We moved into the house last month and are building our first pool. We have three small children and if anyone has input on the mesh fences I would love to hear it.

Please feel free to comment on any aspects of the pool, I welcome any ideas. The specs are:

Freeform
Perimeter 130
Max width 25
Max length 49
Area 863 sq ft
Depth 3 1/2 to 7
Travertine coping
River Rok finish
2 Intellibrites in pool, 1 in spa
Whisperflow 2 HP
DE filter 60 sq ft
Caretaker in floor cleaning system
400,000 BTU heater
Freeform spa with spillway with 8 jets, 1 1/2 HP air blower
Stacked stone raised beam on spa with 3 scuppers
15 ton rock waterfall with jump rocks and 3 lights
Easytouch 8 with SWG
5 bubblers in sun shelf
swim out shelf in deep end

They are suppposed to dig today, but no one here yet :(

Here is the builder's drawing:

[IMG]http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/zz251/lemonspinner/King_Mary_E llen7_001.jpg[/IMG]

The slide will not be there.

Here is where it is going:
[IMG]http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/zz251/lemonspinner/DSC_0028.jp g[/IMG]

They are finishing the dig today, plumbing and steel tomorrow and gunite on Sauturday!

They're going to put a third light in the pool as well.

I'll keep posting photos.

Funny, I was staring out the window wishing I could drive the bobcat too.

Lovely home by the way! Where exactly in Richmond is that? (I live in New Territory)

I have discussed it with my builder and he is open to changing it to the Intelliflo. Which version would be better in my situation?

Two things to mention:
1. They want a small fortune (relatively speaking) for a swinging/self-closing gate (locally fence is between $10-11 per foot, gate is ~$400 for 3' width). We opted not to get one as my wife & I are kind of paranoid about clever little ones. We raised 4 of our own, and had 13 foster children over the years. Now grandkids are coming. Our concern with the gate is that it appears if kids work as a team they could get through - which means they will get through eventually. We also alarmed our patio door with a little battery powered thing from Lowes that can be turned on/off (my wife is very paranoid about downing instances).

2. Make sure they understand where you want the fence placed: any specific code requirements the community requires (ex: my town requires a 36" setback from the water while the county requires only 20"); Any specific places you want entry areas placed (they make double holes so a section can be rolled back and pole temporarily placed); any angles you want the fence line to make for aesthetics (requires more poles), etc.

Congrats on the new pool, it going to be AWESOME.
I love a large pool with a large waterfall!!!

See ya,
Kelly

So now my question is, if I use the intelliflow VS how many pumps do I need and should they all be the intelliflow VS or should some remain the whisperflo?

Regarding pumps, I'd keep the 2HP for the waterfall, bump the 1HP for the bubblers down to a .75 HP pump and recommend a 2 speed or variable speed for the main circulation pump. Both will do the job and drastically lower your energy bill at the lower speeds.

You may want to even price two 2 speed pumps for your pool...one for the waterfall and one for the circulation pump. You could use two variable speed pumps also depending on your budget.

We have a similar setup...two 2 speed pumps. The waterfall 2 speed allows a roaring waterfall or a trickling waterfall depending on desired mood. The 2 speed operates our infloor at low speed most of the time and runs daily at high speed for about 2 hours to clean the pool floor.

We also have 3 bubblers, 3 deck jets and 2 aerators all on a .75 HP pump and this is plenty of power for these water features. Also, we have a 3HP pump for our slide which requires 160 gpm for sliding action!

Hope this helps.

Travis Turner, the builder is Gulf Coast Pool Company.

Trhought, I'll look into getting a 2 speed for the waterfall.

They dug the trenches and should be putting the long plumbing in any day now.

We did look into Hydrazzo and Durazzo both of which are polished marble. Hydrazzo seemed to have more colors to choose from in the pallet we were looking for and may have been a better choice for us in the end. Oh well we are pretty tired of making choices at this point and Fina it is!

First benefit is of course power savings - the intelliflos are more effient than the standard motors even at the same flow conditions (there are videos on YouTube showing this - do a quick search) But what I like best is that I can turn it down to 2 turns / day and run 24 hours straight for less energy than I was using before for 5 hours. This gives me 24 hours of skimmer operation which really helps prevent leaves and other debris from water logging and sinking to the bottom, and also keeps the water from stagnating which promotes algae growth. Also when the pump's running at low speed it's almost silent - I have to walk over there to make sure it's on! (Also I'm no fan of the standard open drip-proof style motors - stupid for outdoor use if you ask me. Especially after my old pump motor siezed up this winter. The intelliflow uses TEFC [Totally Enclosed Fan Cooled] motors which are far superior)

My pool looks to be about the same size as yours (maybe a touch smaller) and I have a single pump for hot tub, pool circ, and waterfall, but I would say if you have seperate pumps that are on/off like for waterfall, a single speed pump should do fine. Not sure why you'd need 2 HP for a waterfall pump since there's no head drop on the line, but I doubt it costs much more than a smaller one so it's a minor point. But I've had no problem with 1 pump, and it should be noted the Intelliflow is 3.5 HP I believe when fully cranked up, trust me that thing can really kick out some impressive flow.

The trenches are dug, once the rain stops they need to drain the trenches and long plumb. Tile and coping and rock waterfall will be next (if I can decide on a tile)!

We are going to do the travertine coping around the spa as well.

Here is a picture of the completed waterfall:

Here is the spa:

We are using Gulf Coast Pools also and plan to look at coping/stone today. Your travertine turned out so nice! I'm leaning toward a darker travertine unless it looks too gray. Is yours tumbled? Any new spa pics?

Thanks, yes, we used the lighter travertine but now I wish we had gone with the darker noce. We did decide to use the noce for the decking however, so there will be a slight contrast between the coping and decking. They are still doing the prep work for the decking but I will post a spa pic when I get a chance.

Filling with water!

Thanks! We went with Durazzo Sandy Beach on the shallow and deep end sun shelfs and spa (we wanted something smooth because the kids will be sitting on them) and we did River Rok Harbor Gray on the rest.

The pool is filling with water now and they are laying the travertine pavers, I'll post more pics soon.

We filled out pool 3 years ago to the day and remember vividly the excitement of being able to swim finally....the kids could not contain themselves and had smiles permanently on their faces for days!

The memories in your backyard are just beginning!

Enjoy!

However, we do have our first pool visitor. Can anyone identify what kind of snake this is? It looked venomous to me.

Thanks!

A different view of the plaster color:

Nighttime white light:

Nighttime magenta light:

Nighttime green light:

First jump in!

I'll get pics of the fire pit once they finish it today and also the waterfall once they seal the leaks.

Here is the fire pit:

They are putting the rock around the back of the waterfall today and getting the in floor cleaning system operational. We have to decide what to put around the fire pit where the concrete is, they have suggested landscaping, travetine facade or spray deck to match the travertine color.

: )