Being my own GC

[AmINuts2]

I have come to this form in hopes that I may find some guidance. I have shopped several pool builders here in the Houston area and found absolutely no one that I felt I could trust to build a pool for me that would live up to what I expect. The one and only that I found that came close, turned out to be embezzling money from the company he claimed to own. I have some experience with building and remodeling after hurricane Ike severely damaged my home. I guess my question is, have any of you GC'd your own pool and where would be the best place to start searching for subs.

[mike45]

if your planning on going with fiberglass you can do it, you need to really look into who your concrete guy is he will make or break your pool. find somebody with experience in pool creations with jobs you can look at not pictures people will try to swindle you. do you have any backhoe or excavator experience?

[czechmate]

You can go to the pool tile supply store and ask for recommendation on pool builders.
Than you ask who they use. Most sub out every trade. There is also a list of pool related trades in a phone book. After you make list ask for recent jobs and addresses for a references. It could take a month but could save you future frustration and disapointment.
Design: In my own opinion, free-form/ kidney shape where deep is angling to the shallow is a form indirectly asking for a trouble. Extreme weight of the deep compared to shallow will settle faster and cause a stress at the joining line. Unless you in rock or a sand, famous Texas gumbo clay can do a number on the structure. I have seen a couple of these cracked and there is no lasting repair solution.
All pools will settle in this type of soil. Deep of coarse will settle more. With that in mind I have built no nonsense pear shape. With 12" bottom and 6" walls you can than calculate the amount of concrete within 2 yards.
Steel: Install extra runs of 5/8" rebar in the bottom. It is cheap and it will pay of big time later.
Extend rebar into the pool deck every 18"-24" from the beam crown. Industry standard is 4 feet. It will hold pool deck solid without cracks.
Shape: Roman pool is nice but eddy currents in hard corners create places for algae habitat and stagnate debris flow. Smooth round corners will help good circulation, pool sweeper run, and skimmer function.
Tile: Solid 6" tile will have less grout and some colors use other than white grout. Less grout, less cleaning.
Hope it helps a little. Good luck!!

[cwalker1960]

Not nuts to GC your own pool . you have the potential to save yourself a lot of money. I think where most people get into trouble is not knowing enough about what needs to be done and when. One good starting point to find sub contractors is making some calls to local concrete companies and ask for some leads to shotcrete contractors. If you're planning to use gunite instead of shotcrete this probably won't be helpful. Also check around and see if you can find a pool installation going on somewhere close by and ask questions. More times than not the people on the job will be sub contractors. Once you've found one good sub , he can usually point you in the right direction for others that you will need along the way .