Austin BYOP Build In Progress - 9/23 Construction Start

[UtexasChris]

Hi All,

I finally broke ground on 9/23 after a couple of weeks of delay to the rain in Austin. As a reminder, here are the specs for my build:

• 35ft x 21ft saltwater pool (~27.5K Gallons)
• Depth 3.5ft to 4ft to 7ft deep end
• 3 bubblers and 2 sheers
• 13ft x 6.5ft Sun ledge
• Raised Spa w/ spillover to pool
• Covered outdoor kitchen extending off existing covered patio
• Covered Pergola sitting area near spa

Equipment includes:

• 2 Pentair Intelliflo VSF pumps
• Pentair CCP 520 Filter
• Pentair Ultratemp Heat Pump
• Pentair Mastertemp heater
• IC 60 Salt Cell
• Pentair Intellicenter i10PS Pool / Spa Personality Kit

Construction started on the 23rd with 1 person working the excavator. Even when they brought in the skidsteer, it was one person alternating between digging w/ the excavator and moving dirt back and forth in the skidsteer to a single dumptruck. They brought in more help last week (as well as 3 dump trucks rotating) and the process really started moving. In total, there were about 25 truckloads removed. They finished excavation and trenching yesterday around mid day and forming/steel should start tomorrow. Pics attached!

 

[HermanTX]

Great that it has started. Keep us updated. Suggest you take measurements after dig to ensure your size and depths will be achieved. Good Luck.

 

[bulldog69]

nice size and features

 

[UtexasChris]

Great that it has started. Keep us updated. Suggest you take measurements after dig to ensure your size and depths will be achieved. Good Luck.

Thanks, @HermanTX . I’ve done lots of measuring and there’s only one area of concern which is the sun ledge.

It’s supposed to be 6.5ft long and my measurement shows it’s 6ft from the edge of the excavated area to the edge of the ledge. Should I think about the inside of the excavated area as the outside edge of the coping? In other words, I would assume it should be 6.5ft of ledge plus another foot for the coping if I want 6.5ft of actual ledge. Hopefully these pictures work as I’m on iOS and the TFP site is telling me the pics are too large so I took a screenshot of the original pics to reduce file size.

 

[HermanTX]

I would discuss this with the excavator and show him your measurements. You also have to account for gunite thickness from the excavated wall. I know the gunite boys can make great shapes and extensions with it while troweling it but then it may be too late if they cannot extend outwards due to how your stairs are excavated as well. Since your steps lead down from the sun ledge that would be key measurement to discuss with the excavator. Could you call your gunite company and ask if the supervisor could stop by to confirm the excavated area is right size for the rebar and gunite? Hope this helps you think through the options for discussion.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

The bench in the deep end concerns me. With a 7' deep end folks *will* want to cannon ball and dive, yet with that bench imposing into the space it may be a "head banger". Can you put it on to the lenthwise wall instead?

Maddie <--trauma nurse worry person

 

[UtexasChris]

The bench in the deep end concerns me. With a 7' deep end folks *will* want to cannon ball and dive, yet with that bench imposing into the space it may be a "head banger". Can you put it on to the lenthwise wall instead?

Maddie <--trauma nurse worry person

Thanks, Maddie. This is the exact reason I put it on the opposite side from where people will be jumping in. Note the raised wall where the spa is located is opposite where the bench is. There’s about 13-14 feet from where people will be jumping from the top of the wall to the edge of the bench in the deep end. I expect the kids will jump from top, swim over to the bench and use the step to get out of the pool, go back to the top and repeat.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Will you be putting tile markers on the bench to have it stand out? I now see you have plenty of feet of room next to the bench, but I always worry that over eager newcomers might miss its presence. Especially teen age boys! They tend to rough house more and compete/show off....

Maddie

 

[UtexasChris]

Will you be putting tile markers on the bench to have it stand out? I now see you have plenty of feet of room next to the bench, but I always worry that over eager newcomers might miss its presence. Especially teen age boys! They tend to rough house more and compete/show off....

Maddie

Great suggestion, @YippeeSkippy . I honestly hadn’t thought about it as I haven’t yet looked at tile and aggregate finish colors (need to jump on that ASAP) but I’ll take a look at it and likely incorporate it in. Thanks again for the suggestion!

 

[UtexasChris]

Forming completed today. Plumbing and steel should start this week and the pool electrician is coming a week from today. I’ve realized I’m behind on coping, waterline tile, type of finish on raised bonded beam wall (bid includes 3cm travertine veneer), and aggregate finish so I’m doubling down trying to make significant progress quickly. My bid currently includes wet edge signature matrix level 2 and I’m checking on the price increase to get to Primera Stone Sapphire Treasure.

I’ll keep everyone posted as steel, plumbing, and electric start to progress!

 

[UtexasChris]

Update: Steel finished today, plumbing is halfway done and will be finished tomorrow.

I need to verify when electric will be done as they got backed up due to the steel being delayed a day but gunite is scheduled 11/6. I’m hoping I might be able to slip into the gunite schedule sooner if someone falls out due to not being ready.

They overdug the spa so I had them double mat the steel. They’ll also cover 2 yards of extra gunite to raise the floor with the extra matting.

I got out there with a tape measure to measure the distance between steel and found several areas where it was beyond the max distance. I called it out and they did a great job of fixing all of the areas by adding and adjusting the steel. I also verified the steel was 2-3” away from the forming and that the steel was raised off the ground with the bricks. Lastly, I verified we had steel deck dowel that was at least 18” above forming every 2-3ft.

