You will not get any bashing from me. I had a pool built 2 months ago and my wife and i are very dissappointed with our pool builder. There is nothing majorly wrong but just several little things. The pool was finished 2 months ago and we are still trying to settle on one thing; all the other little things have not been addressed and i am torn between letting them go or making a big deal about them and have him resolve or compensate us.

I still owe the builder 7k. My wife is super pissed. I have been trying to be civil about it. Again, they are small things to me but big things to my wife.

Anyway, i'm not sure if your pool builder can fix; if he says he can then i guess let him and just don't pay until the job is done right. I'm sure someone else on the site will respond and know what you can do. Goodluck!

I read your post and felt terrible. I just signed a contract with a PB and hoping I am not feeling the same way as you. It is so hard to pick a reliable PB or contractor for that matter. It seems everytime I choose a contractor they either don't do what they say, don't finish or do a lousy job and I really feel like I do my homework before I chose.
Anyway, you can only chose a PB based on the information you have at the time. In the end you don't know what kind of work they are going to do for you until they get started. One thing I learned (and I have to make myself do it) is speak up the second something isn't the way it is supposed to be. You are PAYING them to do work for you. Don't let them act as if they are doing you a favor by building you a pool. Have them fix it if they can. Don't pay them until it is right and in the end if the pool is beautiful and you love swimming in it you will have to get over your decision and just enjoy yourselves and your new pool. It sucks to feel like you made the wrong choice. Like my husband said last night "be grateful you have the luxury of choosing a pool builder and having a pool built." Go easy on yourselves. Fix what can be fixed and move on. It's all you really can do.

Do you mean 12" and 9"? Is there a shelf at that depth? How deep is the deep end? What stage of construction are you at currently?

^ I think the 12ft is correct...the original poster is saying the shallow end would stay shallow for 12' (wall to break point) before the break point into the deep end....the break point now starts just 9' from the wall, regardless of specific depth.

It is possible for them to feather this in, but it is a very controversial topic amongst builders and in the concrete world on how exactly to do it. Bonder vs no bonder, steel vs no steel, dry vs wet, etc. Being that it is part of the shell, it should still be covered under the lifetime warranty (at least that's how it would be looked at in AZ under my warranty conditions.)

amycj,
Most people think the shallow end of the pool should be flat. It is not and should not be flat. The shallow end depth noted on contracts is a point in the shallow end that has a minimum depth, i.e 3', 3'6", 4', etc. Same applies at the deep end, it's not a flat area either.

All standard residential engineered plans that I have seen and used have sloped floors starting at the bottom of the radius at the shallow end wall. The amount of slope will vary depending on the depth of the pool. For safety, there are usually maximum slopes indicated. This keeps non-swimmers from walking off of a flat shallow end onto a very steep slope into the deep end. Gradual slopes warn non-swimmers that the water is getting deeper before it's too late.

Standards for depths: Maximum slope in the shallow end shall not exceed 1:7 and steepest allowable slope(transition to deep end) is 1:3. The maximum "flat" distance from the shallow end wall into the pool is 6'.

There are exceptions: commercial pools, wading pools, and other specialty or handicap pools are often built without slope. These are usually, shallow and depths are clearly marked and/or cordoned off with rope/floats.

Ask your PB to see a copy of the ANSI standards for pools.

amycj,

Is your deep end intended for diving?

If your deep end is intended for diving, your pool builder should be building your deep end according to the diving template in the ANSI standard for residential pools:

http://www.apsp.org/DocumentFiles/412.pdf

Refer to pages 2 and 3.

If your maximum depth is 7.5', then the minimum distance from the from the far end of the deep end to 5' deep is 16' (that's if you have a diving rock or platform (5.9) -- the diving envelope can start against the wall) (adding up the distances in table 2). If you have a diving board, it is 14.5 feet from the tip of the diving board (5.8.1).

After 5', then the slope cannot be more than 1/3 (5.5.3). So, to get to 4' deep, you have another 3' in length to go. That's a minimum of 19' from the edge of the deep end to where your pool can be 4' deep. After that, you can change to 1/7 (5.5.1)

That is assuming that you intend to use your pool for diving of course.

If you intend to use your pool for diving, I really wouldn't go outside of these rules. They've been put in place for diving safety.

If your deep end is not intended for diving, then, nevermind!