1. DEED RESTRICTIONS - Does your subdivision have special requirements for home improvements? Is there an Architectural Committee that has to approve plans? Will they approve a liner pool? Will they require or disallow certain types of fencing? Will they allow an eight foot tall slide to stick up over the fence?

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2. EASEMENTS - Electrical utilities, cities, subdivisions etc. sometimes have established legal easements or right-of-ways that have to be maintained.

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3. UTILITIES - Water, sewer, electrical, telephone, cable, gas, etc. are installed underground and sometimes overhead. We have to plan for rerouting. We will call to have your underground utilities located.

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4. ACCESS - Is there enough room to get serious construction equipment into your back yard? Will we need to cover your driveway with plywood to keep from breaking it up? Can a heavy dump truck drive across your sewer lines? There are many things to consider. Costs to rent a helicopter for construction  are cost prohibited.

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5. TREES - Will trees have to removed? Cutting of trees is not enough if they are in the pool site. The stumps will need to be dug up and the soil compacted to 95% compaction to eliminate the possibility of the pool settling and cracking. Some types of trees are great near the pool, others can create a maintenance nightmare.

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6. ELEVATIONS - Pools have to be built level so all of the water does not run out of it! Seriously, a pool needs to be built WITH the elevations and not against them. Pre-grading at excavation can take care of many problems.

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7. DRAINAGE - You don’t want rain water to run into your pool and you don’t want to flood your house or your neighbor’s house because drainage was not properly thought out. Usually, gutters will need to be installed on the house (at least on the pool side if they aren’t already).

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8. UNDERGROUND SURPRISES - The homeowner is responsible for underground surprises. If the excavator hits a buried trash pile that your builder buried in the yard, and we were not notified of its existence, the extra costs incurred to remove debris and re-compact the soil will be at your expense. You cannot build a very expensive pool on top of a pile of decomposing logs and lumber that will eventually settle and crack. A professional pool builder would never do that to you.

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9. GUNITE OR VINYL - Gunite is concrete. It is structurally very strong and will last longer than your home. Vinyl liner pools are less expensive, but can be very nice.

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10. POOL SHAPE - Shape can be lagoon-like or more formal like a rectangle, Grecian or Roman. The shape, in gunite, is unlimited. In a liner pool, the shapes are usually limited to pre-determined forms.

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11. POOL SIZE - A pool has to be 16’ wide and 34” long to safely accommodate a diving board. Patio pools can be 12’ X 24’ or smaller.  Average pool sizes range from 16’ X 32’ to 20’ X 40’. Larger pools are sometimes 30’ X 60’ or larger depending on swimmer load and budget.

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12. POOL DEPTH - Eight feet of depth in the deep end, with proper slope on the floor is safe for diving. Some like 9’ or 10’ depths, but the pool structure has to be beefed up and that drives up costs. Some people like a shallow pool to play water volleyball in. A shallow pool will not be as cool August as a deeper one. Conversely, The shallow pool will warm up quicker in the spring

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13. STEPS AND BENCHES - Don’ t waste too much pool area with steps.  Steps can be extended to create benches for sitting areas in the pool.

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14. PLASTER COLOR - White Marcite^® plaster is the traditional pool plaster.  It is comprised of Portland cement and very finely ground white marble dust. It can be colored with solid particles. Plaster can be shades of blue, green or gray. The darker colors are harder it is to maintain. White mineral deposits build up on the plaster and are much more noticeable.  There are other plaster finishes available. The exposed aggregate finishes (Pebbletech^®) are rough, clogs plumbing and very expensive.

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15. COPING - Coping is the brick or stone at the water’s edge around the perimeter of a pool. It is necessary on a gunite pool. The weight of the Gunite shell filled with water is very heavy and it will settle at a faster rate than the surrounding deck. The coping creates a control joint for the pool to move slightly, eliminating a huge visible crack all the way around the pool. Coping can be bullnose brick, natural stone or pre-cast concrete. Today, stone and brick are predominant on residential pools.

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16. DECK - The concrete area surrounding a swimming pool is called the deck. Decking areas can be as large or as small as the homeowner desires. The energy absorbed from the sunlight can cause a deck to be very hot, Sometimes people will leave large grass covered areas to place lounges, tables and chairs on to stay cooler. Flocrete can be applied to broom-finished concrete to help keep the concrete a little cooler. Flocrete^® is however, mostly a cosmetic finish. It can be applied in some very nice colors. Sometimes it is nice to place a string of brick or flagstone in the deck to keep the deck from looking like a parking lot.

