Very cool. I know you said it takes a few days for everything to dissolve and disperse, but when is it safe to swim? I figured I'd ask because I know the family is going to be asking me.
16' x 30' Flat Kidney Owner Build
- Thread starter dleonard1122
- Start date
It's safe to swim from the get-go. Chlorine takes 15 mins to mix and the others don't do any actual sanitizing. Dose with liquid and PoolMath until the SWG is running and dialed in. The FC will burn off quicker until the CYA is dispersed but it's easy to check FC and dose back to high target.
Awesome, that's what I was hoping to hear. I'll stock up on a couple gallons of bleach from Aldi next time we go which should hopefully hold me over until the SWG is running. Aside from that, I'll pick up some CYA when I go to the pool store later this week to pick up winterizing plugs for the pressure test.
HD/Lowes/Walmart have 'chlorinating liquid' that's 10% and will likely go further per jug. Check the date codes on the bottles and you want 3 months or less. Google Julian date to decipher it on the spot the first few times. But basically, today is the 206th day of the year so if it was produced today the code would start 22-206-XXXXXXX, you'll want 22120XXXXX or higher.
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Nope. Those are 10%. Pool stores or Hasa dealers may have 12.5% but even then it degrades that much faster and if you hold onto it a bit it's likely 10% by the time you use it.
Any bottles purchased will have the strength listed and it certainly doesn't hurt to look everytime and adjust PoolMath if need be. The refillable places go though so much of it, they usually have fresh supply and you can trust that it's likely still 12.5% when you purchase it.
Agree. But your original post says 1%
I had someone out to give me a quote on installing the paver coping and paver pool deck. $5k just for the coping, or $30k for everything (roughly 1k sqft.)
I cannot believe pavers are at $26/sqft. I think I had gotten quotes of like $15/sqft in 2019! Insane. I have two more companies coming out tomorrow to give me quotes. Hopefully this one was an outlier (doubt it though) because otherwise I'm not going to get a break after the pool gets filled.
In slightly better news, the plumbing supply shop had exactly what I needed to finish my pressure test manifold, so I got that glued in. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to pressurize the lines.
I cannot believe pavers are at $26/sqft. I think I had gotten quotes of like $15/sqft in 2019! Insane. I have two more companies coming out tomorrow to give me quotes. Hopefully this one was an outlier (doubt it though) because otherwise I'm not going to get a break after the pool gets filled.
In slightly better news, the plumbing supply shop had exactly what I needed to finish my pressure test manifold, so I got that glued in. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to pressurize the lines.
I am doing ledgestone pavers for $16 a foot. There are definitely several price tiers in the paver family if you have some flexibility with the stone size / pattern layout. Mine won't be anything fancy with a big square, a little square and a rectangle, but for $10 less a foot, I can deal.
Is that for just the coping install or for the pool deck as well?
The pavers i'm requesting aren't really anything special. Standard concrete pavers from EP Henry.
The whole shebang. Last time we were quoted the coping/border and the patio, the bull nose coping being pricey, but also way less Sq ft. This time it was just averaged out for one price.
That's a really solid price, if I can get someone around that I'll definitely jump on it to save my back.
I have the pressure test going. I set it to 20 psi, and it seemed to want to veeeeeery slowly drift down a psi or so. I'm not sure if that's temperatures equalizing or what, but I didn't see any visible leaks in my 20 or so walks around the perimeter. I went around and tightened my skimmer and drain plugs a little more, so we will see what it looks like in the morning. Fingers crossed.
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Welp... That sucks.
I was reading that folks on here were pressure testing at higher psi (30-40) so I decided to go out and bump it up. We do have a leak. It was dropping pretty quickly from 35 to 30 (like, a minute). Like I said, I haven't seen ANY visual evidence of a leak, but with how fast the pressure was dropping I feel like there would be a decent amount of water coming out. Which unfortunately points to a leak somewhere in the main drain manifold that is encased in concrete and pool base. <Insert curse words of choice>
To confirm my suspicion I rather hastily just out the main drain line from the pressure test manifold, capped it, and re-pressurized. Its holding at 40 steadily now...
It coooooould be one of the caps that I used letting water escape (there's already some water sitting in the bottom of the pool so it's hard for me to be 100% sure it isn't that.} But when I hold my hand Infront of the cap I don't feel or see any water movement. I'm fairly certain it's somewhere encased in concrete.
So, where do we go from here? Well, I'm currently thinking of just abandoning the drains in place. I'll fill them in with pool base and never worry about them. They aren't a requirement in my locality, they were just recommended by a friend (before I found TFP and read about so many people here who do just fine without them.) That honestly sounds better to me than the thought of breaking through the pool base and potentially the concrete collar.
Thoughts? @ajw22 and @jimmythegreek I could especially use your input on this one.
I was reading that folks on here were pressure testing at higher psi (30-40) so I decided to go out and bump it up. We do have a leak. It was dropping pretty quickly from 35 to 30 (like, a minute). Like I said, I haven't seen ANY visual evidence of a leak, but with how fast the pressure was dropping I feel like there would be a decent amount of water coming out. Which unfortunately points to a leak somewhere in the main drain manifold that is encased in concrete and pool base. <Insert curse words of choice>
To confirm my suspicion I rather hastily just out the main drain line from the pressure test manifold, capped it, and re-pressurized. Its holding at 40 steadily now...
