Shopping for inground pool

[allisonmarie]

Hello!

I am a previous owner of an above ground pool, but I built a new home last year, and I am now looking at the possibility of having a new, inground pool installed. I found this site extremely helpful with my last pool, so I would love to get some advice as I'm now starting from scratch.

All we know for sure is that we want a pool with a heater (we live in Northwest Indiana) and an automatic, rigid cover (our neighbors have one and it seems incredibly convenient, and we need the pool to be safe for young children). I would love to hear from any pool owner who has advice/opinions on materials, size, salt water vs. standard chlorine, etc. Really anything you think would be useful in the very early stages of planning. From my research so far, I am leaning toward fiberglass. We have a highly rated local store/installer, but I'd love to have as much background info as possible before setting up an estimate.

Just some background: we live in a pretty rural area on a 1-acre lot that backs up to farmland. We have well water and septic. I'm not sure if any of this matters but wanted to include it for the sake of being thorough. I appreciate any help you can give me!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Well, letsee,..... Will you be filling pool from well? Do you know if you have iron problems or anything in well water?

Autocovers, while pricy, are wonderful for peace of mind. I'd get fewer add ons just to have it if building again and trimming costs.

SWG is THE way to go.... don't even consider anything else. Just make sure its 2x the size of the pool for the longest lifespan and most chlorine production.

Fiberglass is wonderful, in my opinion. Slick, so algae can't take hold of any texture in it. Pretty colors and more fiberglass manufacturers are making bigger and deeper pools than in the past.

Got the pool site picked yet? Away from septic field obviously. Show us a pic!!

Maddie

 

[Yev]

remember that your pool is part of your yard/house, not an object to be dropped in which most AGPs are.

Some of these things might be:
* Fencing, most people think that it is better to keep the fence further away from teh pool if possible. Fences close to the pool give the illusion of being cramped in.
* Carefully preplan your landscaping and pool deck along with the pool. Give yrouself room to plant things around the pool for aesthetics. And make sure that your pool deck is large enough. Low end vinyl builders give you 3 foot on 3 sides and 6 foot on the shallow end. This is not nearly enough if you have room. Plan on where you might want to put chaise lounges and tables/chairs. Plan for the exact sizes and make sure that you leave room not only for those things, but for people to walk around those things without having to go into the grass/landscaping. Do you want a firepit built in somewhere around the pool.
* Plan good drainage. One thing that will cause you a concrete nightmare is if you have sections of yoru yard that lack good drainage, and they undercut the ground under the concrete when swamped. You will get cracks from this. Pre plannning a french drain can go a long way.
* I dont know what your yard looks like, but consider a 20-24" high stone/retaning wall behind the shallow end. This can look really nice,and will provide permanent, nice, quick seating and places for people to put towels etc.
* Dont forget that you will still have to cut the grass. make sure that you leave clear paths to cut the grass, and dont leave yourself any weird corners where you cant easily cut the grass. And make sure that your travel path wont shoot the cut grass into the pool.
* Dont forget where to put your pool equipment. It does have noise, andi isn't pretty, so if possible put it on the side of yoru house, or plan for a wall to isolate the equipment
* Put the pool in a full path of sun. Right now, go out and map the shade line of your home from let's say 10am to 4pm. The ideal spot for the pool puts the pool in full sunlight during that time frame. If you are lucky, you can find some shade around 5-7pm for where your table near the pool might be, as this provides a nice dinner shade to eat under.
* While FB pools are nice, they are size limited. You can find a PB that can do a vinyl pool with custom features (liner over stairs, benches, sun shelves, etc that will create a more elegant feel that a traditional vinyl pool. If you are not certain about material, look through the shapes available from your fiberglass PB beforee you decide on teh material. You might find that while you woudl prefer FB, the available shapes are not exactly what you want and a semi-custom vinyl suits your needs better. If you are worried about the durability, get a 1 foto sample of vinyl, and scartch it with a fork. The stuff is way more durable than you might think.
* Most people will never have a pool for their home, and the ones that do, will rarely have more than 1 built. I say that to say this. Take ratings with a grain of salt. As long as the PB doesn't steal money, do something completely crappy, have terrible customer service, and the end result makes you happy (which for most people almost any pool will make them happy) then you rate the builder highly. Very few people can truly compare Bob the Builder to Bruce the Builder. To do so would require that you build 2 pools within a few years of each other, and how often does that happen? I just had a friend put in a FB pool, and the builder was extremely well rated. But as I spoke with my friend, the PB was clueless when it comes to how to size a pump or filter for the pool. They also told me friend a couple of statements that are complete and total lies. Doesn't mean that the end result will not be nice (after I helped correct some pump/filter issues with design) just an illustration of taking ratings with a grain of salt.

Ill add more if I can think of things later on.