Building a pool with many questions

redhead33

Active member
Jun 21, 2024
32
central florida
Of course it’s a Friday and my pool builder is not reachable. They left after the shell was shot. When I looked out, I see that it had been completely covered with fairly thick plastic sheeting. I don’t know if this is this is Visquene or not. Doesn’t matter I guess. So I went out to peek under to see what the steps look like and a blast of air so hot. It was like opening my oven on Thanksgiving after cooking the turkey for three hours. It looked like the surface of the concrete was already getting dry looking. Then it did rain a little, which is why I think they put it on to begin with so now I have a small little lake inside the plastic sitting on top of the new shell. And when I say New, I mean this afternoon new. So am I irrationally concerned about the extremely hot temperature under the plastic? Any advice would be appreciated since I can’t get a hold of my contractor. Also, he did say that we could walk around in there if we wanted over the weekend because many people do that and also that if it rained that would be good because I asked about watering it and he didn’t think it mattered one way or the other. Any info appreciated.
 
More about watering new gunite discussion in…

 
Welcome to TFP.

Curing concrete is a chemical reaction that generates heat. It should be uncovered and kept hydrated.

Thanks, I just couldn’t feel comfortable with the coverage so I took most of it off last night and I will do the rest this morning. It does bother me that the owner of the company was so unconcerned.
 

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Just saw this and I'm with the others. You'll get 40% better strength if you keep the concrete wet by watering twice per day next 7 days. Concrete needs water to complete the chemical reaction that causes it to harden all the way through. When the surface dries out water is not available for this. Our recent hot and windy weather requires the extra water for a complete cure.

Good luck to you and congrats on your new pool!

Chris
 
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Thank you at about 630 this morning. I was taking the plastic off that I couldn’t get to last night because it’s kind of precarious since there’s no walkway completely around the pool some water on top of the plastic which had gotten to the bottom of the pool made it heavy and difficult to remove, but I did it anyway by cutting it away with a knife from the two by fours . So today is very sunny and hot and I have ordered it twice already and I’m not really sure how much to wet it down. But it’s better than baking under 200° conditions under that plastic. It was crazy how hot it was. Thanks for the info.
 
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It's pretty easy to keep wet with one or two irrigation sprinklers set up on a piece of 1" pipe with some cross pieces for support and tee's where you put the sprinkler head in. Cap one end and put a hose connection to the other. I tied mine into a zone on the irrigation system and ran it 2-3 times per day for 30 days (probably overkill for a pool but I'd do it 'till your builder comes back).

Chris

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Not sure I’m that talented. 😊 They don’t mind getting in there and using the shower setting, which is what some other people and videos have advised. Here in Florida we’re supposed to get rain. It threatens it every day but then have the time it doesn’t happen. I really appreciate everybody giving me these good opinions because I did take that plastic off. It did not seem right.
 
Not sure I’m that talented. 😊 They don’t mind getting in there and using the shower setting, which is what some other people and videos have advised. Here in Florida we’re supposed to get rain. It threatens it every day but then have the time it doesn’t happen. I really appreciate everybody giving me these good opinions because I did take that plastic off. It did not seem right.
yep it only really rains when you don't want it too... we're supposed to have the pavers sealed tomorrow or Monday. Need at least several days to dry out after acid washing. We got clobbered here in Palm City (FL east coast) this morning
 
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I have spent the past three days trying to understand why my pool contractor left me on Friday afternoon with a newly shot Gunite pool shell with zero instructions about how to facilitate proper curing. When I wrote to him, he didn’t write me back . I was concerned because they had put plastic sheeting over the entire shell. It was already hot here because it’s 90+ degrees in central Florida, but the amount of heat generated by the exothermic action of the curing process was unbelievable since it was trapped under the plastic, I became concerned when I did a little bit of quick research saying that the optimal temperature for concrete curing is between 50 and 90. Didn’t say anything about temperature hotter than my oven when I’m baking a turkey. Actually I had read some things. I said too hot would be bad. And of course he said nothing about watering it. I guess the theory was to keep the humidity and the surface moisture in by putting the plastic, but that did not address my concern about the extremely high temperature so I came here and based upon advice, I got here I removed it and started spraying with water all weekend which I still think was the right thing to do . Anyway this article is really because it gets more info out of the horses mouth which is the American concrete Institute. Apparently that’s the authoritative source for all things concrete, including lawsuits if somebody were to sue a pool contractor for improper, construction, cracks, etc., the authoritative expert opinion would not come from other pool contractors, it would come from the guidelines put out by ACI. This article gives a little basic synopsis of the proper curing and other considerations and unfortunately it says you cannot necessarily rely on your pool contractor. Nor should they rely on customers to do what this article says is the responsibility of the contract. Particularly lightening was the fact that the critical time is the first 3 to 7 days and unfortunately, in my case that was when I was left swinging in the breeze with absolutely zero instruction from my contractor. so I’m annoyed at the contractor, but I did what I thought was best which was keep the surface of the concrete damp. Finding the Cure - Water Shapes
 

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