Let's try this again. I think I have it now :)

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I took about 30 miinutes and rendered up your design and here is what I have found. The renderings will follow the message.

The first thing I noticed was the Spa size. 28 sq. ft. is an extremely small spa. The samllest one I have ever designed has been 40 sq. ft. As you can see from a few of the renderings that I did of your design, once you add an 18" wide bench there will be no room for a foot well. The people as well as the design are to scale with the man being right around 6'. The next thing would be the choice of brick coping. All those little wiggles may look good on paper, but in real life with brick coping you will almost be hypnotized by all the motar joints. My suggestion would be to go with a coping that has less lateral joints or straighten that puppy out a lil. I do not like brick coping for the simple fact that it has too many mortar joints but to each his own. In one spot the deck is down to 2'. 1 average sized person will have to have perfect ballance to get though there without bouncing off the spa or getting off into the grass. My oppinion would be that someone tried to overdesign the pool but left out the practicality. What looks good on paper does not always look good in the real world. These are my oppinions and I am in no way trying to offend the author of this design but merely trying to help with what I see.

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Sceadu,
Thats awsome you took the time to do that for them.

It is the only way (for them) to see how this design could be better.
My opinion is, hire one of the many great designers that are out of work right now to help you with this.

My wife wants to swim laps too and we have decided on a geometric pool. Our last pool was freeformed and there were too many waves created by the reflections of the curves that is was very difficult to swim laps. Our new design is 40 feet longwith mostly square edges. I wish we could afford the vanishing edge design. That would reduce the reflections even more.

Well I am not out of work but I am trying to start something with online consulting for a little extra cashflow ;) I just don't want to rain on anyones parade and advertise on here.

Sceadu,

WOW!! Thank you sooooooo much!!! Where are you located?! Do you do pool design consulting? I seriously would consider hiring you to help me do this and help out with advice on coping, colors and other things. I'll be honest, my pool builder isn't all that helpful with the design, but I really trust he will do a good job on the pool. Email me if you wouldn't mind and we can talk about it some more.

Thank you again, it is people like you that make this board so helpful to us newbies :)

Speaking of my pool design, does anyone have any PB suggestions in my area? I'm looking at Tampa Bay Pools right now, and I really like them, but after hearing Sceadu's suggestions and really looking at the design I'm a little disappointed with them.

As always, any suggestions are appreciated!!

I would love the opportunity. I am in the Atlanta market.

You can email me @ 4fiddy@gmail.com and we can setup a phone conversation.

I just emailed you :)

One other thing for everyone to consider is that we are more likely then not going to have a screen enclosure. :)

Leapoffaith,

Ditto what sceadu says about brick coping but for another reason. Brick in Florida will get very hot and it will be no fun at all to walk or sit on the coping.

Also, a single LED light at the deep end will not be enough to give you good lighting, especially if you go with a dark color. You also should not have the light facing directly at your largest deck area if you can avoid it. I would try two or three facing away from the house.

You might also want to bump up your filter to the FNS DE 60. It is not much more $ yet will extend your times between recharges

Consider Posh Pools in Pinellas.

Like other have said, curves are great, but your plan has too many curves for me-it looks too busy.

Also, if someone wanted to really swim, a straight line is practically impossible in the drawing I can see.

The design is great. I hope you can post the updates on your Pool. Thanks.

I am looking for some design help too...looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with!
My thread is Folsom Owner Builder Pool...just started.

Send me an email. 4fiddy@gmail.com

So, I decided to hire Chris (Sceadu) to help me with my pool and he has been GREAT!! He's communicating with me on a daily basis with new ideas and new design pictures. We are very close to getting down to my final pool design and I'm extremely happy I decided to hire a professional to help me. I am going to be using this pool and patio for the next 20+ years and it was well worth it for me to invest in someone like Chris. I highly recommend him to anyone in the design process of your pool. You won't be disappointed. Here is what we have come up with thus far. Feedback from everyone is always welcome :)

Glad that you have found some design help, leepoffaith. Do you still need recommendations for a good local builder?

that is a VERY cool design! i love the size and shape of teh baja shelf/tanning ledge. this is a vast improvement over your original design :)

Sis3,

Do you have any recommendations for a Tampa pool builder? I'm working with one right now, and they have been pretty good, but I'm not overly impressed. I've also contacted 2 others. One sent me a quote and never followed up and the other one never called me back AFTER I met with him at his office for over an hour discussing the pool. I would love to find a high quality builder that is priced right.

We are very happy with the work of Landmark Pools in Odessa (813 792 1331). They built our pool, now 2 years old, and our next door neighbor's a year ago. They have also built some spectacular pools for the rich and famous. Landmark is a well respected pool builder in the Tampa Bay area.
I would be pleased to provide you with details of Landmark's excellent work and work ethic, please email me if you need more information.

I did not like your first design. It looked too busy and my pool builder based his pricing on perimeter feet, which you would have a lot with all your zig-zags. The second design looks a little better depending on your preferences. However, assuming you are going with a polaris type cleaner I would avoid any acute angles. The cleaner will likely get stuck in the corner.

Good luck.

-Jim

Is that a spider in the corner?

If coved properly, the Polaris will work fine with this design.

We are just finishing up our pool in Jacksonville, FL. Our thread is Our New Pool Build in Jacksonville, FL. We are at Day 21 and hopefully will have everything completed by tomorrow. If interested I can provide help with pool cage and PB.

Wow,those lawns!
What kind of fertilizer do you guys use?
And Ms Lee,lookin good in that black two piece!

Sorry,couldn`t resist...
Good Luck with your project...JR

Leap,
We used Tri County Pools 727.538.2363 for our pool. We went with them because they were recommended by about 8 people that we knew. Our last pool was built by Riviera Pools and we were not that happy with them.
Just wondering how you will have your screen with the last rendering you posted. Will the landscaping be inside your screen? I don't think you can have a screen with a curvy deck like that. Did you decide against the screen?

I would talk to a financially secure but smaller family firm that takes great pride in 'getting it right'. Natural Springs Pools did our family right, and I was referred to them by a couple different people. You should check them out.

Here is a link that might be useful: local pool builder

We decided against the screen. For us, it was too confining. I know, Floridians think screens are required, but we are going to be installing a mosquito system throughout the back yard so we hope that will prevent the majority of bugs. We are willing to deal with some bugs.

As for the cleaning of the pool, I think we might be going with a PV3 Paramount system. Does anyone have any experiences with them?

I'll look into landmark and tri county. RIght now we are working with Tampa Bay Pools. They are pretty good, but their design team was pretty bad. I'm going to have to have this pool rebid anyways since it's so radically different the the first one.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions!

Chris and I updated the design some. We made the patio a little bigger, added a rock waterfall for the spillway and centered the firepit on the pool and integrated a sheer descent into the fireplace!!! We also changed the orientation of the sun shelf and decided to go with 12x12 pavers on diagonal. These are not the colors we chose, but at least it gives us an idea of what it will look like. We are just about finished with the design. What does everyone think? Chris has been great from start to finish and I highly recommend his services!

Very nice. Leepoffaith, I want to thank you for introducing me to Chris. He is now working with me on our design and he has been very helpful! I've started a new thread where you can see his initial design. I welcome any feedback that you have.

'Early Design Phase of our New Pool II - Pics'

Here is a link that might be useful: Early Design Phase of our New Pool II - Pics

No problem Poolinar!! I'm very glad he was able to help you! He was worth every penny and I'm sure you two will be able to come up with a beautiful design. I just commented on your post because your first draft is great already!! :)

So, Chris and I have been working hard and have finally come up with my final pool rendering. The pavers and coping aren't exactly the colors we are looking at, but everything else is pretty much exactly what we are looking at.

This revision might look a lot like the last rendering I posted, but it is different. We added people into the rendering so we could get a better perspective of space, we reduced the patio size and slightly reduced the spa size. We also added a paver boarder around the patio.

We are looking at approximately 1300 sq feet of patio, approx 600 sq ft of pool and a 48 sq ft spa. We are going to restart the bidding process with 3 builders and we hope to have construction started in the next 2-3 weeks!

Looks great! It sure has come a long way. There is obviously an advantage to working with a designer that can give you this type of graphic rendering. You almost feel like your walking around the actual pool. Good luck with the bidding process and we can't wait to begin to see the actual construction and finished pool.