BirdATX, Engineering is usually required if a portion of the pool is out of the ground. Standard engineered plans might allow for 18-24" out of ground. but much more than that requires a specific engineered plan. Rocky soil can cause extra costs for several reasons; different equipment needed for excavation. lack of a smooth dig can cause additional concrete(gunite) costs, the need to import soil for backfilling, additional time for trenching plumbing and electric, additional forming. Rocky soil usually doesn't require a special rebar plan, but a pool that is 4' out of the ground on one side will. Hope this helps answer some of your questions. Good luck.

Keep in mind that there is more to a pool then just the pool. Most people say overall everything is going to cost 2x the (contracted) pool price. We will be lucky to only end up there. Note: Our pool contract was only for the pool, not the decking, although the excavation included excavation for the retaining wall we needed and excavation. That being said, I am trying to make sure everything is done top notch the first time, so I am probably spending more on different parts then I would for smaller jobs around the house. Some extras I didn't know of/think of: 1) Grading material Our pool contract included grading TIME only, not material. The pool company charges $675 a truck load, we are on our 15th load (ok, maybe 4 was used for backfilling, the rest for under the decking)! Luckily we had the decking company do most of it (for $300 a load). Still, an expense we didn't fully understand. Our yard has a slight slope (2 ft difference between our house and the end of the pool furthest from our house). The material from digging up the pool was not adequate. 2) Extra excavation We hit some ledge (very little, actually). To take care of this, they had to bring in a drill and spreader thing. That cost $2650 for the day. Because the pool companies excavation crew couldn't finish until they were done, we had to pay for them (the pool company includes 2 days of excavation in the contract) and their equipment for the day (and extra $1800). Of course, this all depends on yard condition and location. We didn't know what we would hit in the backyard, we were lucky to hit very little ledge, but it was a bummer that a little or a lot (relatively speaking) would have cost us the same...It cost us 4450 for about 3 hours of work! 3) Other Hardscaping Our retaining wall is costing about 2X what we budgeted (this wasn't in pool contract) 4) Our pool contract did not include decking (on purpose, we hadn't decided), but in the end, we are ending up with 1400sqft of decking (1000 in the pool area, 400 outside). 5) You need a fence (if you don't already have one). Our fence only encloses our pool (not the whole house), due to worries about our children (and others) drowning. 6) Even if electrical is included in your pool contract (it was in ours, it wasn't in some of the bids we got), you will likely want/need to do some sort of landscape lighting so you can see out by your pool. 7) We had a sprinkler system. 4 zones had to be ripped up. We will probably put 2 of them back....I am likely to do this myself to save on costs 8) Your yard is going to get destroyed (ours wasn't that bad, until we had rain, then the trucks reacked havoc on it). I am not trying to scare you and maybe other people have different experiences (and clearly there are cheaper places to build pools then the north east), but we have spent way more then we wanted (and aren't done yet), luckily it isn't going to bankrupt us, but both my wife and I are done with everything costing more and more. Don't get me wrong, we budgeted out everything in the beginning, but we had no idea all the things that popped up and became way more expensive then we thought and then the pb estimated (pb was just trying to give us an idea of the cost of certain extras, so I don't blame them).

Hi Nick-- We have a similar situation with our pool, if I understand your question correctly. If your plumbing is set up like ours, the spa and pool run independently through the pump and heater. When the spa is on, the pump is only pulling water from the spa skimmer and floor drains then returning that heated water to the spa jets. Our gas heater has separate settings for either spa or pool mode, so we can run different temperatures on each. When the spa is off and the pool is on, the pump is only pulling water from the pool skimmer and drain and returning to the pool via in-floor cleaning heads. There is no cold water from the pool coming into the spa (unless we change the valves to purposefully do that). Your question is finding a cover to put on the spa that will help maintain the temperature while the spa is not in use, from one night to the next. We live in Kansas City where the nights have been getting down to freezing, so our spa water temperature has been dropping about 20 degrees from one night to the next. We haven't started covering it yet, but we also have a blue "bubble wrap" pool cover (from a previous pool) that we are planning to try to see if it helps any. Our PB did recommend a floating foam cover made from material similar to foam pool floats but thinner. I think he said it is about 1/2" thick, so it can be rolled up when taken off. The price range was a couple hundred dollars he thought (our spa is semi-circular about 10' x 15'). He didn't mention the name of the vendor he would order it from, but it does exist. This may be what you already found online, but it was the only solution our PB had for us. Let me know if you find something better. Here is a link that might be useful:

Alisonn, I had a pool removed too when I bought my house here in NJ. There is a requirement from NJDEP that your removal company needs to comply with. Basically it concerns the fill material that gets put into the hole, how large the pieces are from the concrete that is broken up and put back into the hole, etc. In Atlantic county, I needed a demolition permit, and then had to get inspections once the pool was removed and the cement chunks put into the hole, then again after the final fill was completed. $3500 is a good price. Mine cost $5500 to remove. Good luck!