Build thread: Vinyl in-ground, 18x40, Fastlane, Autocover.

Jump to latest Follow Reply
I think the switch for main patio will be fine, as it’ll be 12’ from the elements, and I’ll use a smart switch for it so I can control it from phone/Alexa. It’s the equipment pad switch I worry about. The best place for that switch is there near the outside of the pad — putting it far under cover would get it in a pretty inconvenient spot.

Unrelated: I have to wait till tomorrow to check my CYA?! Trying to decide if I should go ahead and add bleach tonight without having a good CYA reading. I’m inclined to, since I have a good sense for what it should be.
 
lazygirl1978 said:
Unrelated: I have to wait till tomorrow to check my CYA?! Trying to decide if I should go ahead and add bleach tonight without having a good CYA reading. I’m inclined to, since I have a good sense for what it should be.
Click to expand...

CYA is slow to dissolve and mix. Don't waste your reagents until 48 hours after it is all dissolved.

Since you know what you added just assume the CYA is there and add your CL tonight for that CYA level.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lazygirl1978
FC 0.5
CC 0
pH 7.2
TA 80

Those are my numbers now. It’s been just 5 hours since I started adding CYA so I won’t test it for awhile. I guess I’m glad I didn’t try to lower pH earlier! I’m also guessing I’ll need to raise my TA. Btw, even though I have a salt pool, I’m assuming I use figures for a bleach pool since I’m not using a SWCG?

Should I expect pH to rise again on its own?

Water looks good, just plenty of mud still is making it cloudy after the robot works. He’s taking the night off and I’ll let the dirt settle.

I figured out one thing — my skimmer in the deep end and the main drains in the deep end are currently closed off. I’m curious as to why, but I’ll ask next week. I feel like the pool would be cleaner sooner if that main drain were open. A couple returns are closed too. I know the pool people expected to do all of the chemicals and cleaning after concrete goes in so they probably weren’t expecting I’d care about any of it when they left. I didn’t want to look at a dirty pool or invite trouble later though...

I’ll add chlorine when sun is gone. Love the pool math app!
 
Don’t touch your TA it is fine. pH of 7.2 is okay. You should just be adding chlorine.

The closed main drain, skimmers, and returns will not make a big difference in clearing mud from the pool. The PB knows there will be more dirt kicked into the pool when the deck is done. He would do one good cleaning when the gounds are finished.
 
The liner's life span will be better if you keep a close eye on the pH and TA. These are the most important part of taking care of the liner. The FC and CYA is important for keeping the water clear. With all of them working together your pool will be clean, clear, and last a long time!!
 
@kimkats are you saying I need to change anything, or am I ok as long as I'm within the 7.2-7.8 for pH and TA 50-80 depending on whether I'm using my SWCG? I'll definitely keep watching! I just added my first gallon of bleach to the pool.
 
Monday update:

1. Checked the FC and CYA this morning. FC 1.5 and CYA something under 20. I called it 15 and added half a gallon of bleach before running to work. At lunch, I went to add CYA to the skimmer sock and discovered probably a pound of CYA hadn’t dissolved sitting in the skimmer! So I massaged it into the returns and was done. I’m buying more CYA and bleach ASAP. Will do a thorough test tomorrow too.

2. I’m glad to have this time to experiment/get comfy with the pool chemistry before we’re close to wanting to swim. (Water temp is 50.)

3. The roof is going on the pool house!

4. @jimim and a few others, I talked to the guys today about adding electrical for a light over the outdoor shower. I realized after thinking on your posts that I could wire it on the same circuit as the patio light! That will be on a wemo switch, so it’s easy to turn off from anywhere. Thanks for making me second guess that decision!!


Site says there’s a security error and won’t let me attach pics now so will have to do that later. Good news is the pool looks prettier now. Still a nice film of dirt in places, but so much better than before.

