New Home Build Pool Question?

[RWB]

Do not have experience, but my FIL just built a pool that is salt water. His only complaint is that the pool cleaner thing, is constantly throwing salt water on their ac unit outside. So he is afraid of long term exposure of the salt water being thrown on this unit and various parts of the home. He is going to build something around it, but just a thought as well. He said he would have moved it over or done something different. He just does not want chlorine.

They make an adapter for the polaris tail that keeps it from spraying water out of the pool.

[El General]

I started looking at plans last summer and ended up signing a contract to have a new house built towards the end of last year. So the wife has been saying she wants a pool so now I’m starting to look into getting one built and have a few questions? I know nothing about pools FYI.


1. What you get a heater and chiller
2. Salt or Chlorine
3. Hot Tub or not
4. How far away from the house would start the pool? Some people don’t have grass between the pool and back porch and some do. I like the idea of coming off about 10 foot from the porch and putting down a rock of some sort kinda like this:

Pics won’t load for some reason.

5. What shape pool.
6. Would you do a water feature

If your pool contractor can't answer these questions to your liking, don't hire them.

[Jet Black]

They make an adapter for the polaris tail that keeps it from spraying water out of the pool.

How did I not know this! You just made my wife very happy lol

[Roger]

We did 6' on the deep end up to 3.5'. For us that works far better than a deep end. Of course, we built a small pool so space is at a premium. We did have volleyball net ports installed along with an umbrella port and bubbler on the beach entry.

We have a boulder waterfall. Enjoy that a lot and it fits in with the rustic nature of the landscaping and log home.

Our pool is close to the house and I laid flagstone between the house and pool. I wanted a patio connecting the pool decking to the house and zero grass to deal with. Builder screwed up the concrete decking and sloped it toward the middle of my house, so I had to get creative in sloping the flagstone to get rid of the water. Waiting till cooler weather this fall to stain the concrete decks and our house porches to match all the stone I installed this summer. Attached a pic to show our spacing between the pool and house.

After some research, we chose traditional chlorine over salt and don't regret that. Went with a cartridge filter, auto chlorinator, and a UV cleaner. Our pool builder installed Racer for the sweeper. They are expensive, but total crap. First one died in 6 months. It's warranty replacement also died in about 8 months. Only ran it 2 hours per day. A shade would be a great idea if you have the room. We did pebble tech finish. Absolutely love the pebble finish vs plaster. Well worth the expense.

Second the above post about build quality. Turns out ours used vertical 90's on top of a tee for the returns and backfilled with the grey clay they dug out of the hole before I could see it and stop them. Just had two major leaks located and repaired. Both were in the same spot on the 90 elbows.

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[slayr]

Not the best pics, but I can try to get better for you if interested. For size reference I think overall is 21,000 gallons.

Definitely get a heater, you won’t regret.
I have salt and enjoy it. Super easy to maintain.
Hot tub - Absolutely!
I’d go 10-15’ off of house and concrete as much as possible. This cuts down on dirt and debris which gets into pool.
I’m partial to rectangular, just look cleaner in my opinion.
We just have an infinity edge on hot tub.

[lonestartiger01]

we just finished our pool

1. What you get a heater and chiller - neither
2. Salt or Chlorine - chlorine for the reasons mentioned previously, salt is so corrosive
3. Hot Tub or not - we did not, but I've never been a hot tub guy. Went with a fire pit instead
4. How far away from the house would start the pool? Some people don’t have grass between the pool and back porch and some do. I like the idea of coming off about 10 foot from the porch and putting down a rock of some sort kinda like this - Close enough we could have concrete decking between the back of the house and the pool. I didnt want to walk across yard or a path to get to the pool.
5. What shape pool. - freeform
6. Would you do a water feature - we did a 4-ton rock waterfall

[WilliamL]

Slayr:
about to have one built myself. Love the look of yours. What is your decking? Stamped concrete? What is the coping made out of? Looks great!

[Hart8]

Chlorine.

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[Hart8]

Don't build one in black dirt,without massive amounts of fill..One of my best friends just filled in a 6yr old pool.He spent $80k on it.Could not stop the leaks.The cracks around it were causing stress on the gunite..Maybe had the builder doubled the amount of gunite?? Who knows..It's a garden now.

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[slayr]

Slayr:
about to have one built myself. Love the look of yours. What is your decking? Stamped concrete? What is the coping made out of? Looks great!

Thanks, man.

It is stamped concrete with Kool Deck coating. The coping is made out of Tumbled Travertine, I believe.

[Mike]

Lots of good info here and I will add a bit from recent experiences. In High School and College I cleaned pools, as well as maintaining our new pool since 2010.

Chlorine, no brainer
Concrete decking, get as much as you can afford, at least 5' all the way around.
No grass between house and pool.
Stay away from small pea gravel if you are not setting flagstone in mortar, it will wind up in the pool.
Work on a shade plan now, you will enjoy it later.
Pending geography, work on a mosquito plan now for evenings/nights.
We love our hot tub.
I would love to add a chiller.
Go with a quartz or pebble tec finish, bare plaster starts fading immediately and tends to stain easily.
Pool construction is at an all time high now in my area of Southeast Texas, reputable builders have 40 pools in line right now. Some builders have 4 in line.
Use a reputable builder.
Look at drainage now, rain water has to go somewhere. Oversize drainage channels along existing concrete edges.

[bbqfan5909]

100% go with a salt water pool. We bought a home with one and was concerned learning a new system coming from a chlorine. At 3500 PPM salt level, its less than a tear drop and much nicer on skin.

Get as much concrete as you can, less debris can get into the pool.

[jer_james]

We had one built this past Winter:

We went with the free form. Better half wanted the natural look. It has rocks all along the back edge with a Grotto and 2 weeping waterfalls.

Went with Chlorine at advice of the builder - has worked great.

Heated was very important to us - for the whole pool. We also have the hot tub. It is great for just relaxing.

We have travertine decking that goes from our back doors to the pool that is about 12 ft. out. It goes all the way around the portion of the pool that is facing the house, and around the elevated hot tub.

Love the sound of the water the most probably. We are in it all the time. Spend a lot of nights in the hot tub.

[jb5001]

Waterfall without a doubt. We had a pool at our last house. I don’t miss the pool one bit but I miss the sound of the waterfall in the evenings.


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