DIY Pool restoration project

Jump to latest Follow Reply
A 3" roller?! thats crazy! Yeah I can see keeping it in a place of honour as well ;)

I mailed one of the people I got an initial estimate from, but am not holding out hope that I'll hear back from him. As he works for a major re-plastering company and I'm asking him for a bid for the remaining potion of the work he'd initailly bid, I'm worried he'll take offense, a bit like asking a portrait artist to do a page in a coloring book and give a discount for providing my own crayons.

I've also got another person recommended, but he isn't very fluent in English so I'm concerned that there will be complications communicating on the job, and he has gone from wanting a four person crew, to a six person. As wary as I am about having work done that isn't how I'd like it, then having to re-do anything; an even larger crew I'm unable to communicate with makes me understandably uneasy.

The other option is to do it all myself or to try and rope in a friend, but it needs to be sooner rather than later. It started raining last night, and while the cement is tarped up, all that moisture around makes me worry.
 
Rock and hard place for sure!

Need to get it done but...............can one or two people really do it in one day?

I LOVE to do stuff myself but I am not sure I would try to take this on. That being said I really was not sure I could do the pool house and did. BUT I was able to to do a wall or area at a time. Can you do that with a pool? I have no idea as my pool has a liner.

Kim
 
You know what? What if you did the smallest wall where you can stand with ease. See how long it takes you. Then do one wall at a time. If you do a whole wall at a time I bet it would work. If there is any difference it will not show as much due to it meeting at the corner.

Who knows? You might be able to work faster than you thought............

Kim
 
I preface what I am about to say by stating that you have done an excellent job on this, especially considering this is mostly a DIY project with minimal assistance.

However, what are you going to do about the tree roots from the tree you cut? Does the stump remains standing/planted in the earth? Those roots will continue to draw moisture, shift, and disturb the earth around the pool.

I am not sure if that is/was a pine? The pines here in FL grow extremely deep taproots (downward extensions of the trunk!) that go as deep as 15 feet down. I am not familiar with the ones out west, but I would personally dig that thing out below the lateral root line about 2-3ft under, and cut it off way below grade. That way, the lateral roots will die a lot quicker, and you are also minimizing disturbance to the deck and the soil surrounding the pool. I would do this now before the pool is filled if it were me to reduce the likelihood of the pool shifting from displaced soil.
 
Mimimonster17 - sorry I didn't see that one until just now, sounds like a good thought/warning! It was a giant pine, and I'm sure you're right, the ground is bound to settle as the roots decay. I'm affraid I'll have to deal with that much later when I can get to it as I'm pretty over extended already, and that sounds like a major excavation...


Wow, its been a little while now. Sorry for going MIA, but I'm had my hands quite full :)


Where do I begin?

I picked up the mixer and was lucky enough to have my friend Kyle come by to help the first day
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

He helped to figure it all out and with the scratch-coat. Basically the scratch coat is a thin and rough cement mix that adheres to the existing cement/plaster and created some more absorbant texture for the new plaster to bont to.

We started with mixing the measured water and SC powder in the new mixer, but it was pretty lumpy so I set up a drill-mixer as well
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

The SC is a pretty thin consistancy and I read some where rollers were the best way to apply, so thats what we did; set up a tray and got a pair of rollers;
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

Tiring, thankless work, but I was glad for the extra hands,
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

The two bags just barely covered it all, and took most of the day
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr


Pretty dirty work, or so I thought, until I got to the next step...
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
The next day was another solid one, and time to begin the cement for real. I took what we'd figured out about mixing cement, but just me this time. deep breath, ok go.

Set up to mix the first bag near where the pile of bags was, using a bucked to support the 80lb bag while i fed it into the mixer, and preparing to split the mixed cement into the two buckets for ease of carrying...
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

but quickly realized the problems with carrying mixed cement all the way to the shallow end. I also noticed how much of a problem any spillage would be there, so after that batch I moved my mixing station to the other side
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

Had to start somewhere, so I picked a spot in the shade, and in the deep end. That way it might not have problems drying too fast and I could get the harder parts done first.

