New Pool Build in Los Angeles area - a diary of the project
Hi Everyone!
For medical (arthritis etc) and practical (daughter getting old enough to have swim parties, and we'd rather know where she is!) reasons, we decided to build a pool in our backyard,small as it is. We have a classic 1940 cottage style home, and already converted the front lawn in to an enclosed courtyard with hedges, and somewhat drought tolerant plants in the beds, and our backyard is 1/3 patio, 1/3 pargola area with cushioned artificial turf (under the swings and hammocks), and 1/3 lawn.
This posting (and the ones to follow) will - I hope - help others considering a pool build benefit from our faaaabulous ideas, and (more likely) learn from our "interesting" experiences! Additionally, if anyone reads something I write that suggests we are heading in the wrong direction, PLEASE let us know! We welcome any and all suggestions and input.
Based in part on previous postings in this forum, as well as the recommendations of friends, I recently contracted with Mr. Carlos Pools to build our pool and deck. Here are the specs:
13' x 32' custom-designed pool (it has to jog, at the deep end, around the pergola, so deep end is only 8' wide)
About 14' of raised bond beam around back edges (adjoining pergola), so as to provide bench seating on pergola, and
18" raised sheer descent water feature on other side
3.5 ft to 7ft depth
Solar heating system
Salt Wise salt water chlorinator
Automatic water filler
Pentair Dual Speed Pump
Pentair 420 Clean & Clear filter
French Gray plaster
The coping will be PIP colored concrete (bullnosed), and the deck will be brushed concrete, also colored.
The designs they sent to us are a *little* off (the deck on the right should run into the pergola, on the other side of that post, and not into the garden bed, for instance!), but they do give a basic idea of things.
More to come as we progress!
Comments (6)
cityartist
11 years agoHello Gardenweb folks!
So, we're a few days in to the build, and things have been going wrong, which require a painful and unforeseen fix. The salesperson/designer of the pool apparently measured the property wrong, and subsequently drew the plans incorrectly! Obviously, we had no idea of this, until the demo and dig crew were halfway through their job, and noticed that the plan called for an 8ft wide deep end, when there was only 5ft available in reality! Apparently, the designer failed to measure the pergola! So, after spending well over $10,000 on the Pergola, which we built to support swings and hammocks for our family and friends (including costly cushioned artificial turf underfoot), we now discover that the only way to keep the pool according to plan is to chop off 2-3ft from the end of the Pergola, losing a big part of its functionality and aesthetics!! I've been assured that this is the only sacrifice we'll have to make, so have agreed, though this is not an auspicious start to things. The crew are great, and the supervisor, Mike, is wonderfully patient. He agrees that this is big mess-up, and is trying to provide the best solution, but he can't suddenly make my property 3 feet wider at the deep end of the pool!..
The pic is of the crew hacking back a few feet off part of the Pergola and concrete slab...Painful to watch!
Let's hope this is the only hiccup!
piaa
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Plaster Cost for new pool
Comments (8)Thank you both. I am in NY suburb, so I am sure it will be at the higher end of the price range. I am very surprised that they would charge by the perimeter foot. I am planning on a deep diving area and a deep shallow area. So, if my pool was average of 7' deep, that would be 1640 square ft. At $30/LF x 120' cost = $3600 or $2.20 sq. ft. A shallow pool at say average of 4' deep but with the same perimeter of 120' would be only 1280 sq. ft. For the same price of $3600, it would be $2.81 sq. ft. I would be getting an extra 360 sq feet plastered for the same price. Seems hard to believe. They must cover a lot of area very fast. Do you know how long (man hours) it takes to plaster this size of a pool? Also, I am assuming the prices you mentioned include labor and materials. Roughly how much is the material cost? Thanks a lot....See MoreOsage Hills Pool Build
Comments (24)Thanks for posting the finale! Have been watching with interest, as we are in OKC and hope to someday refinish our 37 year old pool. French gray is our choice, too! Love the look of your water. We have some flagstone as our pool coping in some places, but want to remove it for standardization so we can get a safety cover (no kids yet but on the horizon). What are you doing regarding winterizing/covering/kid safety? We winterized last year because we didn't move in until late December and didn't know what we are doing, but we think we will keep it open this winter. For the cost of closing and opening, we could pay for the chems/electric to keep it going and not have to look at a swamp out the back windows. However, skimming in the cold wind is no picnic, either. And emptying skimmer? Whew! I lost feeling in my arm! Attached the angel handles to the basket this summer, so don't have to submerge anymore, so one problem solved....See MoreEl Duderino's Austin Pool Build
