Pasadena Pool Build by Owner (from concept to cracks to water)

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Theothermelissa

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Feb 28, 2015
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Pasadena, CA
My husband grew up with a pool and as a competitive swimmer I grew up practically underwater. We always knew we wanted a pool in our backyard "when we grew up." Two years ago his mom downsized, selling the house with the pool (aka eliminating our easy pool access) and we threw our savings into high gear.

This year, we decided to take the plunge. The first step was agreeing on design. He wanted freeform with tons of play space (like the pool at his childhood home). I wanted somewhere I could swim laps. Needing a compromise, I scoured the web for a pool design that we could agree on. After approximately six thousand vetos (five thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine of those were his vetos, but to be fair, I was the one finding the pictures) we both fell in love with a design I found on houzz (pictures below). We both loved the clean modern look of the pool below. It seemed to go well with the updates that were done to our home before we moved in. The pool house in the picture was never considered -- it wouldn't fit in our yard (or savings account), but the raised bond beam and raised deck, slate facade with exposed scupper water features, in-pool spa and baja step were all elements we LOVED and more importantly AGREED ON :handshake:. We also agreed that we wanted it to be a true rectangle instead of an L because we wanted to maximize swim space but also because we wanted to install an automatic safety cover. We don't have kids (yet) but we have lots of friends with kids and an aquatically minded dog so we wanted to make sure we could close off swim access when we weren't outside to supervise.

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With these elements agreed upon I found some backyard design software and tinkered around. We have a long rectangular backyard and we decided we wanted the pool towards the back of the lot parallel with the back fence. We have a big orange tree that we sadly were going to have to take down as we couldn't figure out a way to make a path back to the pool that didn't leave the orange tree as a small island in a sea of deck. This is what I came up with (and spoiler alert it's changed a bit but I don't want to get ahead of myself):



Almost from the beginning we knew we wanted to do this on our own (sans PB). My dad was in construction and I have DIY in my blood. We have a family friend who is retired from the pool excavation industry and was excited to help us with our project. So armed with the above plan we visited an architect that our family friend found (I suppose I'll refer to him as FF from here on out, this fourm seems big on abbreviations and I want to want to fit in!) who sold standard pool plans. We paid for the added customization of the cover vault and baja step and BOOM. We had plans. Three days later I headed to the city, with crossed fingers and we were issued a permit. FF had a friend still in the excavation business so we set the dig for Feb 18th. Mind you we still hadn't lined up any of the subs after that. We had put in some calls and would be meeting some subs over the next few weeks. But we had bought a ticket (and an expensive permit) -- the train was leaving the station!! We climbed on sure that this would be our greatest adventure yet!

Next post -- before pics and the dig where (spoiler alert) though we are in a historic drought here in So Cal, we lost 3 days to rain!

- Melissa
 
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Re: Pasadena Pool Build by Owner (aka Our Great "Adventure")

That is going to be great. Looking forward to your sharing it with us. Is the left side the raised beam? If you have scuppers (and I love the ones in your inspiration photo) then your automation system should be able to disable them when it senses the cover in the closed position. Otherwise you can accidentally empty the pool onto the cover and destroy it. We don't have water features so it wasn't us.
 
Re: Pasadena Pool Build by Owner (aka Our Great "Adventure")

Thanks bmoreswim! We are having scuppers on the raised beam (which is like an upside down L along 2/3 of the deep end wall and 2/3 of the long wall on the right in the design above -- across from the spa and baja step). Great advice re: disabling the scuppers. We're working on that with our plumbers (which we found a few days before the dig began. More on that in my next post).
 
Re: Pasadena Pool Build by Owner (aka Our Great "Adventure")

I am SO in for this one! That is one good looking pool and area!

Melissa should know that you need to let us think we are helping you spend your money LOL! We LOVE to give input and suggestions.

I like your writing style. This should be fun!