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17. PLUMBING - The plumbing on a swimming pool is basically hidden from view, except at the equipment pad. The plumbing has to be properly designed to handle the hydraulics of the pool so that the water will be filtered and returned to the pool effectively. The returns, skimmers, main drains, overflow, make-up inlet, etc. need to be designed correctly.

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18. MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT -  Pumps, filters, timers, electronic controls, ozonators, etc. must properly designed. The list of available components is endless.

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19. WATER FEATURES - Fountains, Rock falls, Shear Descent waterfalls, gushers, deck sprays, etc.- anything is possible.

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20. DECK EQUIPMENT - The S.R. Smith Co. makes the best residential diving boards, slides and handrails available to the swimming pool industry.

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21. HEATERS - Efficiency, size, controls, solar blankets......so many things to consider when installing a heater. Call me!

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22. SPAS - Spas, Hot tubs, whatever you call them are great. Some are built elevated eighteen inches overflowing into the pool. Some are built pool- level. Different jets, controls,

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23. LIGHTING - A pool must be well lit for safety reasons. Lighting also makes the pool very beautiful at night. 500 watt incandescent lights brightly light the pool. Fiber optic lighting is an alternative to the 500 watt light. It is safer, not as harsh and can be set on different colors. This is much more effective with white plaster. Colored plaster and fiber optic lights do not work well together. Install a dimmer on your 500 Watt light.

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24. AUTOMATIC CLEANERS - The Polaris^® 280 and 380 models are the best cleaners for gunite pools. They are also the best for vinyl with one exception, they wear the pattern off of the liner around the perimeter about 3/4” wide and approximately 12” from the wall. A Kreepy Krauly^® is also a good cleaner for vinyl liner pools. Automatic pool cleaners work very well and are invaluable. If you have more time, a manual vac head and hose can clean a pool very well. In fact, you will need a man vac and possibly a Leaf Eater to use to help out your Polaris.

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25. CONTROLS - A spa needs electronic controls. You don’t want to have to walk over to your equipment pad to manually turn valves, turn on the heater, set the temperature, wait for the water to warm up and then go back and turn on the blower before you get in. If the water isn’t hot enough, then you crawl out, and change the temperature setting. Then, you can go back over to your equipment pad and turn everything off before you go back in the house. This is all done from a control panel in the house and one at spa side. Pools without spas can also be built with electronic controls. A pool without a spa can do very well with mechanical time clocks.

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26. TILE - There are thousands of different tiles to choose from. Swimming pool tile must be frost-proof and acid-proof. The tile at the waterline are typically 6” X 6”. Tile on steps and benches should be non-slip. Spotter or marker tile on steps is usually done for cosmetic purposes.  In a pool where someone will be seriously swimming laps, spotter tile may be helpful to distinguish a bench or steps while swimming.

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27. COVERS - There are many covers available for swimming pools. The LoopLoc^® cover is the best way to cover your pool in the winter to keep leaves and debris out. LoopLocs^® typically run around $ 2500.00 to $3500.00. Automatic pool covers are very expensive, usually adding $8000 - $10,000 to the price of a pool. The pool must be a perfect rectangle and cannot be retrofit on an existing pool.

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28. RETAINING WALLS - Rock, gunite, gunite veneered with flagstone, Keystone^®, there are many materials of construction to build retaining walls of.  Some are stronger than others, some are more attractive, some drain easily, while others need extra provision for proper drainage.  Most of the time, there’s enough brick on the house and it’s time to change materials to achieve a great effect. Keystone can look very commercial. A retaining wall over 4’ tall

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29. FENCING - Protects children. Keeps pets out of pool area. Required by your Insurance Company. Provides privacy.

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30. LANDSCAPING - A swimming pool without beautiful plants around it is just a hole filled with water. Your Pool builder can arrange for a Landscaper to provide you with a bid.  Again, in landscaping as in anything else, you get what you pay for. A good landscape designer will take into consideration the best plants to use around the pool.

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31. IRRIGATION - If your pool site is watered by an underground irrigation system, it will be necessary to call your Sprinkler company and have them cap off the supply water to the zones that will be affected by the pool construction. You will want to maintain irrigation to beds and lawn in the unaffected zones. When the project is complete, they can be called back to relocate heads in the zones that were capped off and add heads to new beds. We never do irrigation systems. That has to be done by someone with an irrigation license.

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32. INDOOR POOLS - Many people inquire about indoor pools. Pools built indoors are great because they can be used all year long. Indoor pools need very good positive ventilation or very well-engineered dehumidification systems. Dehumidifiers are expensive HVAC systems that have condensers much like a central air conditioning unit and return moisture to the pool taken from the air in the room. A better alternative for residential pools is a free-standing building with side walls constructed of sliding glass doors and a polycarbonate roof system with panels that open up to allow the sunlight in and the moisture-laden air to escape. We build this type of building and it is the best way I’ve ever seen to build a pool enclosure.

