New Pool Install - Grecian L - Suffolk, VA

[bra1ves]

So it has been a while since I have posted. I have been a little frustrated with how long things are taking...a little to blame on the rainy weather...which I am sure directly relates to delays with sub contractor who is putting in the floor. Oh well. This has killed the initial excitement. I just need to keep in mind that we have plenty of time and it will get done before the warm weather moves in. Anyway, I will post a few updates logging the daily progress that was made. And thanks for all of the feedback concerning the lack of returns. I will definitely bring this up when the plumbing is ready to for installation.

Going back to day 13. As mentioned in my previous posts, the PB has put in well points around the deep end to try and control the ground water. They placed 6 wells at each corner around the deep end with PVC pipes connected together running to a pump. Notice the amount of water in the deep end. Unfortunately they disconnected the pump to the blind drain which was keeping water from collecting at the bottom. They soon brought out another pump to clear up this issue.

 

[bra1ves]

Day 14. The concrete footing has been poured around the pool now that the well points are in. It appears that the well points have provided very little benefit since we are not dealing with a high water table but rather water running between the layers of clay into the hole. The blind drain is doing its job. The plan now is to work on the pool floor/bottom before we move on to the liner and plumbing installation. Of course, rain is in the forecast.

 

[bra1ves]

Day 18. The sub finally made some progress on the pool bottom. Using a mixture of portland cement and sand, his team was able to rebuild the collapsed walls. Quite impressive as this has been something that has had me worried. Before they rebuilt the walls, they spent a lot of time shoveling out the muck that collapsed in the bottom. Unfortunately, now someone has to clear out the trench behind the walls to run the plumbing and electrical.

 

[bra1ves]

Day 22. Most of the floor in the deep end has been troweled with the portland/sand mixture. Unfortunately, we had a nasty storm move in that has made a few minor issues that will need to be repaired. To make matters worse, the blind drain pump stopped working as it was sitting in water from the rain. The PB made his way out in the weather and got things working again. If it couldn't get any worse, the light niche in the deep end looked like a waterfall as the rain water had nowhere else to go but down into the pool! These pictures were taken a few hours after the rain and surprisingly enough, the damage from the rain was minimal. The optimistic plan at this point is to finish the bottom by Friday (day 25) and get the liner installed on Saturday...keeping our fingers crossed!

 

[Big_kid]

Keeping my fingers crossed for you too!

 

[bra1ves]

Day 23. Wow...thanks Big_Kid...you must have brought us good luck. Even though there was rain in the forecast, the crew came out today to finish up the pool bottom before the Thanksgiving holiday. I might end up with a liner sooner than we thought. For the most part, things went pretty smoothly. We did have a 10 minute shower that made a little mess but the bottom turned out great. It does look like there are a minor few spots in the deep end that need a little patching...a product of the quick rain shower...but it could have been a lot worse! Excited for the next step and hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving!

 

[Big_kid]

Glad I could "help". I hate rainy days and have a lot of outside work to do too, but I'll take the rain for you until you've got a liner in. Send it over toward the beach!

Your crew came out on a holiday to get it taken care of? Impressive!

 

[bra1ves]

Day 25. LOL...will definitely send you all the rain to keep it away from Suffolk if i could. Well another nice day and the PB has made some nice progress with the pool. Spent the majority of the day working on the plumbing. With it being the day after Thanksgiving, they could only work with the equipment/supplies that they had on hand or could pick up at Lowes (the equipment rental shops and distribution center were closed for the holiday weekend). The returns, jets, and skimmers are in and most of the piping is done. So the plan for Monday as long as the weather cooperates is to pick up and install the liner before proceeding with the plumbing and electrical including a trench dig to the equipment pad. Shouldn't be too much longer before we are filling the pool with water!

 

[fireman23]

What is your pool bottom made of? It looks really nice.

 

[bra1ves]

Thanks fireman23...I was pretty impressed myself on how it turned out. The contractor used a mixture of sand and portland cement (and water of course). I am not sure of how many parts were used for the mixture but it troweled out very smoothly.

Day 26. Well, the crew came out and prepared the pool for the liner install including patching a few spots on the bottom, finishing the coping, and attaching the foam padding for the walls. The liner was removed from the box, unfolded to the proper shape, and attached to the coping in a matter of minutes. It took a little while to seal off the open pipes, seats, and steps so that the vacuum could do its job removing the wrinkles. The liner looked awesome....and then we realized that the shape was incorrect...we ordered a grecian bottom in the deep end and the liner was fabricated to fit a rectangle bottom! The extra vinyl in the corners of the deep end created a handful of wrinkles that just looked awful. Fortunately, the PB confirmed that the error was on the part of the distributor so a new liner is being ordered (free of charge) and on its way for next week. I didn't take any pictures yet but will I will load some soon. I asked the PB what he plans to do with the old liner and he said I can have if I want. We could cut and reseam it in the corners to make it fit or redo the bottom down the road to make it a rectangle so I can keep it as a spare....just don't know how long it would last stored in a box. Any recommendations? Is it worth keeping or will it go bad or dry rot sitting stored in a garage? I could at least keep part of it for patching maybe? Any feedback is much appreciated.

