| laborlitigator |
Having a rep come down to talk to me about having a pool installed. His major question was whether I preferred a gunite or vinyl pool.
I asked what the major difference was and he stated cost. Durability and maintenance was about the same.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. |
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| MDteX |
| That is one of the differences. In Texas a gunite pool will always return more in a resale than a vinyl pool. Gunite pools tend to be less slippery. I would tend to think the vinyl would be less durable and maybe cut by something inadvertently. It takes a small earthquake (or bad construction) to creates a crack that leaks in a gunite pool. |
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| G. COLTON |
The initial cost of a pool with vinyl liner is generally less than one with gunite. The gunite pool will have to be resurfaced periodically and the pool with the vinyl liner will have to have the liner replaced. In general it will cost less to resurface the gunite than to replace the liner.
G |
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| Fabvsix |
I have a gunite pool. 22,000 gallon custom built by Anythony/Sylvans who has been building pools in America for over 45 years ! Get Gunite and the in-floor cleaning system !
Want more insites, email me and perhaps we can talk live on the phone !
You better be committed ! That's all I can say......:1:
Beware of Pool salesman ! They will tell you anything you want to hear.....all they care about is the sale.....then comes the crew's to build the pool and that's a whole other issue............ |
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| Lacostacal |
| Gunite.....then pebble tec on top. |
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| laborlitigator |
Got $45K quote on a gunite and $33K on a vinyl.
Do these guys have any room on the bargaining end? |
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| laborlitigator |
| That was for the same dimension pools and same patio, etc. |
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| Fabvsix |
Did you check with Anthony/Sylvans ? What company are you talking to ? what size, how many gallons, infloor cleaning system or traditional system ? Mine was $51,000.00 5 years ago. The retaining wall was was $18,000.00 alone. It all adds up !
You set up is gorgeous Lacostacal ! |
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| Fabvsix |
| Here is a better shot: |
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| laborlitigator |
quote:
Originally posted by Fabvsix
Did you check with Anthony/Sylvans ? What company are you talking to ? what size, how many gallons, infloor cleaning system or traditional system ? Mine was $51,000.00 5 years ago. The retaining wall was was $18,000.00 alone. It all adds up !
You set up is gorgeous Lacostacal !
It is Anthony Sylvan. Includes a 500sq ft pool, about 13,000 gallons. Comes with an infloor cleaning system, stamped concrete and patio of about 500 sq feet. No retaining wall necessary. |
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| Lacostacal |
| few more pool pics |
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| Lacostacal |
quote:
Originally posted by Lacostacal
few more pool pics
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| Lacostacal |
quote:
Originally posted by Lacostacal
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| laborlitigator |
Getting closer to finalizing the pool.
Which will it be cheaper to heat the pool, gas or electric? |
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| Fabvsix |
Natural Gas esp. if your going with the in-floor cleaning system ! Gheez.....were you not explained of the benefits of the in-floor cleaning systrem by your salesman ???????
Look infloor cleaning system provided warm water at the botton of the pool ! Heat rises......old tradtional pool system "DRIP/POUR" warm water which takes MUCH $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ longer to heat your pool !
I'd just wish you'd call me to answer any further investment questions you have !
I'd be more than willing to give you the low down ! :1: |
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| laborlitigator |
Thanks Fab.
Thing is one salesman told me one thing and the other one told me another. The one that recommended the gas heater did seem to know more about what he was talking about and was selling a better product. |
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| snoman |
I think it probably comes down to a matter of personal choice. While gunite can be more expensive to install, personally I think it looks better, and is definitely more flexible than vinyl in terms of what you can do.
When they were doing my pool (a freeform style) they asked me - would you like some stairs over here? How about if we build a little underwater seat here - would you like that?
Point is, they can form gunite any way you want.
People who sell only vinyl will tell you why you would never want to go with a gunite pool. People who sell only gunite, will tell you why you would always select gunite over vinyl. (As someone noted earlier: Beware of pool salesmen!)
