Help: What does a proper pool excavation supposed to look like?

[Levite805]

A couple of thoughts that I hope to get answers from the TFP community to help me have a conversation with the PB. The excavators packed up and left on Friday and said they were done after a two day excavation. There were no surprises and no comment that this was a difficult dig, just dirt as you can see, no boulders/large rocks or anything.

It did rain pretty hard on Saturday too.

For reference, here is the design that I have:



And here are the pictures of my excavation as it stands now:






My questions are:

1. Obviously missing the form boards, this is definitely an issue but to confirm the form boards should be completely around the pool, correct?
2. Should the bench seating and steps be more squared off and uniform? Or is this normal?
3. The back bench looks too high to me (should be level with the other benches) should that be lowered prior to moving on to the next construction step?
4. The steps seem really, really short. Shouldn't they be longer?
5. Should I call out anything else?

Thank you for your thoughts!

 

[SacPoolPros]

In all honesty dig doesn't really matter owning a pool construction and gunite company we try to have our digs as clean as possible and leave as much dirt for benches. cabo shelfs, ect because we will save money and be more profitable on our gunite side which is a HUGE expense so any builder who is doing a crappy dig is basically just costing them self more in gunite. as far as squaring benches ect that will all be adjusted and fixed with gunite material

 

[Levite805]

Okay great to know, thank you @SacPoolPros

 

[TampaKathy]

If the bench is high, I would ask about that now. It might be just the pictures but the pool looks like it is going to be fairly shallow...make sure you measure now and adjust for gunite thickness to confirm it will be the depths you are expecting.

 

[Levite805]

It's a shallow pool, 5' deep in the middle. I just measured the deepend to the top of the form board and it measured 5'7". I will verify with my PB. Thank you!

 

[TampaKathy]

It's a shallow pool, 5' deep in the middle. I just measured the deepend to the top of the form board and it measured 5'7". I will verify with my PB. Thank you!

Yes, definitely confirm...I think you are going to be a few inches short...gunite & plaster is probably 6-7 inches and then you'll lose 3 inches for where the waterline hits in the middle of the tile. They may not fix it b/c they'll say it's "within tolerance" ugh, but best to ask now before the rebar goes in.