 

[carlscan26]

For sure keep some of it for patches

 

[bra1ves]

Day 40 something...so its been a few weeks since my last post. We have made tons of progress and the pool is almost done. In my last post I referenced our first liner that was the wrong size..oops. After chatting with the PB, he said that he could cut and reseam the extra vinyl and it would be barely noticeable so we picked up an extra large trash can at Lowes and stuffed it in for storage..we'll see. Since that point, they installed our new liner, filled it to the shallow end with water, ran the electrical lines, and finished the plumbing hooking up all of the equipment at the pad. I just recently finished filling up the pool with water and the PB will be out sometime this week to cut in the returns/skimmers and fire it up. Then the backfill and long wait for concrete. The only issue we ran across in this most recent phase was that they accidentally plumbed the main drain line from the pad to the well points....therefore, all the water we put in higher than the main drain line from the pool just emptied into the trench around the pool...ugh...that probably cost me a few extra dollars of wasted water! Oh well...here are a few recent pics.

 

[akaCarioca]

I just found this thread and was wondering, is this pool is built of steel instead of concrete??? In case yes, does it cost way more than concrete? Any easier to build?

Thanks

 

[bra1ves]

Yes...the walls are steel panels bolted together. We also had the option to go with polymer walls which I heard are easier and lighter to work with. The panels allow for custom shapes...my PB likes the rounded corners but we liked the grecian style. The bottom is a concrete mixture. This specific pool ran between 30k to 40K with all of the options (like a car...the basic model was low 20K but we added seats, diving board, deep end, salt system w/automation, color leds, etc.). Compared to concrete, my understanding is that this type of pool is significantly cheaper to build. After watching the process, I felt like this was something that could have easily been DIY and the kits online are pretty cheap ~$10K. However, I am glad i hired an experienced company with some of the issues they encountered like ground water. And just FYI, when we were gathering quotes all of the local companies only offered vinyl liner and fiberglass pools...only one said they did concrete but it was a lot more expensive and they usually only built concrete pools for local businesses such as hotels, communities, etc.

 

[Puffin]

Its looking great! And its been fun watching it get built. Thank you for the pictures and updates. I can't wait to see the deck and landscaping when its done, its going to be really pretty then.

Is the builder handing the initial chemical balance? Hehe, have you had a chance to sneak a sample?

Did you happen to catch the volume of the pool, when filling it. Its handy if you can take a look at the meter before and after the fill.

 

[cramar]

WOW, that is a beast of a pool, it's looking great!!
I can only imagine the stress during all that rain, sounds like you have a pretty good builder there. The extra stress from the rain will only lead to more pleasure in the summer when you use it.
Keep the pics coming

 

[bra1ves]

@Puffin...thanks. We can't wait either. Yes...the builder is taking care of the initial chemical balance. As far as the volume...that was a good idea...didn't think about looking at the meter. I bet the water bill will let us know..LOL. Probably compare the bill to last month to get an estimated idea.

@cramar...thanks for the comments...its actually a little bigger than we expected but I am sure we won't be complaining during the summer parties when 25 kids are competing for pool space!

As far as an update, the PB came out the other day and cut in the skimmers and returns...so we now have bubbles and everything appears to be flowing fine. Next up...backfill!

 

[jackty]

I've enjoyed watching your pool build. We are considering a similar pool. I'm looking forward to seeing pics of your decking and coping too.

 

[bra1ves]

Been a few weeks since i have posted. The backfill was done in early January and everything is progressing well. We actually worked the numbers today for concrete and should see some progress next week. We got a really good price on 1300 sq ft of extra concrete (1800 total) and cant wait for the final pieces to come together. As soon as there is some more progress I will post some pics!

 

[bra1ves]

Its been almost 3 months since my last post and the pool is still not finished. February was a terrible month for weather with a lot of cold rain so they couldn't make any progress with the concrete decking. The weather has been unseasonably warm in March and April so we expected to be done by now and its been very frustrating. On the bright side, we do have some concrete and it looks really good. Just wanted to post some updated pictures. Hopefully we will be done before May but we have little to no expectations on anything anymore (I was told Tuesday that they should be done by the end of this week...and yet, it's Friday and there is no one here working on another nice day).