New Pool Advice
 

Wife and I made our decision. New pool from Fiesta pools starts construction Feb. 3. Finalize design next week. Looking for advice (no anti-pool people please, don't want to hear it). What should I look out for? e.g. dimensions (I want to swim laps), depth, deck area, pump, filter, no-seeums birdcage, spa, heating, payments, contract terms, experience with Fiesta, etc. It is a tight fit for the pool. All good hearted advice wanted. Thank you.

First off your lot will determine what size pool you can build. When we built, the pool had to be 1 foot away from the house (roof line) for every foot of depth. So a 6 foot deep pool would need to be 6 feet away. Because of the size of our house we ended up with a 10' wide by 32' long pool. We could have gone longer but were maxed out on width. We built during house construction so we had to go with T&D. If I had to do anything different it would be to go with a Pebbletech <sp> finish. Some of our friends have that finish and I like it better than the standard plaster. All windows and sliders that face the pool will need to be tempered glass. You will also need to have an entry/exit alarm on those windows and sliders.

We opted not to have a hot tub built into the pool. We went with an above ground fiberglass hot tub after the fact. A concrete hot tub just doesn't sound very comfortable to me. Plus a stand alone has so many more jetting options.

Our pool came with a salt water system. We love it. We also opted for a gas heater. Make sure they install an auto fill/drain system.

On the bird cage we went with the 20/20 screen. It's a tighter screen and keeps the noseeums out.

Hope this helps.

We have a large backyard, and with the set backs, the biggest pool we could put in is 30’ - so that’s 10 yards. It will be tough to swim laps in a 10 yard pool.
i don’t know many yards that could get even a 20 yard pool in, let alone a 20 yard pool.
Maybe rethink the lap swimming.

I've had an inground pool for the last 35 years no matter where I've lived. We just installed a new pool here in The Villages, and love it. I'm an engineer/IT guy, so I research the heck out of anything I buy. Below is a list of Do's and Don'ts for any new pool, no matter who the builder is:

Do's
Make your shallow end 4' deep. Most builders go with 3' or 3 1/2'. This is too shallow. My pool goes from 4' to 5'. I've heard folks say the 3 1/2' is for the kids... but this depth is only good for a few years, then you're stuck with that depth for the rest of your life.

Go with salt water. My first pool was chlorine - my next two were salt water. Easier and far cheaper to maintain as salt water requires far less chemicals. (FYI - salt water is still chlorine, but the chlorine is generated using a cell and salt water.)

Ensure salt cell is rated for a minimum of 2x pool size. You don't want the cell running at 100% all the time.

Replace dual drains with a channel drain. If your deep end is only 5-6', folks will hit their feet on the standard drains, and if you get a cleaning robot, it will get hung up on the standard drains. Make sure the channel drain is installed flush with the bottom.

Install handrail at build time. It's much more costly and harder to do after.

Get a robot to clean pool and sidewalls (Buy on your own after install). They work fantastic!

Get a heater so you can swim year round and keep temps enjoyable. A heat pump cost far less to run than gas, and works fine in Florida climate. The only reason to get gas is if you are getting a hot tub and need fast heat.

If you do get a heat pump, get largest available (140K). Larger heaters are more efficient, cost less to run, and run for less time to heat pool.

Get autofill/drain. In Florida, you will be adding water with hose weekly in the summer due to evaporation, and draining manually during heavy rain in the spring and fall if you don't. This is a MUST for all pools here.

Get full automation. You'll be able to save a tremendous amount of money on energy if you use it right, and the saving will pay for the automation within a year or two.

Make sure your pump is Variable Speed. One speed and two speed pumps cost far more to run.

Go with a larger filter (300-400 sq ft). Most builders will put the minimum on (100-200 sq ft), and you'll be cleaning filter monthly instead of once or twice a year.

Get a water line run near equipment pad, and have a light installed over the equipment.

Go to a site called Trouble Free Pool (TFP). It's a site run by a number for former pool folks that provide a very easy method of maintaining your pool. You'll have a LOT of money if you do this yourself... more than $1K per year). Even if you don't maintain your own pool, the pool school section on TFP will give you a good background on what the people taking care of your pool should be doing.

Don'ts
Get solar heating. Solar heating alone costs around $5K. It only works well when it's hot out (you don't need it), and it doesn't work well when it's cold out (you do need it). With solar you will need to have another heat source, either gas or electric to supplement the solar. If you do an analysis, you'll never pay for the solar. It's far cheaper to just use gas or electric for full heating.

