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starting o/b in Az go plans, submitting for permits

16 years ago

After reading the many posts of the owner/builders here we've decided we can do it and it's a good choice for us. We got our pool plans back from the architect yesterday. I dropped them off early this morning for permits. We have a tentative dig date of 9/13. We just need to make our final choices on subs and materials.

I welcome any feedback.

Here is our pool plan:

looking to where pool will be from back porch:

and here is the b4 of our yard:

looking towards the house from back of yard:

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Comments (5)

tigpie
16 years ago
I would have a pool vac instead of floor cleaner. Floor cleaners leaves a lot of dirt on steps, stoops, and walls. A vac vacuums into filter.
If water is hard in your area, I would have an adjustable water softener, so not to get mineral deposits on rocks and tile. (The Water Boss)
I would not put rocks at water level, because a lot of potentail for leaks later, and not easily fixable.
I would have either a Fiberglass finish or Pebble-tec. I would not have plaster.
I would go with a fiberglass slide. The finishes on the built-in slides get marred easily.
I would not have a spa attached with the pool equipment. The spa is costly to heat, and pool has to filter daily, so heat in spa is lost. A portable spa is more comfortable and has better jet action.
happymrsf
16 years ago
Looks great! I love all the different elevations/steps! How lucky you are to have so much space!

Since it is AZ, IMO I would put another umbrella sleeve on the side of the pool by your bench in the deep end. My PB told me they are pretty inexpensive.

The most stressful part of the build for me so far has been picking tile, coping, concrete, etc. We started looking at tile before we even decided on a pool ~ and I still did not have anything selected until the 11th hour!

Looking forward to seeing your progress ~ have fun ~ and look beyond the construction mess to the final result!
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Aznative (so am I), You pool design looks very nice. The entry area cofuses me, though. Now, please correct me if I'm interpreting your plan wrong. It looks like if you step off the right side of the top step, it's 12". Perfect. But, if you step off the left side, it's 18"? That's one big step and I'm not sure people would be expecting that. So, if that's the case your baja/sun shelf is actually deeper toward the shallow end of the pool than it is at the deep end. It also looks like you have 12" deep steps on each end of the shelf? And the one at 24" is then going into nearly 8' of water? Those are my concerns w/ that part of the pool. The second thing I noticed is that it's a long way from your entry to the shallowest part of the pool. I don't know how old the kids are that will be using the pool but that would not be something I would be comfortable w/. What I would consider doing (if it were my pool) is putting a set of entry steps at the shallow end where you would expect them to be. I know that would mean changing your 2' raised area. But, I wouldn't put that at the shallow end, anyway. It will just encourage the kids to jump from there. Then I would just make your sunshelf area just that. I like the 12-18" slope. Basically just cut off those exit steps. If you didn't want to get rid of the raised area -- I wouldn't want to -- maybe flip the pool and put the deep end down there. That would make a great jumping area into 8'. That's just my opinion on how I would change things. Only you know what will work for you. Oh, another thing, have you looked at Artistic Pavers? We just installed our over the weekend and I think they are going to be incredibly cool. Our high was 90 degrees yesterday and the pavers were still quite cool. After the sun went down they were cold. They were nowhere near as warm as our Kooldeck would have been at our last house. Mindy
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golfgeek
16 years ago
mindy e in az,
Just a couple things to check
1) Check with the slide manufacturer for installation. Most recommend that slides dump into at least 4' of water.
2) Check light location. In shallow water, lights tend to highlite every imperfection in the plaster.

Assume you are using artificial rock? Real rock? Either way, make sure you have a good detail plan for the structure on which to place the rock at the waterfall and at the spillway between the pool and spa.
This project has a few pitfalls for an O/B. Make sure you use some competent subs. A good, clear, and specific set of plans will be helpful besides the plot plan you have posted. Good luck.
mindy_e_in_az
Original Author
16 years ago
Tigpie,
Thank you for your feedback. Can you explain why you would suggest fiberglass or pebble tec over plaster? I don't like the roughness of pebble tec at all. We are still trying to nail down our decision on finish.
We talked about a detached spa but this is the look we want.

happymrsf,
Thank you. We are so excited to have such a big area to work w/. Thanks for the tip about an extra umbrella sleeve. I'm sure we will do that.

golfgeek,
I will check the specs for the slide. I wondered about that, too.
I wondered about the position of the light as well. I hadn't thought about it highlighting imperfections but was worried that it wouldn't light up the deep end very well.
We are still trying to figure out the rock work. We talked to a guy who does artificial rock yesterday. He's way out of our budget right now. Our problem is finding someone in town to do real rock work. We do have a good set of detailed plans from the architect. Thank you for helping me to think of questions I need to be asking the subs we're talking to.
Mindy
mindy_e_in_az
Original Author
16 years ago
Anymore feedback?

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