Hi! 
I've been a member for a couple of years now and have been reading and teaching myself the BBB method through reading tons of threads. I don't have a pool to practice on yet and I haven't looked at this forum since late summer, so I have to reteach myself again! lol I love how informative this forum is and how helpful everyone is. I tell everyone I know with a pool about this site. :-D
It's finally our turn! We are really starting our pool right now! I've waited for years for this to happen!
I will warn you now that I talk a lot and I love to share photos! 
We bought plans a few years ago for a DIY concrete block pool. We've read duraleigh's thread and we were inspired by it. It was nice to see a post with photos on a concrete block build. I also have followed 8corneflakes build as well, even though it wasn't a concrete block pool. I love the DIY threads, since that is the route we are going.
We decided on a 25' x 50' rectangular pool. I know it's big, but we really want it that size. My husband grew up with a 20' x 40' IG liner pool and I grew up with an 18' x 36' fiberglass roman. We both love to swim and we have three children (9,11,13) who love to swim. I also can't wait to entertain and to be the house that, hopefully, the sports teammates and my kids' friends will want to hang out at.
We have started the dig last fall, only because we had to move a tree and we had a giant excavator here for our pond dig. He has to excavate the shape yet, but we have it squared off. My husband is a heavy equipment operator, so he is doing the excavating himself. We have all of the rebar and concrete block. We bought the block last fall when Menard's had a great sale!
I need help with picking the size and type of equipment we'll need. We obviously will need a big filter. I've read here that it's best to go bigger. I was really good with knowing all the ins and outs of the filters last year or the year before, and because we weren't ready yet, I've kind of forgotten. lol I think with a pool this size, we would probably want to go with sand or possibly DE? I thought I remember reading that they were the two best options when people were talking about bigger pools. Again, our pool will be 25x50 3.5 feet to 10 feet. I believe I had figured it to be 55,000 gallons at one time. I have to check again. I'm just curious as to what type filter you believe to be the best for our situation and if you prefer a certain brand and model for us.
What pump or pump size do you recommend? (I also knew what I wanted a year or so ago, but forgot!) I think a variable speed pump and 2hp?
Also, we are wanting a SWG. I would love advice on a brand or size that we would need. I don't want to buy any of the equipment via a pool store in our area. We'd like to order from a company that has members here and that support this site.
I do need info on lights. We both had pools growing up but neither of our pools had lights. I always loved seeing pools with lights on. I'm thinking we should go with two lights along the side of the pool that faces away from the house. One in the deep end and one towards the shallow end? I like the idea of the color changing, but what do you think?
We are 90% sure we want to go with a tan liner. I really like how they look from photos here.
We have an outdoor wood burning furnace that we use to heat our house and it runs our hot water heater in the house in the winter. We will heat the pool with that when needed.
We are getting an automatic pool cover. I have a quote from Coverstar, but need to call a couple of other companies.
I can't think of anything else right now. I guess I just want to narrow down the equipment so we know what we are using and we can get it ordered.
Pictures!! I hope it's okay to post tons of pictures! I'd like to share and I know I enjoy the posts that have a lot of pictures detailing the progress.
This is the Hitachi 400 being delivered for our pond dig. (Long story, but the company my husband works for got a bridge job a few miles from our house and they asked if we wanted a pond. We did and my husband got to work literally in our back yard for a few weeks! We now have an acre pond and he was able to use the equipment for other things around our farm. )
A few of the excavator in action.
We had to move a large tree, and I really didn't want to cut it down. We tried moving it. It lasted a week or so, but blew over. I hated getting rid of this tree, but it was the only place for the pool that made sense to us.
Just a few of the intact bottles we found during the dig. The dump was obviously right where we are putting the pool and where this tree was growing.
You can see our other project in the background. It's slowly getting there!
The tree in it's new site. Unfortunately, it didn't make it, but two other large (not this large) trees did make it and are budding beautifully this spring. The small excavator is ours and my husband will use it to dig the pool to it's specifications. At least the top bulk dirt is out of the way.
Pool block and rebar over the winter.
A little sledding into the pool lol
One from the other day. You can see the pool materials are moved. He has to finish the dig and the cement trucks will hopefully be able to come down our road (frost laws) in the next week or so and we can pour the footings.
I hope you enjoyed looking and will continue to enjoy our journey on this DIY project. I think people think we are crazy, but I know you all understand! Thanks in advance for any or all advice you can give us.
