My fibreglass pool install

[ProjectPete]

For those of you interested, back in Oct 2015 I had a new fibreglass pool installed so I thought I'd share the experience with you. As you can see we were restricted with space but looking back we could've gone th next size up. At the time of deciding it seemed big enough but I digress.

So it started with me manually removing the grass and of course I got some help from my girls. Removing the grass and levelling the sand for the fake grass install in the other part of my yard saved me about $1600. It was a killer of a job, but it covered most of the cost of the pavers for around the pool (not labour) so worth the effort IMO.

Then it was time for the installers to do their thing although not being the most organised people we got off to a rough start and I felt obliged to help out during the day to make sure they didn't have to come back the next day. Again, more hard work but I got $300 given back to me on the day for helping out. That money was more wisely spent though of course...beers and whisky

You can see in the image above I'd starting digging my trench to relocate my soakwells and below you see the pipes and soakwells I laid. I hate to dwell on it but this was more hard work, especially with the time restraint of the pencil compacting beginning in 2 days and I was unavailable to do any work the next day.

Thanks to a very unreliable tradie not showing up to install the continuous footing for the glass fencing, I ended up having to work through the night to do it myself. Given I had just a dodgy plastic wheelbarrow and a shovel, this was one of the toughest bits of work i had to do for this pool dream.

After all this hard and mostly unnecessary work, it was all very much worth the strained back/neck/legs, exhaustion, sunburn and everything else to see the finished product and more importantly my girls with huge smiles on their faces, loving what we now had to enjoy for our first summer in our new home. And given the extra money we spent on an electric heater, we can use it all year round

Since then we've done a bit of work furnishing the area but it's been more of a temp solution as I plan to make daybeds, etc from recycled materials which I'll certainly share once I'm done.

What did I learn?

• Go with a reputable supplier/installer. This is what I did and still had some issues so it just shows how important it really is.
• Be a hustler like me, get that price down because they have PLENTY of room to move on their listed prices. I bought my pool direct from the manufacturer which immediately saved about $2k off the like of Bucaneer Pools, etc who he supplies to.
• A heater is a winner. I went electric rather than solar so I could use it year round. Yes it adds a bit of cost up front but it's well worth it. They can be installed later but the install cost will be slightly higher.
• If you can do some of the labour on your own, go for it! It's saves you a fair bit of cash and you have somethign to be very proud of at the end.

Hope you got something out of it. I know some of it sounded pretty horrendous and I don't mean to scare anyone away, I just want to be honest. End of the day, it's all very much worth it.

[Jason]

Many thanks for sharing @ProjectPete. Lovely to see the girls enjoying it so much. 

I'm sure the community will particularly appreciate you sharing your lessons learned from the experience! 

I imagine that there's a significant upside in not going for the next size up - quicker and cheaper to heat. 

Thanks again,

Jason

[ProjectPete]

You're spot on there @Jason. The pool blanket alone gets it up to about 3-5 degrees below the outside temp, so we've had it up to 37deg on a 40+deg day. Obviously that's not refreshing so we take it off in the morning, but it just highlights the effectiveness of a blanket alone, especially on a smaller pool.

Using the heater gets it to temp quote quickly too which is more convenient and it costs less to do. They've been a few cold nights where we've cranked it up up to 38deg so it's like a spa - beautiful!

[Andy_Mann]

Great thread Project Pete, your smiling girls are priceless. Nothing better than seeing kids soaking up the fun, & the beaming smiles.
I reckon your pool is perfectly size for its location, a bigger one would restrict options on how to landscape, especially the paver/fence transition.