Kim
 
Re: Pasadena Pool Build by Owner (aka Our Great "Adventure")

Ch. 2 Searching for Subs (aka The Clock is Ticking)

With our dig date set for 2/18 we set out to (quickly) find the rest of our subs. FF had lined up the excavation crew who would do the dig, demo our existing patio, cut down our beloved orange tree and do a rough grading of the yard. But we still needed, well, EVERYONE ELSE. The good news on that front is that everyone knows someone. We started with the architect who sold us the standard pool plans. He gave us the name of a steel guy. FF called said steel guy, described our project, sent over a pdf of the plans and got a bid. FF asked around some more and got a few more steel names and repeated the process. Some of the subs came over to the house and walked the property and listened carefully as I showed them a pink garden tape outline in the grass that represented the pool. We repeated the same process for concrete guys, and plumbers. FF had a lead on a shotcrete company that he was fairly sure was going to be our best bet. Same with plaster. We ended up collecting three steel bids. One was EXORBITANTLY high. The other two were within two hundred dollars of each other and seemed to prove they were a fair price. But then we had one last steel guy who came in and just sold us (I can't remember exactly how we found him... maybe a referral from the cover guys...). He was a younger guy and had been in the family business of building pools since he was a teenager. He had been doing steel exclusively for about a decade, had done a ton of pools with automatic covers and really knew his stuff. And the kicker -- he came in about eight hundred dollars below the other two reasonable guys. SOLD. (I should note here that EVERY SUB we used is licensed and insured and was referred by someone else in the industry). Another bonus about the steel guy we settled on is that he recommended a shotcrete guy who typically follows after him and does excellent work. We got a bid from him and he came in a few hundred dollars under our initial shotcrete bid. SOLD.

With one week out from the dig we had the excavation crew, steel and shot crete locked and loaded. Still missing were plumbing, electric, and then things that came after shotcrete (tile, plaster, coping, decking -- all things that I had yet to make final decisions on what I wanted, so we weren't stressing on finding them yet. We knew we'd have at least 7 days while shotcrete was curing to finalize them). Plumbers were proving to be difficult as FF was convinced we were getting fleeced in the plumbing bids. Like steel we had one HIGH bid and two that were about the same price. I really liked the plumber that was in the middle price wise ($200 more than the low bid). He came with great referrals, asked all the right questions when he came and looked at the pink outline on the grass, talked through equipment with me and promised to get it for cost and bring it with him and I just had a good feeling about him. After he sent his bid and EQ list I compared the prices to what I could find on-line and each of the pieces of equipment was between $200-$500 cheaper than I was finding on-line. I told FF I wanted to go with this plumber. But FF, convinced that they were "trying to rip my heart out" with these numbers, kept meeting with plumbers. He had I think three more guys over, including one guy who was not licensed and promised to be very affordable -- and then came in $100 under the plumber I liked (and he wasn't licensed!! NO!!!!). Ultimately I told FF I was going to pull the trigger with the plumber I liked and he should stop looking for plumbers. If they are all coming in at about the same price -- that's the price. Bonus about the plumber we went with -- he recommended an electrician that they frequently work with. In fact, he called the electrician and gave him the download on our property/ the job and the electrician sent us a detailed bid that I was comfortable with. SOLD. All subs from excavation to shotcrete were now lined up.

The one other thing I should note about this process was budget. When I had lunch with FF after we visited the architect to get the plans, I asked him if he could give me ballpark numbers for each of the pieces of the job. As the bids started coming in I started to realize that that number was WAY OFF. Much too low. This, I think, is one of the downsides of doing an owner build. There is no giant sticker price that you can wrap your head around at the beginning. There are lots of stickers. And as the budget was leaving that initial number deep in the rear view my husband and I had to do a gut check and answer the question: Are we sure we want to spend x and possibly xy on a pool? I considered vastly simplifying the design, eliminating the raised bond beam, deck and water feature. But my husband was fine with x, xy even xyz. We had the money in savings. We should get the pool we wanted. So we pressed on with the design we loved and the price we were learning to be okay with.

Seems like that is a long enough post for now. It looks like I'll have to save the dig for the next post. I'm planning on posting a few more times this weekend to cover dig, steel, plumbing and electric and then I'll be caught up as we have our first inspection on Monday.

A picture of the backyard with that pink tape line I showed to all the subs:



And one more from last summer with our dog, Maggie, appraising her domain. The beloved orange tree can be seen in the left hand corner of the photo along with a flowering tulip tree -- both of which are slated to go. The persimmon tree on the right is staying.



- Melissa
 
Re: Pasadena Pool Build by Owner (aka Our Great "Adventure")

Good idea with the pink tape. NOTHING beats a good visual aid!

What kind of dog is Maggie?

I had an American Bull that looked like her from the back!

