DIY 20' x 40' In-Ground Build - In Progress!

[jastudee]

That is a tough break...who did you get your pool kit from? I used pool warehouse for my pool kit and they were very easy to deal with on a few missing parts from my shipment.

The liner was the absolute last thing I did...so while waiting on a replacement you can continue on along with the rest of the plumbing/electrical/bonding/backfill/decking.

Got the pool kit from Pool Warehouse as well. Initial response on their end was great, very quick to request pictures and jump on it. Very happy with the initial response, hopefully it's smooth with the actual supplier of the liner.

You are spot on, after the initial disappointment, I quickly realized that there is no shortage of work still to do lol! Working on exactly what you listed right now, got an aggressive timeline with the deck being planned on going in 6/3 and 6/4.

 

[duckcmmndr]

Got the pool kit from Pool Warehouse as well. Initial response on their end was great, very quick to request pictures and jump on it. Very happy with the initial response, hopefully it's smooth with the actual supplier of the liner.

You are spot on, after the initial disappointment, I quickly realized that there is no shortage of work still to do lol! Working on exactly what you listed right now, got an aggressive timeline with the deck being planned on going in 6/3 and 6/4.

Pool Warehouse should take care of you. Hopefully they can rush it through.

You still have plenty to keep you busy.

 

[jastudee]

It’s been a whirlwind of a few weeks! A few updates:

-Pool Warehouse was awesome - replaced the liner very quickly, got it in and it was correct.

-liner in, currently vacuuming and filling
-finished excavating the patio area
-finished plumbing and pressure tested ok
-roughed in equipment pad, will remove and place on concrete once poured
-finished electrical with the exception of the connection to the house
-roughed in gravel for concrete install

*inspection tomorrow
*concrete forms going in tomorrow
*concrete going on Saturday.

Almost there!

 

[duckcmmndr]

I'm glad pool warehouse got you fixed so quickly. Someone has been busy, it's a lot of work to get to this point.

 

[jastudee]

More progress - got the deck around the pool laid. Made a mess of what we had filled, so cleaning and pumping that out to start fresh. Overall happy with the outcome but a little disappointed in the coping. Very rough with many pockets. Tempted to have them epoxy patch it and paint just the coping overhang. Really don’t want to tear anything out!

 

[Newdude]

Overall happy with the outcome but a little disappointed in the coping.

That seems to be the trend lately.

I don't know if it's suddenly become more popular and crews that never cared about the finished edge of it, now have to care, or what. But it's come up a few times lately.

 

[jastudee]

I’ve done a horrible job keeping up with the thread here in the home stretch. Thankfully, I have done a decent job still taking photos. Pool is up and running, water is crystal clear, and everyone has been loving it!!!! So happy with the outcome and seeing the kids and their friends already wanting to live in the pool. This has been the most challenging and rewarding project I have done around the house. Still finishing up the last bit of fence and landscaper is coming soon as well.

 

[johnmccallister]

Any chance you snapped pics of your plumbing lines before covering up or pool pad? Just trying to get ideas of how I want to run everything before I start my dig

 

[jimmythegreek]

Piping is easy. Get pool up and collar poured. Plumb skimmer after setting it then backfill w stone. Keep going til you get close to return height and plumb them all in. Use the overdig and make one small trench to the equipment pad. Try to keep pipes fairly level to avoid pockets for water to sit when winterizing. Best practice is to home run whatever you can if not all of it.....depends how extensive the plumbing is. Don't cross pipes directly on pipe

 

[boxer156]

Getting ready to start my own DIY build, and this thread is GREAT!!! A couple questions:

*I have been told to just a Portland-Sand Mix on the Pool Floor at a 5:1 ratio. Anyone with experience on this?
*I noticed you left the shallow end panels out for access (which is smart), but I don't have that type of room (re-building an existing footprint pool). Is it possible to dig most of the slopes on the deeper end BEFORE you install the walls? Meaning, have it within a basic tolerance where you can do handwork to finish it up.
*How did you hold the grade for the pool bottom? I see you set string lines up--but what/where did you set them up at? I assume you pulled everything from top-of-wall--and then gave the 2" overdig for the Pool Base? Any advice at all on this phase would be appreciated--this is my most intimidating part

 

[jastudee]

Getting ready to start my own DIY build, and this thread is GREAT!!! A couple questions:

*I have been told to just a Portland-Sand Mix on the Pool Floor at a 5:1 ratio. Anyone with experience on this?
*I noticed you left the shallow end panels out for access (which is smart), but I don't have that type of room (re-building an existing footprint pool). Is it possible to dig most of the slopes on the deeper end BEFORE you install the walls? Meaning, have it within a basic tolerance where you can do handwork to finish it up.
*How did you hold the grade for the pool bottom? I see you set string lines up--but what/where did you set them up at? I assume you pulled everything from top-of-wall--and then gave the 2" overdig for the Pool Base? Any advice at all on this phase would be appreciated--this is my most intimidating part

The portland-sand mix 5:1 probably is a decent approach. If I could do it all over again, I would have purchased the pool-krete pool mix. Overall my custom blend turned out decent, but it didnt finish as smooth as i would hope. It looks great, but still has rough/uneven patches. I feel like i could have gotten an even better finish using the premix.

I did have the benefit of having the room to leave the shallow end walls out, this allowed me to keep the deep end walls in tact while digging. Honestly though, from what I've seen, a lot of people just install the panels once - paint the outline once squared up and in place and then do what your suggesting of digging it out and putting the walls back into pace after the dig is done.

For the grade of the bottom I used a laser transit to get the initial grade for the dig. This made getting the grade of the bottom pretty straight forward. Once dug to depth, i ran the strings in order to get the exact finish grade with the 2" of base. There are quite a few good videos on this - as well as some good info from @duckcmmndr and others. It isnt as intimidating as it seems once you get going.

Good luck, and let me know if you have any more questions.

 

[boxer156]

The portland-sand mix 5:1 probably is a decent approach. If I could do it all over again, I would have purchased the pool-krete pool mix. Overall my custom blend turned out decent, but it didnt finish as smooth as i would hope. It looks great, but still has rough/uneven patches. I feel like i could have gotten an even better finish using the premix.

I did have the benefit of having the room to leave the shallow end walls out, this allowed me to keep the deep end walls in tact while digging. Honestly though, from what I've seen, a lot of people just install the panels once - paint the outline once squared up and in place and then do what your suggesting of digging it out and putting the walls back into pace after the dig is done.

For the grade of the bottom I used a laser transit to get the initial grade for the dig. This made getting the grade of the bottom pretty straight forward. Once dug to depth, i ran the strings in order to get the exact finish grade with the 2" of base. There are quite a few good videos on this - as well as some good info from @duckcmmndr and others. It isnt as intimidating as it seems once you get going.

Good luck, and let me know if you have any more questions.

So tore the old pool out today and got rough grade. The old pool had a Stone Dust bottom which held up VERY well, and compacted very nicely. Really thinking about doing the same--since that be easier and quicker to grade. I can even mix in some Lime to give it a little stiffness. I'm just a little intimidated with grouting a 20'x40 pool, lol.