Newbie Making Final Decisions - Here's my pool plans, advice?

Hi, this is such a great resource! Don't you just love the web :D

Well, I think we've made a decision to go with "California Pools" after getting 5 quotes. Checked the BBB and CA contractor's board.

The pool will be rectangular, 35 x 13, raised spa, 18" rasied bond beam which is a retaining wall, we have a huge slope that needs to be pushed back. (I'd like it to be pushed back a LOT but that gets expensive!) SWG, 3M colorquartz - not sure which color - want it a deep blue.

http://www.temeculawebdesign.com/pool.jpg

The costs just keep going up and up as I'm sure you all have experienced :rolleyes:

We have flagstone along the wall top and spa, grey colored safety grip along the 0 elevation. I'm going to choose a deep blue with grey colored tile for the pool wall face and the outside wall will have stucco to match the house stucco.

- I sacrificed a nice cascade in the center back wall to raise the spa but am wondering if I should just eat the extra thousand or so to have that feature. If you have a sheer cascade, do you use it a lot? Is it mostly turned off or do you regularly enjoy it?

- The retaining wall is straight across the back yard/slope but I'm trying to visualize this in 3D and am wondering if I should consider stepping the wall back or forward for more visual interest. (not so institutional looking)
(our house has a craftsman style so I was trying to keep the shape angular to match - and my husband likes the rectangular shape better)

- For $850 more, they will put flagstone for all the coping- not sure if I should do that or go with grey saftey grip.

I will probably have more questions but if there are any "designers" out there, I'd like some advice before I drop $50K on this thing :eek:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mida68

For $850 more, they will put flagstone for all the coping- not sure if I should do that or go with grey saftey grip.

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We used the standard white bullnose coping because it doesn't scale/flake off into the water. I'm not sure how the flagstone wears and if it will make a mess in your water.

Other notes:
- ensure you have at least 2 skimmers (we placed ours on north & south ends since our winds are normally out of the south, except in bad weather).
- ensure you have 2 main drains; not sure if this is a code requirement or not, but this reduces the possibility of having something get sucked up to the drain grate.
- we installed 3 nozzles that protrude out of one wall that provide decorative water sprays (great for aerating the pool); a simple turn of a valve turns them on/off.
- our initial pool deck design did not have enough room to walk along the far side; we changed it to provide 2-3 feet clearance so we can walk all the way around the pool and we're very glad we did this. You might consider providing a walkway all the way around your pool. Also (for us, anyway), more deck is better--you will always wish you installed more usable deck surface.
- we opted for the "cool deck" spray applied to the concrete surface to allow us to walk on it in the summer time; without this, the deck would be unusable in the hot Texas sun. The only downside is the stucco-like surface is slightly harder to wash down than smooth concrete.
- we installed (2) empty 2" PVC pipes beneath the concrete deck surface to facilitate future installation of yard lighting, etc.
- 3' x 5' x 4' -- no deep end
- tanning shelf approx. 7' wide x 3' long x 6" deep on one end
- built-in stairs to access tanning shelf
- built-in shelf to sit around spa overflow into pool
- built-in curved stairs to enter/exit pool
- we did the same thing as you--asked questions from others who have already installed pools to learn what they would do differently. Go to your local pool store and talk to those who own pools. In spite of their sometimes questionable test results, they really can provide some useful advice.

HTH.

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Good luck with your pool! Most of your questions are issues of preference and budget, but I'll offer my opinion FWIW:
Coping/Tile - I would go with the flagstone all around if the spa and wall will have it. If you are looking at blue-gray tile, consider slate. Some are priced pretty comparably to tile. Real stone looks better to me.
Cascade - I would not sweat it since you will have a spill over from the raised spa. You could add 3 or 4 small scuppers or spitters on the wall instead. Might be a little less expensive since you would not be moving as much water as a sheer.
Retaining wall - breaking it up sounds good but I would not worry too much since it's only 18" tall. I would think differently if it was 3'.