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Yes: Pools are worth it....


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1 hour ago, Poolflood said:

Very nice!  They do the cover and kitchen as well?

Thanks...it was worth a few months of pain in the ass.

The covered area is actually the back patio connected to the house via screened porch...he did all the stone/Lueders work for the decking, patio, screened porch flooring and a few other areas as he is old friends with a good stone guy...who buys straight from quarry and saves a good amount over a sales/retail outlet. 

He bid to do the outdoor kitchen but I went with 4 seasons outdoors (who he also recommended) as they are more knowledge on grills and smokers and kitchen builds. Good guys who I would recommend.

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5 hours ago, Tailgate said:

Thanks...it was worth a few months of pain in the ass.

The covered area is actually the back patio connected to the house via screened porch...he did all the stone/Lueders work for the decking, patio, screened porch flooring and a few other areas as he is old friends with a good stone guy...who buys straight from quarry and saves a good amount over a sales/retail outlet. 

He bid to do the outdoor kitchen but I went with 4 seasons outdoors (who he also recommended) as they are more knowledge on grills and smokers and kitchen builds. Good guys who I would recommend.

Beautiful setup TG.  Well done!

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25 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

Very nice. What do you have for grill/smoker? Can’t quite tell in the pic.

Thank you. It’s a large BGE and a Bull grill. I didn’t think I would grill as much because I really like wood/charcoal grilling and smoking and thought the BGE would be primary. But the grill has an infrared burner on one side that sears a steak to perfection. One of the recs from 4 seasons that is great. I grill steaks often...will likely try on on BGE soon.

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I can't speak to the current cost, but for my pool alone I spent about $60,000 in 2009-10.  Three to four months may be about average, but that's only because the pool builders are juggling a bunch of projects.  If you find a contractor that has his subcontractors lined up, he can build an in ground pool in about six weeks.  Maybe even less.  You'll be shocked at how many days/weeks go by when there is no work on your pool.  At least that was my experience.

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14 hours ago, freyguy said:

Start at around $80k now.

In Austin, I know this is right. I just built one and it took 9 weeks to actually build the pool, 3 months from signing the contract to laying the last piece of sod/landscaping.

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On 7/24/2019 at 10:23 AM, wild_turkey said:

What’s the ballpark cost and installation time for an in-ground pool in Texas? My rough uneducated guess would be $50-60k and 4-6 months. Is that at all accurate?

Yes on price and should be done quicker.  Price and timing depends on where you are.  Start the process (interviewing builders) now.  Take your time.  Swim by spring

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1 hour ago, Poolflood said:

Lol.  Yeah on low it's using like 55-60 watts.

Is that an old heater behind the pump?  

Yeah, unused. It will eventually be sent out to pasture. The actual heater is a solar heater on the roof. Turns out we have to run the pump at about ~1800 rpm to keep the roof heater going.

But since it's been hot this week and we don't have A/C, we've been running the solar heater anyway, just to dump the house's heat into the pool. So now... super warm pool.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/24/2019 at 10:23 AM, wild_turkey said:

What’s the ballpark cost and installation time for an in-ground pool in Texas? My rough uneducated guess would be $50-60k and 4-6 months. Is that at all accurate?

We did ours in 2015. 45k for just the pool, no hot tub. Did minimum decking around it. We did the landscaping around it over time but easily have probably another 20k in our landscaping and more deck around the pool. Get multiple quotes and try and be there as much as you can when it is being done to get things as you asked. Read your contract and know what is and isn't covered. We had the pump for the Polaris go out in the first yr and it was replaced. We also had some issues with our skimmers cracking and causing leaks within the first 18 months that were not covered. Most builders don't warranty those or the plumbing for their pools that they build. As far as around the skimmers most don't reinforce around them like the rest of the pool is done and that creates the problem for potential cracking. If I ever have one built again, I will make sure that more rebar is put in around the skimmer boxes. Ours literally had only once piece of rebar around them. Costs to repair those was around $1500, which actually was pretty good, but the stress dealing with it was not. Having sonar done to detect leaks will run you around $450-600 depending on the company. Some will roll this into the repair cost if you use them to fix the leak. 4-6 months for the build seems awfully long, we are west of weird in the hill country and ours took right around 30 days. We were lucky as not much limestone had to be gone through. They dug it out with an oversize bobcat and would have finished in one day with the digging but hit rock in one corner that needed chipping out the next day. We had our pool started at the end of August and it had water in it before the end of September. Good Luck....!