Whether you select gunite or vinyl, my best advice for you is to HAVE A PLAN, and don't assume that the pool company is going to take care of everything for you. I told the guy who sold me my pool that I did not want to be the project manager - I thought that was their job. He agreed. I'm sorry to say that I had to become the project manager. You have to watch them and be sure that they are doing what you want them to do.
I live in Massachusetts, so we usually have more land than a typical house lot in say, Southern California. If I left it up to them, they would have put a fence around the pool itself (dividing my nice back yard into a bunch of unusable pieces of grass).
You have to plan it out in advance - know where you want the pool to go, what land is left, how you'll use it, and make sure they follow the plan.
Another thing to be aware of: It costs so much to dig the hole, so much to put the re-bar in (for gunite) so much to spray it with the gunite, so much to pour the deck, and so on. What you quickly realize is that between their "up front" payments and "payments on completion of the job" you have paid about 80% of the cost of the pool pretty quick in the process. This is why it is so important to have a plan that everybody is following because you will very quickly get to the point where you have no financial leverage with the pool company. They will have everything you owe them and be on to the next job while you still owe money to whoever is going to pour the deck in put in a fence.
I hope I haven't come across as being negative - we love our pool, and I would do it all again if I had to. It's a center of entertainment and fun in the summer (which is way to short here!! ... especially when your pool is not heated.) |
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| Fabvsix |
Here is what we did:
Called Anthony/Sylvan. Verified they would finance the pool etc...it was effortless. They sent a salesman to our new home. He delivered blue prints. We accepted it. They arrived a week later to dig etc...we paid nothing out of pocket. When the plaster crew (icing on the cake the waiting game is over, put your project manager hat aside), then we paid them some money but it was issued by A/S finance depts. So we paid nothing really. I work from home full time, so I watched them like a hawk and yes I had confrontations when the entire crew showed up and didn't speaka englash ya know.....I'll spare you those details. About 100 days out the pool was being filled with water. Did a refi, consoldated that pool loan and all that was done......just enjoy the pool. We paid $51K total. Yes I could have had a stunning pool like Lacostacal but why would you put a diamond in a gold plated ring ? ? ? ? The rock, the material were all cosmetics and VERY expensive, so we did the best we could. It certainly has brought a ton of fun times for the past 5.5 years ! Plan ahead, vision landscaping around your pool etc....that is why I would have killed to speak to someone or even share on a forum like this one....as the internet wasn't quite there then.....my options were limited. We were in a new subdivision, .dot.com frenzy, everyone was new to the neighborhood.........who was I to trust the Gunite folks or the Vinyl folks. Everyone said "gunite" no question.....resale purposes etc.....my neighbor next door finally got a pool. The went with vinyl, all I can say very slippery pool ! |
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| ByeByeChrysler |
Lots of good points.
Here's my 2 cents
My pools vinyl, next door his pool is gunite (cement)
both pools are about 20 years old
my liner was replaced about 7 years ago, pool looks great and we have been in the pool all week.
guy next door, his pool is not open yet, doing patch work on the top portion (tiles popping off after winter)
being in the northeast and having unpredictable winter, I like the thought of vinyl.
Vinyl sounds cheaper and looks great, when the liner fades, 2k should replace it.
I bought my house with the pool already installed, if I was putting one in for the first time, I don't know what I would chose either, but for now I'm very happy with vinyl and it always looks good.
If I lived in a hot climate and had the $$, know that gunite would be problem free, then, gunite would be my choice for the elegant looks.
LL your girls would love it, don't wait too long, also, as they get older, you will know who their friends are, and where they will be, as you will be hosting the parties.