I've been a member for a couple of years now and have been reading and teaching myself the BBB method through reading tons of threads. I don't have a pool to practice on yet and I haven't looked at this forum since late summer, so I have to reteach myself again! lol I love how informative this forum is and how helpful everyone is. I tell everyone I know with a pool about this site. :-D It's finally our turn! We are really starting our pool right now! I've waited for years for this to happen!
I will warn you now that I talk a lot and I love to share photos! We bought plans a few years ago for a DIY concrete block pool. We've read duraleigh's thread and we were inspired by it. It was nice to see a post with photos on a concrete block build. I also have followed 8corneflakes build as well, even though it wasn't a concrete block pool. I love the DIY threads, since that is the route we are going.
We decided on a 25' x 50' rectangular pool. I know it's big, but we really want it that size. My husband grew up with a 20' x 40' IG liner pool and I grew up with an 18' x 36' fiberglass roman. We both love to swim and we have three children (9,11,13) who love to swim. I also can't wait to entertain and to be the house that, hopefully, the sports teammates and my kids' friends will want to hang out at.
We have started the dig last fall, only because we had to move a tree and we had a giant excavator here for our pond dig. He has to excavate the shape yet, but we have it squared off. My husband is a heavy equipment operator, so he is doing the excavating himself. We have all of the rebar and concrete block. We bought the block last fall when Menard's had a great sale!
I need help with picking the size and type of equipment we'll need. We obviously will need a big filter. I've read here that it's best to go bigger. I was really good with knowing all the ins and outs of the filters last year or the year before, and because we weren't ready yet, I've kind of forgotten. lol I think with a pool this size, we would probably want to go with sand or possibly DE? I thought I remember reading that they were the two best options when people were talking about bigger pools. Again, our pool will be 25x50 3.5 feet to 10 feet. I believe I had figured it to be 55,000 gallons at one time. I have to check again. I'm just curious as to what type filter you believe to be the best for our situation and if you prefer a certain brand and model for us.
What pump or pump size do you recommend? (I also knew what I wanted a year or so ago, but forgot!) I think a variable speed pump and 2hp?
Also, we are wanting a SWG. I would love advice on a brand or size that we would need. I don't want to buy any of the equipment via a pool store in our area. We'd like to order from a company that has members here and that support this site.
I do need info on lights. We both had pools growing up but neither of our pools had lights. I always loved seeing pools with lights on. I'm thinking we should go with two lights along the side of the pool that faces away from the house. One in the deep end and one towards the shallow end? I like the idea of the color changing, but what do you think?
We are 90% sure we want to go with a tan liner. I really like how they look from photos here.
We have an outdoor wood burning furnace that we use to heat our house and it runs our hot water heater in the house in the winter. We will heat the pool with that when needed.
We are getting an automatic pool cover. I have a quote from Coverstar, but need to call a couple of other companies.
I can't think of anything else right now. I guess I just want to narrow down the equipment so we know what we are using and we can get it ordered.
Pictures!! I hope it's okay to post tons of pictures! I'd like to share and I know I enjoy the posts that have a lot of pictures detailing the progress.
This is the Hitachi 400 being delivered for our pond dig. (Long story, but the company my husband works for got a bridge job a few miles from our house and they asked if we wanted a pond. We did and my husband got to work literally in our back yard for a few weeks! We now have an acre pond and he was able to use the equipment for other things around our farm. )
A few of the excavator in action.
We had to move a large tree, and I really didn't want to cut it down. We tried moving it. It lasted a week or so, but blew over. I hated getting rid of this tree, but it was the only place for the pool that made sense to us.
Just a few of the intact bottles we found during the dig. The dump was obviously right where we are putting the pool and where this tree was growing.
You can see our other project in the background. It's slowly getting there!
The tree in it's new site. Unfortunately, it didn't make it, but two other large (not this large) trees did make it and are budding beautifully this spring. The small excavator is ours and my husband will use it to dig the pool to it's specifications. At least the top bulk dirt is out of the way.
Pool block and rebar over the winter.
A little sledding into the pool lol
One from the other day. You can see the pool materials are moved. He has to finish the dig and the cement trucks will hopefully be able to come down our road (frost laws) in the next week or so and we can pour the footings.
I hope you enjoyed looking and will continue to enjoy our journey on this DIY project. I think people think we are crazy, but I know you all understand! Thanks in advance for any or all advice you can give us.
