Yes: Pools are worth it....

[Poolflood 845]

10 hours ago, LebongJames said:

Our pool builder said we need the Polaris that actually has the built in vacuum and not just the old school one.

 

https://www.polarispool.com/en/products/pool-cleaners/robotic-pool-cleaners/polaris-epic-8520

Research.   If it's less than a couple years old.. avoid like the plague. 

[Elvis 3371]

What does that mean?  My Pentair Hummer Platinum still works, but I spend $200+ in tires and bags.  Hoes every five years too.  

 

Are you saying the electric is the way to go?  Please explain.

[LebongJames 1811]

15 hours ago, Poolflood said:

Research.   If it's less than a couple years old.. avoid like the plague. 

Can you explain more?

[Poolflood 845]

6 hours ago, Elvis said:

What does that mean?  My Pentair Hummer Platinum still works, but I spend $200+ in tires and bags.  Hoes every five years too.  

 

Are you saying the electric is the way to go?  Please explain.

 

6 hours ago, LebongJames said:

Can you explain more?

New cleaners are notorious for having issues.  Not an expert on the polaris line - hence the "research".  I am partial to the robotics but that's just me.  

If i remember correctly the Hummer was built off the foundation of the polaris pressure line of cleaners by a company called letro that was bought out by pentair.  

Pressure cleaners generally have a ton of wear parts that aren't cheap and a cash cow for the manufacturers. 

Flip side are the robots, but once those shit the bed you're replacing, not fixing.

[LebongJames 1811]

Pool is finished and can’t be happier with the transformation from an old out dated pool to this. Still waiting for the pebble stone to be covered.

[LebongJames 1811]

I meant to add, I know everyone has different experiences and expectations but Texas Pools and Patio did a great job. Their sales rep and our super were both really good to work with and did everything they said they would do and more.

[Catpfish 618]

On 4/26/2022 at 5:56 PM, Poolflood said:

 

New cleaners are notorious for having issues.  Not an expert on the polaris line - hence the "research".  I am partial to the robotics but that's just me.  

If i remember correctly the Hummer was built off the foundation of the polaris pressure line of cleaners by a company called letro that was bought out by pentair.  

Pressure cleaners generally have a ton of wear parts that aren't cheap and a cash cow for the manufacturers. 

Flip side are the robots, but once those shit the bed you're replacing, not fixing.

I have the Polaris Quattro Sport (new design about 2.5 years ago, I think).  Poor design/engineering in that grit destroyed the gears and the drive shaft, kind of defeats the purpose of a pool floor cleaner.  Fixed twice under warranty and once since the expiration of the warranty.  Supposedly now they have re-engineered the replacement parts to last longer...we'll see

[BillyBadAss 189]

Cross-posting from lawn thread - 

My yard has been destroyed with the pool install. Got a first quote to repair/re-sod. 

Coming in a tad north of $10K for what would include re-grading/leveling, 6 yards of lawn soil, and 6 pallets of st augustine - turnkey. 

In SW Austin. I've got a bit of sticker shock, but they have capacity to start soon and have great reviews.  Feeling like I'm running out of time and yard will be an ugly mud pit if I can't get something to start growing very soon. 

Anybody with recent a pools build have to re-sod ? How did your quotes look? 

 

 

[BillyBadAss 189]

re: pool cleaners/robots -  The TFP people all recommend going through this place to buy a robot: https://marinapoolspaandpatio.com/product-category/robotic-pool-cleaners-maytronics-residential/

There are videos and comparison sheets on their website which recommend the ones to buy. They are several models which are basically the same (made by Maytronics, sold as Dolphin and other brands). You have to call them and it's hard to get through, but they can't advertise their below MSRP prices so have to purchase by phone. The model I got (Dolphin explorer e30) was $800 which is $200 below MSRP and $100 cheaper than any advertise price on the internet - arrived in 4-5 days. 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by BillyBadAss

[MonkeyDoughnut 10283]

17 minutes ago, BillyBadAss said:

Cross-posting from lawn thread - 

My yard has been destroyed with the pool install. Got a first quote to repair/re-sod. 

Coming in a tad north of $10K for what would include re-grading/leveling, 6 yards of lawn soil, and 6 pallets of st augustine - turnkey. 