This was the first batch troweled up
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

I troweled with a 1/2in notched trowel to try and ensure that I had thick/even coverage.
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

One bag didn't go very far, and took about an hour... one down 44 to go
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

Basically I'd do a first coat with the notched side, then let it set a bit while I did the next batch,
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

When the rough trowled sets up, I'd smooth trowel another layer over top... spraying the other parts to slow the drying process... here are two more batches
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr


I even got a couple work-lights to let me work into part of the night,
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

and I thought I was dirty before ;)
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

Even with gloves I managed to wear the skin off my finger, beware of little bits of quartz getting inside gloves, the lye from the cement might not help either...
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

Overall, not a bad start for Day 1, I wish it'd have been possible to do it all in one day, but it just was not.
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr
 
OUCH! Those poor fingers. Put so liquid bandage on them and maybe wrap them with duct tape to protect them.

This is fun to watch. I wish I lived closer so I could help mix or something. Even if it were to hand you a ice cold drink!

Kim
 
The next day went much the same, more batches, applied, more area covered
As it dried and I rinsed/scrubbed away what was on the tile, and tht left some streaking in the dry cement, but it tended to vanish when it was wet, so I didn't worry
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr


The instructions from SGM about the Diamond brite had a detailed section about exposing the sgregate while it was wet, but since I didn't have the time/skill to backtrack I opted not to worry about it and just plan to use the acid exposure process instead, and hope that helped with the tile cleaning and streaking as well...


Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr
Getting edges to match presented some challenge, but that was just further reason to go as quickly as I could

I knew it'd be a risk, with it drying as I work, but still scary to see small cracks hit, I found around 5 like this, around a couple inches in length. I could stress and obsessively fix each one as I go, but then I'd never finish. The plan had to be to just fix them all when I was done with the rest of the main application .
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr


By the end of the second day I'd gotten the deep end's walls done;
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr


I also felt like I was getting the hang of the application;
http://instagram.com/p/sF67GePfSq/

This was the most tired I can remember ever being. Fuel...
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

Hands swollen and sore. Wearing the skin off my hands and arm where it rubs the bucket when I scooped. Mental note - make an armband.
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

This became my 2nd skin, doubled up work gloves with vinyl kitchen gloves and a cut-off sock arm band;
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

More progress;
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

I almost stopped there but I was determined to do as much as I could. I had stayed home from work, using up a vacation day on my birthday, so I HAD to do as much as I could, so with the work lights out again I managed to finish the stairs;

Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

The following weekend and just the floor remaining, this all seemed well within reason;
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

A lot more surface area to cover, but not having to sling it against the wall I could cover more faster;
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

I never did make spiked shoes, but I found that by setting sponges strategically I would have places to step
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

You can see that I've also been chiseling out the cracks a bit too

Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

The last night's work, filling the last corner of the floor.
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

Touchups and covering up any thin spots, by this point I was in my socks, hopping from sponge to sponge
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr


The last day!
I started with a full acid wash;
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

The cement was looking good at this point, and I was feeling pretty good abput it again, but it revealed a couple more thin spots,
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

So I chiseled them down to make sure the patches would stick, I also took a wirebrush on an angle grinder to some of the rough patches.
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

While I was doing that the guys came by and installed my new filter grids, timers, and pump. One of the few things I wasn't sure I could do myself.

Just the last patches to do here;
Just finished the last of the patching, plastering and acid washing, by bradisdrab, on Flickr

Six solid days, thirty-two batches, over a TON; (2500lbs) of cement mixed and plastered by hand.
I did the last patches then had to walk away. It has to be done eventually and knew I could keep chipping out bits, looking for cracks, tapping to find hollow spots and just drive myself crazy.
It took me a few days to talk myself into calling it finished.

I started the water on thur night, Fri morning it was still going;
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr
Friday night;
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

And filled!
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

We got our first swim in on Labor day!
After all that work, its pretty amazing to finally go for a swim. by bradisdrab, on Flickr
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

Filter running now, and I'm just learning how to ballance the chemistry, still some things to do, like sealing the expansion joints around the coping, but its close enough to call it done!
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr

And we had the retaining wall put in as well, I think the stone ended up matching the tile pretty well after all;
Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr


Untitled by bradisdrab, on Flickr


Thank you all for reading along and encouraging my progress!
 
Thanks!
I healed up pretty fast, but carried a tube of neosporin in my pocket a few days, catching up on sleep and floating in the water have helped the muscles sooo much.

No problems so far, its taking a lot of acid to get the chemestry ballanced. Doing daily tests and adding chlor/acid, but I think its leveling out now, and I imagine every pool takes a bit to start up.

I have been a bit paranoid watching for leaks, but no sign of trouble yet.

I'm loving the dark plaster! Seems like its managing to keep the water pretty warm on it's own. I don't have a thermometer yet, but it still feels warm to the touch when I get home from work at night :)


-b
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply