building a pool, need advice
 

i need to get a pool and am planning on having one built. If anyone has any advice on this, would be appreciated

small pool with a waterfall, about 12 feet by 25 feet, backyard has a small gate (no trucks can get through)

im estimating the cost at around 20K

any assistance would be appreciated, cant stand another summer in az without a pool :)

cool.. its easy just dig a hole and fill with water :winkwink:

mud pit


its 120 out right now and its not even 9 am yet ;)

i used www.californiapools.com to do my 30,000 gallon pool and it came out GREAT... though it cost way more than $20k

here are some pics from about 9 months ago:

http://www.redpathenterprises.com/images/pool/1.jpg

http://www.redpathenterprises.com/images/pool/2.jpg

http://www.redpathenterprises.com/images/pool/3.jpg

http://www.redpathenterprises.com/images/pool/4.jpg

NIce looking pool.

thats hot you def need a pool

Over here in the UK I only had a 24x12 above ground pool in my garden, this was in my old house This baby cost me around £3000 around $5900 This is the cheap end of pools and I installed it myself and done all of the decking, But we sure did have a hell of a lot of fun in it

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/j...0/house003.jpg

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/j...int200/004.jpg

Easton I want a pool like that..that is just awsome

thanks!

the garden has grown in so much since those old pics - it's funny to see them... i should really take new ones sometime

Would love to see more of your pool :thumbsup

Hit up Dominic at Superior Pools. I am not sure if they do new pools, but I had them do my resurfacing twice (once plaster and 2 years later changed to Pebble Tec).

At the very worst he can point you to a very reputable company. I would recommend him highly as a resource.

I have a 16x32 standard rectangle pool that came with the house. Given the opportunity I'd definitely move it from the current location and switch the shape.

I see you live in Phoenix.....so do we. One company I do not recommend is "WE FIX UGLY POOLS".

We had our pool re surfaced with 3M quartz crystals, new heads and tile and some extras.

We filed complaints with the ROC, but that didn't do any good. I guess I was right about my complaints. Last week a whole section of cap tile's fell off the side of the pool and now we have to get it fixed and there are other problems arrising just as I figured. We will be sending our letter to the director of the ROC regarding his inspectors decision and to show he made a bad call.
I will be using another company this time, even if the ROC wants ugly pools to come by. I am totally finished with this company..

And in my personal opinion, this guy is an asshole to deal with. He even threatened to take me to court for filing complaints he felt were not applicable.

I have seen Sheri and Eastons pool.... that company did a beautiful job :thumbsup

wow, amazing pool, yea, im just trying to get 12*25, 8000 gallon or so, waterfall, so im not expecting anything like yours :) just something to wade in when it gets too hot

great pool, by the way

I'm no expert, but I know it's definitely going to cost you WAY more than 20K for a pool. I have a friend that instead of outsourcing everything to a company got all the various contractors on his own and his 10,000 gallon pool ended up costing him a tad over 40K. Then I also have a friend down in OC that just had hers done, and it's along the lines of what Easton posted, and hers ran her 90K... so definitely you'll be spending more than 20K, especially since you live in Phoenix, where those things are in high demand.

clover leaf shaped, 6-8' of vert, smooth transitions, empty often

shit had no idea, i pulled the number out of my ass, have to check it out more

Very nice pools!

The problem with that 20k estimate is the ground here in AZ. It's like concrete. A buddy of mine was quoted about 25k until they got about 6 ft down. They wanted to blast it out, but instead they tore down his block wall to get a backhoe with a jackhammer attachment to get through the ground. It took forever and cost a lot.

But he's got a pool now.

Ask Eric Matis he knows.

He should be able to get what he wants for close to 20k. I have a 18 x 37' , 18k gallon, pool that I had Shasta Pools build 3 years ago and it cost me 30k. I don't have any waterfalls, rock formations or fancy tiling so that kept the cost down. Instead I upgraded the pump/filter and got in ground cleaning along with a pebble tec surface and lots of extra decking. The in ground pop up head cleaning system was the best decision I made. The pool cleans itself and has been almost maintenance free for three years. Even after a big monsoon wind storm, I can come out to the pool in the morning and it will be spotless.

