Pool Builders, in and around The Hills Greater Sydney

niickshushi · Jan 28, 2024 6:13 pm

Hi All,

We are looking to build a fibreglass pool and are looking at options to do some pre-work before the house building starts. Have reached out to a pool builder and they suggested getting the excavation and structure done before building the house isn't going to save much money. My understanding was because it allows the pool builder to do this bit with a vacant land takes away the access issue. He on the other hand said it doesn't matter as they have equipment to deal with smaller access and said provisioning for a pool structure on a vacant land means while the home builder is building, the pool has to be covered with a engineered hard cover which will cost 5K in comparison to the the extra equipment to build later with narrow access is 3K.
This is contrary to what I have read in this forum. Also can you please suggest some good pool builders in and around this area ?
Thank you

Ashington Homes · Jan 29, 2024 6:13 am

niickshushi

I am going to be extremely blunt when I say that this pool builder has zero clue and I would immediately delete their number.

I believe I know the reason why your pool builder is suggesting to construct the pool after the build. They don't want to take responsibility for getting the set out of t

he pool wrong relative to the house ie putting the pool in the wrong place.

However, any quality house builder or pool builder knows that the pool should be constructed before the house.

Primarily due to all of the reasons you have listed, but also due to the fact that the brand new house may be get damaged during pool excavation and lastly as it so much easier to run all of your services and plumbing prior to the house slab.

You also mentioned that you are interested in a fibreglass pool which needs craning in, and having done this several times it is 100% easier to crane the shell into a vacant site rather than over the top of your brand new house. Not impossible but definitely riskier.

Also covering the pool shell is so simple it's not even worth mentioning. Shouldn't cost more than $1000 in materials and labour.

In terms of good fibreglass companies, I personally have used the Narellan boys twice for my own homes ( call Tim 0448 220 780) and I know the owners of Freedom pools ( call Natalie 0403 842 104).

In our client builds we only do concrete which I prefer these days over Fibreglass for a bunch of reasons.

But anyway, 100% build your pool first!

Cheers

Simeon

A pool set out we did last ThursdayThe pool is on the right, the OSD is on the left. Note the white pegs, these are the survey pegs as you dont set the pool out from the house, a surveyor sets it out relative to the boundaries, but most pool builders don't allow money in the budget for this and set the pool out themselves with a tape measure
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niickshushi · Jan 29, 2024 7:58 am

Hey Simeon,
Thanks a lot for getting back to me with such a detailed response. It's really appreciated. It seems like the best approach is to construct the pool before the house, and I'll definitely check out the pool companies you mentioned.
I'm curious about your preference for concrete over fiberglass. I'm considering a salt pool to save on maintenance costs and be more environmentally friendly. What's your take on this?

Kind Regards

Ashington Homes · Jan 29, 2024 2:11 pm

niickshushi

Hey Simeon,
Thanks a lot for getting back to me with such a detailed response. It's really appreciated. It seems like the best approach is to construct the pool before the house, and I'll definitely check out the pool companies you mentioned.
I'm curious about your preference for concrete over fiberglass. I'm considering a salt pool to save on maintenance costs and be more environmentally friendly. What's your take on this?

Kind Regards

You are more than welcome.

I used to be a massive advocate for fibreglass pools, mainly due to the speed and cost until we started building our own concrete pools around 4 years ago and I have now changed my mind completely and wouldn't ever do a fibreglass pool again. FYI when I built my own house in 2018/2019 I put a fibreglass pool in and have in recent times been thinking about pulling it out and replacing it with concrete.

The biggest negative for me with fibreglass pools occured during those really heavy rains in 2022, I have a large amount of ground water on my property and the shallow end of my pool started lifting out of the ground. What I didn't know at the time is that you are meant to regularly feed a hose underneath and pump the water out. I have since done that which has helped but I now have a permanent bubble down the shallow end which is annoying.

All pools have a hydrostatic valve which is supposed to let the ground water into the pool, but for some reason mine didn't work.

From a cost and time perspective now that we are building pools, we can do the pool shell for the same cost as a fibreglass pool ( or close enough to take money out of the equation). The problem is, pool builders charge ridiculous margins which does push the final price up.

I also think that concrete pools look nicer, and you can get far more creative with the design. Fibreglass pools also have a limited depth, Most are in the 1600-1800mm depth range where as I like to go deeper which we can easily do with concrete.For me I like my deep end to be at least 1900-2000mm

In terms of should you go salt water, the answer is possibly. A better option we are doing these days is mineral pools which do use a small amount of salt but mainly a magnesium blend and the water is much nicer on your skin. The water almost feels like fresh water. You can even taste it and it almost tastes like fresh water, just a tad bitter. But importantly you don''t have that horrible salt feeling on your skin afterwards.

I hope that explanation makes sense.

Cheers

Simeon

niickshushi · Feb 05, 2024 9:10 pm

Thanks again Simeon for being so elaborate. Appreciate it. Its gives us a very idea.

Kind Regards