BTW, my 12 year old had a pool party for for birthday this weekend, everyone had fun. I said they can all come back when they are 20 years old, guy next door volunteered to be the bartender then. |
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| Fabvsix |
ByeBye: LMAO ! ! ! :2: :2: :2:
You do become the FAVORITE Uncle over night as a pool owner ! Just make sure to make a rule:
ALWAYS BRING YOUR OWN TOWELS
PLEASE DON'T URINATE IN THE POOL
NO RUNNING OF ANY SORT
NO DIVING ANYWHERE
NO HORSEPLAY
And in my case:
Please respect the IN-FLOOR cleaning system pop up heads ! Wow they can spook ya........:cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: |
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| mdxx3 |
| Ok, I'll join in... whichever pool type you guys choose, try not to add a pool after the house has been built for "too long". My ex-neighbor waited like two years after his house was completed to do his backyard (pool) and while his pool was being built, he had to get a permit plus all those approvals. So, the city/permit people came in and re-evaluated his property and he got hit with a huge property tax increase - not because of the pool (worth around $15k), but because the value of his property climbed sharply (way over $100k) in that 2 years; never mind the pool addition... If he didn't have to get a permit to do this pool, they wouldn't have noticed it and would have left him alone at the old tax/rate. He was b!tching up and down that all of us can put in a $15k backyard and not worry about a property tax increase but he has to because of the permit thing. But if this property tax increase isn't an issue, then go for it... |
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| Ceenit |
My two/three cents.
We put in an Anthony Sylvan pool about 3 1/2 years ago. It is our second pool (put one in at the last house as well). We are water lovers.
Go Gunite if you are in an upscal neighborhood[/B]
Certainly nothing wrong with vinyl, but My personal preference is Gunite for many of the reason's listed (customization, look, resale, etc). But your choice should also be based on the neighborhood home pricing. Above a certain dollar house, there will be an expectation of Gunite.
Go Gas Vs Electric Heat[/B]
Gas is typically more efficient and less expensive. BUT heating your pool is not cheap. It is great to bring standard water temperature up 5-10 degrees, but don't expect to heat that puppy in the winter. It will take days to heat and run you up a nice several hundred dollar tab for a day's worth of swimming.
We have used our's mostly to heat the hot tub. Which is not too bad summer or winter (but still takes several hours to heat to a comfortable temperature in the winter.
Go TexturedAggregate finish[/B]
This was unfortunately not a common option when we did our pool. Even though it will cost you up front, it will save money in the long run because any staining (common no matter what you do) will be much more difficult to see with the aggregate surface. We spend about 100-150 on ascorbic acid an other stain removers each summer (staining is more common with heating systems due to the copper piping)
Patio Surface[/B]
The 500 Sq Ft that Sylvan includes in the package is typically not enough to have a decent layout or walking area. This may be a point you can negotiate on with them. Depending on the size of the pool you should plan on at least 800-1000 sq ft (ours is 34 x 20 figure 8 shaped plus jacuzzi and we have about 1100 sq ft of patio.
We also went with stamped concrete, and it looks great with great finish options. But be aware that any concrete will crack. After 3.5 years, we have 3 or 4 cracks in different areas of the patio. It doesn't look too bad because many blend in with the surface texture. This can be minimized by putting in as many expansion joints as possible (without upsetting the overall look). We had fewer expansion joints.
Our whole bill for the pool, water features, spa, cleaning/ heating systems, fence came to about 60k. Landscaping was on top of that. With Sylvan you have the option to bring in your own patio and fencing people. It is a little more hassle/coordination but will provide you with more options and save several thousand dollars on each. We did this for both the fence and patio.
Love to answer any other question you have or provide insight on the negotiating with Sylvan (that's the fun part, because no matter what they say, there is wiggle room).
Chris
Charlotte, NC |
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| Ceenit |
One other thought on the depth/type of pool to build.
Our first pool was a more standard 3 ft on one end graduating to 7 ft in the deep end. The deep end was great if you like doing a lot of diving into the pool. But most of the time for general playing, socialization, and having neighbors over, it was only the shallower end that was used.
For our second pool, we have gone with a 'sport pool' which is basically shallower on both ends but deep in the middle. We wend with 3.5 ft on one end, 5.5 in the middle, and 4.5 on the far end. We get a lot more use of the whole pool this way.
We had initially wanted 6.5 feet deep in the middle, but this created too steep a drop off from the shallow end so we had them bring up the middle of the pool by 1 ft ($1500 after the fact change that would have been free if someone had explained it to me up front :(.) |
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| snoman |
Good point on depth. If you follow CEENIT's advice on a more even bottom with marginal depth, you will have a great party pool. If you want to put in a diving board (or as some people do, a diving rock) then you'll obviously need more depth.
