Replies

1. 
   Guest_ | Jul 12, 1999 08:19am | #5

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   I am going to install a swimming pool in my San Diego area back yard. I've been looking at both vinyl liners and gunite. Heard lots of stories about thermal loss in gunite, earthquake problems, ease of repair. Anybody have any comments?

   Thanks in advance
   Jim

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   Guest_ | Jul 08, 1999 02:50am | #1

   *Greetings from America's Finest City.Vinyl will certainly be less expensive. You have several ways to go. In ground gunite. In ground vinyl. Above ground vinyl. Gunite is permanent. That is it's great advantage and disadvantage. Gunite is not a DIY process. It is expensive. In ground vinyl can be DIY. It is relatively inexpensive.Above ground vinyl is very inexpensive, and requires no permits, therefore is not taxed as an improvement. It requires creative integration into the scheme of the landscaping to not look like a huge tin bucket. I have an above ground pool on a terrace below the house. It is decked so as to hide its above ground nature. I've had it for 19 years. With the deck pool, repairs maintaince, etc. it has probably cost

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   Guest_ | Jul 08, 1999 04:54am | #2

   *My wife wants a pool so bad she can taste it. Her friends assure her that "it won't be much trouble for your husband."What about fiberglass? I know it's the most expensive, but what are the advantages and disadvantages other than cost. I hear that they are the least trouble to keep clean.I never really thought about an above ground, but Mike's info about integrating them into the landscape makes a lot of sense.

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   clayb | Jul 08, 1999 05:30am | #3

   *Be sure it's something your kid and all his twenty-something carpenter friends can skateboard in in the off months.

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   Guest_ | Jul 08, 1999 10:30am | #4

   *Benefits and performance aside, depending what the project is (ie yours or a client), and how long you intend to stay, the question of inherent quality or perceived quality should be addressed.There are neighborhoods here (N. CA) where not having a pool is "almost" a negative when it comes time to sell. (This is extreme.) Having a vinyl above ground no matter how tastefully integrated, is not gonna do it.I agree that Gunite is not DIY, but you can certainly contract it yourself and do much of the work (elect,plumb,flat concrete)Figure you'll get half the cost back in property value, the other half amortize over however many summers and kids.PS. I'd worry more about the house than the pool if you have "earthquake problems".Adam

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   Guest_ | Jul 12, 1999 08:19am | #6

   *See the "Home" section of Sunday's Union-Tribune. I haven't yet read the article, but there is a bunch on pools.