Pool Dreams Coming True in West Central Florida

[Shelbrain]

I live about an hour north of Tampa, Florida and we are beginning our journey of building our first pool. This will be the first time I have ever lived in a house with a pool. Although my wife has grown up with pools all her life she has never been responsible for the care/maintenance aspect of pool ownership. I have joined the forum to learn about pool care and maintenance and get ideas from other builds. We are currently at the stage where tiling and coping are being installed. I have purchased the Pool School e-book from Amazon and read through it a couple times as the build has progressed.

Spa Size: 7'0"
Shape: Round / Fountain in Spa
Light: No
Height: 6" above deck
Handrail: Yes/Code
Heater: Heatpump
Type: Weatherking 6350ti
Number of Jets: 6 jets

Pool Concrete: Shotcrete
Design: Custom
Pool Size: 12' x 27' Max (approx. 11542.5 gallons)
Depth Shallow: 3'6"
Deep: 6’ Deep
Deck Size: 25' x 40'
Cantilever: Bull Nose Coping
Deck Topping: Pavers / Full Size Flagstone Pavers
Existing Patio: Pavers
Electrical from Breaker Box: Yes
Light: OmniLogic LED (1 light) in deep end of pool
Chlorinator: Aqua Rite AQR15 Salt System
Pump: Hayward Tristar VS950
Filter Hayward CS200 SwimClear
Interior Finish: Tahoe Blue Pebble Tec
Heater: Rheem Weatherking 117000 BTU 6350ti Model
Handrail: No
Stem Wall: No
Automatic Pool Cleaner: Not included; but considering Dolphin model from Marina Pool based on forum recommendations
Stub: Yes
To Pad: Yes
Cleaning Equipment: Yes
Start-Up Chemicals: Yes
Test Kit: Yes
Brush, Net and Pole: Yes
Vacuum and Hose: Yes
Screen Enclosure: 25' x 40'
Number of Doors: Two

The pool rendering will follow this photo from a previous build done by our pool builder:


Our tile selections for the waterline are below.


There will be sixteen (16) decorative tiles also used along the waterline:


I look forward to interacting with everyone as the build progresses! Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions as I am amazed at the wealth of knowledge on this forum.

 

[Shelbrain]

Here are some pictures of the backyard on 04/29/2018 before the initial dig. Our backyard is fairly small and we had to navigate HOA restrictions in order to maximize our pool size. Our home backs up to an empty retention pond and the HOA rules state there must be five (5) feet from the property line to the edge of the pool cage.

 

[ctrav]

Congrats on your new pool build! You have done some homework and thats awesome. Be sure to ask any questions as there will be someone with an answer.

 

[Shelbrain]

Our builder worked quickly in the backyard the following day laying the forms and digging the hole.

 

[Shelbrain]

On 05/05/2018, the crew came out to start the rebar and rough plumbing for the pool and spa. The pool will have one skimmer and two main drains. 2" Schedule 80 PVC was used for the plumbing.

 

[Shelbrain]

These are more progress pictures of the rebar and plumbing.

 

[Shelbrain]

Two days later the crew came out for the shotcrete. Things are starting to take shape!





View attachment 85704

 

[Shelbrain]

I was watering the shell twice a day for the next 30 days and during the week of 05/21/2018 the crew came out to work on the plumbing lines.

 

[Shelbrain]

On 05/23/2018, the plumbers continued to make progress on the build. The grey flexible line is the conduit for the electrical connection to the Hayward Color LED in the deep end.

 

[Shelbrain]

View attachment 85743

 

[Shelbrain]

Nearly one month passed before any more work was completed on the pool, partially due to an unusually rainy summer here in Florida. You will notice in the pictures that the decorative waterline tiles were not installed because our pool builder said they were on back order. We decided to wait until they came in and have them installed. My wife and kids love the "bling" factor. I was not happy with the location on the spillover into the pool so the PB and I discussed several options, including separating it into two separate spillovers. The PB noted that the waterflow would be negatively affected if we increased the size of the spillover so we decided to shift it to the center and keep it the same size to maintain consistent waterflow (this will be reflected in future pictures in a future post).

