New pool, Pensacola, FL

Jump to latest Follow Reply
I don't think there is anything wrong with it but also there is nothing getting changed about it now. Most covers don't extend out that far though some do...the REALLY expensive ones. What cover is in your contract and what width is it.? This should all be documented but often times isn't. A 12" wall width is common, which is also the width of two 6" waterline tiles. How wide is the wall? Most people have the dam wall exposed beyond he leading edge bar. The lids that cover the whole wall go over the bar meaning the decking surface level has to be a few inches above the top of the bar level.
 
gat747 said:
Shotcrete finished... the autocover ledge is a little wide, hopefully they'll work out a lid to cover it
Click to expand...

The autocover box is actually according to the specifications. We are also putting in a similar type of cover. Our pool is almost like your's, except for the lake view :(
You may want to ensure that the 'corners' of the box where the cover will be in contact are as smooth as possible. This is to reduce wear on the covers. I specifically put 'corner' tile in the areas where the cover will touch the box edge - see below.

BTW, looks like you are having a MDX drain, just like we do. Is the PB putting in a SDX relief drain for safety purposes? I would also ask him about adding a 'vacuum' release (don't know what the exact term is, but if someone gets caught in the drain, it will release suction to free the person - useful when small kids will be in the pool)

Hk9eG2K.jpg
 
Thanks for the comments, I feel a little better. I didn't notice the super wide ledge until it was really too late... they put up the wires right before they shot it. I was thinking that the inside of the vault would be much bigger. They told me it needed to be 13" to force the cover to roll up tighter. I'm not sure if they left room for the plaster or if they plaster inside the vault. It's definitely too rough as is. I don't believe they intended the ledge to be that large, just the rebar guy set it up wrong. I think worst case the ledge will have to stick out under the vault covers. The ledge is 17" wide with 32" and 10" extra on the ends of the vault. They put the edge of the ledge at the water line and said the tiles/plaster will raise it to 1" above the water line.

bmoreswim... it is the reallly expensive one.. at least to me. It is the latest from coverpools with stainless steel cables instead of ropes. Do you loose much water over the dam? 1' doesn't seem like a lot. I'm guessing i'll have an exposed ledge... unless they can cover 31" I'm guessing that with plaster it will be 18" so 3 tiles wide. I'm not sure how stable the lids are anyway so it might not be bad to have a 10 or 12" lege for the kids to sit on. (might be a slip hazard)

Trvbm.... thanks for the pic, I had only seen small ledges online so far. The shotcrete is sloped down away from the water... may be a difference in brands. They did mention trying to get 'edge' style tiles, but i like the bullnose that you have. It is plumbed with a "side" drain and we didn't get the leaf catch... figured we wouldn't need it with the cover. I read many forum issues with the leaf catcher and the release pumps so we didn't get those.

In my favor they ended up making the free standing wall 14" thick to hide the end of the vault sticking out of the exposed wall.
 
gat747 said:
Thanks for the comments, I feel a little better. I didn't notice the super wide ledge until it was really too late... they put up the wires right before they shot it. I was thinking that the inside of the vault would be much bigger. They told me it needed to be 13" to force the cover to roll up tighter. I'm not sure if they left room for the plaster or if they plaster inside the vault. It's definitely too rough as is. I don't believe they intended the ledge to be that large, just the rebar guy set it up wrong. I think worst case the ledge will have to stick out under the vault covers. The ledge is 17" wide with 32" and 10" extra on the ends of the vault. They put the edge of the ledge at the water line and said the tiles/plaster will raise it to 1" above the water line.

bmoreswim... it is the reallly expensive one.. at least to me. It is the latest from coverpools with stainless steel cables instead of ropes. Do you loose much water over the dam? 1' doesn't seem like a lot. I'm guessing i'll have an exposed ledge... unless they can cover 31" I'm guessing that with plaster it will be 18" so 3 tiles wide. I'm not sure how stable the lids are anyway so it might not be bad to have a 10 or 12" lege for the kids to sit on. (might be a slip hazard)

Trvbm.... thanks for the pic, I had only seen small ledges online so far. The shotcrete is sloped down away from the water... may be a difference in brands. They did mention trying to get 'edge' style tiles, but i like the bullnose that you have. It is plumbed with a "side" drain and we didn't get the leaf catch... figured we wouldn't need it with the cover. I read many forum issues with the leaf catcher and the release pumps so we didn't get those.

In my favor they ended up making the free standing wall 14" thick to hide the end of the vault sticking out of the exposed wall.
Click to expand...

No, they don't plaster inside the vault. I guess 13 or 14 inches should be ok. Spec says 14, but I don't see why 13 would be different - just depends on the pool length, I guess.
They sloped our wall too... about an inch and a half. The waterline will be 1 inch below the wall.

In my opinion the edge of the box closest to the motor has to be smooth, since the motor will be pulling the cover at a steep angle. The pool side of the wall can be just a bullnose tile (small curve)..the 'corner' tile is a full 90 degree curve. It's cool that you can actually put in a side 'gravity' drain. Our lot is as flat as a pancake..need a sump pump to push water out.

I am interested in seeing how much water gets into the box when the pool is being used. Hopefully not much. Ours is salt water and I hope it doesn't corrode the shaft/motor.

BTW, the specification also suggests that the pool 'bond' wire (thick copper wire) be exposed inside the box, so that they can bond the motor and shaft parts. This is important to prevent galvanic corrosion. I hope your PB has the bond wire sticking out into the box. If not, you may need one.

The cover guys dont care and will just install everything. But reducing galvanic corrosion is important for long term benefits. My 2c.
 
