Docpops, we put our pool in primarily for our kids also. It has been really nice seeing them use it so much over the last year. There are a few different in-floor cleaning system makers, namely Paramount (various systems) and Polaris (Caretaker). After quite a bit of research, I liked Paramounts systems and approach better. Their web site is paramountpoolproducts.com. They have a lot of different systems and I tried to understand the pro and cons of each. Ultimately, I decided that there really is not much of a difference, they are more for marketing. I believe that Paramount only allows a few builders in each area to install each system. To allow more builders to put in their products, they have different lines. In our case, we went with the PCC2000. A friend of mine as the PV3 system and he loves it also. I would suggest going to their web site and watching some of their demo's of how the system works. Like I said before, all demo's make it seem like the system works great but you never know how it works in the real world. We've got a lot of trees around our pool and it does a remarkable job. I'm still actually surprised it works as well as it does. We also added their leaf catcher system. Basically, all debris in the pool either ends up in a skimmer basket or going down the main drain and in to the leaf catcher. Its really nice this time of year, when the water is cold and I can empty out the leaves from the pool deck. The nice part is that with the kids swimming, there is no polaris in the pool that either needs to be moved or just left in to swim around.

I would not seal anything around a Pool. Our neighbors did and after about a year it looks horrible, like someone is peeling ! Also, it make the surfaces extremely slippery which is actually dangerous when walking around. The Saltwater stories about corrosion is a myth and mainly posted by people who don't have but "heard" about it. The Salt content in your pool is so low (2900-3500ppm) hence barely higher than saltcontent in regular water (500-700ppm) but still far below where it has real "damage" potential (4500ppm or higher). Water will corrode your equipment and stone no matter if its a salt pool or regular old fashion pool. On the other hand if you seal things you have to seal it yearly which really adds to your expenses for Pool upkeed... just something to think about...:-)

Cement Pond, You can't go wrong with either choice. Ozone or SWG will make your pool very low maintenance. This has been a long running debate in this forum about which is better. IMO, I say the poll forum is split heavily down the middle for either system. I have a ozone system and I love it. Of course you can't measure residual ozone, but there is no need to. Its either working or its not by the light being on. I work in a chemical plant with a commercial water purification system and they have a ozone system connected and our water stays pristine and clear. Just like my current pool. Of course you will a need a backup chlorinator because ozone breaks down chlorine, so your levels will always be around 1ppm or less. Plus its cool to see the bubbles come out of the pool jets. Your pool will have this champagne bubble effect at nite when the lights are on. But with an SWG, its no different either. You will need to either increase or decrease the SWG on days of heavy rain and possibly shock your pool also. Also you will need to keep bags of salt on hand and walk around the pool pouring salt into your pool. So if your thinking its totally trouble -free, sorry but that's just not the case. You will have to carry bags out to the pool to "salt" the pool down. So this is where it just comes down to convenience. I went with ozone because of PB's saying they will not install SWG's if you have a waterfall structure. Now when a PB misses an opportunity to sell you something, I have to take notice at that. Here in the Pearland area, a lot of them are getting away from SWG's because they are having to come out and make repairs from the effect of the SWG's on water structures. But that may be just certain builders. So I decided not to risk it. I know with my ozonator I use very little chlorine and I have not had any algae or water problems yet. But I have only had my pool for three months and its cold right now. But the days we did swim in it, not one problem occurred. And I was very leary about getting a pool due to a lot of maintenance. This has been a very trouble-free pool. So good luck. As for the location of the spa. It does come down to looks. Make sure they mark it out properly. When my PB marked my pool out on the ground, we had to go back to the drawing board, because I did not like the way it looked. Don't have your PB, just throw some stakes out. Have them use the orange or white paint and mark it out. If you have a two story, go up top and look at it from above. It will give you a clear perspective of what your getting. Walk it out numerous times and ask yourself, do you want to walk to the deep end to get into your spa? For safety reasons, I would want it in the shallow end. But that's just me. Good Luck.