SL0-Df0-Rp-T2-CDdri-EWGWRd-Q.jpgk-V8-Qjdn1-TKWKMpwi-Kzg-L5-A.jpg

Edited by BillyGoatHill
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  • 1 month later...

we are in final stage of construction. Pool has been plastered and full of water, just waiting on finishing touches on the deck but we are able to swim. i'll post pics once everything is ready.

took 6+ months from dig to now because my supervisor was an idiot, but we've been able to swim the past two weekends and yes, pools are very much worth it.

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On 8/11/2019 at 12:11 PM, BillyGoatHill said:

0

 

On 7/25/2019 at 7:05 PM, Poolflood said:

Yes on price and should be done quicker.  Price and timing depends on where you are.  Start the process (interviewing builders) now.  Take your time.  Swim by spring

When does your slow season start? My plaster guys put on the wrong outlets in the hot tub when plastering. They told me that they would chip them out in the slow season and replaster the hot tub outlets. BTW, when I do this, do you think it will create problems such as leaks?

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2 hours ago, Bevo said:

 

When does your slow season start? My plaster guys put on the wrong outlets in the hot tub when plastering. They told me that they would chip them out in the slow season and replaster the hot tub outlets. BTW, when I do this, do you think it will create problems such as leaks?

It's a couple months before "slow season" but it also depends on plaster company.   

Can you be more specific on "wrong outlets".  It's a terminology issue.   The outlets screw in. Maybe internals?    Feel free tip send pics.  Anyway leak should not be an issue at all. 

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53 minutes ago, Quagmire said:

So I replaced the temperature sensor on my equipment , this is a probe that sticks in a hole drilled in the pvc. Will it leaks a bit no matter what I do. I tried plumbers putty but no luck .

 

Is their a caulk that could get wet that might seal it up right? (Giggity)

 

 

They usually have a little rubber gasket and a screw clamp. Typically, they don't leak. But, if you had to I guess you could use silicone caulk. It is usually a better choice than plumbers putty. But first, check the gasket.

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  • 1 month later...

My in-laws heater went out last year. They have been talking about getting it replaced for a year and haven’t done it yet. My kids would be the biggest benefactors from a new heater. What’s the cost? Wife and I were talking about just doing it next time they go out of town (couple weeks).

 

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On 9/25/2019 at 6:27 AM, Quagmire said:

Is their a caulk that could get wet that might seal it up right? (Giggity)

 

I saw an ad last year for this sugru glue stuff somewhere and decided to give a try. Looked too good to be true but I figured wth...Cost less than 10 bucks on amazon and has worked extremely well, saved me 30 times what I paid for it at least imo. https://sugru.com/

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  • 6 months later...

Bump.  Just filled up the new pool this weekend.  Got the pumps running yesterday and first round of chemicals in.  I GC'd this myself (I own a construction company).  All in all, things went well, but I don't have the typical lifeline of a pool builder for some of the technical stuff and routine bullshit questions.  Surly to the rescue.

-How long before swimming?  Pool plumber said a week.  Pool chemical lady said 30 days.  Plaster guy said a few days.  My kids are chomping at the bit to jump in.

-Any recommendations for Pentair Screenlogic Connect setup?  Both the plumber and electrician weren't comfortable setting it up.