The guys think the pool house will be done in two weeks. Then concrete goes in. Then pool folks can finish with their stuff. No spa until concrete has set 3 weeks. My garage is filling up with bathroom and electrical fixtures! Exciting.
 
Pictures! And a question. First, here's our progress today. The ceiling and plywood are on the roof now:


IMG_6397.jpg

IMG_6400.jpg

IMG_6398.jpg

Very happy with how it's coming together! Now for the question. You may recall we had to push back the autocover housing and add a cap over the new space to allow for the Fastlane hydraulics. That means the diving board will have to be anchored behind the housing and then the board itself will need to extend over the housing, the cap, and the Fastlane (appox. 18"?) in order to find clear water in the pool. I've looked at some other builds, including bmoreswim's, and I can't quite figure out how this is going to work. I wouldn't be concerned if I weren't trying to clear the Fastlane. My PB says it'll be fine, but this is their first Fastlane installation. Can anyone make me feel better about this? The box in my yard says it's a 6' gray board. Here's a photo from today:
IMG_6396.jpg
 

Attachments

  • IMG_6396.jpg
    IMG_6396.jpg
    108.1 KB · Views: 4

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Lets do this.............find a board that is 6' long and see what happens when you put it about where the real board will be going. I really don't know where the Fastlane machine is so if you can draw an arrow to show it that might help some. Does it stick out of the pool wall into the pool at all?
 
A 6' board is too short for that scenario. I would definitely get an 8' board and I'd be satisfied with that clearance. My board could go closer to the water by about 4-6". The fastlane will be fully under the board I believe, and will be no issue (but that's me speaking - I'm not sure by dive pool regulations if it matters). It's almost impossible to go under the diving board from the diving board. I'll make a measurement of my diving board extension over the water. My 4-6" wiggle room would cover your cap area. Then you can understand how much pool overhang an 8' Fylte Deck II SR Smith board give you.

Here is the Flyte Deck II link with all the specs, diving envelopes, etc. https://srsmith.com/media/47127/06-307-0316.pdf
 
bmoreswim said:
A 6' board is too short for that scenario. I would definitely get an 8' board and I'd be satisfied with that clearance. My board could go closer to the water by about 4-6". The fastlane will be fully under the board I believe, and will be no issue (but that's me speaking - I'm not sure by dive pool regulations if it matters). It's almost impossible to go under the diving board from the diving board. I'll make a measurement of my diving board extension over the water. My 4-6" wiggle room would cover your cap area. Then you can understand how much pool overhang an 8' Fylte Deck II SR Smith board give you.

Here is the Flyte Deck II link with all the specs, diving envelopes, etc. https://srsmith.com/media/47127/06-307-0316.pdf
Click to expand...

Thanks, bmoreswim. When I saw you had an 8' board, I thought maybe that would be what I'd need.

kimkats said:
Lets do this.............find a board that is 6' long and see what happens when you put it about where the real board will be going. I really don't know where the Fastlane machine is so if you can draw an arrow to show it that might help some. Does it stick out of the pool wall into the pool at all?
Click to expand...

Good idea, Kim --- I have the board itself (it's in a box leaning up against my house) and will take a picture of it in position lying on the ground. The Fastlane will be right in the middle of the deep end, under where the board would be. I suspect that I will be able to convince my PB that they need to order me an 8' board instead of 6' this way....assuming that Bmoreswim's measurements work out as we think they will!

Oh, and yes, the Fastlane sticks out into the pool about 19-20".
 
