Tampa Pool Build (Almost Completed) - Pebblesheen Completed and Water Filled

[irvingtho]

Getting close to signing a contract with a PB.
Would like to get some feedback on our pool equipment and features before signing our contract.
Please feel free to provide any input that we are maybe able to incorporate into our designs.
I have included my CAD drawing of our layout and the 3D drawing from our builder.

Overview:

• 16’ X 32’ Pool no Spa, 3.5’ to 6’ depth. 5’x12’ SunShelf,
• Sunshelf to be ~13” below waterline
• About 15.6k gallon per our PB
• Pebble Sheen Blue Granite
• Tile, 6x6 LuvTile Key West Blue for the waterline, 1x2 Glass - Noble Tile NGRC 1268 for the 12"beam on the rear of pool

Deck/Structure:

• Back deck away from the house will have a 12” raised beam (2 6” steps) with 2 non-lit Deckjet
• Paver decking around the pool and under the existing lanai (Total 1293sf), Cream/Beige/Charcoal pavers with Sand Color Coping.
• Bronze mansard screen enclosure with 3 doors.
• Child safety fence with Auto Close Gate/Latch.

Plumbing:

• 1 non-lit bubblers and 1 umbrella sleeve in sunshelf
• Dedicated Vac Port, Overfill, Autofill
• 5 returns, 1 skimmer, 1 Channel drain

EQUIPMENT:

• Pentair Intelliflo 3HP VS Pump
• Pentair Clean and Clear 200SF Cartridge Filter
• AquaCal SQ225 or T135 Heat Pump (FUTURE)
• (10)Techno-solis 4x12 Solar Panel, Ground Rack Mounted
• Pentair IntelliConnect
• 3 Pentair Color LED -Microbrite (one above the shelf)
• Pentair IChlor 30 SWCG

 

[kimkats]

Looks like you have a solid plan. It looks like you have already thought about WATER depth instead of overall depth. That is very important!

I will ping @Jimrahbe to see what he thinks of your equipment.

I would love to see the yard where this is going!

Kim

 

[irvingtho]

Thank you Kim. I have uploaded a couple photos of the yard to the first post that it will be going in.

 

[kimkats]

Nice yard there! Sure is FL! Bet there is lots of sand under that grass!

Do you KNOW where the pump lines go? Do you have a sceptic system?

 

[Jimrahbe]

Irving,

The IntelliFlo is a great pump.

Since your pool will be inside an enclosure, then a 200SF filter will work fine.

The SWCG is the right size.

I assume you are not getting the deck jets..

Keep in mind that the bubblers will have to be manually turned on and off as they cannot be controlled by the IntelliConnect.

Who owns the pool equipment I can see in your pic??

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[TampaKathy]

Hello from Tampa! You may want to add a 2nd skimmer. Also, how do you plan to use the sunshelf? If you want to put lounge chairs on there, 5 feet may be too short depending on the chairs. @Jimrahbe That looks like the well, not pool equipment.

 

[Jimrahbe]

That looks like the well, not pool equipment.

Kathy,

Us here city folk don't know anything about wells..

Makes much more sense than pool equipment..

Since the pool will be inside an enclosure, having only one skimmer is not a big deal.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[irvingtho]

Nice yard there! Sure is FL! Bet there is lots of sand under that grass!

Do you KNOW where the pump lines go? Do you have a sceptic system?

Kim,
We plan to locate the pool equipment plan left of the house.

We are on Septic that is to the right of the existing Lanai, I dont believe that would be affected that during construction.

 

[irvingtho]

Irving,

The IntelliFlo is a great pump.

Since your pool will be inside an enclosure, then a 200SF filter will work fine.

The SWCG is the right size.

I assume you are not getting the deck jets..

Keep in mind that the bubblers will have to be manually turned on and off as they cannot be controlled by the IntelliConnect.

Who owns the pool equipment I can see in your pic??

Thanks,

Jim R.

Thanks Jim,

We plan to include 3 deckjet at the rear of the pool where the riser beam is elevated 12"

For the bubbler, we may keep them on to help circulate the water on the sun shelf.

Yes that is our well which is great.

Would it be recommended that we fill the pool with softened water?

 

[irvingtho]

Hello from Tampa! You may want to add a 2nd skimmer. Also, how do you plan to use the sunshelf? If you want to put lounge chairs on there, 5 feet may be too short depending on the chairs. @Jimrahbe That looks like the well, not pool equipment.

The sunshelf is more for hang out and maybe a adirondack chair or two. I feel when a shelf is too shallow it like you mind as well sit at the edge of the pool. We also have little ones so it would be good for them until they grow out of it.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Irving,

The same applies for the deck jets.. The IntelliConnect cannot control automated valves, so the deck jets will have to be controlled manually.

That said, deck jets are very noisy, so be careful for what you wish for..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[TampaKathy]

@Jimrahbe Should Irving look into the Intellicenter instead of the Intelliconnect if he wants to automate the deck jets and bubbler?

The water softener won't have the capacity to fill the pool but you can connect the autofill to it if you want since that will only use a little at a time.

You'll just want to flag or rope off the septic area so that they don't drive heavy machinery over it.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Should Irving look into the Intellicenter instead of the Intelliconnect if he wants to automate the deck jets and bubbler?