Kim
 
Re: Pasadena Pool Build by Owner (aka Our Great "Adventure")

The Dig

The morning of our dig was cool and abnormally misty. So the before pictures look like we live in the whispery Northwest instead of sun drenched Southern California. Also, we had already moved all of our patio furniture and bbq to the garage so it's not a true before pic. Either way here are the before pics:

From the bottom of the back steps looking out:


A few yards to the right, on the edge of the small paver deck looking out to pool area:


From the back fence, looking over what will be the pool, back to the house:


The crew arrived early and tore down the small retaining wall between the patio and the grass so they could have a ramp for the bobcat. I blinked and I missed it. Well, actually I took the dog for a short walk because the big trucks and bobcat were freaking her out. But when I came back the wall was down AND the enormous stump from a pine tree that we lost in a wind storm a few years ago was pulled out.

Said stump:


That thing was huge. Almost as big as the bobcat. Luckily the tree had been cut down for a few years and the roots were collecting a lot of water and rotting so it was easy to pull out (allegedly, again, I didn't see it).

I snapped another picture when George (one of the excavation crew members) was cutting down the orange tree. It was a farewell photo... or so I thought.



Little did I know at the time, George was saving the tree's life. He had tasted one of the oranges earlier in the morning and decided the tree needed to live, either in our yard or in his. So instead of cutting it straight down he did an aggressive trimming. Apparently the tree had become quite over grown over the years. When he finished trimming it I suddenly realized there was plenty of room on the left of the tree to have a sidewalk that would lead to the pool. I had been convinced that there wasn't enough room on the left so if we kept the tree we'd need a path on the left and the right and that meant the tree would be a little island in a sea of concrete and I just wasn't okay with that. But I now saw that there could be lawn to the right of the tree and sidewalk to the left and we could keep the tree! Thank you George!

The dig took quite a few days as the crew was small, the hole was big and the dump was far away. Yes our gorgeous dirt had to be hauled away to the dump. We tried to post on our neighborhood fourm that we had free dirt. But when we wrote the post it quickly turned into a public shaming of us for building a pool in the middle of California's worst drought. We took down the post. And kept digging our hole. (And for the record I just read an article that said over the life of a pool it will use much less water than a lawn -- so there. We're actually saving water with our pool!).

Hole after day 3:



About the time this photo was taken I started freaking out about the raised deck/ raised bond beam portion of our project. As a reminder this is the look we were going for (sans pool house and bbq):



We knew from the conceptual phase that to get this raised deck we would have to build retaining walls from the the back corner of our fence stretching the length of the raised section, compact the dirt between the retaining wall and raised bond beam and then build deck on top. The architect recommended digging the footings for the retaining walls after the the pool had been shot with gunite. It was a lot, but we were on board. But then, as they shot the elevations of the yard (using really cool laser tools) and leveled the form for the pool, they had to add a few inches of dirt to the corner of the yard that would have the raised deck. And as they did so we peeked over to my neighbors yard (behind our property) and realized that what had been a four or five inch drop off at the property line (formed by years of water drainage and natural erosion) became a 8-10 inch difference in elevation. The footings to our retaining wall would need to be close to 42" deep (!) to make up for that drop off. The scope and cost of all of that started to freak me out and I considered scraping the whole element. But then my mom of all people came to visit and she walked the permitter of the hole with me and suggested that we just have the raised bond beam as a decorative element (24" high by 16" wide) and then have a side walk on ground level. No raised deck. No retaining walls. No footings dug half way to China. I loved the idea. And couldn't believe I hadn't considered it sooner. Like George with the orange tree I had an instant new perspective. I passed on the idea to FF and husband and all were sold.

New plan:



More dig in process pictures:

Popping up the old patio. Interestingly enough I discovered a date scrawled into the concrete under were our bbq used to sit: 9-11-54. Old concrete. Poured on a haunting date. It had all sorts of treats stored inside. Some sections had wire. Some had two layers of concrete with inches of gravel inside. Crew had a lot of fun taking it apart (that was sarcasm. It was a real bi#$% for them to break apart).


Near the end. All patio up.


During the dig we lost two days to rain and four more were in the forecast between dig and steel so the excavation crew covered the hole up (before I could get a picture of the finished hole).


So five days and A LOT of trips to the dump later we had a hole! No turning back now!! (That's another aspect of being an owner builder -- there's no contract to sign so it doesn't all sink in at once. Looking at that hole it sunk in -- we were getting a pool).

Next post: Steel, plumbing and electric. All of which happened last week. This week is inspection (tomorrow am) then if all goes well shotcrete on Thursday.
 

