If you no longer have a spa don't pay extra for the digital controller, save that coin to upgrade to some quality outdoor living furniture. Ask for an Intermatic dual time clock with built in freeze protection.
Don't bother with a 1hp pump for sconces, it'll overwhelm them with flow. Sconces and sprayers have a very low water demand, take that credit too and apply it to having the excavator come back and grade the balance of the dirt from the excavation and to a stump grinder to come grind the stumps which weren't in the pool.

Congrats on the new pool, you'll soon find out what all the Hoopla of pool ownership is all about. I promise you this, having a backyard pool is very sweet indeed.

See ya,
Kelly

Someone with more experience will chime in I'm sure, but meanwhile I noticed a couple of things:
1. Under finish grading: Compaction of fill soil around the pool shell in 12" lifts (to help with limiting deck settling, the lift height might might be area/soil dependent), and restore area outside deck to grade suitable for sod, whatever.
2. If you have a termite bond, either you or your PB will have to have the company that did the original work for the bond come out and put down some chemicals before the deck goes on, or your bond becomes worthless (at least as I understand it to be in Florida).

Thanks for the input thus far.
Kelly, that is what our "potenital" PB said as well about the Jandy PDA. We just left it in for now but we think plan to take it out before contract. Do you by chance know the going rate for the PDA's? Our estimate seemed high.

Question on that, we heard (not from PB) that we can integrate our lighting with it that we plan to do around the pool. Do you find that true?

Also, on the pump, we heard that our water features won't be on, on demand without a seperate pump? We heard that from everyone we spoke to. Do you believe that is not true? We were told that if jsut on the main pump that they'd be on and off with the pump going on and off. We are also possibly going to make those sheer decents coming out so we are unsure.

Ibridges, Thanks for the info. I am not clear on your first point. I do know that they will be compacting some dirt to berm up one side to heavily plant on one side of the deck where our earth starts to slope down. If you could explain more and perhaps thier point was not valid.

On the termite, we have it connected with our home in our wood plus our bates around the house only and won't be touched. We will however probably call them out to reposition just a few. We have a servcie that manages that along with our pest control.

Great. any other thoughts too would be wonderful.

Thank you to you both. We didn't include the landscape and hardscape plan as of now but that is another company doing it.

quote" that is what our "potential" PB said as well about the Jandy PDA. We just left it in for now but we think plan to take it out before contract. Do you by chance know the going rate for the PDA's? Our estimate seemed high. "quote

I charge a 2300 upgrade for a PDA-PS6 with a built in salt water chlorine generator AP1400 power center and cell. This is a tick above my cost. Most of my competitors charge 2500 to 3000 for this upgrade.
I'm curious, what part of the country are you in, and how much was the upgrade cost?
Regardless of the answer, he should extend you full credit of the upgrade and subtract 200 from it. This 200 and the 250 of savings on the additional labor an electrician charges to wire a digital controller's power center comes up to 450. This 450 cover the price of the dual time clock with built in freeze protection and the electricians labor to install it.

quote" Also, on the pump, we heard that our water features won't be on, on demand without a separate pump? We heard that from everyone we spoke to. Do you believe that is not true? We were told that if just on the main pump that they'd be on and off with the pump going on and off. We are also possibly going to make those sheer descents coming out so we are unsure. "quote

Yes, this is correct. But, you can place that landscape lighting on another switch leg circuit and put it on a doogle switch right there with the pool light in a 2 gang box and beside the 240 switch for a water feature pump if you opt for the second pump motor.
If you go with sheer descents, do use an extra pump motor. They have a higher water demand than sconces.

I believe what lbridges was describing was to make sure they utilize proper compaction techniques when building up the area adjacent to and underneath your poolside landscaping and beneath the concrete pool decks.
A poorly compacted sub base will lead to much increased potential of major settling of the new 'crete.

See ya,
Kelly

Hi Kelly,
Thank you for the information. Great info.
The price of the PDA we were quoted was actually less than what you noted which makes us feel better about it but perhaps because we feel we don't need it, it seems expensive to us and perhaps we can use that in landscaping instead. I wonder if we felt we needed it later if we could add it on through our PB....as we are thinking in the Heater as well.

On that note, the heater, we would plan for it in case we needed it later. We understand from all our discussions with PBs that this is the best process. For now though, Neither of us really even like to swim (for sport) (go figure we're building a pool) but we do like to take a quick dip in hot weather months and want something very nice to view outside our window year round. Our cummumity does not have a pool either so we like the idea of having one.