I'm in CT, my pool has been in for about 15 years. I started with a chlorine pool, using chlorine tabs which were recommended by the company that installed the pool. As I educated myself about pool water chemistry, I moved to using 12% liquid chlorine. I'd manually dose as needed. I was able to maintain very nice water chemistry, much better than when using the tabs. Never a worry. Several years ago I was looking at overhauling my equipment and was pretty certain that I was going to turn my liquid chlorine pool into a salt pool and install a salt/chlorine generator. The more I researched, I realized that for MY circumstances it wasn't going to be the perfect solution I initially thought it would be. I'd still need to use liquid chlorine at times during the season, as generators can only produce so much chlorine. Liquid chlorine always works, doesn't use electricity, and it doesn't have a cell core that needs to be replaced every few years. I decided to stick with liquid chlorine. It was the best solution for ME. I'm really happy I did. But I modified my setup a bit. I ended up installing a Stenner peristaltic pump to dose my pool with chlorine and I use a 15 gallon jug for holding bulk chlorine. The pump meters a few ounces of liquid chlorine into the pool at several times throughout the day. I can manually override the dose if needed, and I know the required amount made it into the pool at that moment. The 15 gallon tank lasts a few months. I usually refill it once per season, my pool is open mid-April to early November. The pool water is terrific. No odor issues, no skin irritation, no nothing. With the peristaltic pump to dispense chlorine, it's crazy low maintenance. A very minor point, but we've lost our electrical power a several times over the last few years, twice for a week. I can still manually dose the pool with liquid chlorine. Again, not at all anything to sway someone one way or another, as it's a bit of an outlier. But I thought I'd mention it. Added info in case you are new to pools, which I certainly was when I had mine installed: 1) I'd highly recommend installing a variable speed pool pump. When my pool was built a 1-1/2hp single speed pump was installed. When I overhauled my equipment several years ago, I replaced the single speed pump with a variable speed. The pump cost me about $850 or so, but during turnover runs it uses a fraction of the electricity that my old single speed used. Over the course of the swim season, it uses roughly 15% the electricity of the old single speed. The pump paid for itself in a little over one season. 2) Filter, when I replaced my equipment, I oversized my pool filter as well. When my pool (20' x 40') was built they installed a Pentair C&C 240 cartridge filter. It was fine, but it did have some limitations. I'd have to clean the cartridges a few times each season. Not horrible. When I overhauled, I oversized my new filter, I installed a Pentair Quad DE 100. It's a cartridge filter that gets a coating of DE on the filter media. With the filter being oversized, I have not had to clean the filter at all during the swim season. Only in the Fall when I winterize. I considered other types of filters, but I had a cartridge filter and felt comfortable staying in that "family", even though the new filter is sort of a hybrid cartridge filter that uses DE as well. 3) Heater. My pool has medium charcoal plaster, and it gets all the warmth it needs in the summer from daily sun exposure. Very seldom have I heated the pool with the heater, it's really only been when my kids have had pool parties early or late in the season. I have a spa, the heater is fired up 3-4 nights a week for that. I have a 400k BTU heater. Here's the thing. It takes so many BTUs to heat up your spa water from say 80 degrees to 95 degrees. It's essentially going to take the same volume of propane or natural gas to heat the water from 80 to 95 regardless the size of heater you have. But a 400K heater will essentially heat the water up in half the time a 200k heater will, again, all while using the same amount of propane or natural gas. When I want the spa heated up, I usually want to jump in soon. I can wait 10-15 minutes, no problem. But waiting 20 minutes? 30 Minutes? It probably sounds silly debating the extra 10-15 minutes, it's definitely a trivial first-world problem. But...it can make a difference in how you use your spa, and how convenient you find it to use your spa. If you can splurge the extra few hundred dollars for a larger heater, I recommend it. I started with a Pentair mini-max heater, I had a lot of problems with it. I replaced that with the Raypak heater. I love it. Zero issues since it was installed several years ago, and very easy to DIY-service. There are certainly different strokes for different folks, and equipment brands can be regional or favored by the people installing your pool. But I'm pretty happy with my pump, filter, heater, and liquid chlorine setup. I rambled on well beyond your original question... Good luck with the process.