new build starting off ruff, with an overdig.

[blacksi]

We have a fire pit and somehow one step down got mis interpellated. When I got home and looked I was pretty sure they had gone too deep and sure enough it was. He thought I meant a step inbetween the deck and the fire pit.

Overview of before.

The blue X means you're on your way out.

Here it comes.

When I noticed it was wrong the wall guys were talking about going and getting some cinder blocks to raise the wall. I called the builder to check on what the plan was and he was going to have them just fill it back in with dirt around the edges adn compact it since it was only 7 inches off. Instead it was done right, I am not sure who made the decision but everything started over today after a refill.

Here is after it was completely refilled and compacted.

and redug.

 

[Bluegrassman]

Sorry your project got off to a rough start. Hopefully it will all be a lot better from here on out. Our project is at nearly 2 months and not yet complete.
You have a beautiful home and location. Just think of the many years of enjoyment ahead!

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[blacksi]

Thanks,

Wow 2 months! sorry to hear that, hopefully it works out in the end.

Heading over to find your build post.

 

[bobby1017]

Two months sounds ok to me, mine took 4 to finish.

 

[Bluegrassman]

Wow, 4 months! Is it a gunite pool?

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[bobby1017]

Yea, more than two months were waiting for groundwater to stop coming through the gunite so they could apply the pebble tech , a little over 1 month to get to that point.

 

[blacksi]

Well they said they like pics and my wife isn't missing a beat.

We are going to need a lot of dirt.

 

[Stilly]

Are you going to end up needing a retaining wall? It seems like you have quite a slope. We have a bit of a slope as well, and leveled off the area around the pool but will need a small retaining wall towards the back of our pool.

 

[blacksi]

He hasn't said anything about it yet. The back towards the woods is the only area that is close. Now that you mention it he is probably going to do everything he can to get out of it because it wasn't in his original quote so therefore iti would come out of his pocket. Tomorrow they will back fill and grade so I will have a better idea.

 

[blacksi]

Got more pics of the build. But here's what I did today on my day off. I double checked the square footage of the decking using a laser to trace it out since I knew there was no way they were going to be accurate with tape measures. I use 3d lasers for work.

They calculated 950 when it was actually 850

 

[Bluegrassman]

That happened to me too but luckily I caught it before the pour. They tried shorting me by a foot all the way around one side.

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[aeromorris05]

Two months sounds ok to me, mine took 4 to finish.

Same here... We signed our contract the weekend following Thanksgiving. PB got his final check April 17th. The entire process probably could've been done in 3wks with proper motivation and cooperative weather. Turned out the slow build schedule allowed us time to double and triple check the different stages of work. In the end we ended up with a much better product that more closely reflected our "vision" because we had time to do additional research and make adjustments along the way. Good luck with the rest of your build and keep posting lots of pix.

 

[blacksi]

One thing we have had on our side is weather. We have not had enough rain to make even a puddle in the last month.

This is 12 truck loads of dirt later.

 

[blacksi]

I just realized I forgot to remove the skimmer from my concrete calculation.

 

[aeromorris05]

This might be a regional thing but after our PB poured the concrete collar around the base of the steel walls, he backfilled a 2-3' ring around the pool with gravel. The entire deck area was then given a 4-6" gravel base. It looks like your concrete was poured directly on fill dirt. Is that correct?

The inner rebar collar looks good assuming they lifted it out of the dirt and into the center of the concrete during the pour. By no means am I trying to worry you. I'm just curious. :?:

This picture might give you a better idea what I'm talking about. There's no rebar pictured b/c our builder used fiber reinforced concrete.

 

[blacksi]

Yeah, I was concerned about the backfill, I asked about gravel. The PB claims to never have any problems using dirt, they brought a compacting thing out but it broke down so they reverted to driving over it with the bobcat to compact it as they filled it. I was going around before they concrete showed up positioning rocks under the rebar when he saw me he assured me they would lift it as they poured.

With all that said I was disappointed with the back fill and wished I had asked about it ahead of time.

 

[blacksi]

Cool Deck is on.

 

[Stilly]

Looks very nice! I like how the patio, pool deck and pool shape all flow together nicely.

 

[aeromorris05]

Looks very nice! I think you did well with the amount of decking. Many people go minimal and later regret not having more. The rest of your build should go pretty quickly from here on out.

Are those umbrella holders on the right hand side? And how far apart are your concrete expansion joints? The panels look kinda large in the picture.

 

[blacksi]

Looks very nice! I think you did well with the amount of decking. Many people go minimal and later regret not having more. The rest of your build should go pretty quickly from here on out.

Are those umbrella holders on the right hand side? And how far apart are your concrete expansion joints? The panels look kinda large in the picture.

Thanks, it came out better than I expected. Yeah they're for the umbrellas. Not sure on the joints they just went off the corners of the steps then randomly space out around. One of these days I'll get out to get some finished pics.