Yet another Texas pool build!

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kimkats said:
What a day for sure!

When you talk about the auto fill and your PB not wanting to do it........................my thought is this................do you REALLY want someone to do something they really do NOT want to do???? Will they do a "bad" job just so they can say "I told you so"???

NO it is NOT right but..........it is the real world..............I just wanted to give you food for thought.

What I would do is this............................call an independent plumber that you have heard from others that does good work....ask him to come out when the pool people are not there and see what HE says........Maybe give him a few bucks to cover his time.

Once you have talked to him decide what you want to do. See if he will do the work when the pool is done and what the cost will be. Have the PB give you back THAT amount to cover the outside guy.


HUGS!

Kim (I am glad you worked out things with the teacher. I love me some papa bear!)
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Thanks for your input! I really don't think this pool builder would do that. They really are concerned about their reputation and they appear to try to not offer things if they don't think they can warranty it. In fact several things I have asked for they want me to sign something if it is out of line saying they aren't responsible for it. I haven't been asked that about the auto-fill and the owner and salesman both think it won't be a problem. The problem is with the construction manager. He is super nice and I like his personality but if he digs his heals in it becomes an issue. He is one of those guys that is set in their ways and likes to do it just like he knows how to do it and that is it. He has 20 years of experience and says he has never hooked to an irrigation line so I think he is nervous. He is trying to figure it out now and has a call into the head inspector with the city. We are waiting for him to return the call. I am scheduled for shotcrete next week so we have to get this resolved this week.

trbvm said:
My neighbor has this EZAutoFill thing in his pool (http://www.amazon.com/Swimming-Valve-Protective-Cover-EZAutoFill/dp/B00DUNS0M4) .. says it works well for him when he leaves for multi-week trips.
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I wish it was that simple but I can't use it. My pool builder is against an RPZ backflow and I am not going to push him on that. The city I live in has a ton of requirements on fill lines and if you don't want the RPZ you have to have the fill line 1" above the max water line so that won't work.

skylar18 said:
ummgood,

My recommendation, is take the credit, make sure they run a PVC line close to your water line, with the other end emptying it out into a skimmer. Have them cap off the other end, because the city will freak if it is not capped when they inspect and ask you a million auto fill questions, and decide on your own after the build how you want to get your pool filled. That is what I did. Of course I opted for the manual on off with the RPZ valve that the city has to inspect.

I also went to lowes before I went on vacation 2 weeks ago and bought this nifty timer that you connect to your water supply and I had it add 15 minutes of water each day to my pool while I was on vacation. Much safer I thought than an autofill in use while I was gone for so long. The device cost 29 dollars and worked perfectly.
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Thanks! I'll definitely be talking to you about that. For now I am going to let the pool builder figure out exactly what the city requirements are. Honestly the problem is it is all he said/she said types of things and since the construction manager doesn't like hooking to the irrigation line any time he hears anything that lets him back out he tries to. My sales guy already called the city and was given several things that they had to do in order to do what I want and it was fine. Now the plumber doesn't know those things so is refusing but both the plumber and construction manager are refusing to take what the sales guy (who called the city) is saying. So now they have to call and verify for themselves. I blame this on the city being too over the top so everyone is gun shy PLUS internal issues with my pool company. I don't think the construction manager trusts the sales guy. The sales guy and him both have 20 years of experience and come from different parts of the country. The sales guy likes to push the envelope with design/customer concepts and frankly I think it makes the construction manager nervous. They only have been working together for 6 months. So until they get some pools under their belt as a team and build trust in each other (and the construction manager learns to give and take a bit) then they are going to have these types of issues.

Frankly if one person calls the city and gets approval to do something and documents the requirements then the other should trust that person. The construction manager thinks he is just blowing smoke. So far I feel otherwise.

Another example of this is my brown coat. In my contract it says it will be "Tan". At my construction meeting the manager said it would be grey. I was like "OK?". He said I would have to paint it. I frankly don't like that idea but ok if that is the way it is. Then I looked over my contract again and saw it says "Tan" so I asked the sales guy. The sales guy said all they have to do is add some color and it costs like $10 dollars for a pool my size but the CM is refusing to do it. He said it is way better if they color the concrete because it requires less maintenance and painting would chip and need to be redone every 2 years or so. The CM just hasn't done it before so he is refusing. If he hasn't done it the first gut reaction is to refuse the service even if it is in the contract. He first tries to convince the customer that they don't need it and if they push then the sales guy steps in and says he has to do it.
 
