Jaffles pool build

[Jaffles]

Hi folks, come late to the meeting and was not going to speak up, but hey why not. So thanks Newdude, and hello from the Gold Coast Hinterland in sunny Australia.

Will start were I'm at before going back as I don't have heaps of pics anyway. Light bulb moment for a pool happened in April 2021. Finance, weather, covid, material supplies has us where I'm at Aug 22, so hopefully by Christmas we will be swimming.

I'm putting exposed aggregate around the pool as the deck, mostly for running kids. The colour is Salt N Pepper. As you can see mostly black, throw of white, and even less brown. The pool coping will be the same product, with a nice 1" fall away from the pool with rolled edge on the top of it. Thought that would be far more pleasant on the bum than exposed agi, keep it in the same look and colour, but give it a point of difference of its own.

Anyone had any experience honing concrete? Concretor did a yeh yeh na regarding his contact, so thought I'd have a crack.

 

[Newdude]

*gets comfy*



Gonna be a beauty Jaffles !! Hang tight for thoughts.

 

[Rebuke]

Is that a warp/illusion of the picture or does the ledge get gradually deeper? Awesome if it does. Pool looks great to, gonna be HUGE.

 

[Jaffles]

Is that a warp/illusion of the picture or does the ledge get gradually deeper? Awesome if it does. Pool looks great to, gonna be HUGE.

Ta, that's my attempt of a beach. In the centre it is 5" deep and slopes away to 17" over 10ft before dropping off. It's 30ft long and 17" deep towards the ends. The pool itself is 4ft at the shallow end, and 6.5ft down the deep. The rectangular swimming area is 30 x 16.5ft wide.

Inspiration came from a place we often go camping, and was hoping to get pebble applied to enhance the beach, shallow, and deep areas of the pool. PB say wow way too hard, so we are back to one colour of pebble and letting the depth of the water do its thing.

We pan to put an overhanging brolly type shade thing for the beach instead of a tree.

 

[AQUA~HOLICS]

This is with only one color of pebble.

 

[Jaffles]

This is with only one color of pebble.

Nice, that's the contrast we are after. Do you know what pebble that is?

The guys who sprayed the shell suggested the lighter the pebble the more blue. Go adding lots of colour to it and it can make it go weird, but guess that all depends on what you like.

Around the beach coping and beach deck we are using the flip of the rest of the decking, in the hope to create an extension of the beach. We might get another 25% white added yet, not sure. The coping will also be honed when it eventually gets done.

 

[AQUA~HOLICS]

Pebble Fina.
Yes the lighter the plaster the more reflection of the sky you obtain.
All the glass was hand thrown just before the last trowel for maximum exposure.

 

[Jaffles]

Well tapping 52 and semi retired, I had developed a liking to paying people to do what I feel am to old for. Quotes to hone the pool"s coping started at $7000, unsealed. So.....out of retirement I come.

Having spent a lot of years on the backend of a sander, I felt how hard can it be for a day to two. For some reason I had hoped the mortar trades had developed somewhat from when I left the building industry, but appears not.



7.5 hours later I'm half way there. Completed rough in with the 30grit and have the nosing ready for final. I'll fill all the defect holes in the morning the have me some breakfast. Final cut is with a 60grit and a bit of block sanding.

In the mean time some beers and a few stretches should see me right for the night and hopefully into the next day.

 

[Jaffles]

Well the excitement continued....up early to take the dog for a walk before hosing down the coping and filling it. I sieved dust from the vacuum and added cement in a mix around 3-1.



Think I did this backwards, but by filling it before the 60 grit sand showed grinding defects from the 30 grit rip down. So in the end I got a pretty near perfect surface from it, but it did take a while.

I put a 3/4" round edge on the nose which was perhaps the easiest part of the day. Bloke down the hire shop said 3/4 was pretty big, he suggest 1/4 because I think it was easier. Not for me, reckon it would look to small and out of place.

Final hand sand after a little more patching then time to seal. Black side done. Just the beach side now.

 

[Rebuke]

I was browsing through photos and when I saw this I thought it looked like what you had been talking about with the 2 pebble colors.

Pool Finish and Color Viewing Room...TFP Member Sound Off

Stonescapes Mini Pebble - Midnight Blue. 8 bags of Puerto Rico blend glass.