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Re: Pasadena Pool Build by Owner (aka Our Great "Adventure")

Steel

It rained off on and for four days and the hole stayed covered. On Monday the owner of the steel company came by and checked the hole. He said the walls looked good, there was just a little bit of muck in the deep end -- his guys could start the next day. But he did notice that the area for the cover vault wasn't deep enough. It needed to be six inches deeper and have a notch for the motor on the baja step side. I was super thankful for his expertise with the CoverStar covers. Our excavation crew had dug tons of pools with covers but overlooked the size of the cover vault. FF called the crew back and they were scheduled to come first thing the next am to dig the vault deeper.

Tuesday am the steel guys arrived and uncovered the pool. This is what was beneath. Little muck in the deep end but nothing major:


View from the other end. You can see where the water ran down the tarp and into the deep end. Not deep enough cover vault at the far side. Compacted dirt for spa and baja step on the right.


The guys carrying in bundles of steel:


Starting the grid:


The guys seemed to know what they were doing. But I was a little disconcerted because the boss (the guy who sold me on the company) wasn't there. I e-mailed him and he said he'd be there soon. Until then I tried to remind myself that these guys do this every day and I've never put rebar in a pool. So I let them do their thing. The boss arrived shortly after and we went over a few final details about the raised bond beam, spa size and pool benches. He was very reassuring that they had it covered and he promised that he'd be around for the rest of the day. That was very comforting. They had six guys and even the boss in the pool towards the end of the day and they finished in one day. It really started looking like something.

The pic below is taken when I was standing in deep end and looking towards cover end. Spa and bench can be seen on right. Behind the cover vault you can see the piled up dirt from the extra six inches that had to be dug out of the vault. It's a little tricky to walk around the pool now. Another complicated element of doing an owner build. There is no stand-by crew to haul out this dirt. It'll probably be a DIY project for husband and I (and whatever friends we can round up. Advanced payment for pool access).


This one is taken from the edge of the shallow end looking across to baja shelf and spa. I told the steel guy that I wanted a wrap around bench from baja step around spa. It ended up adding space to the baja shelf which I actually like. I'll be a nice big space for little kids to play and adults to lounge. I think we're going to add a small step in the corner of the baja shelf next to the spa to help ease the entry. Because of the auto cover we need to set our water line at 5 inches below bond beam. With 2 inches of coping and 10 inches to water without that step we're looking at at least 17 inches from the top of the deck to the water (how thick are decks? Another couple of inches above bond beam?) That feels too deep to me, so the first step (made of shotcrete) seems necessary. What do you guys think? Hard to tell from just steel.


Last pic looking over baja step to the deep end and raised bond beam section. You can just barely make out the steel curtain for the raised bond beam. The plans called for reinforced steel under the raised bond beam section and you can see the top of that reinforcement in the photo. It's even more reinforced towards the bottom.


That's all for now. Plumbing and equipment post soon.
 
Re: Pasadena Pool Build by Owner (aka Our Great "Adventure")

Plumbers arrived and solidified my theory that the guy who comes and sells me on why I should hire the company is not going to be the guy who is there doing the work. If I was doing this again that would be a question I ask EVERY SUB -- "Who is going to be here on the day of the work." I get that they do this a lot and all of the "guys" are super qualified and know what they are doing. But it just feels weird for one person to show up and sell me on the company and different people to do the work.

Few hours later the electricians arrived and guess what -- they too were not the guy I "hired" and discussed details with. Despite that they did great work.

One of the plumbers working the trencher:



Trenches look nice but man, what a pain. Any remnant of my yard is toast.


Equipment Pad. In the window you can see our drop cam (resting on a drill box ;-) professional operation we have here) I can watch the progress from inside the house and husband can watch from work.






At the end of the day the plumbers were about to take off and I noticed a small drip, drip, drip near the filter. I asked them about it and (after visibly being bummed that they weren't done for the day) took the water out of the system. Re-attached the piece. And it was still dripping. Turns out (according to them) the piece was faulty. They promised to call and order a new piece immediately and come back the next morning with it. And... they delivered. Bright and early the next day (Friday) they showed up with the new piece. Attached it and no more drip. Whew. We're ready for the inspection on Monday.

But then, Sunday morning I noticed the gas line, which had been pressurized at 15 when the plumbers left on Thursday was now at 4. Uh-Oh. I texted the plumber and he said he'd have someone out Monday am. I thanked him. Then proceeded to stress out for the next 24 hours. Would the plumber get here before the inspector? Would it be an easy fix? Stress. Stress. Stress. Cut to: Monday morning. Plumbers (a new guy) arrived at 9. Inspected the line and found an area that wasn't tightened enough and fixed it. Line re-pressurized to 15+. No sight of the inspector. Whew. And while the plumber was here he told me that to pass code a gas line just had to lose less than 1 pound per 10 mins. So perhaps it was up to code even before they came Monday am. Regardless I was thankful for the responsiveness and the fix.