In SW Austin. I've got a bit of sticker shock, but they have capacity to start soon and have great reviews.  Feeling like I'm running out of time and yard will be an ugly mud pit if I can't get something to start growing very soon. 

Anybody with recent a pools build have to re-sod ? How did your quotes look? 

 

 

Damn that seems really high, but I had mine done couple summers ago so inflation?  Pallets of sod are like $200 though.

[fattyflattie 4639]

10 hours ago, BillyBadAss said:

Cross-posting from lawn thread - 

My yard has been destroyed with the pool install. Got a first quote to repair/re-sod. 

Coming in a tad north of $10K for what would include re-grading/leveling, 6 yards of lawn soil, and 6 pallets of st augustine - turnkey. 

In SW Austin. I've got a bit of sticker shock, but they have capacity to start soon and have great reviews.  Feeling like I'm running out of time and yard will be an ugly mud pit if I can't get something to start growing very soon. 

Anybody with recent a pools build have to re-sod ? How did your quotes look? 

 

 

I paid $1200 for a bit more than half of that. Pallet of grass is $139 here.  Dirt is a cheap af.   It took about 6-8 Hispanic gentlemen all of 2 hours to knock it out.  
 

Eta: redoing entire back yard sprinklers and adding a zone, all sod work, all stone along one side of house and along pool on other, and gutters, came out to around $3750. 

Edited May 1, 2022 by fattyflattie

[BTW 370]

On 4/30/2022 at 11:56 AM, BillyBadAss said:

Cross-posting from lawn thread - 

My yard has been destroyed with the pool install. Got a first quote to repair/re-sod. 

Coming in a tad north of $10K for what would include re-grading/leveling, 6 yards of lawn soil, and 6 pallets of st augustine - turnkey. 

In SW Austin. I've got a bit of sticker shock, but they have capacity to start soon and have great reviews.  Feeling like I'm running out of time and yard will be an ugly mud pit if I can't get something to start growing very soon. 

Anybody with recent a pools build have to re-sod ? How did your quotes look? 

 

 

I live in west Texas, but my quote was about $12k to prep, level and re-sod 2,900 square feet with Tahoma 31 bermuda.  There's an additional $21k for flower beds, plants and irrigation, so ... it could be worse

[Quagmire 2147]

Yeah that’s insane , paid 900 for guys to put in 3 pallets of sod when mine was done

[MonkeyDoughnut 10283]

I looked up mine from summer of 2020 as these numbers seemed high but I couldn't remember. We had ~4 pallets, including scraping existing lawn off roughly 2.5 pallets worth and leveling and sodding and was $1,400, which works out to around $350/pallet.   Paid additional $1,800 for moving and redoing sprinkler work (7 zones, lawn and flowers).   I do live in Houston though and that probably helps a bunch.

[TexasEd 8067]

We basically started from scratch on irrigation since the front never had it and the back was destroyed.  New sod along the curb strips too.  We piece parted things out fence, stone planters, and then irrigation and sod was one job along with moving some large rocks to make a staircase down the side of the pool.

We did have to schedule a couple months out.

[Your Mom 4806]

Prior to construction starting, I closed the sprinkler main valve and let them tear shit up in the back yard.  I don't really water the lawn much anyway.  Maybe a handful of times a year and never in the backyard.  I figured my front zones would still work fine but it turns out the front zones are supplied through pipes that ran through my back yard.  Turned on the front zones the other day and got a mudpit in the backyard instead.  I'm just shutting it off indefinitely and worrying about it later.. or maybe never.  And I'm putting gravel in the area they tore up the grass during construction.  

[Dutchrudder 11141]

Yeah, we were quoted $2800 for sprinklers to replace 8 zones and add several heads where we will be landscaping with some plants and flowerbeds.  

Sod is about 200-250 a pallet at a supplier, but then you gotta figure in the cost of delivery and install.  If you are doing any sort of grading in the yard or removal of other stuff, then that adds to it.  I got a quote of 5 pallets for $1800, but I'm also using that guy for doing landscaping around the pool area, so we are spending a lot more on other stuff with him.  