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Jaffles]

Thanks Rebuke, I have become fond of French Grey for the swimming part of the pool, and had hoped Arctic White fo the beach. However its all to hard for my beige PB, who won't give me the pebble applicators number but assures me that he has talked to them and they won't do it.

Rather pathetic he has multiple steel fixers, gunite crews, plumbers, and electricians to choose from, but only one unadventurous pebble crew.

Think in the end White Diamond (Salt n Pepper) as its called down here will win out.

 

[Jaffles]

Well, after much excitement I'm not sure if I'm happy or not. My original sealing went pear shapes because after it dried, it lost all its pop and returning back to plain old dull grey concrete but with a slight muddy brown tinge to it. Sure it was sealed well but no colour was to return even after wetting it.

Options were few so I spent another day on the grinder removing the penetrating sealer I had applied the day before. The thinking was even left as raw it would come to life when wet. I was having so much fun I spent another day honing the white exposed agi.
Sadly my flip flop idea of black flipping to white is a bit of a fail. Can't explain what I was thinking but perhaps the cement should have been white if I was chasing a beach kind of feel.



After seeking more advice on sealer I settled on a 2 pack polyurethane. Bit pricy but good for 10 years, so in the end its cheap compared to the other 18 month sealers. It will require some non slip additive however but I can live with that.

 

[kimkats]

I love how it looks! No it is not really beach like but is sure it pretty!!

 

[Jaffles]

Had the pumps, filter, and heater installed today. PB must want me gone I think, and the plumber must have had some note about the client, as he turned up with a big bag of 45 joiners. The trouble is how to walk what you want without offending, and trying too remember all that you think you learnt and keep it friendly.

I was most anxious about how the lay out would go, and some of the manufacturers recommendations have not been followed, but in the end I'm happy with it. Maybe what I don't know won't hurt me, and its perhaps to late to change much now.

I need to come up with some type of cover to reduce the elements whist mounting the chlorinator control box. Visually for most of the plumbing it will hidden by the rock and vegetation.

 

[Jaffles]

I discovered one of the deck jets is 3/4' under deck height. Between the plumber and concretor no one wants to own it, and the PB well, best not to bother with him. Think I'll also be bolting down my own pumps and filter. The plumber sure doesn't do it.

Lucky for me several deck gets had been left behind, so this allowed me to cut the top of one and have the exact profile. Also lucky for me the father in-law has a lathe, so we milled up an off cut from a 50mm elbow to make a collar. Sadly the ID of a 50mm metric pipe down under is just shy of fitting over the jets profile. Probably easier to just cut a collar vertically and just have a small gap. But hey its Sunday so what else am I doing.

Whist the luck was running I also just happen to find a random fitting in a box of old left over plumbing fitting that fitted the jet perfectly. This allowed me to also extend the intervals of the jet 3/4" so all should be back as intended.

 

[Newdude]

Think I'll also be bolting down my own pumps and filter. The plumber sure doesn't do it.

I'm not saying that it has to be ok as is. I'm saying that the rigid plumbing holds it in place just fine most of the time. Let it run until you see a reason to both them down and you likely won't.

 

[kimkats]

Glad you found what you needed to fix it up! Sigh.............on having to do the word yourself but at least you know it is done right!

 

[Jaffles]

I'm not saying that it has to be ok as is. I'm saying that the rigid plumbing holds it in place just fine most of the time. Let it run until you see a reason to both them down and you likely won't.

Ok thanks. Was kind of thinking half that. Think the filter will definately need something as it rocks pretty easily. The heater sure isn't going anywhere at 420 pound.

I woke this morning thinking I don't have any way to drain to waste. I mean I have a cartridge filter but no way to drain the pool if required. Should that be a standard fitting or should I get one fitted? There isn't much room for additions.

Could always use a seperate submersible pump but that's seems like another pump for no reason.

 

[Jaffles]

I can fit a 3 way between pump and filter. Might need a whole new pipe but with the amount of rain we get I think its going to be worth it. With a VSP and a removable flexible hose it might be a nice little addition. Think I'll be doing that one to.

 

[Newdude]

On my first build, the PB gave me a 3 way valve before the cartridge to drain/vac to waste. I did not know it was a thing at the time but boy did it come in handy at times. For build #2 it was the first thing I asked for after the specific equipment request. 3 HP intelliflo, 60K SWG, 500 carts and waste setting.