Last edited:
looks good! what is the plan with the rafters? exposed? painted, stained, or wrapped? what is the material for the ceiling that is white? i can't tell from the pics?

how many lights u have planned for under there? that's a pretty big area. i was only going to do 2 for my kitchen area which is like 15x12 but my buddy ended up doing 6, 6 inch cans to light it up. same with my fireplace area. i figured 2. it's vaulted and again 15x12. we ended up with 3 but wanted 4, 6 inch cans and 3, 4 inch cans to wash my fireplace which i don't count as lighting for the space.

light it up now while it's open and u can. overkill it you can' always use dimmers. that's what i am doing.

it really really looks nice!

i'm just throwing out what is coming to my mind.

oh i know i always mention this to everyone cause it's what i do, but music. . . you can never have too many speakers! wire is cheap!

jim
 
Jim, we’ll have a fan with light up there. I’ll ask about more options. I hate lights outdoors because they attract bugs. Do you have that problem? I’ll have two nice big lights on each side of the door. And now lights over shower area.

Diving board was heavy (duh), so I used the nearby pole with wall whale brush attached. The duct tape on the brush pole shows 6’ from end of bristles.
IMG_6403.jpg

21" of space from wall to end of bristles. MAYBE enough room to clear the Fastlane.

IMG_6405.jpg

24" of space from the autocover housing to the end of the board --- not sure if that's enough room for the diving board base.

IMG_6404.jpg
 
i'll let you know when i fire them all up! lol actually no we don't really. even though i'm by woods. my back porch is covered with 2 fans and light kits on each and we never noticed an issue with bugs. so i'm thinking not too many bugs.

i didn't realize u had 2 lights o the side of the door either. very cool. u should be good.
 
More followup on Jim's post --

jimim said:
looks good! what is the plan with the rafters? exposed? painted, stained, or wrapped? what is the material for the ceiling that is white? i can't tell from the pics?
Click to expand...

Rafters will be painted white except the beams on the sides will be vinyl wrapped. We'll have white columns where the 2x4 posts are now. The ceiling is vinyl, I believe --- it's the same stuff we have on our front porch ceiling that's 20 years old and still looks beautiful! We'll use that same ceiling inside the pool house too.

jimim said:
it really really looks nice!

i'm just throwing out what is coming to my mind.

oh i know i always mention this to everyone cause it's what i do, but music. . . you can never have too many speakers! wire is cheap!
Click to expand...

Thanks!!

Your thoughts are VERY appreciated. It was you all that got me to rethink the lighting outside the shower!

Music: Ugh. My plan is to use Sonos out there. I just don't have the (mental) bandwidth to deal with it right now. Where would you put speakers? I'd need to run electric, but I wouldn't have to run speaker wires with Sonos. My thought had been to just use a wireless speaker out there plugged into the wall. If I ever did something like an outdoor movie, I think having more speakers would be great...

And, re lights again, it had occurred to me that I'd want more lights if we did an outdoor kitchen out there someday. I'll talk to the guys tomorrow.

We're going to talk about the pool deck concrete on Monday next week. They were thinking 4' at the diving board end, and I said, nope, more like 7-8. I'd be happy to hear y'all's words of wisdom on decking! It'll run all the way between pool and house (and pool and poolhouse) with drains in place. It's the other sides (deep end wall, wall opposite the house) that I'm thinking about. 7-8' on deep end, 3-4' along the long side (I have to leave room to run the Fastlane hydraulics outside the concrete path, and I want to leave a good sized grassy strip).
 
sonos is good. plug and go. my buddy just added a sonos speaker in his shop and i'm pretty surprised how loud and clear it can play. he has other ones in the offices but this little one he added in a room with 15' ceilings and just a huge area fills the room pretty well.

i can deff see adding a kitchen setup to that covered area. you got the space! lol it's only money. . . i can't wait to be able to start doing more cooking outside and having the room to do it vs back and forth from the kitchen to outside.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lazygirl1978
jimim said:
i'll let you know when i fire them all up! lol actually no we don't really. even though i'm by woods. my back porch is covered with 2 fans and light kits on each and we never noticed an issue with bugs. so i'm thinking not too many bugs.

i didn't realize u had 2 lights o the side of the door either. very cool. u should be good.
Click to expand...
Where can I find pics of this outdoor oasis of yours?! I need some pool house/patio inspiration, please!
 

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