The one thing I would caution you on is diving boards and teenagers and pool depth/configuration. There is some kind of a standard that pool company's use (I think it may be universal, but I'm not positive) to determine the point at which your pool goes from it's deepest point up to the shallow end ... in other words, the point at which it slopes up from deep to shallow. I think there's a minimum distance, measured from the deep end of the pool, that must be passed before the upslope can begin.
This universally accepted "safety standard" is bogus. It may be a standard, but it really isn't what I'd call safe. A reasonably athletic high school student who is over 5' 6" tall is potentially capable of hitting the upslope if they get a bit of air going off a diving board.
In my case, I have an open area behind the diving board, and my son's friends were all in the area of 6' tall and over. They would get a running start on the grass, jump up on the diving board, get as much air as possible and practically land in the shallow end. I had to put a stop to the "running start" practice, and draw them a diagram that showed them that if they dove out instead of straight up, they were running the risk of meeting the bottom of the pool with their face. Fortunately my deep end is over 12' so I have a little extra distance, but it isn't enough so that it causes me not to worry.
If you are going to have junior athletes trying to outdo each other with their dives (it's a guy thing) you might want to omit a diving board altogether, or alter the point at which the upslope begins. |
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| Fabvsix |
Speaking of diving boards. Anthonys threw in ours for free as they said they were going to STOP selling diving boards all together. I have a FIRM RULE:
NO DIVING OF ANY KIND IN OUR POOL ! Anyone that violates this is banned for the season. 60 min. had a 30 min segment on diving boards and government standards.......TAKE MY WORD, DON'T ALLOW DIVING ! I wished I had NOT gotten the diving board ! |
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| crmsnidol |
We put in a fibergalss pool in Oct '03 and opted for a shallow 3.5' - 5.5' oval design for exactly the reason stated earlier - more of the pool is usable during parties. My daughter, her friends and cousins are all very young so even 5' deep is like the Marianas Trench to them. No diving, no sliding board and no running.
I'm currently looking into solar heating my pool and may try a less expensive solar cover before solar panels/copper tubing on my roof. The backyard is south-facing and gets sun all day. I only need to bump it up 5-10 degrees in the beginning and end of the season to be comfortable. It was 72 just 6 days ago but we're experiencing a hot spell which bumped the water to 84 yesterday with no heater. |
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| nightguy |
quote:
Originally posted by Fabvsix
Speaking of diving boards. Anthonys threw in ours for free as they said they were going to STOP selling diving boards all together. I have a FIRM RULE:
NO DIVING OF ANY KIND IN OUR POOL ! Anyone that violates this is banned for the season. 60 min. had a 30 min segment on diving boards and government standards.......TAKE MY WORD, DON'T ALLOW DIVING ! I wished I had NOT gotten the diving board !
I was gonna say the same thing. I bet at least 75% of swimming pool accidents are diving board related. Of course most of them are in combination with doing stupid stuff like snoman was talking about but I'd rather not feel partly responsible for the dumb kid being in a wheelchair because he was having fun at the pool party.
Lacostacal: Beautiful pool and patio. I love the infinite edge or whatever you call that. Is that expensive to do ? I assume there's just some sort of ledge on the other side to catch the water. |
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| laborlitigator |
quote:
Originally posted by crmsnidol
We put in a fibergalss pool in Oct '03 and opted for a shallow 3.5' - 5.5' oval design for exactly the reason stated earlier - more of the pool is usable during parties. My daughter, her friends and cousins are all very young so even 5' deep is like the Marianas Trench to them. No diving, no sliding board and no running.
I'm currently looking into solar heating my pool and may try a less expensive solar cover before solar panels/copper tubing on my roof. The backyard is south-facing and gets sun all day. I only need to bump it up 5-10 degrees in the beginning and end of the season to be comfortable. It was 72 just 6 days ago but we're experiencing a hot spell which bumped the water to 84 yesterday with no heater.