What else am I missing that I should be looking for?

 

[scoopertx]

Hey Chris, just started following your build today. I am in Austin and using BYOP, too! We just got our build drawing this week and going through everything before we go out for bids. We are going back and forth between chlorine and SWG right now. Anything particular that lead to go with SWG?
Looking forward to watching your progress!

 

[UtexasChris]

Hey Chris, just started following your build today. I am in Austin and using BYOP, too! We just got our build drawing this week and going through everything before we go out for bids. We are going back and forth between chlorine and SWG right now. Anything particular that lead to go with SWG?
Looking forward to watching your progress!

Hey @scoopertx , where in Austin are you? I’m in southwest Austin just west of oak hill. I opted for SWG after reading hours of posts on this site to educate myself. It seems much more common outside of TX and seems to make the maintenance much easier. The benefit of BYOP is there’s no builder who will attempt to talk you out of it.

My latest update is pool plumbing is complete, steel is complete, and all electrical needed pre-gunite is complete. I actually had a leak with the IC60 salt cell. Looks like it was defective and I’ve already contacted Pentair. They’re sending someone out to replace it and repressurize the system. Gunite is scheduled for 11/6 and I need to finalize selections for plaster, tile, and travertine for the retaining wall veneer.

We’re looking at NPT Shell Beige travertine for more of a lighter coping as well as capping on the retaining walls. We’re considering Philadelphia travertine for the retaining wall facing veneer while we’re looking at some type of ledgerstone or split face travertine for the raised bond beam wall. Bottom line, I need to head up north to SCP’s show room to look at it all in person as the only thing my wife and I have seen up to this point are the pictures in the catalogue.

I’m trying to post progress pics but maybe I haven’t figured out the trick yet. Some pics upload fine while others say the file is too large even though I choose to size it down before upload. Anyone else have trouble uploading pics from an iPhone?

 

[ajw22]

Turn off HDR on your phone camera app. HDR can make the pics too large for the TFP server.

You should have heater bypasses installed.

Heater Bypass - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

The IntelliChlor should have 12-18” of straight pipe. I can’t tell from your pic if it is there...

 

[UtexasChris]

Turn off HDR on your phone camera app. HDR can make the pics too large for the TFP server.

You should have heater bypasses installed.

Heater Bypass - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

The IntelliChlor should have 12-18” of straight pipe. I can’t tell from your pic if it is there...

View attachment 166465

Thanks for the camera tips and the pool plumbing recommendations!

I just measured and I do have 18” of straight pipe. I’ll also ask my plumber to get the bypasses installed.

 

[ajw22]

What is the 3 way diverter before the IC cell picking water off for?

Why do you have the CV before the input to the cell?

 

[UtexasChris]

Here’s the schematic which should probably help.

 

[ajw22]

That 3 way valve is your pool/spa return which will have an actuator to switch from pool to spa. You only have 6"-7" after the water making a 90 degree turn from the valve inlet to the cell.

The way you are setup you have no chlorination in spa mode. If you use your spa for any length of time this can be a problem with dropping FC. Usually the cell is before the pool/spa valve. Then you set your IntelliCenter to change the cell % output for what you need in POOL mode or SPA mode.

When you have both a HP and a gas heater its is Pentair recommends the heater be plumbed in series with the water flowing from the filter to the HP first and then the gas heater and then out the returns, not in parallel as you have. See page 7 in https://www.pentair.com/content/dam...ump-installation-and-users-guide-en-fr-sp.pdf

Put in a heater bypass for each heater so you can remove the heater and still run your pump/filter While you have valves on your heater inlet you have nothing to stop the flow back into the outlet. Any heater leakage problem can shutdown your entire pool system the way you have it now.

There is no need for a corrosion resistant CV with a SWG. Nothing the SWG generates is corrosive. That is requried when you have an inline Trichlor tablet chlorinator that has corrosive acid.

 

[UtexasChris]

This is incredibly helpful, @ajw22.
There are 4 things I need to get addressed:

1. Hester bypasses
2. HP and Heater in series per Pentair recommendation
3. Salt cell before pool/spa valve
4. Don’t need corrosion resistance check valve

This is exactly why I love this site and appreciate people giving their time to help those of us who are trying to learn.

Thanks again as I’ll start making calls today/tomorrow to get these addressed.

 

[UtexasChris]

So after further conversation it does look like Heater bypasses were installed. @ajw22 Does this look accurate that it would be the 2 valves circled in this screenshot?

Here was the response:

“I have always plumbed heaters and heat pumps with bypass because it’s also recommended by manufacture specially to a heat pump. The by pass it will allowed to control the flow going to a heat pump or to be able to turn one or the other. With the long of a run for your spa you will probably need to run your pump at the higher RPM which I think you can pull up to 120 GPM the capacity for the heater I think is 90 GPM and the heat pump is lower capacity. The whole logic of having a by pass it’s to help the water flow specially for your jets by cracking up the valves so not 100% of flow goes trough your units ,If we plumb everything in series it’s possible to blow out the internals on your heat pump. It happened before and it was blamed on no bypass installed.

The salt cell and Chlorinators I have always plumbed them on the pool return side since the aquator valve gets calibrated so water always circulate to the pool and spa.”

It sounds like we’re all in agreement the bypass is a good thing but my ask should be to have the bypass AND plumb in series. agreed?

Also, can you help me interpret the comments about the salt cell?