Install suction return line. All builder will include a suction return line for suction cleaners. Suction cleaners do not work well, and the line is worthless. You end up with a fitting sticking out in the pool that is never used along with a line that can cause potential issues down the road. Eliminate the suction return line, then buy a cleaning robot.

Give full payment until pool is operational (If you can get builder to agree - most won't).

If you have any questions on the above, shoot me a note and I can provide specifics for each item.

Some thoughts. A regulation lap pool is 25 yards, or 75 feet long, way longer than most lots will allow. Our pool is 12 x 24 feet and 3.5 to 5.5 feet deep. Check out superswim.com. It’s a great product that allows you to swim forever, and vary your pace from leisure to sprinting, in a relatively small pool. We have one set up in our pool and there is plenty of room. Nothing replaces actually swimming laps in a regulation lap pool, but the super swim is a great alternative. Between using the super swim in our pool and swimming laps in the sports pools, a day never passes in the Villages were I don’t swim the equivalent of a minimum of a mile. For swimming don’t go any shallower than 3.5 feet, and preferably deeper. Salt water pools are great, as are waterfalls. We love standing under the waterfall with warm water cascading onto the back of our necks. Also, deeper water allows for a great workout with water weights. Also, build a rectangular pool. Kidney or other strange shaped pools are a waste of useable space. Rectangular shaped pools both maximize usable pool space and make it very easy to put on and remove the pool cover. Yes, get a good pool cover. Ours is stored on a roller that is built into the pool deck. It literally takes one person about a minute to put on or remove the cover with that set up. Hope that helps and good luck with the new pool.

My pool is about 18 months old and we purchased new pool furniture, chairs tables and such. I purchased from Lowes aluminum furniture, I did not want my furniture to rust and leave rust spots on the new deck. It turns out the welds on the furniture will rust if the paint is chipped off and sure enough rust spots on the deck. If I had it to do over again, only wood or plastic, something that will not rust.

Self-cleaning pool
 

My husband asked our contractor to install a self-cleaning feature. Small pop-ups are installed on the bottom of the pool. While the pool pump is on, the pop-ups rotate and swirl any debris into the drain. Pool is 5 years old and he has never had to clean it. An occasional sweeping of walls and floor. Most efficient pool we have ever owned.

Also....after you have your new pool installed and operating, you will need someone to service it weekly. Scrubbing, vacuuming, adjusting chemical levels, etc. I originally went with T&D, which became Patriot....lots of turnover of personnel, no shows and just plain old poor customer service. One of their original technicians LaTonya Marshall, started her own pool service, Touched By Angels Pool & Spa. She did such a good job, previously, I hired her again....in a heart beat....she's that good. Give LaTonya a call (352) 304-3447 or email her touchedbyangels333911@gmail.com. DID I MENTIONED THAT HER RATES ARE BETTER THAN ANY OF THE OTHER COMPANIES I RESEARCHED? But, the main thing is have you pool served regularly and professionally.

Are any of you willing share ballpark cost of installing your new pool ? We are considering but have no idea of initial cost range.

We went with T&D, no complaints there. The pool is 39 feet long. The deep end is 5 ft. If I could do it over again I would have gone 4 ft. for the entire pool, reason being is my wife is pretty short and not a great swimmer so she doesn't feel that comfortable in the deep end.

Pool suggestion
 

We have a smaller pool and installed a Badu swimjet to swim against resistance. It takes a little getting used to but works well.

We received good advice before we designed our pool. Someone told us, like a boat, "they shrink" when you put in water. Also, I had the same of goal swimming laps. As a result, we went with the largest rectangular pool our lot would allow. Still, it's not large enough for laps. We looked at the swim against the current device, but it was more than we wanted to spend. So my husband found Swim Tether - Belt Systems for Resistance and Tethered Swimming It works and I love it.

It's my hope this is helpful. Enjoy your new pool!

We used Fiesta pools and were very happy with all aspects of the project. 10-15% cheaper than the big guy, owners on site supervising and doing the critical work and all workers documented. Less then 3 months from contract to completion

Lots of good feedback. I agree with this post especially because I like to walk in the pool for exercise & wish ours was one depth, not graduated as it is. No one jumps in the pool so 6’ at one end is pretty useless for us.

