Wow!! An $11,000 Intex (type) Pool build...what were we thinking?!

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I just realised its a bestway pool... My very first pool was a Bestway, and it was awesome...It really made me fall in love with owning a swimming pool.... I have very fond memories.... It taught me how to manage chemistry, so I shed a little tear when I sold it at the end of the season...... The only reason I went to intex is, I found one for half price, and they are 4 inches deeper than bestway... My kids are growing like weeds, my 10 year old is 2 years off eclipsing me in height..... lol.. I love the bestway liner, its so pretty.... :)

I still can't get over how you caught him before he cut that great big hole too far down..... Great job... :)
 
Divin Dave said:
cool pool! I like what you're doing!

I tell ya, it absolutely amazes me, at the ineptness of a lot of people who are supposed to be 'pros'. It really does! Like, "how stupid can you be"?!? type of amazed!
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Thanks so much :) In his defence I suppose, we discovered that he had received prior "instruction" from the rep from the pool supply company we purchased our equipment from, telling him to install the skimmer in the uppermost return access. Being unfamiliar with Intex pools, he had no alternative but to assume the info he received was correct. Now that he has the correct info, and the pics I provided him (from this forum), he is on his way to redeeming himself. The electrician was out to make his final connections, the water truck is being delivered today (the company is leaving it overnight for us to use tomorrow once he returns to make his repairs and finish up the last of the plumbing). If the forecasted rain can hold off for a couple of hours on Sunday, the last of the deck boards may actually make their way onto our deck too. We are (planning on) assembling the pool steps this evening. With any luck the last of the fencing around the perimeter of the retaining wall and the rest of deck rail will be up next week as well :)
 
So relieved to see the sun shining this morning (despite the 6 straight days of forecasted rain). After our major "hiccup" this week, looks like we can finally get the last of the plumbing hookups done this morning and the pool filled the rest of the way and up and running by noon. We are already two weeks behind schedule, and hopefully the last of the delays are finally behind us :)
 
Great build! With a five year old, you will get so many great years from it that the sticker-shock will quickly wear off. I am curious, since you mentioned having inspector-types involved even though it is a "temporary pool": What have they said about how to properly bond one of these pools? I, too, have a rectangular Intex (actual Intex). On the Intex, the metal supports snap into each other and at each juncture is a plastic component -- I've never been clear on if that means the bonding loop is going to be deemed "continuous" or if each segment would need to get a separate lug (that would seem nearly impossible, particularly as I actually do dismantle and re-build each year). Did your inspector determine a way to effectively bond to the frame? Thanks for any input, and congrats on a great project!
 
crek31 said:
Great build! With a five year old, you will get so many great years from it that the sticker-shock will quickly wear off. I am curious, since you mentioned having inspector-types involved even though it is a "temporary pool": What have they said about how to properly bond one of these pools? I, too, have a rectangular Intex (actual Intex). On the Intex, the metal supports snap into each other and at each juncture is a plastic component -- I've never been clear on if that means the bonding loop is going to be deemed "continuous" or if each segment would need to get a separate lug (that would seem nearly impossible, particularly as I actually do dismantle and re-build each year). Did your inspector determine a way to effectively bond to the frame? Thanks for any input, and congrats on a great project!
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Thank you crek31. We hope to have at least a couple of years out of this one, before we look at upgrading to a more permanent option. We made the investment in the upgraded equipment now, the excavation was done and the deck built with the intent of eventually replacing this one with another with the same or similar footprint down the road.
As to your question concerning bonding. Although there are varied opinions, and most say it isn’t a requirement on a pool such as this one, with the addition of the upgraded equipment and electric heater we wanted to be sure we were taking any precautions to ensure everyone’s safety.
The electrician installed ground lugs on one upright on each of the four sides of the pool and ran the loop around the perimeter. He did grind off some of the enamel paint before attaching. We are not using a ladder, but he did indicate if we choose to add one, it too would need to be bonded (anything metal within 18’). This is the pic of the upright closest to the equipment.



- - - Updated - - -

If you haven't seen the pics of the complete build from start to "almost finished" they are available to be viewed at http://s933.photobucket.com/user/ariel68_2010/library/?sort=2&page=1
 
So, alot has happened since yesterday morning. Pool equipment installer completed his repair and the rest of his install. All the equipment is up and running including the heater. With the K-Star10 heater set at the mid point we saw approx. 13 degree increase in temp from 53 to 66 in less than 24 hours (without the benefit of a cover which won't arrive until Wednesday). Hubby has put it up to 75% and we will see how much of a difference it makes. The deck boards are all finished, and as luck would have it, today as we started the last of our deck rail install we realized we were short a couple of deck post anchors, so off the Hardware store (50 miles away) for the hubby while I tackle the pool stairs. Came up with a creative idea to protect the liner from the deck boards and have decided we like the look so much we are going to "pimp" out the whole top rail of our pool as well. The bonus is, we were able to find poolside loungers and chairs to match :) Here is a pic in progress. We still have to trim out the cut ends of the deck boards (to give us a soft edge), but at last we are close to seeing the finish line...



 

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How are things going? Enjoying the pool over the last 1-1/2 weeks of nice weather? Ours finally warmed up enough to enjoy it several times. Saying that however, a cold weather system moved in and dropped the temp down enough to lower the pool down to 70 degrees again. It was 82 only 2 days ago.
 
Very nice work! Now as an Intex owner as well, why wouldn't you go with a steel side pool if your budget was that high? Or was the Intex the start of pandora's box? ;)

Very impressive work! I have seem some pretty elaborate setups with the intex pools being put in the ground.
 
