SeanB.'s Pool Build

[26theone]

Those numbers look right to me. We had a few bids a year ago or so and thats about where ours came in at. We ultimately decided to wait till our youngest daughter got a little older and learned to swim. We will probably start in the early spring since we wont be able to use it from now will probably Mar/April anyway. Also I want my grass to be able to grow back quickly due to the excavation and it has already slowed growing quite a bit.
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Great job posting your progress with pictures!

[divnkd101]

Those numbers look right to me. We had a few bids a year ago or so and thats about where ours came in at. We ultimately decided to wait till our youngest daughter got a little older and learned to swim. We will probably start in the early spring since we wont be able to use it from now will probably Mar/April anyway. Also I want my grass to be able to grow back quickly due to the excavation and it has already slowed growing quite a bit.
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Great job posting your progress with pictures!

Not to talk you out of waiting until Spring but the majority of pool companies will offer great incentives for new constuction (I just saw a flyer for a 20% off new construction) during this time of year. Obviously, their season is on the downward slide, but given our warmer climate, allows them to continue building into the winter months. Good luck and keep us posted.

[26theone]

Not to talk you out of waiting until Spring but the majority of pool companies will offer great incentives for new constuction (I just saw a flyer for a 20% off new construction) during this time of year. Obviously, their season is on the downward slide, but given our warmer climate, allows them to continue building into the winter months. Good luck and keep us posted.

Hmm. 20% discount..that is significant. I will have to think about that. It seems most builds in the area take 30-45 days or so. Does that sound about right?

Curious how many feet of access did your builder need for bobcat access for excavation? I may have an issue there. I would prefer not to tear up any of my neighbors sod during the build.

[SeanB.]

It will depend, but they'll probably want about 8'.

[divnkd101]

Hmm. 20% discount..that is significant. I will have to think about that. It seems most builds in the area take 30-45 days or so. Does that sound about right?

Curious how many feet of access did your builder need for bobcat access for excavation? I may have an issue there. I would prefer not to tear up any of my neighbors sod during the build.

This time of year, 30-45 days is a good place to start. As Sean said, 8-10 feet would be ideal for the excavation portion. I won't post a pick on Sean's thread but here is a link where you can see the shot I took of our excavation lane. It is 10 feet from house wall to fence.

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...ruction002.jpg

[No Need]

Pool and backyard look Great! 6 Weeks for everything? If so, that was fast.

[SeanB.]

Pool and backyard look Great! 6 Weeks for everything? If so, that was fast.

Thanks. Yah, it was pretty close to 6 weeks. We hit them at the tail end of the busy season or it would have gone a little quicker I think, but they did as promised.

The rest of the sod went in yesterday and the mastic was done today. I think we will be doing pool school on Monday when we will get to start up the swcg and that should be the last thing. Now I just need to get a rack to hold the brush/net and a deck box for any other pool supplies/toys.

[SeanB.]

I promise I'll post a "complete" picture soon. The sod is all in and the new plants are even blooming/growing a little. We haven't had a real cold snap yet.

We had lots of family in for Thanksgiving and heated the pool and spa for the day. It was great! The kids had a blast and most importantly, my wife was happy because she was able to cook in peace without a herd of kids running through the house all day.

I cleaned the filter for the first time yesterday. It took me about an hour total to take it apart, clean all for cartridges and put it back together - should go a little faster next time. The pressure increase wasn't that high but the pool school guy said to do it about a week after the salt went in (I waited about two). I wanted to wait until after the holiday just in case I ran into any problems.

We have lots of construction going on around us still so there was LOTS of brown dirt (mud) washed out. The pressure didn't really drop much though when I put them back in so I'm sure they will last for quite a while before needing cleaning again. The directions said to just use the normal garden hose pressure, which I did and it got out a fair amount of dirt. The color was still pretty brown though, so I put on my pressure tip and hit them again. Wow! There was A LOT more dirt in there. You really do need to use some pressure to get the dirt out.

Final picture coming soon! BTW, I noticed how many views this thread has had. Thanks to everyone for your input and comments. I think I was much more content with the build because of what I had learned AND seen on this site and knew what to expect. I'm glad to be able to share our experience as well.

Sean

[SeanB.]

Those numbers look right to me. We had a few bids a year ago or so and thats about where ours came in at. We ultimately decided to wait till our youngest daughter got a little older and learned to swim. We will probably start in the early spring since we wont be able to use it from now will probably Mar/April anyway. Also I want my grass to be able to grow back quickly due to the excavation and it has already slowed growing quite a bit.
.
Great job posting your progress with pictures!

You are probably going to want to have those areas re-sodded. It'll go much quicker that way. The areas that get destroyed litterally have no grass left at all. It would have taken quite a while for that to grow back. If you tell them you want that when you sign a contract, you shouldn't have any trouble getting it included at a reasonable price.