Dante's Playground Revitalization | An adventure in rehabbing, on your own

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Brett_N

0
Jul 21, 2015
123
Tempe, Az
First, let me say that I hope this thread does at least one of the following:
1 - Teaches you something
2 - Makes you laugh
3 - gives you some ideas
4 - makes you want to send me lots of money for a real contractor :)

The real goal here is to log my backyard rehab project as much as I can. I'm doing this on my own, so I'll most likely make some mistakes that you can laugh at, but the real goal is to let you all know what I learned in the process.

The ultimate goal is to rehab "big pinky" into something fresh. A couple things to know before you keep reading.
1 - I'm NOT a contractor by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I'm a mix of electrical, physics, computer science, and marketing.
2 - I'm NOT cheap, but the ultimate goal was to keep costs down, as I plan on having everything PROFESSIONALLY done in 2 or 3 years when I can come up with about $15K for a complete rehab.
3 - My pool and pool area is OLD. Guessing somewhere around 20 years, at a minimum.
4 - I have ALMOST every tool known to man, some in triplicates (thanks Dad!) and I'll document anything I bought, borrowed or rent that's out of the ordinary.
5 - Did I mention I'm NOT a contractor? I'm doing this on my free time from work, so updates may be a week or so in between.

Now, to set the tone. I bought this house last June. This is my first time owning a backyard lagoon, but I grew up on water. Not the kind you throw cholorine in or worry about a pump with, so it's been a learning experience so far. Oh, and I live in Arizona - so it's HOT most of the time.

What I don't have documented is that I have all new pool pump and filter equipment, with a special shout out to Hayward. I don't work for them, but someone I know does, so I have a Superpump, a big cartridge filter, and a robot. Oh, and an LED light, but that hasn't been installed yet.

Anyway, I digress - this project is more "everything around the pool" in the rest of the backyard. Including:
1 - New Concrete Pad between the pool dek and the covered patio
2 - New lighting on the pool deck
3 - resurfacing the pool deck to some extent
4 - Who knows what else I'll come up with in the interim.

Oh - and Dante is my cat, FYI.

I'll try and document everything that I can - some stuff has been started and finished, and I'll document that, but all in all the goal is to keep as many pictures on file as possible. And costs. And laughs, since that's what it's really all about.

Off we go!
 
OKie dokie - let's go.

Here's what we started with last week.

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Now, with the crummy old fence removed...

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Funny thing is, I bought a TON of grinding wheels from harbor freight, thinking this would be a nightmare. NOPE! After a couple trips to the garage, I figured out that the 1/2" bolts, well, came right out of the old concrete.

- - - Updated - - -

One project down, and only 1 beer! This is going well so far (Oh yeah, I'll try and keep track of everything in beer time. Standard, 12oz Miller High Life to be precise :)

- - - Updated - - -

Round 2 - if you notice the crummy bricks and rubber mulch in corner, well, GONE!

(And now my phone is acting up and I can't transfer pictures...hmm)
 
Ok, thank you photobucket, we continue.

The "hole"

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The "hole" cleaned up

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Total cost at this point was about $25 and 3 beers worth of digging (2 hours?)

Cost was:
$10 at lowes for form boards
$15 at Harbor Freight for Concrete finishing tools
 
the "hole" with about an inch of compacted gravel in it.

Remember - concrete needs a good base. I dug down about 4 inches. I filled the bottom with about an inch of gravel and compacted it with hose water and a tamper. If you don't have a tamper, HF has them cheap. Or, just walk around on it for an hour or so, it serves the same purpose.

(FYI, photobucket has become the most obnoxiously slow photo hosting site known to man....)

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Cost at this point is +$18 for the (whatever you call them) the boards that go in between the old concrete and new. I needed about 18 feet of it. Oh - the total size of this thing is 9 long by 6 wide, with the corner of the "triangle" at 4 feet (so, a 4x6 rectangle, and a 5x4 triangle) total is about 35 square feet of concrete. So, off to lowes I go, and buy that much quikcrete. 30 - 60 pound bags worth 9 3x trips to lowes a mile away, 10 bags at a time, since I drive a subaru) - oh, this is + $90 worth of concrete, roughly.

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So, at this point, I'm at a little over $120 or so. Remember, I'm doing everything myself!

Oh, and a note. If you are going to mix 30 bags of concrete, go to home depot and rent a mixer for $50. I was lucky enough to borrow one from a friend, so I'm not including that in the cost, but figure it in.
 

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Oh, and in case your wondering, this was a 4 beer job.

The concrete mixing and pouring took just over 1.5 hours (no beer!) but I had to imbibe in a few while I waited for the concrete to set before it could be screed, floated and cornered. Total time, 4 hours from the first bag being opened until I was cleaning up. easy peasy. Oh, and if your keeping track, I only used 25 bags of concrete, so that was a net return of $15 back to lowes.