We just filled our pool this weekend, going through the curing process for the plaster. The pool guy said we should be able to swim this weekend if we want to!  

[fattyflattie 4639]

I’ll say this, the one guy everyone recommended to me from around the neighborhood (except my *immediate neighbor) came in at about 400% over what we paid. Nextdoor and chatty wives are real, folks. 
 

Immediate neighbor spent about 15k with them, they destroyed some of his pool drain pipes but didn’t say shit, and backyard didn’t drain in first turdfloater, fucked a bunch of stuff up. Still claim they didn’t do it, was rather evident they did while installing flowerbed. 
 

I have literally not a single issue how ours came out, so not sure what spending 4x the cost would have done.   Get a few bids y’all. 

[Storm the Field 5295]

No doubt about it, it's full-on pool season. Jumped in both Saturday and Sunday. Water temp went up from 82 on Saturday to 86 yesterday. Was 79 last Saturday. 

2nd Week of May and the water's already at "refreshing for now, but trending towards warm" 

[fattyflattie 4639]

On 5/9/2022 at 1:52 PM, Storm the Field said:

No doubt about it, it's full-on pool season. Jumped in both Saturday and Sunday. Water temp went up from 82 on Saturday to 86 yesterday. Was 79 last Saturday. 

2nd Week of May and the water's already at "refreshing for now, but trending towards warm" 

Yep. We’ve been every weekend for the last few weeks. Went from chilly and this weekend was warm by 1500.  

[GottaB 594]

I was hoping to be swimming by the time we hit 100 degrees. I wasn’t expecting 100 to hit in early May so I won’t hold that against the builder.

Our Coping is almost done and the rebar is in place for the patio extension. It seems like we are getting very close.

[LebongJames 1811]

We “swam” floated and drank on Mother’s Day and I did 1000 meters of laps in our tiny pool today, a lot of turns but it felt great with this satanic vortex we are having in early May. Yes pools are beyond worth it.

[LebongJames 1811]

To follow up on our Polaris robot, we bought the Polaris P965IQ. We got it for 25% off at Leslie’s, probably have that all the time, but a little over a $1200 and it works incredible. Our booster pump was busted so that helped make the decision. We also got a 3 year warranty so I’m not really worried. Maybe that’s my pool remodel and landscape project that have warped my brain with cost.

[Dutchrudder 11141]

We got to swim for the first time on Mother's Day, and a few more times since then. We love it so much, the water is phenomenal with it being 95 degrees outside.  I need to find a fiberglass umbrella for the sundeck area, and move that one to the one in the concrete pad. The shade is so important when you have small kids, and having the one in the water is excellent. I put the kids water table in there, filled it with toys and they had a blast under the umbrella for a good portion of the swim time.  

I need to get more floating toys for the kids, noodles, tubes, etc. They fight over them otherwise lol.  

Still a few more weeks to finish the kitchen, tv wall and fire pit. Hopefully our furniture orders will arrive soon too. 

[Brew 3049]

The never ending project rolls on. Travertine came in the wrong color back in February, so we are still waiting on the replacement batch with no expected delivery timeframe yet. Brick masons dropped a brick on the gas regulator a while back, so we’re still waiting on a replacement for it so we can use the grill and pool heater. Did go ahead and get get some sod put down and will get the fence in this week because I’m tired of finding stuff in the pool (someone’s dog yesterday.) Furniture came in last week after about 20 weeks, so it’s all stacked up in the garage. Maybe by the end of summer and almost two years after digging the hole it will all be done. For reference the building is right at 38x18.

[fattyflattie 4639]

That’s such a nice setup @Brew

[TexEx15 17543]

Another plus is the fact the kids sleep great after an afternoon in the pool.

[kmac30 416]

Another plus is the fact the kids sleep great after an afternoon in the pool.

Can you post more pics of your pool? I think we are about to do something similar.

[TexEx15 17543]

15 minutes ago, kmac30 said:

Can you post more pics of your pool? I think we are about to do something similar.

Holler if you have any questions.

[kmac30 416]

How big is it? Very similar.

[conVINCEd 21469]

4 minutes ago, kmac30 said:

How big is it? Very similar.

If you want to talk about your dicks please do it via DM.  Thanks.