What's the price range on the solar heating? |
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| Fabvsix |
| yes, I have a 22,000 gallon free form pool. Shallow end 3 ' and deep end 8 '. I have all PUREX equipment which I understand is the BEST out there. My heater can heat 44,000 gallons quickly. They stopped installing heaters that took days to heat the pool (V-12 engine in a VW bug concept). So I only use it to bump up the temp so we can swim or for the therapeutic spa which we use often.....keep in mind also have the "INFLOOR CLEANING SYSTEM" warms up the pool quickly compared to the conventional pool system....... |
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| Lacostacal |
quote:
Originally posted by laborlitigator
What's the price range on the solar heating?
I added solar heating when we did our pool three years ago. With solar only, living here in San Diego, from April until the end of October, our pool stays about 87 degrees. We only use the gas heater for the spa.
The general rule is to match the solar panels with the surface square footage of your pool. I had 150% of my surface Sq footage installed for two reasons.
First, most solar panels are black, which are not that attractive. I found a company that made them in Terra cotta which matched my roof. These panels hold 16% less heat so I wanted to increase the square footage to make up the difference.
Second, I live in a single story ranch home with a large roof and decided more was better, so I filled up the entire roof. This gave me more heat in the cooler months.
The cost was about $8,000. |
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| phins2rt |
quote:
Originally posted by Lacostacal
I added solar heating when we did our pool three years ago. With solar only, living here in San Diego, from April until the end of October, our pool stays about 87 degrees. We only use the gas heater for the spa.
The general rule is to match the solar panels with the surface square footage of your pool. I had 150% of my surface Sq footage installed for two reasons.
First, most solar panels are black, which are not that attractive. I found a company that made them in Terra cotta which matched my roof. These panels hold 16% less heat so I wanted to increase the square footage to make up the difference.
Second, I live in a single story ranch home with a large roof and decided more was better, so I filled up the entire roof. This gave me more heat in the cooler months.
The cost was about $8,000.
Lacostacal,
Nice! :29:
I don't think I would have noticed the panels unless you pointed them out! |
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| Lacostacal |
quote:
Originally posted by nightguy
Lacostacal: Beautiful pool and patio. I love the infinite edge or whatever you call that. Is that expensive to do ? I assume there's just some sort of ledge on the other side to catch the water.
The "vanishing edge" added significantly to the cost, I'm guessing around 20k. Our home sits about ten feet above the golf course (La Costa) in our backyard. Because of the added elevation, we knew the vanishing edge effect would look very cool, which it does. The edge is about 30ft long and spills over about five feet into an 18" trough that pumps the water back into the pool.
Not only does the vanishing edge look cool as you look out, but looking from the golf course to our pool is pretty neat also as you see a 30' long water fall.
The bottom line is build something you will enjoy, period. We are fortunate to live in a place that has the best weather of anywhere in the US, and probably the world. Our backyard costed big money, but I have no regrets. We love our pool. Most of the time, it feels like we are always on vacation! |
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| Fabvsix |
Lacostal:
I used to frequent Hawaii often. I then found if more relaxing to just hang around the pool at the hotels etc....cause the sand, tourist etc....became no fun. Now that we have this pool and continue to work my landscaping, we too feel like were on vacation all the time. I've not returned to Hawaii in 6+ years ! :2: |
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| mgmdx |
Based on the above posts it appears that you are only talking to 2 pool builders, one that builds vinyl pools and one that does gunite type pools. Once you decide on the type of pool you want, I would recommend that you talk to at least 3 different pool builders to get estimates, obtain design ideas, etc.
The designs that the builders are likely to come up with (as well as the pricing) will be very different. You can then select one builder but ask them to incorporate some of the design elements that you may have liked from other designs. Also, pricing the options that you may want to incorporate into your pool design with all builders may give you some leverage in negotiating the price of those options with the pool builder that you select.
We are also in the process of getting swimming pool estimates right now. We already talked to 3 companies, with 2 more coming next week. All 5 will be coming back with proposed designs/pricing estimates within the next couple weeks.
