Round Two Build! Back for more!

Twolabs · Aug 13, 2024

Well, I'm back. My first pool build documented in my signature was back in 2014, and with a lot of help from this forum we made a pretty epic pool. Freeform, all gunite rock feature with a slide, spa overflow, grotto, LED lights galore, etc.

By the time we moved from that house, I swore we would never do another pool. The combination of how complex the pool was (probably 75-80% of the lights stopped working at some point in the first 2-3 years), and how costly it was to operate (Three 3hp single speed pumps), and how little I thought our kids used it....it just didn't make sense and I swore it off. We did traditional chlorine, and I was so tired of having to go buy dozens of gallons of liquid chlorine during the summers.

Famous last words. We're in our new house (our forever, dream home), and after finding out another kid is on the way and our neighbor's selling their house (with their pool that our kids used), I've relented. But my demands were that this is going to be a simple pool. Salt, no water features, no spa, single VS pump, etc. It's going to be almost polar opposite of our first pool.

I'm gotten absolute sticker shock from how much pool construction cost have come, even in just the last few years.

We're going with minimal decking, except for some seating areas on the back.

38x18
Rectangular
Travertine (or bluestone, still deciding) coping and decking
3.5 - 8.5' depths
Pentair Intelliflo VS Pump 3HP 011075
Pentair Intellicenter w/ IC60 521105
Pentair Microbrite LED Lights EC-620425
Pentair CCP520 Cartridge Filter 160332
Glacier Chiller - GPC210
Betta skimmer with a robot cleaner, no pressure cleaner

Conception drawing below, but this isn't finalized.

We aren't fans of the small steps from the tanning ledge, so we're thinking going with stairs in the middle, flanked by two tanning ledges. Similar to inspiration pic below

I'm open to all suggestions and any tips! Help me spend my money.

RickRude · Aug 13, 2024

Looks awesome! Simplicity is where it's at! With the new Intelliflo3 pumps, you can add-on a relay board which can turn on/off up to two external devices - one relay up to 16 amps, the other up to 5 amps. So, if you want to keep things really simple, consider whether you actually need an Intellicenter.

kimkats · Aug 13, 2024

Well hello again!! A spending we will a go!!!

Twolabs said:
Travertine (or bluestone, still deciding) coping and decking

Make sure to go see the stuff before you have it sent to the house. Some are better quality than others. Look for flaking and such.

Twolabs said:
3.5 - 8.5' depths

I would do 4' to 8.5' depth. It will make for an easier sloop and 4' is just more useable for adults.

Make sure you PB uses water depth which is from the bottom of the pool to the middle of the skimmer opening. Some will call it depth as in from the bottom of the pool to the bottom of the coping. You lose some inches of water that way.

Twolabs said:
Pentair Microbrite LED Lights EC-620425

Well lets talk about this. You do NOT have to have a light IN your pool...................say what?? What about if you do a oh so pretty black 3 post light on each corner like this:

Twolabs said:
stairs in the middle, flanked by two tanning ledges.

That one gets my vote. Now lets talk about water depth again. I love to sit on the bench or shelf and the water come up to my belly button. Sit on the floor and use a measuring tape to see how deep you want the water to be. You can and should put small corner steps on each shelf to ease of exit from the shelf.

Thoughts? Let me know what you like/don't like about the above and we can go from there.

Gladius Nova · Aug 14, 2024

You should "splurge" and do more decking to connect the pool to the back patio.

Twolabs · Aug 14, 2024

RickRude said:
Looks awesome! Simplicity is where it's at! With the new Intelliflo3 pumps, you can add-on a relay board which can turn on/off up to two external devices - one relay up to 16 amps, the other up to 5 amps. So, if you want to keep things really simple, consider whether you actually need an Intellicenter.

Thank you!

That is certainly something to consider that I didn't know. I'll bring it up to the PB.

kimkats said:
Well hello again!! A spending we will a go!!!

Make sure to go see the stuff before you have it sent to the house. Some are better quality than others. Look for flaking and such.