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33. SCREENED ENCLOSURES - Lanais, only work south of I-10. They are great for keeping out bugs, but in our area. In the winter, ice will build up on the screen roofing and pull the whole thing down. I saw seven or eight of them in Monroe, Louisiana pulled down by ice in one neighborhood. That unscrupulous salesman from Baton Rouge had better stay out of Monroe. I understand that the insurance company wouldn’t pay off.

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34. OUTDOOR FIREPLACES / KITCHENS - Don’t forget to at least get an underground sleeve put in for a future gas line to your outdoor kitchen or fireplace! A fire pit or fireplace can make a huge difference in the  enjoyment of your pool or spa, especially when the nights are cool.

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35. SAFETY - Safety covers, fencing, alarm systems, video surveillance, whatever it takes to keep yours and the neighbor’s babies safe.

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36. POOL PLANS - A professional pool designer can not only ensure that you build a great looking pool, but one that is safe, maintenance - free, economical to own, and fun!

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37. CONCRETE - One time a man that I worked for said “concrete is hard, gray and it cracks.” How true. Customers ask “what kind of warranty is on my concrete ?” The answer....”We guarantee it to crack!”

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38. FILTERS - SAND, CARTRIDGE OR D.E. (diatomaceous earth)

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39. INSURANCE - Your pool builder must carry at least one million dollars of General Liability and Property Damage Insurance. They should also carry Worker’s Compensation Insurance unless you want to pay the hospital bills when a worker is injured.

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40. WOODEN DECKS - Wooden decks are nice. Some people like them and some don’t.  Remember, they must be sealed every year to help  preserve them. Wood does splinter, warp and rot through the years.  Concrete decks are less expensive.

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41. FITNESS

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42. FLOCRETE

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43. SUBCONTRACTORS - In today’s world, all pool builders use subcontractors.

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44. WARRANTIES

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45. FIBERGLASS POOLS - Fiberglass pools work OK in the desert. In our area with a lot of rain and a high water table, fiberglass pools are a waste of money. Fiberglass is Epoxy based. Epoxy is water soluble.  The top side is gel coat. The bottom side is raw fiber glass. They dissolve from the bottom up. Expect your fiberglass pool to last 10 - 15 years (if you’re lucky!).

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46. SOLAR HEATING - Sometimes people ask me about solar heating for their pools. I have never used solar power to heat a pool. In my research, I keep running into the same problems: High cost and inefficiency in East Texas. On the days that solar power is needed, our skies are gray with very little sunshine. Remember, you still need to pump water through the solar collector, and this costs money.

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47. CHEMICAL BALANCE - The chemical balance of your pool is not difficult to maintain. Always remember that people swimming in your pool and environmental factors such as rain and particles blown in by the wind will affect water balance. Some contaminants from people are perspiration, perfumes, hairspray, deodorant, makeup and urine. You should maintain a residual amount of chlorine to oxidize any of these contaminants upon contact. Some of the environmental contaminants are molds, algae, pollen, dust, dirt, rain of various pH acidity, leaves, insects, etc. Various algaecides and chemicals  to correct these effects will be required. Your pool builder should have a facility to test your water and recommend chemical adjustment.

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48. OPERATION - Tuning the spa on, starting the heater, backwashing, etc. are some of the aspects of pool operation that will be taught to you by your builder.

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49. MAINTENANCE - Water testing, chemical addition, vacuuming, brushing, filling, skimmer and pump strainer basket cleaning, backwashing, filter changing, sand change change-out, light change-out, etc. is some of the required maintenance of a swimming pool.

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50. COMMON MISTAKES I SEE PEOPLE MAKE WHEN THEY BUILD A POOL:

1. Some people build their pool too big. Big pool means big maintenance.

2. Some people pour too much concrete deck around the pool. Leave some grassy areas. Concrete decks can absorb a lot of heat during the day and be very hot to sit on. A few trees to offer a little relief from the sun is great.

3. Make the pool area too complicated. Remember, keep it simple. Simple is elegant. Too many waterfalls and fountains can get trashy looking.

4. Don’t build your waterfall too big. A tasteful waterfall, proportional with the size of the pool is great. Some big plants around it can be very beautiful.

5. Not enough plants used in landscaping. Use a lot of grass. Plants keep the backyard cooler.

6. Wait until Spring or Summer to start the pool project.

7. Use too much brick. Just because your house is constructed of brick doesn’t mean you have to use a lot or any brick on the pool. Use some flagstone.  People are mixing brick and stone all over town. It’s a great look.

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* Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of BLUE HAVEN POOLS^® or Steve Harris.