So far, we are definitely going with a gunite pool with a built-in spa. Some of the additional options that we are considering include:
- gas heater (for the spa)
- solar heating
- built-in automatic pool cover
- automatic cleaner with booster pump
- electronic indoors controls
- pebbletec (or similar finish)
- salt chlorinator
- water features (fountain, waterfall, etc)
- fiber-optic lighting
Please let us know what you decided on, and keep us informed on the progress. Also, post some "before, during, and after" pictures when available.
Thanks and good luck. |
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| Lacostacal |
quote:
Originally posted by mgmdx
Based on the above posts it appears that you are only talking to 2 pool builders, one that builds vinyl pools and one that does gunite type pools. Once you decide on the type of pool you want, I would recommend that you talk to at least 3 different pool builders to get estimates, obtain design ideas, etc.
The designs that the builders are likely to come up with (as well as the pricing) will be very different. You can then select one builder but ask them to incorporate some of the design elements that you may have liked from other designs. Also, pricing the options that you may want to incorporate into your pool design with all builders may give you some leverage in negotiating the price of those options with the pool builder that you select.
We are also in the process of getting swimming pool estimates right now. We already talked to 3 companies, with 2 more coming next week. All 5 will be coming back with proposed designs/pricing estimates within the next couple weeks.
So far, we are definitely going with a gunite pool with a built-in spa. Some of the additional options that we are considering include:
- gas heater (for the spa)
- solar heating
- built-in automatic pool cover
- automatic cleaner with booster pump
- electronic indoors controls
- pebbletec (or similar finish)
- salt chlorinator
- water features (fountain, waterfall, etc)
- fiber-optic lighting
Please let us know what you decided on, and keep us informed on the progress. Also, post some "before, during, and after" pictures when available.
Thanks and good luck.
I also suggest you interview some smaller custom pool builders. We went with a small company that only does pools and landscaping together. The person we used employed 45 guys and did almost all the work in-house. This is important for quality reasons. Many of the larger companies "farm out" a lot of the work on a fixed price basis.
I could go on and on, but I must stop for now. |
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| laborlitigator |
Definitely going with vinyl. The cost and the climate were the decisive factors. It simply won't be used for the entire year so no need to spend nearly 2X the money for the cost.
Found a builder with 45 years of experience, who doesn't advertise and has a retail store where I can bug him if I have any questions. Also, I did a background check on his company and have not found any complaints. |
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| laborlitigator |
Signed the contract yesterday. . . $24K for an 18 X 34 vinyl liner pool. He threw in quite a few things like special lighting, free closing for the winter and opening for next spring and some other things.
I'm not going to kill myself with the fence right now since we'll use the temporary fence to get past inspection. Then next spring, we'll try to find some $ to fence off the 1.5 acre property. I'm trying to convince Mrs. LL just to fence off the pool but I'm losing that fight. |
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| crmsnidol |
quote:
Originally posted by laborlitigator
Signed the contract yesterday. . . $24K for an 18 X 34 vinyl liner pool. He threw in quite a few things like special lighting, free closing for the winter and opening for next spring and some other things.
Sounds similar to the deal I got
14' x 31' fiberglass
multicolored Heyward light
Polaris automatic cleaner (I've never even used)
1 open and 1 close
1 1/2 ft of cement around pool lip and walk area incl cantilevered edge
cleaning equipment
Congrats. |
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| laborlitigator |
quote:
Originally posted by crmsnidol
Sounds similar to the deal I got
14' x 31' fiberglass
multicolored Heyward light
Polaris automatic cleaner (I've never even used)
1 open and 1 close
1 1/2 ft of cement around pool lip and walk area incl cantilevered edge
cleaning equipment
Congrats.
Crmsnidol,
I doesn't include the patio yet. Looking to put down stamped concrete. Planning to put 400 sq feet. @ about $12 a foot.
Just hope they finish by the older daughter's b-day (7/19). |
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| crmsnidol |
quote:
Originally posted by laborlitigator
Crmsnidol,
I doesn't include the patio yet. Looking to put down stamped concrete. Planning to put 400 sq feet. @ about $12 a foot.
