One more try:

That's really going to be beautiful! I've always loved the wraparound slides. A couple of thoughts:

We did a similar tanning ledge in our pool. The PB asked us to reconsider as it eats into the "swimming space" in the pool. We elected to leave it because we have friends that have one and we like to lounge on it while the kids are swimming. But it's a valid point, you have to weigh whether for you it's more important than the extra swimming space.

You might consider shifting the light over closer to the bench area. That way if you're on the patio next to the pool you're not looking directly into the light. It may not light the tanning ledge as well though.

Good luck!

Looks great! You call that "limiting" the size??! I should be so lucky to have a pool that "small" :).

Love the slide and the size of the tanning shelf. Are you putting any umbrella sleeves on the shelf or deck?

Also, there has been discussion regarding the use of artificial rock anywhere where pool water may come in contact with it, especially if you have a salt system. We opted for natural stone per the recommendation of our contractor and the cultured stone manufacturer.

Good luck. Looking forward to seeing a lot of progress pictures!

Thanks for the ideas.

We have 3 little ones under 5, and probably more coming, so we should get plenty of use out of the baja shelf. The boulder at the edge of the baja will have a core-drilled bubbler in it, so that should entice them to spend more time up there!

We're completely undecided on where to place the light. It's going to be a Pentair LED, so we need to make sure it's placed to be as efficient as possible with its relatively limited output. As mentioned, its current location shines it slightly toward the house. But the right part of the house that would be exposed to it is just the garrage. On the other hand, if we put it closer to the baja, the baja won't be as bright because the light has to be so deep. I'd love to put in 2 niches and pick the right one after trying both.

As for the size, the base pools for all the builders around here (Phoenix) is 75 - 80' perimeter. We considered going larger, but this will be quicker and more economical to heat in the winter if we want to jump in on a Saturday.

We'll be adding ample umbrella and volleyball sleeves. Since this is doubling as my basketball court, I'll be adding a basketball sleeve. I want a real, dunkable hoop, not a portable one. There is one made for pools, but it runs $2200+. I've heard of people buying one built to be permanently set by a driveway and cutting off the pole. Does anyone have any experience doing this with a higher end hoop - like one with a 4" pole? I can get one from Dick's or Sports Authority for $400. I figure even if it only lasts a few years because of the salt water, I can replace it 4 or 5 times for less than the $2200 unit.

I haven't heard of problems with artificial rock coming in contact with salt water - just the opposite. The boulders around the spa will be real and out of the water. The one in the baja will be fake and mostely submerged. The groto part of the water feature will be real (except for the roof - no access for a crane), and the rocks that form the slide will be fake.

I've heard that cleaning the calcium deposits on the fake rock can be problematic because sand blasting them can take off the outer color layer. But I've heard that salt buildup on and in natural rock (and our travertine) can cause it to crack. I plan to rinse the real rocks after every use to avoid this. It doesn't seem to be a problem in other parts of the country where they get more rain. Any feedback would be apprciated.

Here's the area as it sits (wet, only half the landscape rock removed):

Sorry. I think I am confusing your use of artificial rock boulders with cultured stone veneer. So I will retract my comment regarding artificial rock & salt water since I am only familiar with what we were told about cultured stone veneer!

We have a small pool (14 x 25). To add to your comment about heating the pool quickly, we added a deep heat system that heats the pool from the bottom up. We can typically get the pool from 65 degrees to 80-85 degrees in about 3 hours.

mwrogers - Nice Design! We also wanted a volleyball and basketball setup in our pool and after much research on options available, we ended up with a custom design that was fabricated for us by SR Smith.

SR Smith has a volleyball and basketball combo kit that gave us some ideas on how to combine the basketball and volleyball games. Basically one of the poles has the basketball hoop attached and to convert this pole to volleyball, simply turn the pole 180 degrees and use the backside of the pole to hold the volleyball net with the basketball hoop now facing away from the volleyball net. The other pole is just simply for holding the other side of the volleyball net.