[TexEx15 17543]

42 minutes ago, kmac30 said:

How big is it? Very similar.

36x17. 4 to 6 feet deep. Tanning ledge cutout  and spa are 7X7

[BillyBadAss 189]

On 4/30/2022 at 11:56 AM, BillyBadAss said:

Cross-posting from lawn thread - 

My yard has been destroyed with the pool install. Got a first quote to repair/re-sod. 

Coming in a tad north of $10K for what would include re-grading/leveling, 6 yards of lawn soil, and 6 pallets of st augustine - turnkey. 

In SW Austin. I've got a bit of sticker shock, but they have capacity to start soon and have great reviews.  Feeling like I'm running out of time and yard will be an ugly mud pit if I can't get something to start growing very soon. 

Anybody with recent a pools build have to re-sod ? How did your quotes look? 

 

 

Update: Got another quote from an independent guy that has done some work for other folks around the neighborhood. He quoted $1100 per pallet, to include grading/leveling, dirt, sod, delivery, etc. So $6,600 in my case. Still ain't exactly cheap, but much better. 

[Quagmire 2147]

Crazy how 2 different people can be such a difference in price for the same shit . I’d get another quote as well just to see . Seems like it should be 2k for sod and soil cost. Seems like a lot to pay for labor , would imagine it’s a days work .


I had my pool company leave a load of dirt when they built it for grading , they didn’t charge extra to grade it.

[MonkeyDoughnut 10283]

1 hour ago, BillyBadAss said:

Update: Got another quote from an independent guy that has done some work for other folks around the neighborhood. He quoted $1100 per pallet, to include grading/leveling, dirt, sod, delivery, etc. So $6,600 in my case. Still ain't exactly cheap, but much better. 

Any details on the amount of dirt they are including? And how bad is the grading/leveling needed - ie they will be bringing in heavy equipment or just top dressing.

The 6,600 isn't bad if they are doing a true grading/leveling using elevation stakes , strings, precise elevation drops, soil, rollers etc.  That definitely takes time.  For that price I would want to know exactly how they are going to level the yard. If it's just a we'll eyeball it, get it flat, drop down sod I would think 6,600 would still be too high.

[TexasEd 8067]

2 hours ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Any details on the amount of dirt they are including? And how bad is the grading/leveling needed - ie they will be bringing in heavy equipment or just top dressing.

The 6,600 isn't bad if they are doing a true grading/leveling using elevation stakes , strings, precise elevation drops, soil, rollers etc.  That definitely takes time.  For that price I would want to know exactly how they are going to level the yard. If it's just a we'll eyeball it, get it flat, drop down sod I would think 6,600 would still be too high.

The answer is they will eyeball it.  There will be settling after the grass is in and then you come back and top dress it next year.

[Dbeasy 15068]

Does no one want to share what they paid because they fear it will make them look like a sucker who overpaid? 

[Poolflood 845]

27 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

Does no one want to share what they paid because they fear it will make them look like a sucker who overpaid? 

Each and every market has its own "par" for any project.  Florida and Arizona pools cost a fraction of Texas pools.  Myriad of reasons.

[Your Mom 4806]

My landscape guy is charging $200 per palllet for labor to lay sod.  That’s for basic leveling by hand and eyeball. I forgot the price for the actual pallet but that’s basic labor. 

[Anastasis 23475]

56 minutes ago, Your Mom said:

My landscape guy is charging $200 per palllet for labor to lay sod.  That’s for basic leveling by hand and eyeball. I forgot the price for the actual pallet but that’s basic labor. 

I just paid $1750 for labor installing 4 pallets. Materials were $1650 including 3 yards of landscape mix.  They did some haul out of stuff that I had them take out baked into that.  

[BillyBadAss 189]

2 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

Does no one want to share what they paid because they fear it will make them look like a sucker who overpaid? 

I'll be that sucker. I ended up hiring this guy to install the sod, and a bunch of other work (steel edging, making beds, river rocks, pavers, mulch, etc). It seems a tad high to me, but try even getting someone out right now for an estimate - for anything. It's a PITA - and I'm running out of time before the real heat gets here to get some grass  established. 