I waited around all day (was given the window of 8:30am-3:30pm) for inspection. At 2pm he came. Looked around for 10 minutes. Measured the set-backs. Glanced at the equipment. Complimented the work and signed off. We still have a gate and fence inspection and a final inspection. But we have been given the go to gunite. We're scheduled for gunite -- er shotcrete actually on Thursday. I think it takes 7 days to cure... Is that right?

Lots of decisions still. Tile. Coping. Deck. With each thing that gets locked it seems a dozen more questions pop up...

If any one has any feedback/ advice on the equipment or anything please comment away!!

-Melissa
 
Re: Pasadena Pool Build by Owner (aka Our Great "Adventure")

Nice work! So nice that they do what it right to fix things! Nice when someone answers the phone/email/text LOL

The only thing I would do is take a good picture of all of the plumbing so you know what is where in case of future problems. Label everything in the picture and put it up.

Kim
 
Re: Pasadena Pool Build by Owner (aka Our Great "Adventure")

Shotcrete was last week. Such an interesting process. I loved our shotcrete sub. He was on site with his guys all day and kept me very involved. Each time there was a choice to be made he involved me (how long do I want the third step? how deep do I want the first step into the baja step and spa?).



Spa party. That's Edgar, the boss, up on the left, giving instructions to the crew in the pool.


Working on the wall. The raised bond beam is yet to be shot in this photo:


Finished product





I was very happy with their work. BUT I was surprised and overwhelmed by the mess left behind. Yikes. At the end of the day they made a "clean-out" pile that was a couple of wheelbarrow loads of wet concrete. Yuck. There was also dry wall and wood left behind. Add this to the list of questions I'd ask if I was doing this again: "What do you leave behind? Who cleans up the mess?" Because as a recap we still had unfilled trenches left behind from the plumbers. And now had piles of concrete. Boo.

Lastly, they left a 2x4 in the raised bond beam. Once removed that 2x4 would become the notch for our automatic pool cover encapsulated rail. The concrete was not set enough for the shotcrete crew to remove it. But they assured me that anyone with a hammer and a chisel could pop it out. Any guesses how that worked out? You guessed it: not well. Fast forward six days (six 85+ degree days that had us watering the pool 5+ times a day. To be drought conscious we purchased a pump and recycled the same water over and over throughout the week) the excavation crew returned to fill trenches, compact dirt, haul away concrete and deal with that 2x4. The first three went brilliantly and I had my yard -- or at least a dirt facsimile of what my yard should be, back. But that 2x4 did not want to leave. Ugh. One of the guys was able to cut and chop and pull out a tiny section but he had to give up for the day. He promised to return some time next week but we are staging a DIY attack today. Our first pool party! My parents are coming over and along with myself, my husband and one of his former students we're going to bust out every tool we can imagine and get that board out. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
 
Re: Pasadena Pool Build by Owner (aka Our Great "Adventure")

Nice job! I love it!

Please post a pic of that 2x4 and all of the tools to get it out.

I hope you have plenty of beer to help take it out LOL!

Good luck!

Kim
 
Re: Pasadena Pool Build by Owner (aka Our Great "Adventure")

Go to your local Harbor Freight and buy a bunch of chisels. Do you have a sawzall? Buy blades from Harbor Freight also. You can print 20% off coupons on their website, their prices are cheap and tools are decent. You won't be upset if you break the tool.
 
Re: Pasadena Pool Build by Owner (aka Our Great "Adventure")

Success. The board is out. It took 5 of us four hours but we got it out.

Tools used:
skill saw - 3 blades destroyed
drill with 1 1/2in coring bit - bit dulled and battery died
sawzall - 2 demo blades destroyed
4 chisels
3 hammers
2 crowbars
2 screwdrivers uses as chisels
4 large metal stakes used as crowbars
2 ladders

It was a major production. We lost a few chunks of shotcrete that were attached to the 2x4. I think the plaster crew will be able to fill them. Pics below:

Going at it (from left, dad, mom, husband and husbands former student)






And finally the wall sans board. The good news is that inside it looked pretty good. Not much leveling will be needed before the encapsulation tracks can be installed.




(the arched notches are for the track installation. They will be covered with slate after the tracks are installed. The large notch where you can see vertical pieces of pvc pipe is where the water feature will go -- five stainless steel scuppers/ channel spouts.)
 

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