Planning, designing new pool.

Hello, new member here, great site.

We are thinking of putting an inground pool in the backyard. I have lots of yard so no size restrictions at all. I'd like to keep it under $40k and it looks like I will easily be able to do that. My buddy in the fence business will help me keep that portion of the cost down. I have some questions to start with and certainly will add more as I continue to think this through. I don't do anything without a solid plan. I would appreciate any help with the following questions but also welcome any ideas that I haven't thought of yet.

1) Does size matter? The pool, that is. Considering 18 x 36, however why not go 20 x 40? Is it a lot harder to heat or clean?

2) My drawing has lots of extra cement on the ends but only 4 feet on the sides. Should I go wider on the sides?

3) How much will it cost to hook up the electrical and gas? Pool builder estimates $1000 each at most.

4) Anyone seen that diving board with the lights and waterfall? It looks cool on paper.

5) We wanted the lazy L shape but every single builder tries to talk us out of it. What are your thoughts on different shapes besides rectangle.

I'll leave it at that for now. Thanks in advance for your expertise.

We have no frills DIY 18x40 w/ spa step/liner. Glad it is no smaller lengthwise.Good for laps...Wish we put the lounge seat things in but no frills is less problems I am finding.

Hi, Jeff,

some thoughts:

1. Size does matter. Bigger pool...more of everything...especially your wallet. Chemicals, bigger auto-vac, more returns, skimmers, etc. Size will evaporate the 40k quickly.

2. I have really large decking around the pool. Decide how you will use the pool and decide your size on that. Never known it to be too big but again, it'll cost bucks.

3. Not sure what you mean by "hook up" utilities. If it's just to supply the junction box and the gas line, you're good to go @ 1000 per.

4. No opinion on diving boards...we decided not to use one.

5. I think shape is a matter of personal taste. I really like free form pools but mine needed to be a rectangle.

I have a 20 x 40 vinyl IG and really like the size of it. I've had 15 + people in it and we still had room to play. I never heard anyone say they wish their pool was smaller!! Well maybe while they were manually vaccuming it...ha. When I have parties the adults tend to stay in the deep end and the kids in the shallow end until its time to do cannonballs :) .
I've had a person with a L-shape tell me they wished their pool was rectangle due to safety reasons. They said kids loose track where their at and swim into a corner and bump their heads. I guess they can do the same on ladders, steps, etc too.
Make sure you get a diving board and make the pool as deep as possible. I turned 40 this year and still have a blast diving, flipping and doing cannonballs off the board. The kid in me comes out pretty quick :) ... no wife to tell me I am going to kill myself....ha. Good luck.

Hello, I am a new member and also new to owning a pool. So I really can't comment too much.

I think that for size, go with what would make you and your family happy that falls in your budget.

I have kept many types of aquariums over the years ranging from various fresh water, salt water, reef, and brackish. With these, the larger the tank, the more it would cost to run and maintain, on the flip side, the larger the tank, the easier it was to keep the system balanced and the tank dwellers happy.

I would think that the larger the pool, the higher the costs associated with it. But since I am new, what do I know? ;)

I have an IG 21'X40' vinyl lined rectangular pool which is 4' deep at the shallow end and 9' at the deep end. (That seems like an odd size for a lined pool doesn't it?) I personally would like it to be bigger and deeper. But that is just me.

As a new pool owner I don't think a 21'X40' is all that hard to maintain. I do not have any robots or automatic anything. Just a soft brush, a manual vacuum, and a leaf skimmer (rarely used). Seems to work just fine.

I should mention that my pool is not really an outdoor pool, technically it is outdoors but it is fully enclosed. So besides bathers, I only get a few stray bugs, a few worms when it rains hard, and so far, 6 mice :eek: before I opened the pool (ick, glad to have the leaf skimmer though). No leaves (unless someone brings them in on their feet), rain water, or direct sun at all.

Sorry to go on so long. I guess I am just happy I found this place! :D

My husband and I built our own pool from a kit 3 years ago. I would NOT do it again. However....we had a 16 X 32 IG with deep end and diving board. Our daughter loved the shallow end to do hand stands and stuff. Our shallow end was small because of the slant to the deep end. To be honest, my 14 year old was 11 at the time and loved the diving board. I stayed in the shallow end, but we didn't have much of one. That sucked. I am only 5 feet tall, and I hate deep water. We are now doing a 14 X 28 Lagoon style vinyl IG pool 3.5 to 5.5 feet deep with a swim out. It is just perfect for us...not too big... not too small. To use it 4 or 5 months out of the year, it is just big enough. We are investing more in concrete, stamped and colored. Plus, we are doing a salt system this time.

Thanks everyone.

More questions:

Regarding the salt system referenced above, two different pool company owners have told me they are no longer recommending salt because the long term effects are showing rust and corrosion. I was sold on the idea until I talked to them, and I think I am now going to skip that. Any thoughts?

