New season means pool reno

[Prospector]

Hey folks, new to this board and only on year 2 of pool ownership, so I need a little bit of a hand-up if you can afford the time.

When we bought this house last year, it came with a pool, which we viewed as more of a liability than a benefit. Surprisingly though, our kids used it a fair bit, and so now we are pulling together resources to renovate the pool rather than fill it in. I am still a little irked that Dad is the only one who has figured out how to vac the dang thing, but hey, thats life. Suck it up, buttercup, etc.

In any case, our planned pool reno includes redoing the decks with "Rubaroc" and replacing the plastic coping around the pool which has been cracked by heaving concrete. We will also do some other landscaping and soft side stuff, but the bulk of the work and budget is on the deck and coping.

Today I called the local pool co. and was informed that plastic coping currently available does not match the profile we have. They are sending a tech out to look at what we have and see if they stock anything to match it. Secretly I would like to replace the coping with stone, but if plastic is cheaper, I'll go that way.

Based on the pics here: http://frosthaus.blogspot.ca/2013/05/pool-stuff.html does anyone have a suggested source for old-school plastic coping? Also, is this something that a semi-competent homeowner can DIY replacement on? If I Do switch to stone, will it mean a liner replacement? How is stone coping bonded to the soil/deck beneath?

This cracked plastic is starting to get spendy.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Can't give you an answer but just wanted to say welcome

 

[Prospector]

Thanks poolmom.

The guys from the pool store were by to quote us a price today, they started off with that they would replace everything. Decks, coping, liner. Ballpark guess was around $5500.

I pointed out that we already have a contractor coming to replace the decks, so all we really care about is the coping and strainer basket. They backed off and suggested that they coud replace the coping, but it would mean releasing the liner from its track, and they couldn't guarantee what that would cost us. price would be in the thousands.

I balked, and then they pointed out that I could just replace the corner pieces since the rest of the coping is passable. The corners could be DIYed for less than $200 - or we could have them done of the cast stone we are getting. I think that would look funky though.

So it sounds like the pool guys are going to do one hour's labour for us to reset the liner in its track, and we will be resetting the corner trim on the coping ourselves. If I find that the rest of the coping can be easily replaced at the same time, then I'll be back for more advice.

 

[Prospector]

Dumb new pool owner problem.

The pool store advised to drain the pool down so it would be less work to reset the corners. Taking their advice, I dropped the pool level by 4 ft. (until the shallow end was dry). The pool place called yesterday to advise they will be here 'soon'. In the meantime, I should refill the pool since draining it stresses the liner or something. There's a couple thousand gallons of water wasted.

The liner now has wrinkles across the shallow end. Hope I didn't screw it up too badly.

 

[jblizzle]

Usually we recommend leaving at least a foot of water in the shallow end to avoid the liner shifting ...

 

[Prospector]

Thanks Jason.

The pool place guys showed up just now while I was home for lunch. I have to give them a fair dose of respect. We explained the being told to drain the pool piece, adn the being told to fill the pool piece. They said they can reset 2 of the corners for us, but there is too much water in the pool now to reset the liner. I was upset at having to schedule and callback a second time for the same service call, and they were very understanding.

I went in the house and griped to my wife about it, then there was a knock at the door - they had called in to the office, and have a pump coming out to drain the pool and reset the liner. No extra charge.

That makes me very happy. By the time I get home tonight, I should have a open-able pool again. So many of these pool places seem to play games.

 

[Prospector]

Yee-haw - more excitement!

OK, before setting into fixing the pool proper, we decided to go ahead with building a retaining wall to hold back the slope in our yard. Although the wall will only be a couple fet high, it should help with the sagging pool deck and allow us to set grades for the deck and coping. I am setting the top of the retaining wall at 2% lower that the current coping on the pool which in my (feeble) mind will allow appropriate drainage, and will give me a grade to work backwards from when I bring in new coping and pour new decks.