This guy was easy to work with and flexible, gave me a full itemized list for everything we talked about, was able to get started quickly, and my neighbors have been happy with his work, so.. He didn't even ask for any money up front which surprised me - perhaps he will when he picks up material. 

Two guys have been going at it for 2 full 9 hour days now with pickaxes, shovels, and other equipment just doing the prep, digging down in the areas that will have rocks/mulch, removing rocks, etc. They haven't even delivered any of the rock, sod, pavers yet. It's definitely a job. 

[Brew 3049]

12 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

Does no one want to share what they paid because they fear it will make them look like a sucker who overpaid? 

Around here if you just want them to take a pallet of square sod pieces and lay it, you’re looking at $400-$600 per pallet in total. That is up quite a bit from a couple of years ago. That doesn’t include any dirt and minimal leveling, no equipment usage at all. We are using all rolled sod to have a smoother more consistent look and to cover large areas. It’s not cheap.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Brew

[GottaB 594]

And the water goes in. Sundek scheduled for Monday.

[TexasEd 8067]

12 hours ago, GottaB said:

And the water goes in. Sundek scheduled for Monday.

Nice!

It may be the angle and 2D nature of the picture but the grade by the fence where the pallets are looks like it is higher than the coping.  You may need to get that taken down a few inches to keep mud and leaves from flowing into the pool during a thunderstorm.

Edited May 20, 2022 by TexasEd

[fattyflattie 4639]

On 5/18/2022 at 7:11 PM, Dbeasy said:

Does no one want to share what they paid because they fear it will make them look like a sucker who overpaid? 

I did upthread. It was a fraction of what he paid. Stating that again is kind of a dick move?

[Dbeasy 15068]

1 hour ago, fattyflattie said:

I did upthread. It was a fraction of what he paid. Stating that again is kind of a dick move?

I was talking about everyone’s pool costs, not sod. This thread would be so much more powerful to price compare. The posting of the pool specs above was great. 

[Brew 3049]

23 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

I was talking about everyone’s pool costs, not sod. This thread would be so much more powerful to price compare. The posting of the pool specs above was great. 

Markets are different, but just the pool including 1800 sq ft of travertine and gas heat was about $125k. That was also locked in preCovid supply problems. The travertine coming in now is significantly more expensive than it was then.

Builder called me yesterday and told me the fittings came in wrong for the gas for the heater and supply line for the grille. Vendor told him it would be 18 months to get what we need. Working on a different connection layout now with the plumbers. We had to run 2 inch supply lines for the heater so those connections and the connections that regulate the 2 inch flow down to what we need at the other connections are unavailable. Shit’s stupid.

[fattyflattie 4639]

57 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

I was talking about everyone’s pool costs, not sod. This thread would be so much more powerful to price compare. The posting of the pool specs above was great. 

Ah. I did that too.  And I agree, it helped when I was looking. 

[TexasEd 8067]

1 hour ago, Dbeasy said:

I was talking about everyone’s pool costs, not sod. This thread would be so much more powerful to price compare. The posting of the pool specs above was great. 

I haven't posted pool costs because ours may not make sense to compare.  1) we were on the side of a hill so the back end is 5+ feet above grade 2) we have a larger than most patio and that added about 20% to the price 3) We built at the height of the market, though I think we got a pretty competitive price 4) We had upgraded materials including travertine and tile and included salt water chlorine generation 5) our fence and landscaping were done out of separate budgets  6) I'm trying to forget how much we spent and just swim in it almost every day.

TLDR: It is hard to compare apples to apples and I don't want to put a bill of materials or cost factors together.  I think it works better if new people say "here is my design, materials and bid.  Is this reasonable?"

 

[Dahobbs 17624]

2 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

I was talking about everyone’s pool costs, not sod. This thread would be so much more powerful to price compare. The posting of the pool specs above was great. 

My under construction 11' x 26' pool (3'-5' deep) in Houston costs around 80k. Roughly 20k of that is an automated safety cover because we have kids.  We have a pre-existing covered patio and outdoor kitchen that I've posted pictures of before. Also adding about 320 sq ft of decking (textured concrete). Getting SWG, robot, & vairable speed heat pump (and cooling).