Southeastern Pennsylvania -- New Pool Build

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M

Mam262

Bronze Supporter
Jul 26, 2015
147
Lansdale, PA
Thank you everyone for all of the wonderful information. Below is a summary of our pool build scheduled to begin late next month in the Northwest suburbs of Philadelphia. I would appreciate any comments (favorable or critical) regarding our decisions.

We put our deposit down in December so that we are one of the first digs this spring. All equipment / features listed below were included in his initial quote and he never nickel/dimed us for anything. His quote included things like all gas and electrical hook up and 2 days of rock extraction if needed. Also includes all re-grading/seeding of lawn. We are very happy with this builder so far.

750 square foot gunite free form pool. 39’ x 22’ (see drawing)
Raised spa with spillover and dedicated pump
16’ fiberglass slide built into hill with boulder steps and dedicated pump
Approx 1,000 square foot stamped concrete deck
Pentair VS+SVRS pump
Sta-Rite 400,000 btu gas heater (with by-pass plumbing)
Sta-Rite System 3 cartridge filter
Pentair Intellichlor IC60 SWG
Pentair Intellichem
Pentair Easytouch
Rapids 4WD pool cleaner
2 LED Intellibrite lights
2 main drains / 2 skimmers / 3 returns
Sitting ledge next to slide and in deep end.

We are also doing a 12’ x 16’ pool house with ½ bathroom and kitchen area (being built by separate builder). Our pool builder could have built the house but he was upfront and honest with us and told us there are many good Amish builders from Lancaster, PA that can do a good job and do it cheaper than he can. So far we have been very happy with the design process of the pool house builder we choose.

We are thrilled to have all of this automation which provides some great features like controlling the pumps, spa and heater from our phones. I am also looking forward to ordering my test kit to ensure that we are 100% in control of the pool!!!

One question we do have is pool depth. With the length being 39 feet, any opinions on having the shallow end 3.5 feet and the deep end 8.5 feet? Will this create a small shallow end or a very steep incline toward the deep end? We have requested two other versions of this design from the pool builder, one that will make this design 43’ feet long but keep it at 750 sq feet and a second version that increases the square footage to around 800 - 810 sq feet and increases the length to 43’.

Again, any other insight would be greatly appreciated.



 
That's a big pool! Nice classic design and lots of fun for everyone. My first reaction was that three pumps may be excess, but it's difficult to know without computing water volume and flow. My best advice at this point would simply be to get three bids to understand how others might undertake the project and throw out the lowest one, as there may be some corner cutting.
 
Thanks, this design and equipment was provided by our builder with whom we have already signed a contract. We met with a number of other builders and the equipment that is included with our project were mostly upgrades with other builders.
 
This is going to be a fun one to watch!

For depth hole a tape measure up to you and see how "deep" each option is on you and yours. Make sure you talk about water depth when you talk to your PB as if you just talk pool depth it will be from the coping to bottom. The water depth will be from the bottom of the pool to the middle of the skimmer. Just something to think about.

Kim
 
Our pool is 38' long with a bench along the shallow end, so just under 37' of floor space. The depth profile is 3 - 8.5' with a diving board. The 3' is only super brief and sloped as the bench meets the floor so it's more like 3.5'. I'm 5'7" and I can stand in half of the length of our pool. I would describe the three sections of our pool from shallow to deep as sloped, steeply sloped then flat.

Thinking now, I might have gone 6" deeper throughout. If I had the room, I'd have gone about 45' and gone maybe 3.5 or 4' to 9.5 or 10'.
 
It transitions from the first few inches. The first section is sloped from the shallow wall to about 1/3rd in, then slope becomes steeper.
 
A few thoughts just popped into my mind when looking at your schematic regarding the fence. I know gates are not cheap, but consider putting one on the back of the fence as well leading into the yard. You have nice space back there and I can tell you from experience on a similarly fenced pool, it's nice to have. Also, on the back right corner of your fence, you might consider pulling that corner in some and running the fence on a diagonal around the 94' elevation line. It will help you preserve a rectangle of play space at the back of your yard. I'm always thinking about nice places to play football or volleyball and the "saved" space outside of the fence may be of more use than saved space inside for that corner in particular.
 
That is awesome! Thank you. I did not think of putting it at a diagonal. I was also not sure what to put on the ground in that area between the fence and the retaining boulders. I don't want grass as the less grass I have to cut in the pool area the better. That would be a lot of mulch to put back there, so your idea helps reduce the surface area that I need to cover.
 

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We are going to be putting a railing at the steps of our pool...safety first. Our builder is offering railings from Inter-fab or SR Smith. Does anyone have any opinions of one manufacter over another? Not sure if I am overthinking this.
 
I will say that railings are helpful. That said, they often date a pool too (they just look like they are from the 70's or 80's to me). However there are some very contemporary pool railings that can be found. Someone within the last year or so on here installed one and it was great looking. It looked nothing like a bent stainless steel pipe. Not cheap I guarantee, but it made a statement. Don't limit yourself to just what he is offering. Seek out what you really want - maybe that is what he offers, but maybe it's not.
 
Looking for some additional help. We decided to increase the length of the pool to give us a larger shallow end. Below is a diagram of the depths of the pool. It appears now our deep end will be very small and the shallow end will be huge. Does it make sense to use these proportions?

 
I know JannyLee has a rail for her pool and I think Umm put one in also. Suz put her steps in by her spa (known around here as Suz steps because they have a shorter rise) so she could use the edge as a type of hand rail. Her steps sort of wrap around her spa, I believe.

- - - Updated - - -

Umm's rail is a fence, not a handrail. Just remembered.
 
Thank you everyone.

I am confirming with my builder if those are the depths of the water or depth from pool floor to top of pool.

My concern with the depth profile was that the shallow end is so big it left such a small deep end for jumping in. I may consider making the shallow end 2 feet smaller and the deep end 2 feet bigger. That will also move more of the transition area to the narrow part of the pool.
 
One thing to give you some feeling of the depth would be to figure out how far into the pool you can stand and breathe. Is it 20' from the shallow end, 25'? Then measure that distance off on the ground. It will give you a visual of the shallow end size. Then you can see if you are happy with that or may want to sway he other way.
 

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