It coooooould be one of the caps that I used letting water escape (there's already some water sitting in the bottom of the pool so it's hard for me to be 100% sure it isn't that.} But when I hold my hand Infront of the cap I don't feel or see any water movement. I'm fairly certain it's somewhere encased in concrete.
So, where do we go from here? Well, I'm currently thinking of just abandoning the drains in place. I'll fill them in with pool base and never worry about them. They aren't a requirement in my locality, they were just recommended by a friend (before I found TFP and read about so many people here who do just fine without them.) That honestly sounds better to me than the thought of breaking through the pool base and potentially the concrete collar.
Thoughts? @ajw22 and @jimmythegreek I could especially use your input on this one.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 66,466
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
How much of the pipe between the equipment pad and the main drain encased in concrete is accessible?
How close can you get to the main drain exposed pipe?
Can you cut the pipe at that point and pressurize the section to confirm the leak is under the concrete?
How do you have the main drain end capped for the pressure test and are you sure it is not leaking from the cap?
How close can you get to the main drain exposed pipe?
Can you cut the pipe at that point and pressurize the section to confirm the leak is under the concrete?
How do you have the main drain end capped for the pressure test and are you sure it is not leaking from the cap?
Everything except for the part going under the concrete collar, the length to the drains, and the T connecting the drains is accessible.
I could do that.
I used the 2" caps they give you to plug skimmer or drain ports with some Teflon tape. These could be leaking, which I admitted above. But, with how fast the pressure drops I'd be surprised if I couldn't tell.
- Jul 21, 2013
- 66,466
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
I would cut the main drain pipe close to where it goes under the concrete.
Cap off the end that leads back to the equipment pad and then pressurize the line.
Do the same pressure test on the stub to the main drain.
That will tell you which side the leak is and maybe let you look closer at the main drain cap.
The pressure test (excluding the main drain line) dropped from 35 to 15 overnight. Ugh.. I am feeling pretty defeated at this point.
Well it's been about a week since my last update. I took a few days off from the pool to calm down and honestly just try to enjoy some of the summer while I still have it. I got to do some fishing which was a nice treat. I am definetly feeling a bit burnt out by the pool at this point, but with a few days off it was nice to get a chance to recharge the batteries a little bit and regroup.
Over the weekend I looked everything over and really convinced myself that I don't see any leaks on the PVC glue joints, and that it was most likely the threaded capped connections that are plugging the skimmers, returns, and main drains. I've been going back and forth for a couple days with trying to get those connections to hold pressure and I think I finally have it all holding around 30 psi, which is enough for me to feel confident in my initial hypothesis that none of the glued pvc joints that will be underground are actually leaking. I'm going to schedule the inspector to come out tomorrow hopefully and get this put behind me.
From there, I'll hopefully backfill and then decide if I want to tackle the the coping or putting the liner and water in first.
Over the weekend I looked everything over and really convinced myself that I don't see any leaks on the PVC glue joints, and that it was most likely the threaded capped connections that are plugging the skimmers, returns, and main drains. I've been going back and forth for a couple days with trying to get those connections to hold pressure and I think I finally have it all holding around 30 psi, which is enough for me to feel confident in my initial hypothesis that none of the glued pvc joints that will be underground are actually leaking. I'm going to schedule the inspector to come out tomorrow hopefully and get this put behind me.
From there, I'll hopefully backfill and then decide if I want to tackle the the coping or putting the liner and water in first.
@jimmythegreek or @ajw22 any recommendations on how deep does the bond wire should be between the equipment pad and the pool? I'm trying to figure out if I should run that before backfilling the plumbing trench or if that should be done later before the patio goes down and then it can just be under 2" or so of topsoil to the shed.
edit: I just talked to my inspector and he's fine with either running it at the plumbing depth or closer to the surface between the pool and the equipment. I think I'd rather just run it deeper in that trench and then bring it back up to below deck height when I get to around the pool to reduce the risk of it getting inadvertently cut.
I'm getting ready to backfill my plumbing trench and while I'd like to bury that wire, I'm not quite ready to do the bonding at the pool side yet because I'll need to cement in the cups for the steps and hand rail. I was wondering if I should just run the bond wire from the equipment pad and then stub it near the pool and reconnect to it later, or if splicing isn't allowed and if it should be one continuous loop around the pool. Thoughts?
edit: I just talked to my inspector and he's fine with either running it at the plumbing depth or closer to the surface between the pool and the equipment. I think I'd rather just run it deeper in that trench and then bring it back up to below deck height when I get to around the pool to reduce the risk of it getting inadvertently cut.
I'm getting ready to backfill my plumbing trench and while I'd like to bury that wire, I'm not quite ready to do the bonding at the pool side yet because I'll need to cement in the cups for the steps and hand rail. I was wondering if I should just run the bond wire from the equipment pad and then stub it near the pool and reconnect to it later, or if splicing isn't allowed and if it should be one continuous loop around the pool. Thoughts?
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