I have two close friends who went the route of trying to build it on their own by outsourcing each segment of the pool build to sub contractors. In the end, I saw hardly much of a discount in their total build cost. They had to put in a lot of time directing each sub contractor and ran into problems trying to get them to coordinate with each other at times. Plus you have a bunch of small individual warranties rather one umbrella warranty from a single company. They ended up with beautiful pools, but tried to skimp on the cleaning system and now have nothing but headaches.

Now is a good time to get a deal on a new pool with the rough economy and new home builds way down in the Phx area, pool companies are willing to deal for your business. I strongly recommend you go with an established company who has been around and not the lowest bid. Phoenix is notorious for high turn over in pool contractors, and you can bet many will be going out of business this year. I had an excellent experience with Shasta Pools, they have been around for decades and any warranty related issues that arose were immediately dealt with by them.

Easton that is NOT a pool... That is a resort you have in your backyard... I love swimming in your pool. Gotta do it again soon, maybe I will sneak in your backyard one morning and wake you up.. hehehe

How does the self cleaning work? I'm curious because I have taken care of many pools over the years and all ended up needing a lot of work regardless of how often you checked chlorine and ph levels, had a cover or not, etc.

Salt water is good for low maintenance, but then you have to swim in salt water.

Kickass, Easton. Your pool has a powerful cumshot, lmao. Nice wall too, for shoots n skinny dipping no doubt! Suffering the sin of envy here!

Oh and the "120 degrees before 9am" comment.. omg how do you survive??????!!!!

How are they going to dig for the pool if a truck can't get through to the backyard. One summer while in college I built swimming pools for my summer job. We used front end loaders and back hoes to dig the pool and grade around it. Are you going with gunite or a vinyl lined pool?

Not saying he can't, but you just said you had yours done 3 years ago. 30k 3 years ago isn't 30k in 2008.

By the way, Easton, where do you live? I need to know where to tell my models to meet me for our next outdoor orgy shoot. :1orglaugh

It has pop up heads that come up about two inches from the surface and are spread evenly throughout the pool. When the pump is running they go in intervals of about 4 or 5 at a time for a few minutes, then go down and a new set go up. The heads also rotate each time they come up and shoot out a hard stream of water that pushes the dirt out and up and circulates it to the deep end where it is drained out. I have an in deck chlorinator and just add tabs to that every now and then and check the ph. I only have to brush the sides about once a month, but never the bottom of the pool. I have an 8 cartridge filter and clean them out a couple times a year, other than that I do virtually nothing to keep it clean.

I use to use an automatic pool cleaner in mine similar to the one below and just replaced the gravel in the filter once a year and cleaned the skimmer out once a week. Did not really need that much work to be honest as long as i kept an eye on the ph and chlorine levels the water was always clear.

Used to just let an automatic cleaner run wild round the pool when it wasent being used, it worked a treat for me.

http://i.poolproducts.com/SPP/assets...es/PE1385B.JPG

you guys have a standing invitation at my house anytime :thumbsup

LOL wouldn't you like to know? :upsidedow

That's an awesome development. I guess it costs a bit more, but probably worth every penny.

The problem with these I have found is that it does not allow you to get proper circulation if you leave it on all the time.

Exactly!!!

These are really made for above ground pools like the one I had. I never had a problem with the circulation as it connected straight into the skimmer and it also had another conector which allowed you to increase or decrease the amount of water being sucked from the bottom so you could have it set to half and you would have both surface and bottom water being sucked into the skimmer and into the filter then back out into the pool.

Wow that turned out amazing! I remember seeing the initial build pics with some pics of the inside of the new house. Very nice!

this is exactly why i posted this, for the small chance that a guy like you would post your input.

im going to call shasta pools and am getting in ground cleaning, thanks for posting this

Here are the design center locations for Shasta http://www.shastapools.com/Contact/DesignCenters.aspx

Not sure what part of the Valley you are in, but they have built pools at the East Valley locations I went to so you can get an idea of what you want. You'll need the dimensions of your backyard, Shasta was able to pull mine from my address.

i was wondering the same thing myself, gunite

i figured if it came down to it, we can go to home depot with a truck and rent 10 shovels and 10 mexicans for a day ;)

but yea, no way to get back there easily

thank you... i'd post more but i don't want to hijack his thread LOL

my only point was to show him who i used in Phoenix and how it turned out from last Aug.