- Always make sure your aware of the EXACT cost of the swimming pool install at all times. I went way over budget and most of the final bill comes AFTER the pool is complete. Get a fully itemized copy of everything before you even start work. Remember that your patio, electric and everything else is an EXTRA cost when installing the pool so make sure to price all that out before the work begins.

- Capital City Curb and Gutter did a great job on my patio and pool wall, but they are sometimes VERY hard to get in touch with. Also they will schedule dates to come out, won’t show up at all and won’t call to tell you. I had many appointments setup when nobody showed up or called me. This actually happened about 4 times over the entire period I worked with them. They have good prices, the guys are super nice, but the lack of communication and missing appointment times and failure to get in touch with us really hurts these guys.

- Rising Sun Pools has the most experience out of ANY swimming pool installer in Raleigh (that I interviewed). They also handle problems well, treat you with respect and help you in all areas of your install. If I had to do it all over again I would choose Rising Sun Pools as my installer again. I would also use every contractor I mentioned below in my blog (even tho Capital City was so hard to communicate with).

If anyone has any questions about any articles here please comment with your Email, I will reply ASAP. As of today this site is getting 17 visitors PER DAY! Enjoy the swimming pool waterfall images below.

STATUS: Pool Liner Installed, Water brought in and heated already (brought in by truck & currently at 88F), 8 person Spa already setup and wired, Some flowers installed already (by me), Patio and rock wall complete (except for final sealing of patio), lights and laminars working, rock wall lights installed. Pool has been closed for the winter, pumps still come on when it’s freezing outside, pool is NOT covered. Concrete and rear rocks REMOVED to fix a leak. The leak was caused when a concrete beam hole was dug and the guys hit a pipe. This was really not a big deal and could happen to anyone, but they caught it and fixed it.

TODO LIST: Seal concrete for the second time, install diving board, put concrete back where leak was fixed, replace rock wall, replace top left rock on rock wall with flat rock for diving, put tree lights in behind pool, install boulder wall lighting, put down concrete grip, back-fill in front of the new wall with dirt, lay out sod to stop mud issues, fill in dirt behind rock wall, run waterfalls on the rocks (we are doing two large waterfalls), plant landscaping, build a 12 foot fireplace with wood holder and seating for eight people.

THIS LEAK HAS BEEN FIXED: We found out a pipe in the deep end has a leak (yes that is REALLY bad news) so Rising Sun Pools has to come in and coordinate with Darren over at Capital City to see if they can dig under my 38 tons of rocks and repair the leak. If they can’t repair the leak that way they have to remove the boulders, remove the concrete and then repair it. This was a pool install issue with dirt settling so I was told, it was not a concrete issue. I’ll get more information about this and update later with images and video of the fix. We are swimming and enjoying the pool now so the fix won’t take place until we close down the pool when it finally gets cold outside.
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Rising Sun Pools Review – August 8, 2010

Please keep in mind that I always contact 6 – 12 companies before I do any type of work. I get estimates, read online reviews, check the BBB for complaints and then compare all the information before I sign anything. I hope my months of research will do you some good.

Now let’s get started with my Rising Sun Pools Review.  =)

Once the fence was installed we wanted to put in some Evergreen trees for privacy. I priced these out for 3 weeks and found prices from $146 – $790 (installed). The best price I found was from a local company called Lee’s Produce and Garden Center Clayton, NC. They provided us with 12 foot trees and did the full install in one day. Once installed I had to water every 4 days for about a month. It takes a good three hours to water these size trees when you put 16 in the ground.
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- Do you want a fiberglass, vinyl or concrete pool?
- What type of pool patio do you want? Brushed concrete, Stamped concrete, Pavers, Stone, Etc
- Do you want a diving board, slide, seats in the deep end, salt water, colored lights, heater
- What kind of landscaping do you want?
- Do you want pool lights? How many?
- Patio Furniture: Always Use Fabric Made by Sunbrella

Current Pool Prices for North Carolina (Updated After Reading a Comment)
Concrete Pools = Highest Prices
Fiberglass Pools = In the Middle
Vinyl Pools = Lowest Price

Make sure you check EVERYTHING a contractor offers in his pool package. Do NOT rush this choice!
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Now that we are actually into week 6 of the install I do really wish Rising Sun would do the initial sales meeting a little different. After continuing my research I have found BETTER items and MORE I could have done to the pool to make it better. I wasn’t really presented with these ideas at the time of the sale so I wasn’t aware of them. However, If I would have been told I would have spent the extra money and purchased/changed some items, more on this later.

Rising Sun Pools had to push the install date back a few days which was fine. When they showed up they brought in a back hoe and some guys to put the pool together. The dig took about three hours and they had everything setup to put the pool walls into the ground. Rising Sun Pool staff put all the walls in and installed the plumbing. They came back on DAY TWO and put some concrete around the plumbing and back walls. Then they back filed the pool with dirt. They also installed the pool pump, water lines, salt water system, etc. So in TWO days the basic install was done.

NOTE: If they hit rocks on the dig or ground water it will cost you more money to fix. They also charge to haul the extra dirt away, the nice thing is I needed the dirt and the guys put it in my back yard by the tree line I recently cleared.
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Rising Suns installer will give you a general estimate for this at around $1500 – $1800 I believe. Remember, that this is an EXTRA cost outside your pool installation cost. Also because your acting as your own contractor you can hire any electrician you want, but they need to know what they are doing as this has to be inspected by the city.

Mr Harte came out and talked to me about my pool install. I let him know of my future plans for a pool house, slide & waterfall. I also told him about some issues I had with my home electricity so he could fix those as well. I’m a nut during Christmas and my power always goes out due to my Christmas decorations so I had him install some new circuits and plugs in the front of our home. I also had him change the location of a reset switch from under the home to the outside wall. We also spoke about doing patio lights, tree lights, landscape lights and more. They can do it all and their workers are VERY polite and do a great job.