Concrete mixed and poured, and compacted

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Screed'ed and trowled.

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I don't have a good picture of it. Rather than the glossy finish, I did a "broom finish" since this is a wet area, and I have NO CLUE how to match the existing "kool deck" pattern. I figure it's getting painted to match the pool area anyway, and the broom finish gives it some texture so I don't slip and fall and bust my *** with wet feet.

Oh - with concrete - you want it to remain covered with plastic for at least 7 days. It's part of the curing process. Aside from the crummy blue tarps from harbor freight that I had in the garage (figure $10 worth) you want a cheap piece of plastic covering - like a painters drop cloth. Here's a hint. Big Lots. They have great prices on this stuff. Drop cloths are a buck. Rollers, roller kits, paint brushes,etc (I even buy my rope light there, but more on that later.)

You want to wet the surface, keep it wet, and keep it covered. This will prevent it from cracking.

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So far, the project has been, fairly easy if I can say. Sure, concrete is labor intensive, but it's not difficult. Just take your time, don't stress, and have everything ready in advance. 6 beers at this point.

Oh, and I do have to say, "thanks Dad" since Optics Bob was a major funder of this project, and if it cracks, I'm blaming him, since he's in the concrete!
 
Alright the heavy lifting is done for now.

On to PAINT! (oh no, Paint!)

2 trips to lowes tonight. I have / had another thread going on resurfacing the old kool deck. I decided to do some patchwork with concrete fixer upper stuff (about $40 worth of it) and paint.

Here's a hint. The Valspar concrete paint looks a whole lot darker in the book than it is.

I was going to to do the entire patio in this color.

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way way way too white.

So, back to lowes for another quart of paint ($12 a pop!) so know I'm at +$24, but I also needed a new scrub brush, some TSP, some Crud-Kutter Cleaner, and a new handle for my rake, so that was a $70 + $12 trip

I know it's dark, but I ended up with Valspar "Beachcomber" I think the pool deck itself will be the beachcomber sandy color (but, I'm doing the anti-slip stuff with silica in it) and the trip ring will be the white stuff. I like having the color differential, since a lot of times I'm outside at night with a lower light level. (I know,I'll get a better photo tomorrow) I'm 99% sure this is the combo I'm going to go with. I was thinking a light blue for the trim ring, but think that will be too off-setting.

Oh, and the concrete paint. I wanted something Inexpensive (I have about 600 square feet of patio, not including 100 sq feet of trim ring) and it's ARIZONA - I wanted something light that wouldn't burn my feet. I think the sandy / taupe color will be ok. Or, I hope it will. If not, it's only $90 worth of paint. The big question is how well it will hold up in the AZ sun.

The picture is lousy - it was taken at night under a flood light.

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That's it for this round. I'm going skiing this weekend and the new concrete needs to cure, so nothing for a week or so.

Next weekend, I tackle the fun fun fun task of getting 20 year old PVC expansion joint filler out of the gaps, and we look at 2 replacements. This should be fun, at least I have a grinder and a whole lot of grinding wheels!

- - - Updated - - -

MarianParoo said:
In the concrete???? I am a little nervous about that???!!!
Click to expand...

LOL - Someone caught that :)
 
Oh - HUGE favor - if anyone has the goofy tool to get the really really old diverter valves un-stuck, I'd pay for shipping to borrow it for 20 minutes. I think it's something like part number 128 from pool-tool or something like that.
 
MarianParoo said:
BUT you didn't explain it!!!
Click to expand...

OK, OK, Ok.....

Optics Bob died last December from a long fight with emphysema. Needless to say, he's scattered to the 4 corners of the world on his own request (but we got to pick where!) A view from a flower pot overlooking the river in Paris (with a view of the Eiffel Tower AND Statue of Liberty, go figure) He's kicking back outside the big cathederal in Milan, He's got a place in the garden next to Bugsy Segal in Vegas, hmm, Japan, China, Argentina, Cuba, the top of Mt. Hood in Oregon, and under my concrete slab in Phoenix. He's also chillin' (literally!) in Antarctica.
 
pooldv said:
That's better than Jimmy Hoffa style!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't think Dad would have appreciated being buried in Jersey....He was a Bills fan :rolleyes:

- - - Updated - - -

Some other things I need to add to the list that's done or going to be done...

Mood lighting (color changing LED's)
TV mount (already done on the patio)

Enough typing for tonight though. Stay tuned. Next installment is removing the nasty, broken old crummy slab gasket stuff and replacment with Trim-A-Sla or SlabGasket. I'll review both once I get the old stuff out. (This is gonna SUCK!)
 

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