You will lose a fair amount of water. More obviously when the pool is more full. As the water level goes down, the splash out rate decreases. We had a really big long party with vigorous pool play over 4+ hours and we lost at least 2"of water over the dam. I turned off the pump because the skimmers were starting to suck air. Had the hose going towards the end but we don't have great water pressure. Don't be scared though, that was an unusual party and we entertain a lot.
As an example, we have added two to three bags of salt during each of the two previous summers, (4 month swim season). CYA goes down too with splash out. Also if you don't regularly use the cover (we don't during mid-simmer) then rain overflow will dilute too. No big deals just details to keep in mind when managing chemicals.
If you look at our build in my signature, you can see some photos of the cover SS supports. Out stones are 12" x 24".
Don't get how the box size makes the cover roll up tighter. If so, small parking spots would make people better parkers - nope.
 
Thanks for the info, guess that's a good reason to keep the auto fill I almost didn't have installed. The builder was out today and still says the plan is to cover the whole ledge.
I'm thinking of burying a small tank connected to the drains on the vault to catch splashed out water.... with a dual purpose to store the pump that goes on top of the cover along with pumping the water back into the pool. (Too much time on my hands waiting for concrete to cure)
I was thinking of where to put the outlet for powering the cover pump... does anyone know of a low voltage pump made for that purpose(maybe similar to a marine bilge pump). I could probably get away with siphoning most of it off... just need a way to get it started.
 
Doesn't the cover company provide you with a cover pump? I know Coverstar does.
I am putting the outlet for the cover pump inside the cover box itself.
We don't get much rain here in AZ. So, it probably won't be a hassle to plug it in a few times in a year.
I am open to suggestions as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
trbvm said:
Doesn't the cover company provide you with a cover pump? I know Coverstar does.
I am putting the outlet for the cover pump inside the cover box itself.
We don't get much rain here in AZ. So, it probably won't be a hassle to plug it in a few times in a year.
I am open to suggestions as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Yes, Coverstar gives you a Little Giant blue pump which works well. I expect they all do because they are not safety covers without one due to the drowning risk in collected water. A little different theory though in the desert.
For us the outlet in the box would be sub-optimal. The cover stones are too heavy and rain too frequent. Our equipment is about 12' from the pool corner and we have several outlets 12' from the pool down one side. For chargers and portable speaker - and the cover pump. And would be used if we had a robot.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Backfill is complete and tile is supposed to be tomorrow. Finally talked to someone with a clue about the vault cover. Options are for 18 or 24" lids. Instead of further delays and demo work, we decided to leave 12" of tile ledge exposed with 6" still covered for an 18" lid. I'm guessing if we wanted that as an option instead of a mistake there would have been quite a charge. Now we're treating it as a 'feature' as I don't think it will look bad and it will allow a place for small children to sit and play.

We're still deciding whether to have pavers or coping installed in the lid. I'm guessing the coping to match the pored in place coping will look better. It would only be 2" wider than our widest wall that is 14" with 16" coping.

picture5.jpg
 
Tile is finally done, of course they had special order the 'in stock' tile we picked out. Now waiting on the cover guy to tell them how much of the vault to demo out... don't know why they can't figure this stuff out ahead of time. They apparently haven't discovered email or pdf's yet. If Coverpools would put their install manual online... I could have saved a month of build time.
We had to order the pavers sight unseen, but there are two next to the pool and we like the color...Bergard Rustic Slab in Harvest Blend

picture6.jpg
 
Thanks for the links, but ours is from Coverpools. Cover guys showed up today.... of course I'm away from home for work. Best I can tell they don't have the correct specs on their install sheets for a recessed instillation(bar hidden under lid). Given the choice of demo'ing out and lowering the first 6 inches of the wall to allow the bar to fit, or raising the tile around the whole pool and keeping the 12" exposed tile with shorter lid(24" vs. 31").... everybody agreed on the later. They may have to raise the sun ledge/ stairs... we'll see.

I'm a little worried that the new waterline will not be in the center of the tile. (we're guessing 1.5" from the bottom) Tile ordered.....again.

PB is being cooperative, and in their defense this is their first auto cover with a different installer/brand. Just taking quite a bit longer than we had hoped.
 
gat747 said:
Thanks for the links, that will help. Cover guys showed up today.... of course I'm away from home for work. Best I can tell they don't have the correct specs on their install sheets for a recessed instillation(bar hidden under lid). Given the choice of demo'ing out and lowering the first 6 inches of the wall to allow the bar to fit, or raising the tile around the whole pool and keeping the 12" exposed tile with shorter lid(24" vs. 31").... everybody agreed on the later. They may have to raise the sun ledge/ stairs... we'll see.

I'm a little worried that the new waterline will not be in the center of the tile. (we're guessing 1.5" from the bottom) Tile ordered.....again.

I see from the spec. sheets that the tile wall is supposed to slant toward the pool, I believe ours is level. I don't think that will be a big deal and will work well with 12" exposed ledge.

PB is being cooperative, and in their defense this is their first auto cover with a different installer/brand. Just taking quite a bit longer than we had hoped.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a plan.. in fact, with my PB, I had to keep a close watch on what they were doing. Usually, encapsulated covers need a 3" notch on the beam. Most PBs don't do this, but it is the right way. I missed out when they were doing the pour and was too late!

I also didn't want the stone lid with travertine on top. The general consensus is that the stone lid is too heavy to open. I opted for the aluminum lid, mainly because it is in an area where there will not be any foot traffic and we are planning on putting a few potted plants on the lid later.

Partly, the fault with screwed up installs is with Coverstar. They don't seem to be participating in the builds. They just hope the PB will 'learn' from their website? I called Coverstar and asked them if they want to come over prior to gunite stage. They said they would... IF the PB requests them! Looks like they were expecting some payment, I guess.. not sure...
 

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