-Anyone have any experience with a heat/cool pump?  I purchased a Pentair UltraTemp 140K BTU Heat & Cool Pump with the goal of cooling the pool down some during the summer months.  Plumber did a great install, but admittedly had no experience using them or setting them up.  The pool chemicaly lady confirmed that it is installed correctly, but also has no experience with this particular unit.  Anyone have any info / feedback on this?  

IMG-3425.jpg

 

 

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My pool has a pentair heat pump (no cooling though) . They are nice as they don’t cost as much to operate as gas but don’t heat as fast. Gas heater would probably cost 100 a day to operate. I barely notice a change in my electric bill when I run it for a few days.

I’m kinda surprised they would give you a heat pump with a spa . They won’t heat unless air temp is above 50 degrees , which when it’s really cold that’s when you want to use hot tub. I don’t have a hot tub so it’s not a big deal on my setup .

Mine takes around 24 hours to warm my pool around 20 degrees when it’s cool out. I just turn it on , the fan kicks in and it does a 5 minute count down before compressor kicks in and starts heating .

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1 hour ago, Quagmire said:

My pool has a pentair heat pump (no cooling though) . They are nice as they don’t cost as much to operate as gas but don’t heat as fast. Gas heater would probably cost 100 a day to operate. I barely notice a change in my electric bill when I run it for a few days.

I’m kinda surprised they would give you a heat pump with a spa . They won’t heat unless air temp is above 50 degrees , which when it’s really cold that’s when you want to use hot tub. I don’t have a hot tub so it’s not a big deal on my setup .

Mine takes around 24 hours to warm my pool around 20 degrees when it’s cool out. I just turn it on , the fan kicks in and it does a 5 minute count down before compressor kicks in and starts heating .

We set it up so that the gas heater is primarily for the spa and the heat pump / chiller is primarily for the pool.  The intent is that you quickly warm up just the spa for a few hours, but you run the heat pump to increase the temp of the pool during the shoulder months so we can use it longer.  That's good to hear about the minimal impact on the electric bill.

The chiller portion was an upgrade.  It may have been a bad decision, but we'll see.  I have yet to talk to anyone who has any experience with it, and the limited reviews that I've seen online are all pretty pour.  Definitely a roll of the dice.  The pool is 75 right now, so I'm going to crank up the heat pump next week to see if we can get it up to the low 80s.  Would like to have a pool in the 82-86 range for the duration of the summer.  

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50 minutes ago, Your Mom said:

That's a nice looking pool.  How much do you think you saved by GCing yourself?  Were there any situations where you'd have been screwed over or made big mistakes without your construction background?   

That's a good question.  I think I saved about 20%.  We had some wild estimates from other pool companies before we went this route.  We had one company quote us $600K for the pool and pool house.  We added a second structure (guest house) and I was able to do it for less than half that amount.

It was a unique circumstance where I had access to experienced pool guys for layout, excavation and stonework through a friend of mine.  I basically used his guys on loaner for a few months and paid them hourly.  He had a big slowdown in work, so it kept them busy and saved me some money.

Margins are surely higher in the pool business, but I know I probably paid a premium because I was a one-off client for the work that I subbed out.  Pool rebar, pool plumbing, gunite and plaster were all trades that I don't use and didn't have relationships with.  That stone work was very detailed and drove the cost up as well.  If I had to build the same pool over again, I think I could do it for $20K less.  

Like I said in the previous post, the start-up and verification that systems were installed correctly was (and still are) probably my biggest hurdle.  I'm still not 100% sure on that front.  It would be nice to be able to call someone to get it all set up.  The biggest thing that my specific background helped with were the schedule / logistics (we did the whole thing in under 90 days... even with the Rona and the rain).  We also had some tricky details with the stonework, and I spent a lot of time getting the foundation right, ensuring all of the elevations tied in correctly to the flatwork and adjacent structures (both new) and making sure that everything was cohesive.  We also had a ton of drainage to re-route.  Building a standalone pool on flat ground in an open area is pretty straightforward with good subs.  It's all the other bullshit that makes it challenging.

