New In-ground Pool Central Florida

[mszporka]

We were a little delayed due to some afternoon rains in the area, but they finally showed up to do our rebar yesterday, and then came this afternoon to finish up. Looks very good so far, but I am curious why they didn’t do the plumbing for the spa jets (on the inner spa wall, and also didn’t do the skimmer blackout. Since this was the rebar crew, maybe the plumber comes and does that before gunnite? I know they have inspections called in for Monday for grounding, plumbing and rebar, so I would think they would do everything so they can gunnite after inspection.

My only other dilemma is that I see Jandy has come out with brand new lights (Infinite Series) a few weeks ago. I may call to see if it is too late to change to them, but I am also seeing that these new lights are only 15w vs the 25w that I am getting, so I feel they may not be as bright. I also see that they came out with the TrueSense which is a built in PH and Chlorine level reader. I may see the cost to add those, but I am not seeing much info on either since they are so new!

 

[WGpoolnewb]

We made our sunshelf to be at the 2nd step level so around 18” deep.

With that depth, there should be no problem adding a light up there to cover it. I don't like that our shallower shelf doesn't have a light across it.

 

[kit2022]

Thank you! We made our sunshelf to be at the 2nd step level so around 18” deep. We originally had it designed as 8” but our kid’s swim instructor has the deeper sunshelf and after talking with her, and seeing hers, we decided to go deeper. The only downside is that we had to add a step on the sunshelf to get down with that level. We feel that it gives kids who aren’t as good a swimming a deeper place to play. We may also eventually put some lounge chairs or sitting chairs in there.

Thanks for your help. Would that be 18" beneath the pool deck, or 18" beneath the water line?

 

[kimkats]

All depths should be WATER depth. Water depth is from the bottom of the pool to the middle of the skimmer opening. That may corollate to half way up the waterline tiles.

Some people do call the depth from the bottom of the pool to just under the coping.

Make sure your builder is using WATER depth.

 

[kit2022]

Okay, I see. 18" water depth seems pretty deep for a sun shelf. I'd love to know more about your reasoning for that decision. What ages are your kids? You don't find that it's too deep for them to sit in?

Thank you!!

 

[mszporka]

Okay, I see. 18" water depth seems pretty deep for a sun shelf. I'd love to know more about your reasoning for that decision. What ages are your kids? You don't find that it's too deep for them to sit in?

Thank you!!

My kids are 2 and 4, and are very active in the pool. To be honest, they don’t really just sit there and instead are constently moving around the pool. They are able to move in the 18“ water pretty good. We also came to the realization that sadly they won’t be young forever, so why plan for now when they will be grown up before we know it. My 4 year old is almost a self-proficient swimmer. I also personally would rather have a little deeper water if I am sitting on there. To be honest, I wasn’t sold at first (but lost that battle to my better half), but seeing it formed up, and thinking about it more, I am glad we made that decision. I think we will get a lot more use of that part of the pool since it is deeper.

 

[mszporka]

I am thinking of renaming this thread “The pool that got built on Mondays”because it really seems like they only do things on Monday haha! I think we are still on track for the timeline they gave us, but man does this downtime kill me! Especially since I work in healthcare construction where there is little to no lag between subs!
Anyways, it’s Monday so they came and plumbed in for my spa jets! It took them about an hour overall….So that answers that question about when it will get done or if it was missed. Hopefully I will get the call for gunite this week (although the weather later this week is supposed to be wet), so it will probably be next Monday haha!

 

[Newdude]

If it helps any, my build schedule was full of days that were too nice to work, or days that were too yucky to work. It's linked in my signature and was quite the adventure if you'd like something to help pass the time.

 

[mszporka]

My pool builder must be reading this thread because it’s Wednesday and I got a surprise visit today. I was about 5 minutes from my office (Which is about a 35 minute drive) when I got a notification that there was a truck out front. When I saw the guy grab rubber boots out, I knew it was GUNITE DAY! I immediately turned around and went home because I wasn’t going to miss the start of that. It was a race against the clock, because we are expecting some pretty big rains around 4pm. The whole process actually took a little longer than I expected, but they wrapped up right before the rain came. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to stay until the end, and they covered it before they left, but it looked good from my security camera.

 

[mszporka]

If it helps any, my build schedule was full of days that were too nice to work, or days that were too yucky to work. It's linked in my signature and was quite the adventure if you'd like something to help pass the time.

I started reading it and realized it was 52 pages…I hope mine doesn’t last that long!

 

[kimkats]

SWEET!!! That looks great! Have you started bonding with it yet? aka watering it to help slow down the curing.

It is time for your set of links! The first set is all about what to do and ask about to get a great plaster job. The second set is all about how to care for your pool after you get the plaster.

