I will email you plumbing diagrams separately.

Pool:
1. Given details of our situation, is the "filter bypass" appropriate?

2. I would think that there needs to be a valve where I've marked in red. My only issue with this - what if this filter bypass is closed (to clean the pool as much as possible) and my wife or kid accidently turn on the water features? What will be the repercussions?

3. Is the lack of a valve where I've marked in red responsible for not being able to filter the plaster dust?

4. We have 3 18" Sheer descents and 1 36" sheer descent. Functionality currently is poor.
a. Pool builder ground down the descents with a grinder. They are now very rough. I've told the builder that he needs to make them smooth. Is this a large problem now?
b. I have always anticipated that the 3 18" and 1 36" would work together. Pool builder is only now telling me that the 18" units and 36" units may have to work independently. When all are turned on, flow rate is less than optimal. I didn't know if this was due to builder's potential plumbing mistakes, secondary to not enough power from the Intelliflo / Jandy actuator, or secondary to plaster dust running through the descents. In order to work all 4 together, I'm guessing they would need at least 90 gal / min in total. I looked at the Intelliflo performance curve to get an idea of whether or not this would technically be feasible; however, I don't have any clue how to guestimate the "Total Head" of our system. I'd like all 4 to work at the same time and I'm open to suggestions.
c. Even with "good flow" the descents do not function uniformly at this time. The water blade "splits" as it leaves the unit. I'm assuming this is due to the fact that they ground the PVC and/or debris in the unit. I hope this is correctable?

5. From what I've read, I don't like how the Jandy actuator is positioned relative to the filter. From my view, when the water feature is in use, the filter is bypassed. All water running through the water feature is not filtered. Will this not lead to clogging / debris in the sheer descents? Jandy descent manual specifically states that water should be filtered before reaching the descents.

Spa:
1. Given details of our situation, is the "filter bypass" appropriate?

2. Same question re: accidently engaging spa jets when "filter bypass valve" (marked in red) is closed. What gets damaged?

3. Heater is currently "in the loop". However, heater is not plugged in as heater has not been vented to exterior yet (all equipment is in a storage room).

4. Today, I closed the filter bypass valve. Turned on the pump at low speed. Water at heater makes a "gurgling sound" and there is NO flow through the spa returns. Is there an internal valve within the heater that needs to be opened? Or something else potentially restricting flow through the heater? After I realized there was no flow through the spa jets, I immediately turned off the pump and opened the bypass valve. I didn't want to cause any damage to the pump (or something else). Hopefully I did not. I suppose I can wait for the pool builder to return. However, he is currently on vacation and won't return for a week. In the meantime, I can't effectively remove the plaster dust.

Sorry for the length of this post. Just wanted to detail our system and lay out my current questions. Thanks. Chad