Will I regret only putting 4 feet of concrete on the sides of the pool? Again, I have lots planned for each end.

Our pool comes off the back of the house so we have 4 ft deck around half the deep end then wrapping around the far side to halfway around the shallow end. The near-side deck is 20 feet X 40 feet so plently of room for patio furniture, grill etc. We do enjoy the 4 ft outer decking because people can lay on the grass, etc and still be only a few feet from the pool.

We just had our 18 x 38 dug this weekend. We talked about 40 x 20 but our builder said he could only squeeze a 38 x 18 in on our $40000. The 38 feet does not include the six foot sun tanning ledge or beach entry as some are calling it, at one end of the pool. We are installing a diving board at the other end. We wanted the length for laps and the width for play. Most folks around here are doing lagoon pools, but we like the more traditional roman shape. I didn’t realize that we were building all that big of a pool until we started hearing comments from the builder's crews that our pool was really big. They hauled out 300 tons of dirt last Saturday.

We have, or will have a saltwater system. I have not heard anything about corrosion, but I can't think of what metal is exposed to rust. I didn’t want ladders or ledges sticking into the pool because it took away from the Roman lines, so we added swim-outs and tanning ledges in the natural roman design for easy exiting of the pool or just relaxing in shallow water.

Our goal for making the larger pool easy for us to maintain is adding options that make maintenance easy. Saltwater system, robotic cleaners and whatever else folks on these forums recommend from experience. I am open to all ideas; best cleaners, pumps, filters, heaters, timers, even placing lighting and electric receptacles.

One last thing, while you may have a $40000 budget to build a pool, we are realizing to budge a little more. Pool contractors don’t talk much on your responsibility to pay for electrical hook up and plumber for the heater. But also plan for the unplanned things like hitting your sewer line during the dig. That is delaying our build a few days and adding $1500 to the cost while the plumbers install a new sewer pipe around the pool. He is going to run my gas line at the same time however because the new sewer goes right by the gas meter. Lucky me.

Good discussion.

Beary

Edmond Oklahoma

The rail between the cement and liner was one problem area with the salt system. Maybe these guys are making a mountain out of a mole hill, I don't know. I was just shocked to hear these guys talk me out of something that would be more profitable for them.

At this stage of the negotiation/planning I am under $30k with the builder which leaves me plenty of room for fence and extras.

Thanks again for the advice.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jeffski

1) Does size matter? The pool, that is. Considering 18 x 36, however why not go 20 x 40? Is it a lot harder to heat or clean?

---

I am only in the planning stages as well, so any opinion I express should be taken with a grain of salt.

Having said that, I would abandon the idea of heating your pool. Spa, sure, but I believe that heating a pool is an expensive proposition.

You must not live in Michigan.

Heating is a necessity, not an option. The heater is about $1,800 plus the monthly cost to run it which should be less than $100 a month.

We had a 18x36 vinyl last year. Put extra money in spill over spa, swim out, filter setup, swg, Kooldeck/retaining wall, robotic cleaner. Drives the price up pretty fast. Check if the sub contractors (elec./gas line) are general estimates from the Pool Builder. The sub's actual cost will be slightly higher.

Does size matter? Well, form follows function. If your pool is for dunking (cooling), playing and floating, you don't need size.

But if you want to swim laps I think you need a MINIMUM of 36' in length. I have a 40' long pool and that's great for lapping, but my parents had a 33' foot oval and even going long point to long point it wasn't really long enough. My pool is only 16' wide, but 16x40 is just great for us, seems big enough, and we don't miss AT ALL the 20' width we had originally planned for.

We're in the process of building. Ours is free form, will have the diving board and is 39 x 18. We had an above ground as a test while the kids were smaller. We decided we loved the pool so much that we wanted bigger since the kids are now older and becoming teens. They've actually gone to the city pool for the diving, so our small one wasn't being used. I didn't realized until they dug how big 39 x 18 was, but we're really glad that it is that big. The kids have already decided who is coming to the first pool party.http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...dig_6-6-06.jpg
http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...t=DSCF3316.jpg
http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...ing_6-9-06.jpg

I would definately plan on having monies set aside. While everything was going ahead of schedule, we hit a snag because my city requires a ptrap on all pools no matter what. After installing the ptrap, the city didn't pass inspection because we needed a dual cleanout, so plumbers had to come back out and put in a two way cleanout. We finally passed the plumbing inspection, and we're back on track. We should be getting the gunite tomorrow. If we hadn't have hit that snag we'd be ahead of schedule.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jeffski

You must not live in Michigan.

Heating is a necessity, not an option. The heater is about $1,800 plus the monthly cost to run it which should be less than $100 a month.

---

I would agree, a heater in the 'colder' states is a good idea. I am glad to have a heater for my pool. Wisconsin is not the warmest state. :p

The temperature in my enclosure gets to 90 or more but without a heater my water stays around 62 :eek: Of course my pool gets no direct sun light so I don't have the chance to warm it up with the sun.