So last night I started trenching out the foundation for the retaining wall. Of course I daylighted the existing pool lines in the process of digging out the retaining wall footing. The line from the skimmer basket to the pump was white tigerflex-line (whatever that stuff is called) the lines from the pump to the jets was black plastic. Of course no sand or fines were used in setting the lines, which means the black plastic lines have abraided and are weeping. I see this as a mixed blessing. On the one hand, I can replace the lines as part of the current work. On the other hand, I now have to replace the lines which was not in the original scope of the project. By the time all this is done I will have replaced most of the pool.

Can anyone recommend what material I should use to replace the black plastic lines? Is it worth it to replace them all the way back to the skimmer basket, or can I just use a barb fitting to replace the portion of the lines back to the pump. If I have to go forward to the skimmer basket it means I am into extra concrete work. Looking at local pool suppliers I see this line everywhere - I am assuming it is the right material: http://www.poolsuppliescanada.ca/tigerf ... -coil.html

 

[Prospector]

As many of you kinow, I have been rebuilding our backyard for most of the summer. At this point I am finally ready to work on the pool proper. its kindof like Indiana Jones finally reaching the Arc of the Covenant.

the first task in this phase is to cut back the concrete deck from the pool. I marked a cut line 10" back from the coping, and set to work with a rented walk-behind saw... The water is lovely, dive right in...

This slab was poured in 1978, which puts it at 35 years old. It is over fine sand. Wire mesh was laid on the sand for the pour, but the wire mesh / concrete interface is patchy. in some spots the wire mesh is embedded in the concrete by about 1" in others it is lying in the sand just below the concrete.

The concrete itself is actually quite good with few cracks. I believe the 'chemistry' in the pour was good.

The landscaping at the time of the pour I am not sure of, but there is an 18" rise from the yard to the top of the pool. It is possible that at the time of the pour, no retaining wall was present. I cannot say.

Today a colony of chipmunks has moved in under the slab and is vigorously tunnelling. They need to be eradicated, but the neighbour's birdfeeder is a good foodsource for them so I don't see them moving along without a pile of encouragement from my side.

The failure mode of the concrete appears to be that the sand washed out from under the slab. On 3 sides of the pool there is a gap between the bottom of the slab and the sand ranging from 2" to 8" or more. These gaps run the full length of the pool (16' X 32') and extend back from the pool wall by 18" to 2 ft. The edge of the slab away from the pool has settled by 4" over 3 ft on the worst side. Adjacent to the pool, the slab is sitting on the pool wall.

Where I had lifted a section of the slab earlier, I had discovered a thin layer of coarse aggreggate (clear stone) under it. It turns out that where repairs to the slab or pool plumbing were completed, clear stone was placed before the concrete was poured back in.

Out of curiosity, i wonder how many of you have seen this under a pool deck begfore, and whether this should be attributed to the sand, or is it all the familia rodentia (chipmunks). Because the sand has washed out most severely on the three 'downhill' sides, I tend to think gravity and water are the forces to blame.

More importantly, short of pulling up 500sf of concrete, how do I fix this? I need to stabilize what is left of the pool deck in preparation for a rubber rock overlay. Since the remaining concrete is not anchored to the pool (or anything else) I am concerned with it moving around under the new surface. Especially with it being so severely undermined, I don't want it to rock or teetertotter, and I don't want to provide additional chipmunk habitat.

For the rubber surfacing, I need a fine granular surface or bare concrete. Limestone chips are their preferred material. Is there a way to blow them back into the recess under the concrete and use water to compress?

 

[Prospector]

End of season update...

We ended up getting everything finished around the end of August and used the pool through September. We hired a contractor to pull up the rest of the deck after we took 3 tons to the dump.

A local pool shop came in and installed a new skimmer, coping, liner and strip deck. We hired a landscaper to install pavers for the rest of the deck since the chipmunks are here to stay, and we need to be able to reset our stonework.

We have some outstanding items - a shed, a lawn, a few other things, but they can wait for next year - or whenever.

The latest update with before & now pics can be seen here:
http://frosthaus.blogspot.ca/2013/10/ba ... d-now.html

Thanks to the folks on this board for your help and input.

 

[jblizzle]

Congratulations!!!