Pool Build to Start Late March or Early April

[georgiapoollover]

I have a 3 wheeled polaris 280 and i love it. Its blue and white. It keeps our pool clean. Even withstood sucking up hundreds of leaves from our backyard trees over the fall. It has its own booster pump.
We have a sand filter. We love it. No problems with it. I did not wanna mess with a cartridge when there was no need. I live in georgia and got several opinions about the filter first. Sand filters fine. Also, we have the Aqua Rite system. Its been great. Our pool is crystal clear and has been since it was done in August. We have a liner pool 14X28 Oasis Kafko pool. No spa. Didnt wanna deal witha heater and all that. More plumbing to worry about later. Plus, a pool never comes back in house value anyway. We chose stamped concrete around the pool. LOve it!
We were told it would take 3 weeks.....It took 8 long weeks. By the end, we were disgusted with our pool builder. We had piles of dirt, mud, bugs, and a water filled hole for weeks.....you name it. Am I happy now, yes. But my daugher went back to school before we could swim. Not part of the plan.
The positive for you, is the time of year your building. We built in the summer. Bad move on our part. They had alot of work ahead of ours. It could have been done in 2 weeks in my opinion.

[CarlD]

Pool Builders ALL give the same line on cartridge filters. We hear this from all over the country and I've heard it in my own neck of the woods far too often.

You will find that almost ALL home-owners HATE cartridge filters--very few can figure out how to make them work well. It's possible, some do, but most find cleaning them to be messy, unpleasant and very time-consuming.

I suspect there are 3 self-serving reasons builders push them:
1) the plumbing is easier--they don't need to plumb in a backwash/waste line on a cartridge filter. Carts are simple to use and understand (just a terrible pain to clean--replacement cartridges are far too expensive for "throw-away"--you have to clean them.
2) There's no six-way valve--better margin for the builder.
3) The first season, you usually don't have to maintain the cartridge at all, until the season's over. By the second season, when you discover you HATE the thing, the warranty and his obligation have expired.

But ALL the pool builders push cartridges and SWEAR by them. I'm guessing that there must be something their association pushes. Homeowners here will give you a VERY different take.

I would much rather see you go with a DE or Sand filter. DEs filter the best, but we have some inexpensive tricks here that get a sand filter doing nearly as well. A cartridge DOES filter finer than a sand filter (not a DE though) but if you use our FAVORITE sand trick on the cart, you'll ruin it.

Many people run sand filters without our tricks very, very happily. Sand is easy--if you take care of it, you rarely, if ever, have to change it. DE is a little more labor intensive, but those who use them get into the routine and have no trouble.

Whichever you go with you want the builder to put in a waste/backwash line. This allows you to pump down the pool's water level using the pump, rather than a syphon or submersible. Furthermore, if you get an algae bloom down the road, we always recommend vacuuming every day TO WASTE. Can't do it if there's not a waste-line--and there probably won't be with a cartridge filter.

Notice that if you decide to change to DE or Sand you'll now need a waste-line--and it's MUCH cheaper to install at the beginning than later.

Besides, didn't make you suspicious when the builder told you it was a DISADVANTAGE that a DE filter filtered out smaller particles than a cartridge? Most of us, here, PREFER better filtering to worse filtering!

[tphaggerty]

My neighbor has a cartridge filter. They love it because the pool service company that closes their pool cleans it then - once a year (their pool is open about 3 months).

I have a DE filter that I maintain myself. It does a marvelous job and is quite easy to maintain. Especially if you understand that the initial DE fill follows the manufacturers requirement (a full fill), but subsequenct fills after a backflush need to be less (I do a 7 pound initial fill and a 4 1/2 pound fill after backflushing). This is because a backflush doesn't remove all of the DE (its posted on the forums somewhere).

I have a cartridge on my Softub spa. Hate the thing, but only clean it twice a year.

I think if you are going to have a pool service company do your closings, then a cartridge is fine. If you plan on doing your own maintenance, I think either sand or DE will be better. IMHO only, of course.

Man, I just notice that Carl beat me to it, and did a better job at that! But I agree with what he said.

[georgiapoollover]

what tricks can i use for my sand filter? I dont know them.....

[waste]

Iwannapool, welcome to the forum!! I have a couple things to say on what's been said on this thread (some of them may even be useful to you )

GPL for info on improving sand filter's performance, see thread http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=515 and look at Poconos' response. Also check out http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=6143 and read chem geek's and CarlD's responses (Richard gives 2 links on the subject) - <spoiler> it's adding some DE to the filter. (Carl, any chance of 'sticky-ing' the 'DE in sand filter' info? - it seems to come up fairly frequently - THX)

With reguard to the advantages of a multiport (not available on cart filters- but is on DE and sand filters) see threads http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=5319 (#2) and http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=5727(#6)

A preplumbed line may indeed have future use and will cost boo-coo bucks less to have it run when the pool is going in.

The Polaris is an automatic cleaner, often with a booster pump and designated line which runs off of the filter system and requires the pool pump (or a booster pump) to provide it with the suction or return water which drives it. A robotic cleaner works independently of the filter system (power source is in the unit and is motorized).

As a last, for now, note: the schedual of construction/ completion depends upon many factors including-
Builder competence and crew availability/ ability.
Weather!
Schedual of payments ('cuts' or 'draws') {check your contract as to what will be done before you have to break out the checkbook to pay him for work-to-date - USUALLY, THE MORE CUTS, THE QUICKER THE JOB WILL BE COMPLETED}
Unforseen difficulties (ie- hitting bedrock when digging an 8' deep pool)

As you said that you had 'finally' chosen a builder, I'll assume that you researched and compared prices/ products - CONGRATULATIONS! , if you did your 'pre-buy-work' then everything should go smoothly!

I'm sure you've gotten one of the top builders in your area and shouldn't experience problems with your pool being built. I hope you'll share some photos of the project when it starts next spring (and share any success stories of running your pool 'the PoolForum way')

Have a great winter and never hesitate to ask the great and knowledgable folks here any questions you may encounter!! - Waste

[iwannapool]

Well my PB showed up Friday and took out 7 trees and today pool kit, 20 x 40 Mountain Pond by Cardinal, showed up as well as the heater, fiberglass in ground spa, filter, pump and misc. other boxes that I'm not sure what's in them.

Will try to post pictures once things get going.

imgettingapool (formerly known as iwannapool)