Early Design Phase of our New Pool - Pics

14 years ago

We are still in the planning and design phase of a new pool, but as you can see we already begun clearing some trees. It's going to be a bit of a challeging project because of the wooded area and slope. Please feel free to comment and give advice on building pool in this type of setting.

This first image shows the view of the pool area looking down from our upstairs living room.

{{!gwi}}

This picture is from outside looking down from the top level of an existing wood deck.

{{!gwi}}

This image is from ground level and will give you more of an idea of the slope. The drop from the edge of the house to the orange flags in the middle of the screen is approximately a 5' drop. The flags at the far right that are barely visible is about another 3' drop.

{{!gwi}}

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (19)

paradigmdawg
14 years ago
All I know is that a negative edge pool would be awesome there.
jenno_tx
14 years ago
ditto paradigmdawg!!!!!!!!!!!! Your gorgeous setting lends perfectly to a negative edge!
Related Discussions
design phase question about best combo, wood, GSHP
Q
Comments (1)
Why ICF? Expensive for R-value. This isn't necessarily the best forum for designing a new house so make sure you have checked others. Overall I'd probably not undersize the GSHP much - you may have code provisions that prevent that although I suppose electric strips can be your true backup heat.
...See More
New pool underway (with pics)!!
Q
Comments (150)
OK, we're not finished but here are some progress pics. First, a big thank you to my wife who has really jumped in and helped me a LOT on this! A few generic comments- we've still got some planting to do, particularly around the gazebo. So it's not 100% complete. As mentioned above the plants are spaced for their mature size. So they look a little spread out right now, but they'll grow into place. The Bermuda grass is just coming out of dormancy, so it looks pretty wimpy in the pics. This first picture is the view from the driveway and sidewalk approach. There's a Siren Red Crepe Myrtle accent with a couple of Cordyline Red Sensations next to it. Veriegated liriope and dwarf mondo grass fill in the area in front and a border of Red Muhly Grass is behind. I discovered that spring is a bad time to buy Muhly Grass because it's not growing yet and is therefore hard to find except in small size. It'll eventually fill in and create a solid border though :-) The below pic shows a red banana tree (which was battered by high winds a couple of days ago, that's why the leaves are torn) surrounded by Pee Dee Gold Liriope with some Dwarf Mondo grass in front of that. That's a Tonto (red) Crepe Myrtle in the back. The grass is Mexican Feather Grass and is beautiful when the wind blows it! There is going to be a large Koi pond in front of the gazebo with an arched bridge connecting the patio to the gazebo (that's why nothing is planted there).The small bush/ tree outside of the bed is a fruiting Pomegranate tree. They only grow to about 10'. Below is the back of the gazebo with a Texas stepping stone to the backyard area. The small plants surrounding the rock area are an interesting new variety of Asian Jasmine called "Salsa". The leaves are beautiful- red, green and yellow all on the same leaf! It is not supposed to be as invasive as regular Jasmine, but I enclosed it in metal edging just to be sure. The Crepe Myrtle to the right is lavender. In the background is the stepping stone & gravel path we made back to the equipment pad. I like this because it makes for a really cool "zen view" from the other side of the pool through the slide opening. This is more Mexican Feather Grass with the Pink Muhly border coming up to each side (just beyond the pic). That's another Cordyline in the middle and Blue Fescue lining the front (this view is from the back). Last pic, this is really to show a "before" pic of the pergola. I put this in myself many years ago and it needs to be refreshed. I'm going to rebuild it sometime this spring or summer- removing the roof panels, power wash the cedar, install a roof gable with "sunburst" pattern, re-roof it with sheathing and shingles, install some decorative trim on the columns. That's it for now, back outside for more landscaping!
...See More
Newbie pics of our pool so far!
Q
Comments (82)
cda, a couple of posts above yours, she answered your question, but to someone else. Here's her response: David: The river rok is a mixture color. Its the lycan (spelling) blue with the gray color. erictac: The pool builder was Pulliam Pools in Katy. I couldn't be happier! And the cost was mid-50k's. A bargain in my opinion for the equipment (hayward) they used, how clean they were and how efficient and fast)! LOL I can't say enough great things about them. Ask for Chris if you use them and tell them Crystal sent ya and he will give ya a better deal! ;)
...See More
Our Pool Process - Pics
Q
Comments (42)
I'm not sure I understand your question. With a pool cover, you actually lose less water because it's not evaporating. When you say "cover housing", I think you are referring to what I call the "trough" -- the hole that the cover retracts into. There should really not be any pool water in that trough. When it rains, you will use a pump (like a sump pump) that will sit on top of the cover, it will have a water house attached and you can direct the water it pumps off to go wherever you want. We alternate between pumping it into our yard, or pumping it to the deck drains which is tied into the underground gutters and directed to the street. When you retract the cover with any water on it, it may slosh into the trough -- BUT if there is much water, the water gets heavy and the cover will not operate. It's trial and error but once you do it a few times, you will figure it out. You can back up the cover and then start it again and let it dump into the trough. Our trough is covered with Trex (plastic wood-look). Our builder thought it would be better than using concrete coping because the coping would be so heavy to remove when you need to access that trough. But our builder has not built many pool covers, so I'm not sure that was the best advice. I sort of wish we had a different design there. I haven't looked under there in a long time to see if there is much standing water (could be mosquito problem??) but I don't notice mosquitos coming from there, and when we have looked in there, nothing has concerned us. My husband removes the Trex in the spring after the oak trees are finished with all their mess and cleans / vacuums the trough out. We have the crepe myrtle that sheds and so there is debris that will get dumped into that trough throughout the year. Obviously if there are lots of debris, after a storm, we clean that before retracting the cover, but we don't clean it every time by any means. Overall -- I still love having the cover. BIG piece of mind on the safety front with 2 kids now! We can still enjoy our yard in the winter without safety concerns. The pool stays much cleaner. We use less chlorine and water.
...See More
poolinar
Original Author
14 years ago
It's funny you would suggest a negative edge because we've all but ruled it out because the main view of the pool would be from the top down which we're afraid would expose the spill way and the catch pan. We were thinking more of a raised back edge with a lot of natural stone and a waterfall that would be highly visible from the house.