Ok good news! Just talked with the construction manager and he has verified that he can tie into the irrigation line. I don't need a RPZ if the fill line is at least 1" above the water line. The city will not allow him to put an auto fill on it though so I am going to go with the manual fill for now. I asked for him to give me some extra pipe on both sides of the fill valve at the pool pad so later I can manipulate the plumbing for whatever I want. The plan now is to tuck the fill pipe under one of my boulders so it isn't visible.

This is the typical behavior of the construction manager. He basically has to determine everything himself. Until he does the answer is NO and he'll try to say no until I push back and then he'll go figure it out and find out that I am not off my rocker. For example he told me that the brown coat would be grey. I looked at my contract later and noticed that the color of the brown coat said "Tan". I asked the sales guy about it and he said it was like $10 dollars more to use the coloring for the brown coat. I wanted that so I don't have to keep painting the brown coat so we had to fight the construction manager to get what is in my contract. He doesn't want to do it because he never has colored brown coat before. He just has a really strong personality. I like the guy but he sure knows how to dig in his feet.

At least now with the irrigation he is saying that they learned something new they can use and will be letting the plumber know there is some bad info going around. That way they can potentially use this tactic later with the city if needed.
 
Great job! I would say you must have the stronger personality since you dug your heels in a little deeper than the construction manager!! LOL!!! And good for you, because you have paved the way to help out others in the future! Such a good feeling, right?! And maybe the rest of your build will go a little easier with the CM since he's bound to have new respect for you!

Ok, what's next????? Have a great day! Suz.
 
Thanks!

I don't know if I am stronger personality wise. If I was in the construction manager's shoes I probably would have known that the pool owner would be ticked and made sure to understand fully what the complications are for the irrigation line BEFORE I called the customer. That might have been me putting some push back on the plumber that was giving me the info knowing that I had already had the battle and someone called the city. I would have made the plumber verify with the city instead of having the customer even involved until I had the specific reason.

So right now we have complete rebar. The plumber has to come back out and put in the fill line and drain line I think. Electrician is scheduled to come out today. We have inspection after that and we are scheduled for shotcrete next week.
 
I see it. It looks more like a step than a tanning ledge you can put a lounger on!

NOW go out and measure the depth and width. I THINK you add 3 inches for the plaster and such. That is another area they tend to mess up. Better to fix it now.

Kim

- - - Updated - - -

I see it. It looks more like a step than a tanning ledge you can put a lounger on!

NOW go out and measure the depth and width. I THINK you add 3 inches for the plaster and such. That is another area they tend to mess up. Better to fix it now.

Kim
 

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Wow! Congrats! And it looks like they are doing it well. My PB only had one small tarp up which he moved occasionally . A Neighbor behind me with a two story house came over and talked to the guys. It looked as though she was complaining that the gunite was getting on her windows/house. [emoji30][emoji16]
They never communicated anything to me . But it looked as though he (PB) was explaining to her.
Gunite was a stressful day for me. I hope yours goes well!


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We have gunite residue on our windows and our back metal railings - I am waiting for all the work to be done before doing anything to it.

I found some online company that sells window cleaner that softens stucco/cement residue - hopefully that does the trick for us...I wish they had used more tarps.
 
Yeah fortunately the pool is a bit from the house and our lot is sloped so much the windows are pretty high up so that is minimizing the spray. Plus they did a great job of putting up plastic to protect from the over spray. I am sure that tree by the pool is covered though.

Here is another photo... At least I know it fits at least 6 people comfortably. We have 5 in our family :)
IMG_1390.jpg
 
Sorry for the lack of updates!

We have had a wild past couple of weeks. Thursday they came and did the shot crete. The only major issue we had was the bubbler for the tanning ledge was not centered. Our PB notched out the gunite before it hardened so he can move it. (Not sure how that is possible but we'll see).

Here is the photo of the shell:
Pool After Gunite.jpg

Friday I had off from work and we had a bunch of stuff to do before our vacation. My parents flew in at midnight and we celebrated the 4th. Then the next day we left on a cruise. It was much needed due to stress lately. Then last week we did VBS for our church and I was swamped and exhausted so I didn't have a chance to come on here.

My poor dad had to water the shell the entire week. He did a great job and there are no cracks visible so that is good. The PB said the pool had to cure at least a week before they could progress. So starting last week they took the forms off, had a tractor come out and fill in all the plumbing, and they placed the pool equipment and plumbed it. (I haven't even gone down and looked at it yet. They did it Saturday and I have been busy. Here is a photo of the shell without the forms and also the dirt filled in.
PoolAfterDirt.jpg
 

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