Yes, agreed on the compaction for the hill 100 percent and an area we are a little concerned about given the rain we had here in Georgia this year. We are wondering if we'd be more comfortable with a retaining wall on one side behind the pool and then berm after wards with planting. We are up in the air on that but want what is most solid but not to overspend on a feature we may not need (Aka .. a retaining wall). We'll have to see. We talked to 7 folks at the beginning and there was basically a 50/50 split on what way to go.

thank you very much.

Kelly correctly understood & cleaned up my input - thank you sir

Now I'm really curious, what did your builder quote the PDA-PS6 with the salt water chlorine generator for?
My actual costs are 1060 for the Controller, 550 for the AP 1400 power center, and 500 for the cell of the the SWG.
Was his figure with the salt included or just the PS6 and the power center with the salt water chlorine generator above and beyond the quoted price?

See ya,
Kelly

Hi Kelly,
We are just getting estimates now so we haven't hired anyone yet but one priced it at 2K, another at $1650, and another at $2700. I do think it's just the PDA though....not the salt as I do recall that be a seperate line item. If that is the case, the combined price would have been well above what you noted.

Question for you. With our specs above and knowing we are only doing 2 jandy aqua accents water features and no heater....is there a need for a 2HP pump or just 1 HP pump and perhaps another to run the features.

I am a bit confused on the pumps. We want what would be most efficient but not overkill for no reason.

We are hearing many differnt things? Is the 1 HP versus 2 HP very differnt in price?

Thank you very much.

The most affordable energy efficient pump would be a 2 speed. This will circulate at a lower rpm and save electrical costs, then you can put it on high speed to utilize your manual vacuum head and hose. This upgrade, from me, would be 300 if you don't have a PDA, and 500 if you have a PDA
A more expensive upgrade would be a adjustable speed pump, which will come in at about 600 to a 1000 more depending on which Mfg's pump you choose.

I don't have a price list handy but I'd guess the 1hp to be about 50 to 100 less than the 2hp.

I'm not sure what your referring to with the Aqua Accents, but if they're sconces I wouldn't bother with an additional pump.
You can always run what I call a freeze switch over to the pool light switch location. When you turn this switch on it overrides the time clock and turns on the filter pump and the sconces with it when you keep them normally on with the pool.
Just don't forget to turn it off when your finished or the pump will run 24/7.
I charge 6 per foot, measured to the equipment pad from the switch location, and 100 for the weatherproof JB, switch/cover, and installation labor.

See ya,
Kelly

Thanks Kelly. That sounds like a good plan. I will ask the few companies that we are interested in abou the HP pumps.

Thank you very much.

Good Evening,
We were doing some research on google and ran across an old post from this forum from someone called natural_one and I believe he owns a pool company. I cannot find his posts but it still showing via google. He designed a very modern glass tyle 360 overlfow water feature and 3 columns w/ planters on top with glass tiles.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/wakeandsnow27/My%2520pool/CIMG1416.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thathomesite.com/forums/load/pools/msg0513594821970.html%3F63&usg=__j75I-tZIpIO8oZZqwC2iXq-FJNw=&h=600&w=800&sz=350&hl=en&start=20&um=1&tbnid=YKoXZtKTHCq4dM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnatural_one%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1R2ADFA_enUS359%26um%3D1

Does anyone recall this and if so, can you point me to the post. I do have it saved on my end and if it works...the link is noted below (hopefully I am doing this right).

I believe Natural One's name is Tyler and his website is
http://www.nrpools.com.
If I remember correctly he's in Phoenix.
The feature you described is most likely a spa, I'll have to hit the link and look in a minute.
He and his Dad build some awesome pools.

See ya,
Kelly

Natural One also has a Facebook page with a pretty extensive catalog of pix.

Scott

Hi Kelly and Scott,

Yes that feature is spill over water feature and I am just wanting to ask him some questions about the actual pool and how he did the feature. Or if anyone has any other photos like that style of pool, I would love to see them.

Thank you so much!

Here is one that we did.

Holy Cow that is gorgeous. Yes, that is our style....although we need to blend classical with it as we have a french country home...and we won't be doing a spa but the look of this is dead on. Beautiful work for sure.