Plaster links:
Ten Guidelines for Quality Pool Plaster Best one of all
All Plaster Finishes Should Last 20 Years
Not All Color Pigments are Good for Pools How to pick a good color for plaster.
A Plastering 'Watch List' | Professional Watershaping | Watershapes
Trouble Free Pool
Trouble Free Pool

Pool care links:
Print these out:
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule
Pool School - Recommended Levels

Bookmark these:
Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals
Trouble Free Pool
Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Now is also a good time to ask what test kit your PB will be providing so we can fill in any holes.

Kim

 

[mszporka]

SWEET!!! That looks great! Have you started bonding with it yet? aka watering it to help slow down the curing.

It is time for your set of links! The first set is all about what to do and ask about to get a great plaster job. The second set is all about how to care for your pool after you get the plaster.

Plaster links:
Ten Guidelines for Quality Pool Plaster Best one of all
All Plaster Finishes Should Last 20 Years
Not All Color Pigments are Good for Pools How to pick a good color for plaster.
A Plastering 'Watch List' | Professional Watershaping | Watershapes
Trouble Free Pool
Trouble Free Pool

Pool care links:
Print these out:
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule
Pool School - Recommended Levels

Bookmark these:
Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals
Trouble Free Pool
Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Now is also a good time to ask what test kit your PB will be providing so we can fill in any holes.

Kim

I’ve been waiting for my own set of links for a long time! What a momentous occasion!
No bonding yet since it was applied today, but yes I plan to (even though my PB actually says you don’t need to due to the Florida climate). I talked to the gunite guy today and he was suprised they said that. I just need to figure out what their plan is with the plastic. We have rain in the forecast for the next few days and I am out of town until Friday night. So unless they remove it tomorrow, I think I will remove it Friday night and start watering then.

 

[mszporka]

Small little update- they came to do pregrade today and backfilled and also removed all of the plastic and forms. I also set up my watering sprinklers with an automatic timer.

 

[mszporka]

So upon a little more investigation, I unfortunately think I found my 1st problem of the build. There is a section of wall that dips in to about 5 inches as opposed to the 8” everywhere else. It looks like the back of the form may have been in the wrong location. I dug down about a foot on the backside and it is pretty plumb, so it looks like it thinned out the whole way. I also confirmed that the leave out for the return pipe just under this wall is pretty narrow too.

Does this happen a lot in pool building? What is the proper fix for it? Engineered drawings call for 6” thick wall.

 

[kimkats]

Good catch! Yeah it should all be consistent as you have guessed. Have you informed the PB yet? If not do so in writing with pictures to show them what you are seeing.

I am going to call in a couple of people who build pools for a living. Lets see what they have to say @1poolman1 @AQUA~HOLICS how can this be fixed?

 

[mszporka]

Have you informed the PB yet? If not do so in writing with pictures to show them what you are seeing.

I just found it this afternoon so I will be notifying them in writing first thing in the morning.

 

[AQUA~HOLICS]

Per steel engineering plans 6” minimum thickness to surround the rebar.
To correct this situation the thickness would need to be increased to the minimum requirement, how this would be achieved will not be an easy task. 2” of material I think is not going to have a long term impact and going thicker 3-4”
may be better, shooting on the inside of the shell is the quickest way but you lose that inside diameter of the shell.
Wait and see what the builder has as options, if one is to do nothing, get ahold of the steel engineering firm and have them give you a definitive estimate of how to correct the situation.

 

[mszporka]

So just a little update…. The pool builder ended up addressing issue with the thinner portion of the wall. I was not home, but they ended up spraying a little bit more gunite on each side (the backside after digging down and the whole wall inside the pool. I did a lot of research on gunite including reading the Sprayed Gunite Association guidelines and feel pretty comfortable with their fix. Of course I water cured that as well. They did this last Wednesday so it set us back about a week, but at least I feel more comfortable about it.

 

[mszporka]

Yesterday, we got a visit from the plumbers!! They got it all done in a day and we passed inspection today. They were also able to set the equipment. Looks like I got all Jandy Valves and It overall looks great. They even ran a portion of the electrical line which I am suppose to run back to the main meter box...I am not complaining as the portion which I need to do will be a lot less digging. Or is probably the difference in a few hundred dollars with saved PVC and I will not need to rent a ditch witch- I’ll just do it by hand now. The only thing I noticed is that it looks like they stubbed the pool light conduits in a weird spot. Since this was done by the plumbers, maybe the electricians take it from there (although it looks like they ran out of wire).

 

[shrek5701]

You and I are close to having our pools done how much longer did they tell you for decking and interior pool finish? My decking goes in this Wednesday and hopefully pool finish the following week.