Went and picked out flagstone, went with Raj Multi slate for coping and picked out tile from mastertile, was wondering if anybody had pros or cons with the slate.

I live in Winnie also. I have been using Gardenweb for years. Very helpful. We are also thinking about building a pool. I was excited to see someone on here from Winnie asking a question about pools! It looks great! Is it salt water or chlorine?

We are going with chlorine, I have read a lot of pros and cons of both chlorine and salt, all PB that I have talked to would do either but none have pushed for salt. I think the cons of salt are things I don't want to deal with, like the flagstone damage and the corrosion on house, fence, pool equipment. I talked to some PB from Houston/Baytown and none of them ever gave me a bid, I know Backyard Amenities has done some pools around here and are reasonable but like you can read on this forum he may put in your neighbors pool but he will never even give you bid. We are doing home equity and is taking longer than expected for them to get paperwork together so it might be March 18 before they dig. I will post some pics of the before and during the process pics. If you want to come see process or pool after installed it would not be a problem.
Dale L.

We will be doing chlorine also. I know several people who did SW and have flagstone and their stone is flaking off into their pool now. Even with it being sealed. That is why i asked. Not worth it to me! I'll stick with chlorine. A lot of people in the area are using Tallman. Seem very happy. And thank you, I may take you up on the offer!
Colleen

Let's hear it for SETX! I'm using Tallman, too after talking with several pb. Ours design looks a lot like yours, hunter1333. We're on round two of design. The plan had to be revised when the slab was poured and we saw the actual contours of the yard. Good luck,

Tallman showed up around 800 yesterday to begin breaking ground, Bruce showed up and looked at layout and decided that we needed to move pool back away from house one foot, Not sure if another PB would have just went with it but Bruce thought it would be better further away from existing paving and I agreed, he made the guys remeasure and stake it out again. All pool dimensions were larger than what was designed, Bruce was adamant that he did not want to build a smaller pool that what I agreed to. They started digging yesterday at 9:30 and they were finished digging about 11;00, around 1:00 the rebar people showed up and Tallman started plumbing for hot tub and drains. Steel was compete around 4:30 and plumbing was done around same time. Tallman came out this morning to finish plumbing and pressure up lines to ensure no leaks in plumbing. Gunite was supposed to be this morning but just got word that they had to reschedule for tomorrow morning @ 600 am. So far so good, will post pics after gunite.

This post was edited by hunter1333 on Mon, Mar 24, 14 at 14:23

Pool staked out

Digging Pool

Pics

After Gunite

After Gunite

Gunite was scheduled for Saturday morning, Around 6:45 I had about 10 guys show up to house and start wrapping plastic around back of house and laying down plastic on driveway to keep from overspray, Tallman showed up around 7:15, I was a little nervous about Tallman not being there when gunite people showed up but the gunite people were top of the line, they worked together like a well oiled machine. They finished spraying gunite around 12:30 and some of the guys worked until 2:00 finishing out steps and sun deck. Plumbers are at house this morning setting equipment and running lines from pool to equipment pad. Everything is going really good and really quick. So far so good am extremely happy with Tallman and the sub-contractors that they use.

It looks great!! Really work fast. We are still in planning process. Please keep us posted!
Colleen.

Electricians and Plumbers have everything in place all they have left is to make final connections, Flagstone/tile guys came Wednesday and were delayed because of the rain until Saturday. They are supposed to be at house today to finish up and Concrete decking guys should be there tomorrow to frame up decking and they should pour concrete on Wednesday. So far we have only had three problems and at least two are just a personal preference of mine as listed, breaker box location, water line tie-in, and one piece of discolored flagstone. The first two were more of a personal preference of mine but Tallman did not hesitate about having it done per my specifications, They still have not be relocated but those tradesmen have not been back out to finish work either. The flagstone has gone in and looks good in my opinion, one piece of the coping is a reddish color when the rest of the flagstone is all a tan color, I call Tallman this morning and they were going to call flagstone guys and have them replace that one piece of flagstone. My yard is a complete wreck right now especially with the rain we have had, after decking is complete and all work is done Tallman is supposed to come back and clean and level yard where they have done work at. Overall we are very pleased with the tile and flagstone work, I think it looks very good, I am starting to see the it all come together.

tile

Tiered Waterfall

FYI, Bruce shut down flagstone work around hot tub because the flagstone that I picked out was really thick and the workers were unable to use big pieces around radius of tub. He got in touch with me to let me make decision if I wanted them to continue with the way they were doing it or if I wanted to go a different route around tub. I told him to continue with the flagstone work around tub with the small pieces partly because I thought it looked really good and partly because I did not want to have to go through picking something else out.

Very pretty Dale!! Keep posting!

They completed Flagstone work Last Monday, Decking crew showed up Tuesday and poured concrete deck. Was not 100 percent happy with flagstone work, there are some things that I had them change and some things that I think they could have done a better job, but the flagstone I picked out (was not a educated decision) was apparently hard to work with, so some things will probably just bother me and most people would not ever notice them. The decking crew was a very good crew, they came in and did a jam up job, I have done some Quality Control work in plants for the concrete foundations and the guys at my house did not cut corners, the rebar and pouring of concrete was by the book.

Plaster crew showed up before daybreak Saturday, same company as gunite, same result, trucks and workers all over the place, again well oiled machine, everyone has their own job and they are doing it as efficiently as possible. Plaster guys will have to return and acid wash pool, they were supposed to show up today but did not seem too happy about working on Sunday (I do not blame them) so they should return Monday as well as electricians and plumbers to do final work. We should be able to start filling up Pool next week and will have to wait a couple of weeks to heat hot tub. Tallman will have to come in and do final clean up and dirt work around pool to finish off grade. Tallman will come back in a couple of weeks and do the spray deck after concrete is through curing. I have a separate concrete guy coming in next week to pour my walkway to my shop and to do some misc foundations that I need done to clean up yard.

QUESTION? I noticed some shrinkage cracks in Pebble Sheen Plaster, Is this normal?