I love the orange and blue color scheme! But honestly, it just isn't complete unless the two white SUV's in the driveway get in on the action! One of them needs to be painted blue and the other orange ASAP, then you will really be pimpin! :)

Nice, creative build. I love people who think outside the box, or rather inside a great, big, huge wooden box! :)
 
xanadu said:
How are things going? Enjoying the pool over the last 1-1/2 weeks of nice weather? Ours finally warmed up enough to enjoy it several times. Saying that however, a cold weather system moved in and dropped the temp down enough to lower the pool down to 70 degrees again. It was 82 only 2 days ago.
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We have had quite the month, too busy enjoying the pool and battling flood waters to provide updates tho. I see you are from Manitoba as well xanadu...what area of MB are you from?

Our pool has been at the 88 to 90 degree mark every day, still without the benefit of the solar cover (went to install the solar reel and the bracket snapped in half and still waiting for a replacement part to arrive). So it has been a blessing with our cooler evenings, in fact last week as I sat bundled up on the deck watching our grand daughter swim, I had to jump in just to warm up. When the flood waters rose, we were evacuated from our home for about 24hrs, came home to a flooded basement. Admittedly, for a week or so, "water" (in any form) was the last thing I wanted to see, so needless to say the pool became a little neglected and ignored. We had cut the power to the pumps and heaters for a couple of days over this past weekend to investigate a leak, and with the drop in temps at night, the pool dropped from its usual balmy temps down to 63 degrees seemingly overnight brr. Turned the heater back on last night and its already back up to 78 degrees, so should be ready for an evening swim tonight, if only the mosquitoes would leave us alone. Sounds like we are in for a scorcher this upcoming weekend, so looking forward to a relaxing weekend in the pool :)
 
ariel68 said:
As to your question concerning the retaining wall, well that is an huge issue for me as well. The "builder" was to have installed the sleepers inside the posts. We do intend to backfill but not before we trench and install deadmen/ additional bracing along the backside of the wall to strengthen it. Once the pool has been removed in the fall we also intend to add additional posts on the inside of the wall, offset from the others, before reinstalling the pool next spring.
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While earth will exert pressure on that wall, your real worry is ground water. Backfill with gravel. Backfill with gravel wrapped in a filter fabric. Backfill with gravel wrapped in filter fabric and put in drain tile along the bottom edge. You could even go crazy and put something like a drainage composite (like a Mirafi Miradrain) along the back before you backfill.

-dave
 
phonedave said:
While earth will exert pressure on that wall, your real worry is ground water. Backfill with gravel. Backfill with gravel wrapped in a filter fabric. Backfill with gravel wrapped in filter fabric and put in drain tile along the bottom edge. You could even go crazy and put something like a drainage composite (like a Mirafi Miradrain) along the back before you backfill.

-dave
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Thanks Dave. We do intend to backfill with small rock (our gravel here is really more like sand) and install weeping tile, once we put in additional posts and reinforce the wall along the longest side. We have seen first hand how much damage ground water can do with the recent rain storms and flooding our province is currently experiencing. Not the least of which is the amount of soil that was washed into our basement through our home's foundation :(
 
We are east of Winnipeg, about 30 miles. Our pool has only gotten up to 82 one day, but has now dropped to 68 with the cold weather that rolled over the weekend. Heat this week forecasted should bump it up again, along with the solar heater. (not much use without sunshine though)

ariel68 said:
We have had quite the month, too busy enjoying the pool and battling flood waters to provide updates tho. I see you are from Manitoba as well xanadu...what area of MB are you from?

Our pool has been at the 88 to 90 degree mark every day, still without the benefit of the solar cover (went to install the solar reel and the bracket snapped in half and still waiting for a replacement part to arrive). So it has been a blessing with our cooler evenings, in fact last week as I sat bundled up on the deck watching our grand daughter swim, I had to jump in just to warm up. When the flood waters rose, we were evacuated from our home for about 24hrs, came home to a flooded basement. Admittedly, for a week or so, "water" (in any form) was the last thing I wanted to see, so needless to say the pool became a little neglected and ignored. We had cut the power to the pumps and heaters for a couple of days over this past weekend to investigate a leak, and with the drop in temps at night, the pool dropped from its usual balmy temps down to 63 degrees seemingly overnight brr. Turned the heater back on last night and its already back up to 78 degrees, so should be ready for an evening swim tonight, if only the mosquitoes would leave us alone. Sounds like we are in for a scorcher this upcoming weekend, so looking forward to a relaxing weekend in the pool :)
Click to expand...
 
xanadu said:
We are east of Winnipeg, about 30 miles. Our pool has only gotten up to 82 one day, but has now dropped to 68 with the cold weather that rolled over the weekend. Heat this week forecasted should bump it up again, along with the solar heater. (not much use without sunshine though)
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We live approx. 180 miles West of Winnipeg. We did live in Wpg for 10 years tho. We used a solar blanket/ small solar heater last couple of summers on our 15' round Intex (with the blow up top ring) and found it never reached a temp higher than 75 degrees, and only after several days of sunshine and intense heat. We vowed that if we were going to invest in a larger pool and a project of this scale, it was going to be heated at whatever cost. Our pool temps aren't without great cost to us. Our first month to heat and circulate (in the month of June) was probably close to 400.00 (both running 24 hrs per day). We did go with a cheaper initial investment by choosing the electric pool heater, but if and when we take the plunge to move to a more permanent pool, we would be willing to look at the cost of an electric heat pump down the road.
 

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