Hi all,
We have a plastered pool!
Since the last update, the PB worked almost all of the punch list items. We are still disagreeing about the way they handled the edge of the travertine so there is some other work to resolve but at least the pool itself is moving along.
Travertine - the drainage channel that runs against the foundation of the house ends in dirt that is higher than the deck. This means the west corner of the deck is covered in mud. They are saying we are responsible for it because it is the ground on the other side of the patio. We said they should have sloped the ground away from that area as they did for the entire rest of the site. We'll see how it ends up. Right now, I can't really do anything else to the site until this is resolved so we have red clay everywhere outside the pool which is a bit frustrating.
Plaster - Prep started Friday 9/4. The pool was emptied, cleaned, and the tile placed on the steps & deep end. Saturday, 9/5, a whole crew came in and plastered. We did mini pebble and it was interesting to watch them walk around the pool throwing pebbles on the fresh plaster. It took them around 4 hours to finish the job. Sunday, 9/6, the pool was acid washed with Muriatic acid and Dawn, rinsed, then power washed with water. The tech placed all our water hoses for us and started the fill. We had 6 water hoses running and it took 21.5 hours to completely fill the pool.
Tile - we are *so* happy with the glass tile on the steps. Depending on time of day, the bottom step and the bottom of the pool just blend in together. With the line of tile, it is easy to see where to put your foot when stepping up or when to step down. We put a little 6" frog in the deep end near the return. It ended up exactly like we wanted it.
Brushing & Balancing - We were supposed to start brushing yesterday; however, a miscommunication by the PB meant none of our start up supplies were on hand. Someone is coming tomorrow to drop off everything and do the initial balance on the pool. I'm a little uncomfortable with that time frame w/no chemicals in the pool so I will likely go get some today and circulate them with a sump pump. We will be brushing 3x a week this week, 2x a week through the end of September then we will move to the regular 1x a week. We tested the water yesterday and it is off the chart alkaline (expected, due to new plaster) and off the chart low for chlorine (expected, due to sunny day and no treatment). We also figured out there is no hazardous waste disposal around us to dump the chemicals after we do a test so we have to decide how to handle a couple of the tests that have chemicals that shouldn't end back up in the water supply.
We bought the year subscription to the TFP app yesterday and look forward to entering our first log after balancing tomorrow.
I know we weren't supposed to use the pool until it was balanced but we did. It was a gorgeous day yesterday and it seemed wrong to wait to use it after we'd waited so long. Our son had a fabulous job doing cannonballs. I walked the pool check the elevation. This was a huge issue early in the build and I am ecstatic that we ended up getting exactly what we wanted in the design. The extra 4' we added in the final design session was something I appreciated over and over yesterday when I sat at the 'mom bench' and 8 out of 10 cannonball splashes fell just short of me
We have a really large 4' deep area that is perfect to hang out in and the little turn with the deeper area (6.5') that my son loves jumping in and trying to touch the bottom. TFP research and help from members was critical to some of our decisions and we are thrilled - so thank you, everyone, who helped answer all our various questions and provide your thoughts and experiences.