Just hope they finish by the older daughter's b-day (7/19).
We end up getting 900 sqft at $5 sqft for regular concrete. It was an additional $3.50/sqft for stamped but we knew we still had a lot or landscaping costs ahead of us (over $6K) so I passed. It would have looked great but it wasn't in the budget. You'll love it. |
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| laborlitigator |
quote:
Originally posted by crmsnidol
We end up getting 900 sqft at $5 sqft for regular concrete. It was an additional $3.50/sqft for stamped but we knew we still had a lot or landscaping costs ahead of us (over $6K) so I passed. It would have looked great but it wasn't in the budget. You'll love it.
$8.50 sq foot!? |
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| crmsnidol |
quote:
Originally posted by laborlitigator
$8.50 sq foot!?
Yes. The pool installer and stamped concrete guy are in business together so there was a break in cost. |
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| laborlitigator |
Well, after fiddling with the county over the placement of the pool, we finally found an area to place it which did not require a retaining wall.
Along with the pool, I also hired a contractor to grade and level the back yard.
They were scheduled to truck in about 600 yards of fill and the pool people would add an additional 150 yards.
On the first day, the started to bring in the fill. Unfortunately, this happened. (See below).
Luckily, the driver jumped out before it fell on its side. It took two of those huge pulling trucks to get it out. |
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| laborlitigator |
| Fortunately, he did not hit the big tree or my neighbor's fence. |
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| laborlitigator |
| Pool site will be approximately where the tree in the middle will be. |
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| Walter369 |
Gunite is a better alternative will outlive the vinyl. Make sure to install in bottom of the pool a "Hymatic valve" This is a safety valve that in case you have empty your pool for repairs etc.will prevent the pool from "floating" if you have water underneath it.
The valve will open and let in that water and your pool will not move at all. If it moves even 1/16 of an inch, that's it, you lost your pool. tear it down and start all over(expensive alternative).
I have found that all pool builders will not install this valve for financial reasons. (+- $50.00). It has to be installed BEFORE the gunite is spread on the steel frame.
I hope is not too late for you to take action , good luck
Walter369 |
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| laborlitigator |
quote:
Originally posted by Walter369
Gunite is a better alternative will outlive the vinyl. Make sure to install in bottom of the pool a "Hymatic valve" This is a safety valve that in case you have empty your pool for repairs etc.will prevent the pool from "floating" if you have water underneath it.
The valve will open and let in that water and your pool will not move at all. If it moves even 1/16 of an inch, that's it, you lost your pool. tear it down and start all over(expensive alternative).
I have found that all pool builders will not install this valve for financial reasons. (+- $50.00). It has to be installed BEFORE the gunite is spread on the steel frame.
I hope is not too late for you to take action , good luck
Walter369
Walter,
Thanks for the advise. Yes, pool does have a hymatic valve for the purposes that you spoke about. |
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| laborlitigator |
| Also put in a barn in the back |
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| laborlitigator |
Well, from something that was supposed to be done in May, it's finally installed. We'll do the patio in the summer and the fence sometime next fall.
Hopefully, the grass will grow without having to bring in too much topsoil. |
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| Fabvsix |
| Now its time for all the make-up (Land scaping$$$$$$$) to be applied.......Where's the deck ? Planted trees, tree pots, pool furniture etc....? |
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| laborlitigator |
quote:
Originally posted by Fabvsix
Now its time for all the make-up (Land scaping$$$$$$$) to be applied.......Where's the deck ? Planted trees, tree pots, pool furniture etc....?
Fab,
Give me some time. Problem is I have to let the 1200 yards of fill settle before I can do anything.
Probably going to go with pavers over stamped concrete since it last longer and little to no maintenance. |
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| Fabvsix |
| Just giving you a hard time. But at least go buy some cheap stepping stones from the entrance to the back of your house. I hate to your kids/guest track all that mud in your house ! |
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| laborlitigator |
Pretty much that's what we had. Problem is the ground was so soft from so much rain, I couldn't do anything.
But at least there's grass growing around the yard now. |
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