We're really struggling with the proper design. We don't want a big retaining wall on the back so we're thinking more of a terracing deck that steps down to the pool level. So the pool itself would be about 5' - 6' below the house.

Are we way off base here? Keep the suggestions coming!
leepoffaith
14 years ago
Hey Poolinar!!

It looks like you have a nice area for a pool, but like me, you are struggling for some help with design. I knew what I wanted, but I just didn't know how to get it on paper! I solicited some help from this forum and met Chris (Sceadu). He's worked with me for the past few weeks coming up with a design for my yard. I went from a rectangle patio with a kidney pool to what you see below. He does charge a small fee, but it's well worth it considering you will be using this pool for the next 10-30 years!

Just thought I would give you that info. Chris has been great at communicating with me everyday on his developments and I think that he could be a lot of help to you. Let me know if you need any more info and good luck with your pool!
paradigmdawg
14 years ago
That looks cool.

Not to take anything away from Chris but all PBs should do this for you for free if you go to them and let them know you are building a pool and would like to put them in the running for your business.

Now if we are talking about an owner build, using Chris would be well worth it.
leepoffaith
14 years ago
Paradigmdawg,

There are many different types of pool builders and a lot of them (at least in my area) do not have professional designers on staff. I've tried working with 3 in the Tampa area and none of them used any type of rendering program. That's not saying that they don't build great pools, but they are looking to cut costs and the rendering program and professional designers are the first to go. They may say they have designers, but from my experience they stink! lol
paradigmdawg
14 years ago
Got it leepoffaith.

I am new to this game but it seemed like all the PBs I interviewed used a design program. Maybe it's just that way in my area.
poolinar
Original Author
14 years ago
My experience has been similar to leepoffaith. The best I've seen from a PB has been a very undetailed pencil sketch and most of their design ideas have come from me. Very disappointing. They may be great at "building", but I haven't received very little design help from them.
poolinar
Original Author
14 years ago
Sorry, should have said - I have received very little design help from them. I have sent Chris an email to see if he can help. Thanks for the info.

I just took another elevation measurement that I'm trying to show in this picture. There is level line that is tacked to this tree on the right. The drop from the base of the house to this tree is 8'6".

{{!gwi}}
dewalt17
14 years ago
That's a large drop from the house to that tree. Are you planning on some type of retaining wall on the tree side of your pool location? I also like the negative edge look on a background like this.
jjs_austin
14 years ago
I'm not sure if your pool is going all the way to the back to the tree, but you have the right idea, terrace with levels:
Level 1 - Drop down 3' from the level of the house with a few steps. Build a 3' tall planter box along house with built in seat and small patio that surrounds a spa.
Level 2 - Another 2-3' drop from the spa to the pool and main deck.
Level 3 - Depending on the height of the back wall at this point (3-4') you can then put a small countertop and make a swim up bar and put bar stools on the inside/outside of the pool.