The SR Smith kit was designed to be anchored into the decking and not submerged. We wanted both uprights to be submerged due to our pool design, so we had SR Smith custom fabricate two stainless steel poles to our exact design so that the basketball and volleyball nets were placed at the desired height from the water. We bought a break-away hoop and backboard from a local sporting goods store and provided the mounting dimensions to SR Smith so they could fabricate the basketball/volleyball pole to fit the backboard mounting pattern.

SR Smith also sells anchors that can be placed in the gunite that mate with these poles. The cool thing about these anchors is they also have a groove that allows a locking collar to be installed which prevents the basketball pole from twisting when playing. All of this cost less than $700 for the custom poles, break-away hoop, volleyball net and anchors. The custom poles from SR Smith were the most expensive item at $500 for both stainless steel poles.

The system works great for both volleyball and basketball.

Hope this helps.

happymsrf - what's a "deep heat system"? I couldn't find anything on Google. Is that just using a standard heater (400k NG Pentair in our case) and in-floor cleaning (also in our plans) to push heated water from the floor up?

trhought - thanks for the reference. I hadn't looked at their system yet. As our hoop and vb net won't be in the same location we can't use the nifty conversion system you have, but their hoop solution looks good. How stiff is the backboard? When you throw a basketball off it, does the backboard wobble and deaden the bounce, or is it stable with a strong bounce? Can teens hang on the rim without breaking it?

Quote: "happymsrf - what's a "deep heat system"?"

That same question was just asked in another thread. Repair Guy responded that the term basically refers to returning water to the pool down low instead of up near the surface. This allows the heated water returning to the pool to heat the pool from the bottom up.

I'm curious how you're going to orient the volleyball net, will it be going across the middle from the grotto? If so, I would definitely rather play on the side with the 3' depth, LOL! Trhought's pool has a really cool court setup, they've got a mid-level area of their pool that contains the entire court, so it's all on the same level. It's flanked by a deep end and a shallow beach area neither of which intrude on the court. You're (quite effectively) dealing with space constraints that won't allow something like that, but it's a cool idea!

mwrogers - The basketball setup I described is DIY so the stiffness of the backboard is totally up to the owner. The key is to select the backboard that you like and then use the mounting dimensions for the backboard to fabricate the custom pole to mount it on.

Regarding the break-away rim, it has a spring that helps absorb any teen energy in an attempt to reduce damage to the rim and pole. I suppose it could be damaged with enough neglect though, especially teen neglect!

Hope this helps.

We have a hole in the ground now:

Feb 25 -

And some plumbing and rebar -

I see you are not in Chandler? That pool would not fly there. To close to the fence

Congrats on the ground-breaking! Looks like you should have gunite shortly. Are you still doing the slide and grotto? It looks like they've got a plumbing stub for it but I don't see a foundation formed there.

neilaz - correct, we are in Gilbert. Much more liberal for pool building. We can come within 3 feet of the property line, which we're doing on both walls.

tresw - our builder says we should be shooting gunite in a week or so. We are still doing the slide and grotto. I'm not sure what type of foundation they're planning on doing for it, but he said it will take about a week to build (combination of fake and real rocks). One concern I have with it is that all the plumbing from the pool goes right under the slide. If we ever have a leak from a pipe in that area it's going to be tough fixing it. My builder says they just tunnel from the side to get to it. Is that something to be concerned about, or is this layout standard?

One thing I'm looking forward to is the layout of the slide and steps. Our builder puts 2 water outlets at the top - one to send water down the slide, and one to send water down the steps, which decend all the way into the pool. It's a good way to keep those steps cool here when it's 120 degrees out.

It looks great. You must be excited seeing progress. I think the design is great and you won't regret the baja shelf w/ the little ones. You kept your swim lane intact by having it pop out to the side.

Quick update on our build. It's been slow, but we should be done in a few weeks. Gunite was shot a few weeks ago and then the rock slide/waterfall was completed last week. The masons begin on the bbq grill and pavers tomorrow.