Also we live in a SECO area so an electric heater is inexpensive for us. Check if you are in a co-op for electricity to help with your heating options if cost is a factor.

Lastly, we like our powder coated handrail to get out of the pool. Always cool to the touch, unlike aluminum.

I looked at this, but the added cost is way out of line. And an in-ground cleaning system only swirls the water - it does not brush the bottom or the sides of the pool. If you do have an algae bloom, it's far worse since the algea tends to gain hold on the finish of the pool. This is why every pool manufacturer recommends brushing the sides and bottom of the pool weekly. A robot does all of this for less than $1K. Just set it in the pool every week or so, push a button and your pool is cleaned and brushed about 3 hours later.

My pool is 15x30 feet. I consider that too short for satisfying laps. If I wanted to swim laps, I’d go to a sports pool. I have a combination of solar water heating panels, a heat pump, and (very important) a roll-away pool cover that looks like blue bubble wrap. I like my pool around 90°. The solar water heating takes car of that most of the summer. Adding in the heat pump makes it happen all year at a reasonable monthly cost (heating with natural gas gets very expensive, even in Florida). The pool cover doesn’t ADD much heat, but it keeps a LOT of heat from escaping in the night. (It also saves a lot of water lost in evaporation all year and cuts chemical use in half.) Even without the heat pump being on, the solar and the pool cover keep the water around 80° in the winter. (Too cold for me.)

Salt water is very nice. I hate smelling like chlorine, and that doesn’t happen with a salt water pool. The water is salty, but much less so than the ocean.

If I were putting in a pool instead of using what was there when I built the house, I would put in essentially a 10x15’ entertainment pool three feet deep with built in benches along the side. Great for having friends over to sit in the pool and eat and drink. Maybe put a couple little tables in the pool. Be sure to have steps down rather than a ladder, and a very sturdy railing for those steps, because many people can no longer climb ladders or even steps without a good railing. (I don’t like hot tubs because they are too hot. A little pool like this at 92° is perfect.)

I did my pool project backwards... we installed the bird cage (1,300 sq ft) and poured concrete. A year later we decided we wanted a pool. Out of 6 pool builders (PB) , only the 3 would even provide a quote that didn't involve them taking down the bird cage and putting up a new one. Between the cage and the canvas covering, I had over $40K tied up and didn't want to do that.

If I had to do it over again, I would do it all at once - it's way cheaper. The pool company doesn't have to use special equipment for excavation and removal, and they don't charge nearly as much for the cage - it's an add-on to the pool.

I provide this background before sharing what I paid for my pool. There was a $10K upcharge to work inside my cage as it involved a lot of manual work to remove material. (Note: this upcharge was even more from other PB's)

My end cost was $65K for a 12.5' x 24.5' 7,000 gallon pool (no bird cage in this cost). There were a lot of upgrades which impacted this price:

- WetEdge upgraded mini pebble interior (+$1.4K)
- Variable Speed pump
- 40,000 gallon Salt Water Generator
- 140K Heat Pump (+$5K)
- OmniLogic automation (+$3K)
- Autofill/Drain (+$1K)

A new 1,300 sq ft birdcage from our pool builder would have added ~$20K.

My pool was finished in 10 weeks from ground breaking.

Hope this helps!

I see you are going with Fiesta pools. Make sure you ask them about autofill/drain and automation. I have two friends that went with Fiesta, and this never came up during initial discussions. Both of them have no autofill/drain, and only manual timers.

It's very difficult and expensive to add autofill/drain after concrete is poured. If you go with pavers, it would be easier, but still more costly to do after the fact.

With automation, you can set the pump speed to automatically ramp up when heat is called for. Heaters require a minimum flow to operate. On my pool, the pump needs to run at 75% for the heater to operate. I normally run my pump at 35%. At 35%, my pump draws 67 watts. At 75%, it draws 435 watts. At 100%, 980 watts.

The most expensive things to run on your pool are the heater and the pump. Automation allows you to run your pump at minimum setting, yet supply the heater when needed.

A salt system, gas heater if a spa is included, sitting ledges, remote for pool functions, nice lighting, and a seating area inside the cage if space allows

I advise you add a bathroom near your new pool area. You will not be sorry.

What model cleaning robot you recommended.

If you have room that is a fantastic suggestion! We added one in GA at our pool and it was used all the time - no tracking in the house. No room for us down here.

If I were building a new home, I would look put one of the bathrooms near the pool area with access from outside and inside the home.