I forgot how to upload a pics otherwise I would show you how we did ours.

Good luck -Jim
jeffkcmo
14 years ago
We are almost finished building our pool in a very similar setting. Our lot is a heavily wooded acre and slopes steeply towards the back, just like yours. We also didn't want a huge retaining wall along the back of our pool as we have to access the rest of the back yard via a pathway immediately behind the pool.

One PB wanted $35,000 just dig the hole for the pool and build a 9 ft. high natural rock retaining wall along the back side of where the pool would go. The pool (standard kidney shape gunite) would be an additional $50,000 to $60,000. We didn't go with that option, as it was like they were trying to force an ordinary pool designed for a flat lot into our unique setting.

The design we ended up choosing is a two-tiered pool, incorporating an infinity edge/waterfall which spills from the upper pool into a lower (smaller) pool that we can also use as a hottub. Our design uses lots of natural boulders and stone veneer. Instead of one gigantic retaining wall across the back, we have two tiers of retaining walls, with a planting bed between the two levels. There were existing dry stack retaining walls on the property that we incorporated into the design of the pool and new patios.

We were able to place the pools in such a way that the waterfall goes from right to left as seen from the house. There is also a lower patio that will face the spa and waterfall.

One obstacle we had was that our ground is solid rock, so the excavation for the pool and patio area was an additional challenge ($$$) on our site.

Here is a picture of our pool.

Here is a link that might be useful:
poolinar
Original Author
14 years ago
Yes, we plan to go to about that tree, but that tree will ultimately have to be removed.

Thanks for sharing your design jeffkcmo. That does look very similar to our situation.

jjs_austin, I would like to see your pictures. It's actually pretty easy if you have some place to host the pictures.

Just enter the html command "img src=" then the web address of the image enclosed in double quotes. Then enclose that command with brackets . (I'm leaving off the brackets here so you can see the command without it actually thinking that I'm trying to post an image.)

img src="http://www.yourhost.com/images/PICTURE1.JPG";
poolinar
Original Author
14 years ago
Just wanted to let everyone know that I have hired Chris to design our pool. I will keep you posted on how it goes.
jjs_austin
14 years ago
I couldnt' find any old shots and all my banana plants behind the waterfall got wiped out last year with fungus. So I had to snap some new ones.

Let me see if this works.
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/sanfratello/Pool%20with%20Landscape/IMG_0493.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/sanfratello/Pool%20with%20Landscape/IMG_0488.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/sanfratello/Pool%20with%20Landscape/IMG_0487.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/sanfratello/Pool%20with%20Landscape/IMG_0491.jpg[/IMG]
jjs_austin
14 years ago
Trying again.

img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/sanfratello/Pool%20with%20Landscape/IMG_0493.jpg";

img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/sanfratello/Pool%20with%20Landscape/IMG_0488.jpg";

img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/sanfratello/Pool%20with%20Landscape/IMG_0487.jpg";

img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/sanfratello/Pool%20with%20Landscape/IMG_0491.jpg";
womanowned
14 years ago
On a slope like this, be sure to get professional engineering of the design before you build
jjs_austin
14 years ago
Oh well. I give up. You can cut and paste the links. Essentially, the stairs lead down to the spa, the pool is below the spa, and the swim up bar is below the pool.
poolinar
Original Author
14 years ago
Looks like you just left off the enclosure. I'll post them for you. Thanks for sharing!

Early Design Phase of our New Pool - Pics

Comments (19)

paradigmdawg

jenno_tx

Related Discussions

poolinar
Original Author

leepoffaith

paradigmdawg

leepoffaith

paradigmdawg

poolinar
Original Author

poolinar
Original Author

dewalt17

jjs_austin

jeffkcmo

poolinar
Original Author

poolinar
Original Author

jjs_austin

jjs_austin

womanowned

jjs_austin

poolinar
Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Early Design Phase of our New Pool - Pics

Comments (19)

Related Discussions

poolinarOriginal Author

poolinarOriginal Author

poolinarOriginal Author

poolinarOriginal Author

poolinarOriginal Author

poolinarOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

poolinar
Original Author

poolinar
Original Author

poolinar
Original Author

poolinar
Original Author

poolinar
Original Author

poolinar
Original Author