Comments (44)Dude, Watch the pH! Keep it at about 7.2 to 7.4 for best results. Expect to use several gallons of muriatic acid during the first month. It'll take about 6 to 12 months to completely cure and all the while, it will continue to raise the pH, rapidly at first and slowing as time passes. 1st week is 2X brushing daily with skimmers off for an hour after brushing then 1x per day for the next 3 weeks. No pool sweeps for 3 weeks lest you get track marks when the sweep tries to climb and loses traction. No swimming either. Let the DB harden! No chlorine or algaecide until after the 1st week, then start adding chlorine. No algaecide or stabilizer for the 1st month. Watch the pressure in the filter. It will rise as it catches the dust you sweep off. You don't want to have to do an in-water acid bath. That would mean more brushing again and no using the pool until the bath has achieve the desired exposure and has been neutralized and rebalanced....See MoreNJ Pool build diary- What a big hole.. :)
Comments (34)Met with Jeff of Caribbean Blue Pools tonight. The meeting lasted about an hour. He surprised me with photos that he had taken of my backyard earlier in the day before our meeting started, while it was still daylight outside. He also had a notepad with grade shots(?)that were made with his laser (what's a laser?)... He said he couldn't give a quote on our project unless he knew the lay of our land first. My husband was eating all of this up, Jeff was so prepared for us! Anyway, he answered all of our questions in detail and said that within 1 week I would have a design and detailed estimate presented to us in our living room. As he packed up, he jokingly said that he would make it very hard for us to say no... After seeing his portfolio and listening to him talk about good design and all, I believed him. We both felt like we were in good hands while he answered our many questions. He gave us a range of cost, which seemed reasonable, but my husband couldn't get him to be any more specific, despite many tries. Jeff just said that he needed some time to pull together the design, before a price could be known. So we backed off.. He also deflected any talk about other PB's He wouldn't say anything pro or con about anybody but Caribbean Blue Pools. We liked that and are anxious to see what he comes up with. I'll keep posting with updates. Moocat... Can you please tell me which A&S office is building your pool? If they are not the same one that my neighbor used, I'm inclined to give them a shot at my job, as I can see from your posts that they've been treating you pretty good. I want to get 3 estimates before I make any decisions. Did they give you a landscape plan too? Stret0026... was Jeff the guy from Caribbean you met with? Have you made any decisions on your project yet?...See Morecityartist
11 years agoSo, it's been a tough few days, as we went back and forth with the PB. They mucked up on the measurements, but - hats off to them - they have owned their mistake. There's no avoiding the fact that we are going to lose more than they, but my interest is in getting a great final product, and I guess the price we will have to pay is a little steeper than we had anticipated!
In addition to having to cut about a quarter of our Pergola away, we are also going to be losing nearly half of the remaining lawn, as the WHOLE pool has to move over 2 feet. Instead of a 18' by 7' lawn area, we are now left with a 16' by 5' area. Big bummer. So, end result is we have lost all our swings, and a quarter of the Pergola, and a half of remaining lawn. that's the bad news...
The good news (there is good news!) is that the PB came out on Saturday, admitted his error, and we negotiated that he will certainly fix everything so it works functionally and aesthetically (step 1), but also that he will undertake to make some other tweaks that would normally have meant overages, at no cost to ourselves. Additionally, ANY and all further surprises or necessary fixes will be covered by them. So, I've lost a lot of the functionality of my garden, but I'm getting (I hope!) peace of mind for the rest of the project, no financial overages, no surprises that I have to deal with, and the pool I contracted to have built.
Granted, we're far from done here (we've only just begun!), but the PB's willingness to step up and take responsibility was admirable. They could have disappeared, as so many contractors seem to often do. They could have forced me to take this to court. Instead, they conscientiously sought to find a solution that would be acceptable to all of us. They are certainly getting the better end of the deal, but they are also sharing some of the pain! So long as the rest goes (no pun intended) swimmingly, and we get a fabulous end result that lasts us for years and years, I'm cool!
My daughter's enjoying it, at least!
beuell
10 years agoairb320
10 years ago
Aqua-Link Pools and Spas