Kathy,

I am not a great fan of the IntelliConnect, but... It costs about a tenth of what a real automation system does, and that is pretty hard to beat.. My "guess" is that after about 10 minutes and the fun wears off, the deck jets will only be used to impress guests, and the bubblers will just probably stay on. Based on that, it does not make a lot of sense to spend a ton of money just to automate the valves.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[irvingtho]

Kathy,

I am not a great fan of the IntelliConnect, but... It costs about a tenth of what a real automation system does, and that is pretty hard to beat.. My "guess" is that after about 10 minutes and the fun wears off, the deck jets will only be used to impress guests, and the bubblers will just probably stay on. Based on that, it does not make a lot of sense to spend a ton of money just to automate the valves.

Thanks,

Jim R.

Thank you Kathy and Jim,

Since we have a pretty simple pool I would rather save the money and put it toward the pool later on. Jim, I think you nailed it. Not sure how long the deck jets will entertain the toddlers.

 

[kimkats]

The bubblers will be great fun for the toddlers. The deck jets will not add too much to the fun as most people don't like random sprays of water on them.

 

[JayRi]

I like the design and layout. I would only add a few points.
I made my screen doors 4’ wide. I didn’t know it was an option but glad I did it. Big difference when you have to bring furniture into the pool area. You have 3 doors so maybe you might want to consider making one of them a 4’ door.
I thought about deck jets but after hearing them I thought they were a bit loud so we went without them.
Ask the PB which model of lights they’re using. Pentair has 3 different models. Personally I went with the micro brights. They are a nicheless design so just a standard 1.5” fitting. If they ever have problems in the future I can swap with any other brand. The other Pentair models have a proprietary niche so you will have to replace with the same model. The downside is that the micro brights aren’t as bright. My pool is 34’ long and I have 3 lights. Works fine. Your design looks like it’s 27’ after the shelf. 2 might work but I would probably go with 3.
As for pool control, the IntelliConnect will allow you to control 2 devices I believe. The pump is one, that would leave the lights or deck jets as the second. You have to decide if the price difference is worth not having to walk to the equipment pad to manually turn one of them on. I went with the intellicenter because that allows me to turn on lights, pump, heat, and the 2 areas in the pool where we added therapy jets. Plus it has options to integrate landscape lighting in the future.
Good luck

 

[irvingtho]

I like the design and layout. I would only add a few points.
I made my screen doors 4’ wide. I didn’t know it was an option but glad I did it. Big difference when you have to bring furniture into the pool area. You have 3 doors so maybe you might want to consider making one of them a 4’ door.
I thought about deck jets but after hearing them I thought they were a bit loud so we went without them.
Ask the PB which model of lights they’re using. Pentair has 3 different models. Personally I went with the micro brights. They are a nicheless design so just a standard 1.5” fitting. If they ever have problems in the future I can swap with any other brand. The other Pentair models have a proprietary niche so you will have to replace with the same model. The downside is that the micro brights aren’t as bright. My pool is 34’ long and I have 3 lights. Works fine. Your design looks like it’s 27’ after the shelf. 2 might work but I would probably go with 3.
As for pool control, the IntelliConnect will allow you to control 2 devices I believe. The pump is one, that would leave the lights or deck jets as the second. You have to decide if the price difference is worth not having to walk to the equipment pad to manually turn one of them on. I went with the intellicenter because that allows me to turn on lights, pump, heat, and the 2 areas in the pool where we added therapy jets. Plus it has options to integrate landscape lighting in the future.
Good luck

Thank you Jay.

Still deciding if we need the 4 foot doors on the screen enclosure.

I just found out the the PB is using Microbrite which are half the lumens for the assumed intelibrite. We want the pool to be lit up a bit more for the safety of the kids swimming at night.
I decided not to add the therapy jets since we plan to get a hottub down the line.

 

[irvingtho]

Alright so a quick update on what has been going on the last two days as we have been waiting for our permit since mid January.

We found out the pool permit was approved on Wednesday Afternoon, 02-24. The PM was going to set up a meeting this week to do the kick off meeting.

Yesterday, Thursday 02-25, PM came out after lunch and went over the pool drawings, tentative schedule and took some pre-construction photos. Was told that they would schedule the layout, dig and steel starting this coming up Monday. A delivery of the layout and steel materials were dropped of at the end of the drive way.

This afternoon (5:15ish) on the way to get the kids from school, we get a call that the layout crew is at the house to scrape the yard in preparation for the layout tomorrow. So we went from waiting on permit to shovel in the ground within 48 hours.

Attached photo is where the project stands as of Friday night. Hopefully they can finish the layout and start digging at the beginning of next week.

I will try to provide updates with photos as tasks get completed.

 

[kellyfair]

Hi neighbor! Excited to watch your build!

 

[irvingtho]

Small update on the construction progress.

The crew came out on Saturday for a few hours to do the layout. Wasnt expecting them to be back out until Wednesday.

Today they showed up and were able to finish the rough excavation during the first part of the morning. Then another crew arrived around 5pm to start laying out the rebar and to set the main drain.

Hoping we can get the rebar finished tomorrow and to schedule the first inspection.