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Your stone work (which is nice) probably prevents it, but I used a saltwater chlorine generator and loved it for chlorinating my pool. If your stone is very hard it still might work. My coping was travertine and I sealed it well and never had a problem. I never needed a pool guy it was so low maintenance.

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2 hours ago, Spaulding Smails said:

That's a good question.  I think I saved about 20%.  We had some wild estimates from other pool companies before we went this route.  We had one company quote us $600K for the pool and pool house.  We added a second structure (guest house) and I was able to do it for less than half that amount.

It was a unique circumstance where I had access to experienced pool guys for layout, excavation and stonework through a friend of mine.  I basically used his guys on loaner for a few months and paid them hourly.  He had a big slowdown in work, so it kept them busy and saved me some money.

Margins are surely higher in the pool business, but I know I probably paid a premium because I was a one-off client for the work that I subbed out.  Pool rebar, pool plumbing, gunite and plaster were all trades that I don't use and didn't have relationships with.  That stone work was very detailed and drove the cost up as well.  If I had to build the same pool over again, I think I could do it for $20K less.  

Like I said in the previous post, the start-up and verification that systems were installed correctly was (and still are) probably my biggest hurdle.  I'm still not 100% sure on that front.  It would be nice to be able to call someone to get it all set up.  The biggest thing that my specific background helped with were the schedule / logistics (we did the whole thing in under 90 days... even with the Rona and the rain).  We also had some tricky details with the stonework, and I spent a lot of time getting the foundation right, ensuring all of the elevations tied in correctly to the flatwork and adjacent structures (both new) and making sure that everything was cohesive.  We also had a ton of drainage to re-route.  Building a standalone pool on flat ground in an open area is pretty straightforward with good subs.  It's all the other bullshit that makes it challenging.

Blah blah blah.

When's the Surly party?

(nice joint)

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1 hour ago, HouTex said:

Your stone work (which is nice) probably prevents it, but I used a saltwater chlorine generator and loved it for chlorinating my pool. If your stone is very hard it still might work. My coping was travertine and I sealed it well and never had a problem. I never needed a pool guy it was so low maintenance.

This is the exact reason we went with a traditional system instead of the saltwater.  

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We set it up so that the gas heater is primarily for the spa and the heat pump / chiller is primarily for the pool.  The intent is that you quickly warm up just the spa for a few hours, but you run the heat pump to increase the temp of the pool during the shoulder months so we can use it longer.  That's good to hear about the minimal impact on the electric bill.
The chiller portion was an upgrade.  It may have been a bad decision, but we'll see.  I have yet to talk to anyone who has any experience with it, and the limited reviews that I've seen online are all pretty pour.  Definitely a roll of the dice.  The pool is 75 right now, so I'm going to crank up the heat pump next week to see if we can get it up to the low 80s.  Would like to have a pool in the 82-86 range for the duration of the summer.  

Ah oh gotcha . I left my heat pump on 24/7 for a week about a month ago and guessing that the bill jumped 50 bucks from last year . Had it been gas it probably would have been 800-1000
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we had consultations with 4 companies last week to design a pool+spa combo in derkaville. maybe i need to reset my expectations, but jesus fucking christ the first quote came in at just over 6 figures, which is a good 20% over the budget we discussed. this is a 20x27.5’ pool with a 7.5x7.5’ spa with a spillover and not much else in the way of water features. decking is concrete too.

is this the new average cost of pools in texas?! gonna wait to see the other 3 before i decide whether to even bother asking him to tweak anything. fml

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I have the heater/chiller and I think it's a Pentair, but not sure.  It really won't do much for heating the pool (we do have a fairly large pool at about 20 X 40), but it does keep it from getting bath water warm.  I think I have mine set for 89 during the summer and it makes a huge difference compared to my sister's pool.  My pool has no shade at all and it's able to keep the temp down.  It really helps to run a split schedule if you can to where you are running the chiller at night when it can make the most use of the temperature differential between the ambient air and water temp.