 

[Shelbrain]

More rain delays and scheduling issues occurred in July and it was mid-August before the build picked back up. Our builder does a fairly good job of keeping us informed via text/phone to let us know what is going on. The decorative tiles arrived and the spillover was fixed to our satisfaction. The skimmer was also installed and connected to the plumbing.

 

[Shelbrain]

This brings me to the current state of our pool build. We broke ground on 04/30/2018 and our coping was completed as of 08/23/2018. It is raining as I type this, but I am hopeful the rain clouds will part tomorrow when our build is scheduled to have the paver decking laid out. The grouting on the tile and coping is scheduled for next week. My family is getting excited that progress will pick up again soon.

 

[tampatommy]

Hey, if you dont mind, would you mind PM'ing me the name of your builder and the shotcrete company? Im having a terrible time finding anyone that does shotcrete. Davis is the only one ive found so far.

 

[Shelbrain]

PM sent

Hey, if you dont mind, would you mind PM'ing me the name of your builder and the shotcrete company? Im having a terrible time finding anyone that does shotcrete. Davis is the only one ive found so far.

 

[Brentr]

Shelbrian I am a little late to your pool build but here are some suggestion if I may.

1. Speaking from experience. Put in a double door on one of the sides. I only had one door and ended up putting in a double door and another single door on the opposite side. I should have listened to my wife
2. Plan on plumbing electrical and water for a future summer kitchen.
3. Plan on adding solar and heat pump in your equipment pad.
4. Make sure that you have a very large equipment pad, our equipment pad is 19 ft long x 9 ft wide.
5. Put lights at pool pad.
6. Put in water spigots in all 4 corners of the screen cage both inside and outside the screen cage.
7. Put in electrical outlets in all 4 corners of the screen cage both inside and outside the screen cage.
8. Go with a large outdoor space as possible. We have 1800sq ft of pavers and we wish we did a larger space. You will be quite surprised how much room tables chairs and lounges take up.
9. Run conduits for speaker wires if you plan on wired speakers.
10. Plan on positioning your pool so that you can watch TV comfortably when you are in it. I know that this may sound strange but we love watching TV, football games, NASCAR races and movies when we are relaxing in the pool.
12. Place pool light facing away from the house, we had ours facing towards the house and we notice some glare from it.
Look at the 3 links in my signature bar for ideas. Post lots of pics

BTW I cannot see some of your pics. Hope this helps.

 

[Shelbrain]

Brentr,
Thanks for those suggestions. I am not sure why the pictures aren't showing up, I had PM'd a mod about that but hadn't heard back-they were all uploaded the same. Can you show me a picture of what you mean by #1 Double Door, I am having a hard time visualizing a double screen door for the cage. We have no room for an outdoor kitchen in our small backyard since we wanted to maximize the size of the narrow pool. Our build will have a heatpump initially and I have requested plumbing for solar to be added in the future as funds permit. Our builder uses a premade concrete pad which he said is separated from the house to reduce vibrations (if any). I will ask about lighting at the pool pad. We are planning a TV outside on wall where it will be visible from the spa and shallow end of the pool.

Great suggestions!

 

[Brentr]

Shellbrian look at the link outdoor summer kitchen in my sig and you will see a double door. Hope this helps. :Cheers:
New Outdoor Summer Kitchen in the Dolphin Bar and Grill

 

[Shelbrain]

Wow! I have never seen that before. It's pretty neat looking and I can definitely see the uses for it:

https://www.troublefreepool.com/dbtgallery.php?do=gallery_image&id=678&gal=gallery&type=full

Shellbrian look at the link outdoor summer kitchen in my sig and you will see a double door. Hope this helps. :Cheers:
New Outdoor Summer Kitchen in the Dolphin Bar and Grill

 

[Shelbrain]

Over the last several days the tile contractors have been busy grouting the tile and coping. They were very responsive to any concerns we had regarding tile placement and even chiseled or grinded some of the pavers that I wanted to look more uniform, especially in the corners. We went with a light grey grout color for the coping and an off white color for the tiles so they would "pop". Onto the pictures!