Our Big Wet Dream (pool construction from start to finish) (sales, house)

[Messing About]

Day 1:

After completing our wall remodel project (see http://www.city-data.com/forum/punta...t-sliders.html) it's day 1 of our new pool construction.

After reading about other CD members experiences it became clear to us there are a good number of reputable and reliable pool companies in Southwest Florida. We got same day responses from 2 of the bidders we called. Some didn't call back for a few days and one couldn't come out for 8 days. It came down to the first 2 who came out: Custom Pools by Precision and Casa Pools. Both were fair priced and provided good feedback during the design/bid process. In the end, we went with Custom Pools by Precision (ironically, owned by Rich Casa, whose father and uncle founded/owned Casa Pools until selling the business). Our decision came down to the artistic design of Dennis Gaul, a lifelong pool designer and sales rep, whose career spanned both companies. Dennis showed us the beauty of adding raised elevations in our hard deck, for very little extra money and the innovative idea of mitering the corners of the pool cage to continue to showcase the beauty of our landscape.

So here's a photo of our backyard before, followed by a photo of the ground breaking day 1.

[Messing About]

And so it begins:

While many of the larger pool contractors can deliver a start to end pool in 35-45 days, Precision is a smaller company with fewer employees and less equipment on stand-by. This enables them to keep costs down and deliver a more competitive price but the downside is it can take twice as long to do the work. Dennis says he likes to under promise and over deliver. They've given us a window of 10-12 weeks, depending on a possible early arrival of rainy season. As long as it's done according to , I'm okay with that. Another upside of a smaller company is having the owner himself, Rich Casa, here this morning to personally oversee the work.

[OptimusPrime69]

oh wow.

Can't wait to see the final result. Keep us updated, I wanna see what this looks like when it's all said and done!

[Messing About]

Here's the design plan. It's a 12x26' pool, 5' deep, with a 27x50' cage, decked with pavers. Cage will have 3 doors, leading to both side yards and down to the canal/dock/boat lift.

[Messing About]

Pool layout and grading complete. The orange outline shows the "peanut" shape of the pool. Where the sand meets the grass will be the approximate location of the pool cage.

[lobobuzz]

Very cool! Will be doing this in the near future ourselves.

[nphomeowner]

Can't wait to watch your construction. We are so glad we put in our pool as I know you will be.

[daFrogMan]

Awesome MA! Glad to see you've decided to stay a while in PC. Those hot summer days after cutting the grass will feel a whole lot different now!!!!
Keep the info coming.

[Messing About]

And the digging is underway.
Again the company owner is right here supervising and running the skid steer.
The excavator is much larger than the mini x I expected.

[JERSEY MAN]

Wow, they sure do move fast in 2 days. Congrats and good luck MA with the pool. It looks like the back of the house is shady in the am. I'm guessing your back yard has southern exposure or southwest?