Out of curiousity...any idea about travertine pricing for deck and coping in Atlanta?

Is this a house in ATL? If so, do you know how they are getting thier palms to live.

Thanks for sharing.

That was tylers own pool. It was just a waterfeature.
Maybe he will show his head and remember the post.

Here is one we recently finished, it is a solar shelf. Makes a cool feature, that actually stays quite warm when the sun is hitting it. So you can lay out and not heat the whole pool.

My 2 cents, have you looked at the e-pump? a variable speed pump would be a great compliment to this job if the builder you select understands how to properly set one up. Which could lead to great energy savings over the long haul,even compared to 2 speed pumps.Good luck Keith.

Thank you keith for the information. We have not looked into the epump nor have they suggested it but I'd be interested to understanding it a bit better. I'll also look it up. So is the variable speed the same as the ePump or it's two seperate items? Thanks!

Just a p-b, gorgeous pool and really neat feature. Thank you for sharing.

Just an FYI, I received samples of peacock pavers out of Alabama (where I live) and I was stunned by the quality, it resembles travertine but is pre cast concrete...it's not cheap but it's cheaper than travertine and should hold up better under salt water pool issues...I'm trying to find pools that have used it...will let you know, if I can take pictures of the 4 samples I will and post them!
Good luck on your pool!
Tara

they are the same thing,the epump is jandys variable speed pump.

Hi Imhall2000, I would very much like to view those photo when you post. Thank you so much. I have never heard of that but will also do some research.

Thank you keith for the clarity on the epump. See...what would we do without this forum. Thanks all.

BTW, we are still working on finalizing specs so no decisions as of yet. Stay tuned.

Well we are still receiving ideas, numbers, and plans and had a pool builder give us a bit of another spin to the others so I wanted to raise the questions to the forum. We have not yet decided what we are doing but since this is different than the others, I figured Id send it to the board for comments. We are curious about this equipment as all others were Jandy products.

The pool itself would be a 14 x 24 w/ 3 fountain lines on a baja shelf. More of a social pool as it would only be to 5.5 feet or so.

Equipment as follows:

Shotcrete
1 skimmer
Dual Main drain system w/ 3 returns
Standard 6 x 6 waterline tile
Colored concrete coping (we are not sure about this as we want flagstone but they said it would look great with this specific architectural design)

1.5hp pump
Pebbletec (they quoted us pricing for stonescape however they recommend pebble over it due to our applicators in the area).
Pentair clean and clear filter
Polaris 280 with booster pump
Duel time with freze contractol
Aquareite salt sytems
400 w pool light (they said that is the watts they recommend for the shapeseems low). We do not like colored lights.

Some Questions:

They are saying that they prefer the pool equipment to be 30 ft from the shallow end and that is at our bedroom which is completely out of the question for us. Wed like it run about 100 feet out back off the deep end or at the basement side of the house which goes down the yard a bit. That side is also where the electrical is. Do we have any challenges with that other than cost?

This was a lesser cost option to our original 17 x 32 foot plan w/ Jandy equipment so we are wondering if we have any issues. The design is pretty neat and more like a "dip" water feature. For a 24 x 14 pool, wed prefer a "real" deep end.is that too small to get a deep end?

They have in the contract that the landscape will do the drainageis that normal?

They suggested that in the middle fountain line they install a urn which we would purchase. Are there certain issues that we should be aware of or certain fountain/urn styles that we should go with given it will sit in a pool and sit in salt water?

This company is more a "boutique" builder however the PM has over 20 years experience (so we are told) and are able to a bit more competitive on pricing and our budget is extremely tight for what we want. Their pricing on pebbletec was more than others but overall the budget was less.but then again it is a smaller pool with different equipment.

Your thoughts and ideas would be greatly appreciated. Also if we should ask anything specific to them.

ollieboy, we built a Spool or a Social pool and you may get some ideas from our pool build. Look at http://www.thathomesite.com/forums/load/pools/msg0718532217198.html?21
Hope this helps

FYI - We had palms at our last house that were 15 years old. Windmill variety - looked just like those. Location Raleigh, NC - I suspect Atlanta does not get colder. I've heard a deep frost could kill them but these were 15 years old....

I've gotta think that shelter tends to help - a nearby patio probably shelters the root temp a bit.

When I hit the lottery, I'm going to buy two houses. One by just-a-pb and one by huskyridor and turn them loose.

Scott