Yard Renovation: Six Week Pool Timeline

Last year we intended on selling our home and building another. We spent months living in an immaculate and staged house ready for potential buyers to stop in for a home tour everyday. The process was challenging with children and working from home. While the thought of our next home was certainly enticing, we decided to reevaluate and make a list of everything we loved about our current home. In doing that we also made the list of everything we were excited about in a new home. With so much to love about our current home we chose to stay and slowly make changes to meet our list of wants. Our first home improvement project began the same month we chose to take our home off the market – we started building a pool. After quite a bit of back and forth with other pool construction companies, we loved the design and signed a contract to begin our yard renovation with Presidential Pools. The six week pool timeline was much faster than we expected and the easy process satisfied every expectation. 

From the day we moved in almost six years ago we knew we should have built a pool during the initial home construction. We had several years of issues with our lawn and irrigation. The grass was never green and we frequently had a muddy mess in our yard. The tree, which never should have been suggested to begin with, had roots beginning to cause problems and eventually would have damaged our home foundation. 

Presidential Pools came to our home to evaluate our yard then shared a few different 3D plans with us. We love the design we chose and how easy it was to imagine the completed project.

Once the pool project began, it moved quickly. Permitting was approved then we had to prep our yard by removing current landscaping. The grass, pavers and tree were completely removed but we chose to keep plants and rock that would not be in the way during construction. Presidential Pools suggested a contractor to prep the yard but we handled the actual scheduling and coordination of work. The usual dry Arizona weather changed and this piece of the project ended up taking longer than expected. Once the yard was dry from the rain we were able to continue moving forward with the six week timeline.

The pool project began with excavation the first week of February 2016. Our Project Manager was extremely helpful as he walked us through every step of the process with frequent visits to our yard for quality checks and to answer any questions.

Plumbing, steel, and electrical work came next.  

Within two weeks we had all equipment installed. The city inspection was also completed to move to the next phase.

 Next Shotcrete, the actual concrete to form the pool’s shell, was applied. 

Very detailed instructions were provided for us to care for the Shotcrete. The intimidating water curing process was actually quite simple and we had no challenges. The deck foundation was completed next.

By the end of February we had tile in the pool.

Just one month had passed since construction started and we were all excited watching the progress.

The interior finish and decking were the final steps completed before we began filling the pool with water.

Exactly six weeks from the actual construction start date, we were filling our pool with water and learning the daily salt water maintenance.  

The chilly weather was not a deterrence as our seven year old daughter couldn’t wait one more day to swim in our new pool. She put on her favorite swimsuit and tested the water the first night the pool was full.

With water safety a top priority, we had a pool fence installed to run along our back patio. The fence is fully removable but provides a necessary barrier between our back door and the pool. 

We have spent most of this year’s spring and summer in our backyard with pool floats, umbrellas and plenty of sunscreen.

Sometimes it really just takes an evaluation of what’s most important for you to see what you already have. We couldn’t be more happy with our decision to stay in our home and add a pool this year. 

While our list of home improvement projects continues to grow, we now have a backyard we love and have spent more family time together because of our decision to build a pool.

For technical terms see Presidential Pools Phases of the Pool Construction Process. Learn more about Presidential Pools by connecting with them on Facebook and Twitter.