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Do tool accessories usually come with a newly built pool?

June 2nd, 2005 · 3 Comments

We live in South Florida and just spent $37,000 on a gunite pool. No
spa, no screen, no deck. It is 20 X 40ft and has a waterfall and 4
deck (deckless really) fountains. Today was the big “fire up” day,
and they gave us no tools ! No net, brush, manual vacuum- NADA !!
They did not even put new filters in, they just cleaned the ones that
they origianally put in ! No test kit either. I thought that all of
the above were the norm to get with a pool, as a courtesy. They told
my husband that getting the stuff is “not in the contract”. I am
ticked off. Was I expecting too much ? This is my first pool, so I
am still learning. I appreciate any input.
Thanks,
Michelle

Tags: pumps

3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Neva Marjory // Jun 3, 2005 at 11:10 am

    Hi Ken,
    The pool is 6 ft deep. We have a Jacuzzi 2hp pump, cartridge filter.
    It is a lagoon style pool, it holds 20,100 gallons, so it is not
    really as big as one would think. We live on 1.16 acres, so we still
    have plenty of back yard left. It took 8+ months to get the pool
    done. We do not have ANY deck at all. We refinanced the house and
    rolled the cost of the pool into the house loan. I pushed it through
    quickly, using the bottom line number on the contract. When they
    started digging, they encountered muck. They charged us $3450
    to “demuck” the area for the pool. Since we did not have that money
    budgeted for the project, we had to remove a feature from the pool,
    which ended up being the deck. We figured a deck is something that
    can be added on later. The absence of a deck caused real problems.
    We failed our final electric inspection 7 times ! We hired our own
    electrician to fix the problem the pool company could not. Then we

    passed, and were able to finish the pool. So imagine my shock when
    we did not get tools ! I called one of the owners yesterday, he
    agreed to give them to us. I now remember our salesperson trying to
    sell them to us back when we signed our contract. They will probably
    not be the greatest quality, but I like free stuff regardless haa
    haa. I plan on getting a Hayward Pool Vac Ultra. How long after the
    GEM coat is applied to I need to wait to put that in use ?
    Thanks so much for all of your input !
    Michelle

  • 2 Neva Marjory // Jun 5, 2005 at 9:35 pm

    -
    Ken,
    We have a small house on a large lot (1.16 acres) so the pool does
    not appear to be large at all. I have a friend whose yard is almost
    a zero lot line, and she put in a 14X28. I guess folks here in South
    Florida like to put the biggest pool possible in their yards without
    breaking the bank. If we had a 3/4 million dollar house, we would
    probably have a 3/4 million gallon pool !
    Michelle

  • 3 Elisha Delicia // Jun 9, 2005 at 4:50 am

    Just IMO …
    Horsepower is decieving ….
    We took a look at a few 3/4 horsepower, pumps all at the same head. An
    older eastside pump, a whisperflow, MaxiglassII and the Northstar.
    The older open face pump at 40 foot of head pumped about 47 GPM.
    The Whisperflow and the Starite pumped at 80 GPM
    And the Northstar pumped at 90 GPM
    Now how is this important to an older pool ?
    1 1/2 PVC and copper piping max out at 70 GPM…. in the old days it
    took a 1.5 horsepower pump to “max out” the plumbing…. today alot of
    the 3/4 horsepower pumps over pump 1 1/2 PVC…
    A Sand filter basically has a Max flow rate. that is 20GPM per sq ft
    of media.. So a 4.9 Sq ft Sand filter has a Maximum flow rate of 98
    GPM…. and you do not usually wish to MAXOUT your filter.
    A DE filter MAXOUTS at 2GPM per sq ft.

    The Cartridge up until the 150 is rated at 1GPM per sq ft.(this is why
    the larger ones work so well, they slow down the rate of exchange
    inside. Most are rated at 100GPM with a 300 sq ft filter they work great)
    SO you see if you have a pool with a 3.1 sq ft sand filter and 1 1/5
    inch plumbing… it is silly to put more than a 3/4 HP pump on it.
    With the smaller pump you get more GPM at less of a cost in energy.
    we are in an age of developement … We need to inform the cusyomer
    and clients of new things… the more energy we save day by day helps
    us all in the long run
    Jimi~

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