Frequently Asked Questions About Our Pool and Spa Building Process

 

What is the Major Difference Between Oasis Pools and Other Pool Companies?

Fact: It takes about 30-40 days to build a swimming pool.

Fact: A lot of pools take 2, 3 or as many as 6 months to perform the 30 days of actual work on the project to complete the pool and get the customer swimming.

Reason: Sub-contractors work for many companies and are not directly responsible to the pool builder's schedule. The pool builder fits his project in their schedule. It is not uncommon to hear a customer complain the "nobody has been here for two weeks."

Oasis Pools typically completes a pool in 30 days (barring rain).

Reason: Oasis Pools owns its own excavation equipment, dump trucks, plumbing trucks, tile trucks, its own trained employees, (we set our own schedule instead of fitting into a subcontractor's schedule) and in essence build the pool in house.

Is There a Difference in Excavation From One Company to the Next?

Yes.

How Do Companies Differ on Steel and Plumbing?

Most companies do a good job in this area of construction. Oasis Pools plumbs its pools with employees instead of a sub-contractor, ensuring the highest quality of work.

Is There a Difference in Gunite?

Gunite definition – Concrete applied with air pressure.
Cement is a kind of glue to hold and bind aggregate (sand and sometimes stone).

UNDESIRABLE

The least desirable method is concrete from a ready mix truck.
The concrete arrives in a truck mounted barrel that has been mixing concrete and aggregate from the batch plant. The major problem here is that the mix from each truck has started to chemically set up at different times due to different times of travel. The mix arrives and is pumped to the pool through a hose. This is sometime called "wet gun."

GOOD

Standard Gunite
The materials – sand and cement, arrive to the job site dry.
They are then mixed and sent thru a hose dry, and a fine spray of water is applied at the end of the hose. This method is sometimes called "dry gun." This is a much superior method to the cement truck, or "wet gun method," as the mix is dryer at the point of application and the chemicals in the binder (cement) set up and achieve a uniform hardness. Its only real down side is application.

Rebound definition: sand in the gunite mix that hits the pool wall under pressure and bounces back into the pool area, not mixed with cement.

If this is removed and only properly mixed gunite is in the pool, as it should be, the standard method is fine and should last a lifetime. However it has been seen that workmen in the hole sometimes spray gunite over this sand and cover it up which can leave a hollow spot. Even so, this is a good method and typically is problem-free.

BETTER

Upgraded Gunite
We feel the best method is, like standard gunite, to have the materials arrive at the job site in a dry state. Instead of just sand and cement we add gravel, apply water to the mix at the street and pump it to the pool usually at about a 50-70 distance from the street. Adding gravel to the mix increases the PSI (pounds per square inch strength of the mix) about 40% over standard gunite.

BEST

California Mix
When using the upgraded method additional products can be added to the mix, increasing performance in unstable areas like southern California and high rock content areas like Austin, Texas.

Fibermesh®

Fibermesh concrete provides a one-step fiber reinforcement system. Fibermesh fibers are engineered for concrete in compliance with building codes to provide top-to-bottom, side-to-side uniform micro-reinforcement as a cost-effective and superior alternate system to wire mesh.

If you could look into a cube of Fibermesh concrete, this is what you would see: millions of virgin polypropylene Fibermesh fibers uniformly distributed in all directions throughout the concrete mix. As micro cracks begin to develop due to water loss and shrinkage, the cracks intersect with Fibermesh fibers which block their growth and provide higher tensile strain capacity at this critical time. So, the cracks won´t develop into macro cracks and problems. This has been proven in test after test in independent laboratories and verified on jobsites throughout the world.

Fibermesh fibers provide concrete micro-reinforcement without affecting mix design and additives, pumpability or placing set times or finishing.

Oasis Pools uses the upgraded gunite mix with fibermesh. (If you prefer to use standard gunite, Oasis Pools will lower the price of the project $400.)

Is There a Difference in Pool Decks?

The standard typical pool deck (walking surface and patio around a pool) is typically a 4" concrete base with a colored-textured concrete surface for non skid and appearance. The sprayed surface – Sun Deck, Spray Deck etc., is a colored concrete surface typically sprayed through a drywall hopper gun and creates a surface similar to drywall texture on the concrete deck.
This is the pool industry standard and gives the pool an aesthetic surface. Due to the texture, water and air get under it and create a much cooler walking surface. It is inexpensive and has been used for years.

Down Side – Being a concrete deck it is subject to hairline cracks. This is not a structural problem. If you pull the carpet up in a house you will see them in most house foundations.
However in a house they are covered by carpet, wood or tile. Most people in the business will tell you it is not a question of if concrete will crack, but rather, when it will crack. In a pool, these hairline cracks are plainly visible, unattractive and almost impossible to fix, so you "live with it."

Flagstone decks have for years only been used on expensive pools. Stone, being a natural product, is much prettier than concrete, but because of the stone cost and labor (concrete you pour and trowel – stone has to be cut, chipped and set) has been prohibitive to the budget-conscious typical pool customer.

Due to the business model of Oasis Pools we save money in building a pool without a lot of subcontractors. When you do the building "in house" you eliminate the overhead cost of rent, secretaries, accountants, advertising, the many sub contractors, etc. In other words you eliminate "overhead costs" which the typical pool builder must mark up and pass on.

Oasis Pools prepares the deck area with compacted road base then places approximately 2" of cementatious mortar base on top of that, and installs flagstone decks at about the same price as the typical pool company does less attractive, problematic concrete decks.

You can still get a hairline crack in the mortar around a stone; however it is easy to repair, unlike the mostly-impossible repair of a concrete deck. You can add deck footage with stone at a later date seamlessly. With concrete, you have an expansion joint and a slightly different colored surface due to sun and wear. Unlike a concrete deck you can also add additional decking seamlessly later on. (No unsightly expansion joint needed)

Is There a Difference in Plaster?

What About Equipment Differences?

There are two main manufacturers of pool equipment – Hayward and Pentair. Both make excellent equipment.

Oasis Pools prefers Hayward because if there is a rare problem with their equipment, the factory service is very quick. They have a local repair company on contract with the stipulation that any call be answered within 24 hours. If you have trees in the yard – Hayward makes a cleaner that both cleans the bottom of the pool and also rises to the top and skims leaves from the surface. You can almost throw away the leaf net and pole with this cleaner.

What About Low Chlorine Pools?