unheard

Can you provide any reference to the brand of the glass media used by olympic facilities? Recycled bottle glass media (loaded with bacteria) must be properly processed to clear up the bacterial load. Also, the olympic facilities use the "industrial" type of equipment, which is not even remotely comparable to the average private swimming pool setup.

But the glass media has issues with back washing as mentioned in the video (at 35 min.) "Most crushed glass on the market is highly contaminated from the start and doesn't back wash well." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37cVJRs6z2Q

That's what is recommended as a back washing interval (once a week) in a very informative video posted below.

"Lately every time my pool starts up it spits filter sand out of the outlets" Sounds like you have a pump that is oversized relative to your filter's flow rate, which led to the filter's failure.

Hmm here's the AstralPool branded sand: https://www.winwinpoolshop.com/en/product/15004-11286/silica-sand-25-kgbag here's EcoClear Glass: https://www.winwinpoolshop.com/en/product/18483-13755/echoclear-glass-media-for-sand-filters-coarse-25-kg Are you saying the linked AstraPool branded silica sand is an inferior product? A sincere question.

Same price? I see it being priced at 3x as much as the silica sand, 25kg bags.

To my totally dilettante view... 1. Red brick is a porous to water, permeable material thus is unsuitable for pools. 2. It is also a low density, un-elastic material, not suitable as a structural, load-bearing material for pools.

What kind of a finish is this? At first I thought it's PebbleTec/PebbleCrete, but now I think it's something else.

That's exactly what my office officer has told me - not allowed.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend you! I just started to look into this and can't possibly see the whole picture. And I would be first to admit that my uninformed first impressions might be totally wrong. Actually I see your point. Judging by your posts, you come across as a very experienced builder who takes pride in what he does (not a common quality in this landscape, unfortunately) and strives to deliver the highest rate final product. And that obviously could not be done on the cheap.

Hmm, interesting. The more I look into the Thai swimming pool market, the more convinced I become that it's a high margin, very limited competition therefore financially lucrative for a limited number of players field. Even though the local pool prices considered to be very cheap by the western standards, they're still blown out of proportion as compared to the cost of building a house here (by established, permitted and paying taxes companies).

What are the other major variances that affect the prices other than overflow vs skimmer and tile vs PebbleCrete/PebbleTec? The quality of the pump, water treatment equipment, shed, deck? An option of a waterfall, shower?

How does the cost of a pool finished in PebbleCrete compares to the cost of the same pool finished in tile?

How was your experience? Would you recommend the builder? Did you end up choosing the PebbleCrete surface finish?

I've discussed the polished concrete floor option with my builder. His response was that even though they won't have a problem by going with that option, it would add a significant extra cost over the tiled floor and they'll drop any warranty that is normally associated with the finish of the floor (cracks, surface quality etc). I think the surface cracks is a real problem here. Small cracks might indeed offer some special character to the visual appeal but my concern would be a possibility of some huge single crack, going all the way across a room.

The wall finish displayed in the picture is actually quite popular around here but no, it's not polished concrete.

I'm in the process of gearing up for a new house construction project. I'm interested in some feedback from users who've installed such a floor option in their own house. I've seen quite a few examples of polished concrete in commercial types of buildings but never in residential houses. Is this option even available for a private house build in Thailand? Thank you.