Decided to Build First Pool this Spring

[harleysilo]

Hi Everyone,

I've been lurking here for a couple of weeks reading up on how to care for my new pool, and learning as much as i can about pool building so i can do my best to make sure everything goes well for me.

We're building an in-ground vinyl liner sports pool measuring 18x43'. Our PB uses Hayward equipment, we will have a heat pump and SWCG system. We also splurged on an auto cover from Coverstar, we'll see how we feel about that investment in a few years i guess....

I met with the Building inspector who will be inspecting our pool. After asking him some questions about the process, such as who will be ensuring the plumbing is all good, or the rebar etc. he told me that was all on the pool builder. Then i happened to mention my PB's name and he chuckled and said oh you don't have anything to worry about. I inquired why and he said "that's who built my pool". He said he wished he could drum up more business for them but he wasn't allowed to talk about PB's etc.

Pics of the progress so far.... we've had a few big storms blow through delaying the progress.

Pool Design

General location of pool (where jeep is)

View from corner of lot back towards the house

1 day of digging

Boards set up

Today they begin the actual digging of the pool.

The slope you see at the far end of the yard behind the pool will remain and be planted. On top of the new hill will be an 8' fence. There will be about 2' of planting area between the fence and the top of the slope. Our neighbors have an insanely tall deck that otherwise would overlook our pool. I need to take picture of it.

There are several reasons we chose this location for the pool. That area gets almost full sun. If we moved the pool (south) closer to the back deck location we then need a 5-6' wall and need to be able to raise the fence, doable, but we would have to remove a lot of trees/shrubs to fit it in between property line and house, not to mention removal of old trash pit.

Here is a rough drawing of the plan, we learned on the first day that we will need 2 steps between the patio and the pool decking.

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum. :lol: What city and state do you live in? That's the reddest clay I think I've ever seen.

 

[harleysilo]

Thanks! I guess that's why we call it Georgia Red Clay. I'm about 40 mins. north of Atlanta. Pool excavator said we had good soil for around here, no rocks etc. He said it compresses great and we should have no problem with settling in the future.

 

[Lershac]

Hey that looks pretty cool!

And just so no one looks at ya funny when you say it, the equipment is HayWARD not wood. Hayward. Unless its some knockoff or something.

And boy that is some seriously red clay.

 

[harleysilo]

Got it Hayward! Got some more pics to post tomorrow, pool is half dug. Yard is full of dirt. Maybe I should package some and sell it as a red concrete pigment....

 

[harleysilo]

We have a mountain of dirt at the moment...

Grade is starting to look better

Where's the pool Dad?

These are the pins stuck in the ground to indicate where the various planes of the pool intersect.

He's going to finish digging the pool today, not sure when the pool guys will be out, but it will be soon.

 

[PSW]

Looking great! Can't wait to see more pics! And welcome to TFP!

 

[harleysilo]

So they finished the rough pool dig today. The shallow end full width steps will be made of concrete, so they weren't "carved" into the earth and what's going on in the deep end is the pit for the auto cover.

We have a ton of excess dirt, turns out the PB needs dirt on his next job, so the sub-contractor who does the digging/grading is gonna haul out 4 or 5 dump truck (single axle) loads to the next job today. We *could* get rid of it around the front yard, but then i'd have to get grass to grow on it, which takes time and cost $$$ in watering bills. This way I get dirt hauled off for free, sub-contractor gets free dirt he can sell to next guy, win/win.

PB said they will be out tomorrow, later today they will be loading up all the stuff for this job.

Dirt!

Neighbor's massive deck (ridiculously high off the ground), new owners have talked about lowering it and we hope they do.

We do have an unanticipated issue shown in the following picture. The top of the "batter boards" is the height of the pool beam according to PB. In the picture the fare left corner is about 6' off of the remaining fence. It will also need to be built up 2' or so with dirt. Without a small wall i don't see how this can be done except by tearing down 1 or 2 more panels of fence to allow the grade to slope of towards the base of the Redtip trees. We'll see what PB thinks tomorrow.

 

[harleysilo]

Just had to make a decision regarding the location of my pool equipment for my new pool install. I had two choices.

A) 80' run of electrical to location, but instead of outside fence like we thought, it would now end up inside of our fence and visible from pool/pool deck/patio. Could build small fence around it to hide it i guess.

B) 20' electrical run, Out of sight of Patio/house deck, still visible from pool/pool deck. Next to master bedroom wall, the wall our headboard is up against.

We're going with option B. PB said it's the same situation at his house, his solution was to set his pool's timer to come on when his alarm clock goes off. I guess that answers my question, we are going to hear it, and it's gonna be loud enough to wake me up, maybe not my wife.

Now what options do i have to try and quite it down, if anything? It can be spaced off the side of my house (master bedroom wall) as many feet as reasonable, or that would make a difference. We will still be fencing it in to hide it, so there could be a short fence between it and the house to help block sound. Any other ideas, or is it a waste of effort?

Pool equipment will be installed on 2 "air conditioning pads", the kinda like concrete type vs. the plastic ones.

Red Line in this picture is where our new fence will go (previously we didn't think it would have to jog out at an angle, but the elevations needed us to get 5 more feet of yard space, original fence was 10' off of the property line.

 

[harleysilo]

Oh and they are forming up the pool as i type, so i'll have pictures tomorrow, should have all the rebar in and the plumbing stubbed up, not sure what other "forming" takes place, but whatever is needed to shoot the walls full of shotcrete......

 

[DBfan187]

So is this a vinyl pool, or a shotcrete/gunite pool?

 

[harleysilo]

So is this a vinyl pool, or a shotcrete/gunite pool?

It's a vinyl liner pool, however they are making the sides like he would for a gunite. The reason being we wanted to shelves in the "deep" end, and we wanted full width 18' steps in the shallow end, and the first step will be 2.5' wide (like a small tanning ledge). In addition to that we are getting an auto cover. The PB said with those 3 things he would prefer to build the pool like a gunite vs. using steel sides. He doesn't like the steel forms for the supper long steps either for some reason. Ultimately it was our choice, he'd build it either way if we had a strong opinion one way or the other, we felt like he had some good reasons to go gunite style. Of course i dont' know if this cost him or saved him money, nor do i know if there is any reason not to have gone this way.

 

[carlscan26]

With regards to the equipment placement - closer to the pool will be more efficient plumbing/pump performance wise. What kind of pump are you installing? Two speed pumps on low and variable speed pumps on low can be very quiet.

 

[harleysilo]

More pics to come, iPhone is failing ATM!

 

[harleysilo]

Pump at the moment is 2hp Hayward, filter is hayward 48 DE, pool cleaner will run off of 3/4 Hp haward pump a Polaris 240 I think, will get model numbers.

 

[carlscan26]

Is it just the angle of the picture that makes it look like the floor is flat?

 

[linen]

Is it just the angle of the picture that makes it look like the floor is flat?

Looks kind of flat to me too. Looking at the plans it only goes from 3' 4"to ~5' (I think), so that would not look like much over that length. Harlysilo?

 

[Lershac]

On the equipment... Figure out what's most important to you. The pool equipment can be noisy (pumps) and while efficiency is great, a pool is a self-indulgent luxury. Do you really want to listen to the pumps as background noise to every gathering you have out there?

 

[harleysilo]

 

[harleysilo]

Is it just the angle of the picture that makes it look like the floor is flat?

It's the angle, but there is very little change in debt in our design. Shallow end 3.5' deep, middle 4', deep end 4.5', perfect for volleyball!