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Old 04-14-2015, 05:44 PM
 
49 posts, read 158,894 times
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Okay, I have done searches on the forums and have seen some answers but bear with me as I go through why my head is swimming (pun intended)

We have a new house with a rock/dirt backyard, so it is a blank slate. We are definitely getting a pool (at least one decision is made!)

We have had 4 companies come out to give us quotes and they all have different opinions!

All the pools are about 28 X 16, 80ish perimeter, free form. No water features, just a pool with some decking. We want 'cool deck' (budgets out better for us than travertine). We have a small berm in the back of the yard.

Company CP: Plaster is better, do not bother with Pebbletec- it tears your feet up. In floor is a must have. berm is no issue, just cover with rocks. 31K

Company CP2: Pebblesheen is the way to go, with your size pool no in floor is needed, robot thingy will be sufficient to clean. Recommend 6 in wall for back closest to berm. 23K (about 4k diff is because they made a much smaller deck- other is in floor)

Company L: Pebblesheen, either way on in floor (our choice) and need a 6 in wall for berm on back of pool. 30k (with free in floor and lots of extra deck)

Company T: Pebblesheen, recommends in floor and berm not an issue. (26K)

3/4= Pebblesheen so maybe that is a go

2/4= in floor (what to do??)

2/4= worried about berm (!!)

I am so confused about the in floor and how serious an issue the berm is!! argh!!

any advice? Thanks in advance.
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Old 04-14-2015, 05:53 PM
 
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Personally I think the in-floor vs creepy crawler is more of an aesthetics thing, at least for us. At the old house, we had the creepy crawler and hated it...didn't like how it looked in the pool and didn't like how it got in the way when we were in the pool.
When we built the new pool at the new house, we went with in-floor and love it.

Same with plaster vs Pebblesheen...and same scenario. Old house had plaster, new house has Pebblesheen (actually Pebblesheen w/ Bead Crete). The plaster actually had a better water color, more of an intense aqua blue whereas the Pebblesheen is a bit more of a muted blue color. No issues on the feet with the Pebblesheen...and a big plus is that the Pebblesheen is lifetime warranty (I think?) whereas plaster has to usually be redone after 10 years or so? Maybe soon.
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Old 04-14-2015, 06:04 PM
 
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We opted for plaster for a few reasons. 1 - I like to know if the floor of the pool is clean. Harder to tell with pebbletec. I can glance out at the pool and know if our vacuum is having any issues (we went through a maintenance thing with it last year). 2 - I just think it looks better. Totally for aesthetics.

For a cleaning system - we opted for the regular pool vac. When we have people over, we take it out. Just us, it doesn't bother me to move around it. I don't like the idea of moving parts in a place we can't easily get to them so that was why we opted for the regular vacuum. Honestly, I think that's just a preference though.

We also don't plan on being in this house for much longer than the next 3 or 4 years - so for us, it wasn't a factor about a lifetime warranty or not.

What's a berm?? LOL
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Old 04-14-2015, 06:14 PM
 
Location: Sonoran Desert
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I would go with pebbletec. It it rough on your feet, though and it is not as brilliant blue. Solution: wear swim shoes or if you have a party, buy a couple packs of socks! The reason you want pebbletec is that if you don't get it your plaster is going to get stained from precipitation of calcium from the very hard water here. It shows up as large blotchiness. It's not that noticeable in sunlight, but on cloudy days it really stands out. Pebbletec can be in awful condition with respect to calcification and staining, and you can't tell at all. With pebbles you are not going to have to do acid washes probably at all whereas the blotchy plaster may make you want to them with the plain stuff.

I had infloor cleaning on one pool I had. It seemed there was always one popup that was not turning completely leaving a dirty area and a trip to the store for the free replacement (still takes your time). I have a separate suction line for a cleaner on the present pool and that works more reliably, but the cleaner and hose are in the pool when you want to use it.
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Old 04-14-2015, 06:19 PM
 
Location: Amongst the AZ Cactus
7,068 posts, read 6,432,262 times
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We also had Pebblesheen on a pool we built some years ago. It's smooth on the feet/was in no way uncomfortable and provided a nice bit of slip resistance. We were glad we went with it.

As for the in-floor cleaning system, it was well worth the money to us. The pool was always spotless and if you decide to swim with the hose/cleaner unit, it can be a bit of a pain. One can hit their toe I suppose on the in-floor cleaning system popups that will popup if it's running while your swimming but it was far less invasive in our view than the hose/cleaner option. Plus we ran our filter at night when we weren't swimming so that was never an issue. As a kid growing up, we had a pool that I vacuumed/cleaned with a hand vacuum. After doing that for many years, no thanks....I'll take the popup cleaners over that any day as if it's installed right, you will have a pristine clean floor everyday as it works when the pool filter runs. And you won't have to store a vacuum and hose and set it up every time you need to clean. And realize it's very hard/expensive(impossible?) to install a popup system if you don't have it installed from day one. They would have to run all the PVC underneath your pool and such so unless you want to bust your concrete shell up to install it later(if they can even do this), make sure you get what you want from the beginning.

Good luck!
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Old 04-14-2015, 06:19 PM
 
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Go with PebbleSheen, not PebbleTec.

Swim shoes? C'mon Pondoerosa.
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Old 04-14-2015, 06:33 PM
 
49 posts, read 158,894 times
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Thanks so far!

A Berm is raised dirt that lines our back fence, sort of like this

http://fcdn.mtbr.com/attachments/ari...7-800x600-.jpg

So at our back fence there is about a foot high of dirt that keeps the fence in place and level with the neighbors.
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Old 04-14-2015, 07:13 PM
 
63 posts, read 140,884 times
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We went with pebblesheen and the in floor system and have never had a problem other then replacing a couple of pop ups in six years not a big deal as we have a life time warranty on the in floor system happy with our choices it can be confusing. This was our first pool, go with the cool deck tile get very hot in the summer. Good luck
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Old 04-14-2015, 07:56 PM
 
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I'm amazed at what you can build a pool for down south. My company has a pool division and the most basic starts at $60,000

Are all four companies offering the same build quality? Rebar size? Shotcrete thickness? Similar equipment sets (pump, heater, filter, salt)? What about a sun deck?
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Old 04-14-2015, 07:56 PM
 
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Cool deck is pretty ugly though. We have travertine right around the pool edge and then pavers...its gets hot as HELL but we wear flip flops and it's all good.
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