LED pool lighting in Central Texas: color, brightness and dark sky rules
The lights in the pool walls are the easy part. Color, brightness, control and the dark sky rules around the deck are where the decisions are.
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Notes
What we
know.
Plain answers to the questions people actually ask us in the backyard — how long a build takes, what gunite is, when a pool is telling you it needs work. Written by the two people who do the work.
10 articles
Straight from the jobsite.
Heat pump or gas pool heater: which one suits Central Texas
One heater is efficient and slow, the other fast and fuel hungry. The Central Texas calendar is what decides which one earns its place.
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Converting a pool to saltwater, and what actually changes
A salt system makes chlorine at the equipment pad instead of you carrying it home. The chemistry you test barely changes, and hard water is the part that matters here.
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Adding a spa to an existing pool, and what it actually takes
The new shell is the short part. The heater, the flow the pump can reach and the gas line at the pad are what decide whether this is simple on your property.
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What a cracked pool coping means, and when it matters
The coping is where movement shows, not where it starts. Four symptoms, in order of concern, and the Central Texas soil record behind most of them.
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When pool waterline tile needs replacing, not cleaning
Scale on the tile and tile that has stopped holding are two different problems with two different answers. There is a tap test that separates them.
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What a variable speed pump actually saves
The savings figure people quote is usually measured against a pump nobody sells any more. Here is what the current numbers say.
Read itWhen to replaster a pool, and how to tell
There is a hand test that answers this in about four seconds, and it is more reliable than anything you can see from the deck.
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What gunite is, and why we build with it
Every pool we build is gunite. That is a real decision with real tradeoffs, so here is the case for it — and the case against.
Read itHow long a pool build actually takes
Six to ten weeks is the honest answer, and most of the variation is not the crew. Here is where the time actually goes.
Read itStill have a question
Ask us the awkward one.
Donna and Ben answer the phone. If the answer is "you do not need that," that is what you will hear — it has cost us jobs and kept us in business since 2001.