in the deck for our fill valve and have it down in a skimmer type hole instead of out in the side of the pool where it's visible and he also offered to install a suction port so I could run my Kreepy dedicated instead of having to re-config the skimmer each time I hook it up.
The second pool builder was really impressed with my water. He said wow your water is so clear you must be a chemist or something. I said yeah I took over my pool maintenance a couple months ago and I basically follow what I learned at a website called Trouble Free Pools. I told him I never shock my pool I just test FC and pH daily and I add bleach or liquid chlorine to the pool to maintain my free chlorine level and I add muriatic acid every two or three days to keep the pH in check. So as we were discussing options I mentioned I was considering installing an SWG when I upgrade. He was really pushing me away from going with that. He said he built his personal pool to be a saltwater pool and ended up converting it back to chlorine but he didn't give any details of what his complaints were. But then he started pushing what he uses on his personal pool now which is something he called an ozone chlorinator or something like that. He described it as something that can kill off the bad part of the chloramines and leaves the chlorine free to go back into the pool and do it's job. So I asked how does chlorine get added to the pool and he described something that sounded like a puck cartridge. I said well everything I've learned teaches me that any type of puck or powder is going to add more unwanted byproducts to the pool than bleach. So I started asking him how does he keep his CYA level from going through the roof and he said he doesn't even know what the CYA number is and that he doesn't worry about because his pool always looks great. I was like yeah but you did seem to be impressed with the results I have in my pool water before I told you how I was maintaining it. So anyways he was real polite about it and said well I'll just leave the ozone thing on there as an option for you to consider.
I replaced almost all of the water and it has never been clearer.