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On 5/13/2020 at 9:53 AM, Spaulding Smails said:

That's a good question.  I think I saved about 20%.  We had some wild estimates from other pool companies before we went this route.  We had one company quote us $600K for the pool and pool house.  We added a second structure (guest house) and I was able to do it for less than half that amount.

It was a unique circumstance where I had access to experienced pool guys for layout, excavation and stonework through a friend of mine.  I basically used his guys on loaner for a few months and paid them hourly.  He had a big slowdown in work, so it kept them busy and saved me some money.

Margins are surely higher in the pool business, but I know I probably paid a premium because I was a one-off client for the work that I subbed out.  Pool rebar, pool plumbing, gunite and plaster were all trades that I don't use and didn't have relationships with.  That stone work was very detailed and drove the cost up as well.  If I had to build the same pool over again, I think I could do it for $20K less.  

Like I said in the previous post, the start-up and verification that systems were installed correctly was (and still are) probably my biggest hurdle.  I'm still not 100% sure on that front.  It would be nice to be able to call someone to get it all set up.  The biggest thing that my specific background helped with were the schedule / logistics (we did the whole thing in under 90 days... even with the Rona and the rain).  We also had some tricky details with the stonework, and I spent a lot of time getting the foundation right, ensuring all of the elevations tied in correctly to the flatwork and adjacent structures (both new) and making sure that everything was cohesive.  We also had a ton of drainage to re-route.  Building a standalone pool on flat ground in an open area is pretty straightforward with good subs.  It's all the other bullshit that makes it challenging.

call any pool service company out to get your pentair screenlogic set up. when our pool was done, the pool builder hired a pool service company to come out and set up all the equipment.

as far as maintenance, get yourself a test kit and download the pool math app. this is the one i have https://tftestkits.net/test-kits-c4/ and it's awesome. you run your tests (you'll need to test twice a week during the summer as the heat just eats up the chlorine), plug in your test results into the pool math app and it'll tell you exactly how much liquid chlorine or muriatic acid to add.

it's very easy and not time consuming

our pool in Austin gets sun pretty much 100% of the day and it never got above 86. 

 

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On 5/17/2020 at 8:41 PM, joe dirt said:

we had consultations with 4 companies last week to design a pool+spa combo in derkaville. maybe i need to reset my expectations, but jesus fucking christ the first quote came in at just over 6 figures, which is a good 20% over the budget we discussed. this is a 20x27.5’ pool with a 7.5x7.5’ spa with a spillover and not much else in the way of water features. decking is concrete too.

is this the new average cost of pools in texas?! gonna wait to see the other 3 before i decide whether to even bother asking him to tweak anything. fml

That seems pretty high.  I would guess $125/SF for the pool (assuming average depth, normal tile, coping, no huge equipment upgrades, etc).  Add $15K for the spa.  So, I think your $80K budget is reasonable.  Do you have crazy logistical challenges like a steep hill or did you add any other flatwork or outbuildings that would drive the price up?

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A cheap way to cool your pool during hot spells is to make a fountain out of pvc pipe. You screw one or two of them into your return nozzles and run the pump nonstop. As the fine spray goes up and returns to the pool some of it evaporates and it cools. I was able to get my pool down to around 88 or so from 95 in the drought of the early ‘10’s. It took about a day of running the pump at full speed. Google it if you are curious.

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2 hours ago, Spaulding Smails said:

That seems pretty high.  I would guess $125/SF for the pool (assuming average depth, normal tile, coping, no huge equipment upgrades, etc).  Add $15K for the spa.  So, I think your $80K budget is reasonable.  Do you have crazy logistical challenges like a steep hill or did you add any other flatwork or outbuildings that would drive the price up?

nope. backyard build area is basically a flat, 60’x50’ rectangle of nothing but grass. we had a quick chat and he did a redesign more inline with the design aspects we discussed and within our budget. still waiting on the other 3 companies before we decide which direction to go. i’m already hating this process and we haven’t really even begun. 

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