I would do 4' to 8.5' depth. It will make for an easier sloop and 4' is just more useable for adults.

Make sure you PB uses water depth which is from the bottom of the pool to the middle of the skimmer opening. Some will call it depth as in from the bottom of the pool to the bottom of the coping. You lose some inches of water that way.

Well lets talk about this. You do NOT have to have a light IN your pool...................say what?? What about if you do a oh so pretty black 3 post light on each corner like this:
View attachment 603880

That one gets my vote. Now lets talk about water depth again. I love to sit on the bench or shelf and the water come up to my belly button. Sit on the floor and use a measuring tape to see how deep you want the water to be. You can and should put small corner steps on each shelf to ease of exit from the shelf.

Thoughts? Let me know what you like/don't like about the above and we can go from there.

Thanks so much Kimkats, and by the way, thank you so much for all the countless hours you spend on here helping poor souls like myself. You were so helpful in my last bid (a decade ago!), very selfless of you!

Good suggestion on the shallow end depth. One thing one of the PBs we interviewed was worried about the big slant of the stairs when they step down the last step it would look a little strange, with a shallower slope that would help.

On the decking, we're really unsure. We have bluestone on the existing back porch (and front porch), it goes well with the house. But we know from experience here in Texas it will be blistering hot. We had exposed aggregate and flagstone coping in the last pool and they were extremely hot as well, we just had to splash water around to walk. I think the bluestone will be worse.

So that makes travertine attractive, but we can't "connect" the decking to the existing bluestone back porch with travertine. That would just look odd. So we've decided if we go with travertine decking, we'll just have some bluestone pavers (surrounded by grass) to connect the two, similar to the last photo above. We're very unsure about this.

The idea of going lightless in the pool (one less thing to break and I have to curse!) is attractive, but I don't think I could get away from a dark pool. Our kids loved swimming at night with the lights on in the last pool.

Gladius Nova said:
You should "splurge" and do more decking to connect the pool to the back patio.

Thank you! Yeah as you can see with my comment above, we're really debating on what to do there. IF we stick with bluestone decking, then we'll for sure connect the two and spend the extra $ to pour that concrete and connect them. However, we're concerned with the heat of the bluestone and are considering travertine. If we do that, we can't connect the two contiguously because I just think that would look odd. We'd have to go with bluestone pavers to get out there. I'm not super excited about that either because it's more yardwork (and weedeating) for me, plus the pressure of keeping the grass looking perfect and not full of weeds around the pavers.

Current view of the backporch.

kimkats · Aug 14, 2024

Twolabs said:
Our kids loved swimming at night with the lights on in the last pool.

You would be surprised how well a light above the pool will show up in the pool. I SO understand the kids loving to swim at night. I love it and swimming in the rain the best of all!

Twolabs said:
we can't connect the two contiguously because I just think that would look odd.

Not a problem. No one will even notice as they run out to jump in the pool! Look at how these two different materials were put together in a house. So pretty!

or this:

Twolabs said:
we'll just have some bluestone pavers (surrounded by grass)

OH ADULT word NO!!! Why would you do that to yourself??? Ummmmmmmmmm NO! LOL It will be so pretty when it is just done then................."I should have listened to Kim!!" :roll:

Twolabs · Aug 23, 2024

Well that escalated quickly!

Dug and steel in two days!

Rough plumbing is happening soon and I need to figure out where I want lights and returns. We wound up going with the stairs in the middle, so this overhead view is not current.

The PB is thinking 4 returns is enough. Purple is what I was thinking based upon the skimmer locations (green). Blue arrow is prevailing winds.

The yellow dots are where I'm thinking lights. The one in the steps I'm just not sure how far down. PB says he normally puts them at least 20" down, but the manual says they only need to be >4". Our tanning ledges should be in 9" of water, so in the wall at the top might work so it lights up both tanning ledges and the steps?

bobby1017 · Aug 24, 2024

One thing I wish I had done was have another deeper ledge or 2 on the swim outs on the deep end kind of like a stair case. I only have one in one corner, I would have had one in each if I was smarter.