Super Swim Pro.
 

If you want to swim “laps” in a smaller pool look into a Super Swim Pro. “Makes your pool an ocean”. I love mine!!

I would think about privacy options as well...i'm trying to figure that out myself no
 

whatever you do, please make sure you get approval from ARC on everything. That's for sure. And if anyone has privacy options to share, please let me know. Bushes won't work. Those scenic screens are not for us. So now we are thinking about Florida Glass.

sonja

I’d go with an above ground hot tub more comfortable and more jets for relaxation. 2nd automatic overflow. 3rd automatic pool cleaner/vacuum. Solar pool cover to retain heat over evening with roll up for storage easily covers and uncovers.
Enjoy your investment

I agree with this. That is what we did. Our last pool had a built in spa - very uncomfortable to sit in, and you need to heat it separately. In the summer, the heated water bleeds over to the pool and you don't want that in the summer here.

If you add an above ground hot tub, there is no need to get a gas heater. It's far more expensive to heat with gas than electric, and if you don't have natural gas at your home, propane is considerably more than natural... plus you need to add a propane tank somewhere on your property.

You want a model that will clean the floor as well as scrub the walls and the tile line. Most will not do the tile line.

The Dolphin S200 (also sold by Pentair as the Warrior SE) is the model I have, and comes heavily recommended on Trouble Free Pool by a lot of owners. Mine has worked extremely well.

I just set it in the pool every week or two, and hit the power button. 3 hours later the pool has been cleaned and brushed, including the tile line.

Note that no cleaner (including in-floor cleaners) will get your steps or bench seating very well, so you should manually run a brush over these areas once in a while.

I guarantee that no cleaning service does much of a job of brushing your pool.

Something to ask. They will try to duck the question. Assuming it is not an in door pool.
Right now we are in our dry season. Rain will obviously fill your pool. Where to dump that water? The reason they will try to duck the question is it is chemical laden water. Legal, i do not know. I doubt it is LEGAL to dump it in the street or in your yard for that matter.

Thanks For The Great Comments and Suggestions
 

Thank you all for giving us such great suggestions. Lots to ponder.

Reliable pool rech
 

Glad you have a reliable pool tech. Word of caution, verify liability insurance and worker comp (if needed) insurance. Techs can be injured in slip and fall accidents. I can verify that and the expense involved but covered fortunately by worker comp.

Also if no CPC license restricted to pool cleaning and filter cartridge replacement. No repairs can be legally done. Hope this helps

Gee, I almost wished I was the one installing the pool with all the great information you furnished! Lol!

What chemicals? The only chemicals in my pool water are chlorine and salt. This water is far cleaner than sewer water or water from a washing machine or dishwasher. There is no legal issue here.

Autofill/drain automatically drains water when rain overflows the pool, dumping it to waste.

Pool or swim-spa
 

I found a swim spa is much easier to care for than a full pool, but if it’s enclosed so leaves aren’t blowing in, that will help. I wish I’d been able to have a room built around my pools to block winds and keep rain from falling on me. Not having protection from the elements limits how often I can swim, and I’d do it every day if not for wind, rain, cold, etc.

Good choice 👍
 

Hi,
We went with Fiesta Pools and they did a fantastic job, they are a hard working family firm and very reasonably priced.

They built us a spa and a pool with an island in it and a lazy river around it that you can either float around (with a beer 😂), or swim against it for exercise!

Thanks for the information.

If you decide on a standalone hot tub, look at Tuff Spas. They have a patented cover that is guaranteed for life. This is my 3rd hot tub, and I absolutely love the cover. 3 years old now, and the cover is still perfect.

https://www.tuffspas.com/tt-250/

Fiesta built our pool 2 years ago. We just gave them a deposit to build another at our new house so we were happy. We did make a few changes on the new one. Going with smaller sun shelf, different step design, adding auto fill, auto overflow, if possible, have a deck area at least 12 ft deep to have plenty of space for loungers & umbrellas, to control no serums, we have special no seeum screen (20 squares per inch instead of the standard 14). Definitely do salt water and oversized your pump and salt generator. Rectangle pool gives you the most swim area for the money. We love bubbler on Sun shelf and deck jets for lots of water sound and effect at minimal up charge. We prefer to not have a raised wall on back side of pool. Waste of money IMO and it
blocks views. Deck jets put off lots more sound than a sheer descent
waterfall and much less expensive.