Once your happy with the price and what you need done the electricians will come out to your home. They start by digging a huge trench from your current electrical box on the side of your home to your pool. They then run the electrical wiring and pipes in the ground. Then they run a copper ground wire around the pool and attach it to the pool in 4 places. They also ground your diving board stand and pool rails, this keeps you from getting shocked.  =) Once that’s complete they leave everything as is and leave for the day because the city inspector has to come out and pass the install.

If the install passes (mine did) they will come back out a few days later and back fill the holes. They also connect your pool command model (the brain), your pumps, filter, plugs, etc. After that is complete you get to sit and wait again for the patio deck guys.
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So the bottom of the pool being a little messed up from the rain and the other issues I had are no problem from what they tell me. Here is the response I got back from Rising Sun Pools.

The swimming pool needs to drain if it gets to much water from rain. So Rising Sun Pools attached a drain line to the top of the pool in the deep end. If the water reaches the drain it will run out and decrease the water level.

Finally they finished hooking up all my pipes, pumps, filters, etc. You can see my before and after pictures. It shows what the pipes looked like before and after. Once they were finished they left for the day. Now we wait until Wednesday for the patio and rock install.
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A few days later three guys came out and brought our Heat Pump. We decided to use a heat pump for the pool so we could extend our swimming time to the end of October and open around the end of March. This was the best thing to use for us because we don’t have natural gas lines in our neighborhood and I didn’t want to haul in a huge gas tank. If we did have natural gas I would have select a gas heater due to it’s ability to heat faster. You can see in the pictures below the install and the unit as it was brought in. Once the heater was installed the workers drained the pool water out using a small pump and they dug a few more holes for drainage and water for my waterfalls. They also brought out the two laminars for the install, but these won’t go in the ground until the patio and rock wall is finished. If your not sure what laminars are check out the first image below, they are the lighted stream of water you see going up and into the pool.
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Some Good Information
What Kind of Material to Use for Your Pool Deck
Gallery of Pool Decks
Luxury Swimming Pools
Master Pool Guild Gallery

When you install a pool from Rising Sun Pools they give you a contract list of people they work with. So, to be clear, when you purchase the swimming pool YOU will still have to find your own contractors and pay extra money for electrical, patio deck, gas lines, brick work, grading, landscaping, decking, fencing, etc. Now it was my turn to find someone to do our patio as that was the next step in my pool install.

First we had to decide what we wanted to do with the pool. I didn’t want basic concrete as it looks to plain in my opinion. However, this is a great way to go if you want to get your pool installed quick and pay the least amount of cash for a patio. My wife and I looked over a ton of pictures and decided we wanted to do a stamp concrete design. We want to do a dark edge around the pool with a lighter stamp color like the images below.

Once we were sure of what we wanted I had to find a contractor. As usual I called about 8 – 12 different companies and got estimates from them all. Some of these guys simply came out, looked for 5 minutes and left due to lack of experience in doing the rock wall and waterfalls. I had one crew come out that talked so loud the neighbors three homes down could hear them. I’m not sure why they had to scream the entire time they talked but it was really bad news, I didn’t use this company.  =) A few other people came out and were nice and had experience but their prices were so outrageous I couldn’t use them.

So who did we finally decide to use? We actually went with the Rising Sun Pools suggested contractor who is Capital City Curb & Gutter. I went out during my bidding process and got to meet Darren (the owner) and speak to him about ideas, etc. He is a very nice guy and this company does a ton of work on pools all year long. He told me they could do the rock wall, waterfall, grading, etc and had no problems doing any of the work we needed done. He also had a very good price for everything I wanted to get done. Here is his actual website with portfolio, information, etc.

Click Here to Visit Capital City Curb & Gutter

They came out yesterday and graded out around the pool and got everything ready so they can pour the concrete next week. We also decided to put in a rock bench type seating area to help keep the water flow away from the pool. More on that later when they get started.

The only problem I had with this company was the lack of communication at times. They are actually so busy (working from 4am until 11pm some days) that it’s very hard to get a call from them sometimes. Also on a few days they were going to show up to work and they never came or called. This really won’t effect you in most cases as you may be at your normal job, etc when they work on your pool. I was at the house waiting all day so I could take pictures and document everything for this pool review so I was a bit upset. I even called the owner and left a voice mail saying “I told you I was ready to install the pool and pay you but I can’t get a return call……  do you just not want to do my patio and work”

Darren got my message and called me back, he was very polite and told me he was sorry but he was just really busy. So I got over my temper and told him I was sorry for being upset with him and we worked together on the project. So if you can handle some communication issues with this company (that seems to be the only issue) then I would suggest you use them. I even had another guy Email me yesterday saying he was getting his pool installed and wanted to know who to use for the patio. I told him to use Capital City but also warned of the communication problems, he told me that he already talked to them and got an estimate and agreed with me about communication issues and getting a call back. So in the long run maybe I can speak with Darren after the install is complete to see if I can talk him into hiring someone to answer the phone for his company.

Here are some of your patio options when installing a deck. Concrete, Stamped Concrete, Flagstone, Pavers & Travertine

Below are pictures of the crew grading my pool, it will be time for concrete Monday!
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I was super excited when I got up today because Darren and his crew from Capital City – Concrete Raleigh were finally coming out to install concrete around the pool. You have so many options when selecting your pool patio so don’t forget to read my concrete patio article here. I changed my mind about the overall look of our pool patio a few times but I’m 100% sure of my final choice now. Rising Sun Pools suggested we use Capital City Curb and Gutter to install our pool patio. After speaking with Darren (the owner) we decided to go with him and his company did have the best prices.