Another Pool Build in Cypress, TX

More...more... ;)

And yes, good point about not stopping the fill until it's at least at the waterline tile. My PB gave me the suggestion that if I thought it would overflow in the middle of the night to turn the hose down to half pressure, but keep it filling. I couldn't wait that long (see, we are not just impatient with "you" Suz) so I left it on full and woke up almost every hour dreaming it would be overflowed. Finally at 4am I had to move the hose over to the spa (since I only had one). Great advice!
 
Suz - MMG told me something similar - they had me put 2 hoses in the deep end and stressed NOT to turn them off for any reason or it would cause staining and not to move them - to leave them right by the drains in the deep end. But they also told me NOT to fill the spa till last since it has a spillover - because if it spills over - it will also cause staining if the pool isn't full. So when the pool got to the top - where it was about to start filling the spa - we move one hose to the spa and filled it up.

This is SO exciting!!!!!!!!

BTW - they did not put socks on the ends of my hoses. :(
 
The inspector from Pebble Tec and the inspector for MMG both told me there was no need to wrap the ends of the hoses. In fact, before I could say anything, they DROPPED them in the deep end. I nearly died! But I figured if they aren't worried, then I wouldn't either. I had two new hoses. If I had had my old cruddy hose ends in there, I would have wrapped them when they left.

I made a bad purchase. When we bought the hoses on Monday, I got one 'Never Kink' and one regular hose. You know what happened.... I just spent an hour and a half wrestling with the regular 100 foot hose trying to water the new plants. The regular hose was so much lighter, so I thought it would be easier to manage. No way! I'm returning that hose after the pool and spa are filled and get another non-kink one. If they won't let me return it, I'm taking it to Goodwill. What a mess that was!
Suz
 

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Yeah it was lighter because it did not have the "never kink" stuff inside it. I LOVE my never kink hoses!

You need to ask your landscape guy about some drip irrigation. It will make your life so much easier!

Kim

This is why I really like this landscape guy (I'll know for sure after about 6 months when I can see how plants and sprinklers survive - and after install customer service). He has already put in three different places with drip irrigation connections. They aren't set up yet, but the little pipes are there! I may ask for another one if they aren't too expensive.
Suz.
 
Now begins yesterday's photos. It seems like a week ago!! I don't think I'll soon forget this day....

The acid job used only a 2-man crew for my pool. I would imagine larger pools would take more men. He's just getting started rinsing things off in the spa. Then both guys do the polishing with long thin poles with an electric polish thingy on the end. They are smoothing everything down. For some reason I didn't get a picture of that.....




After the polishing, both guys spent a good deal of time power washing over every inch of the pool. They went over each place several times. I would say they spent over an hour on this part. Also, this is when they really concentrated on any trim tiles to expose them more.

 
Oops, I think I did it again - hit reply instead of Go Advanced....

Next, one guy poured about 4 or 5 gallons of acid in the deep end. I was out there watching them before he began. He suggested I go outside due to the acid fumes or blowing particles. I did what he said!!!




Using a pump and big long tube, the other guy poured the acid over everything in the pool, even the glass tiles. So much dark stuff poured down with the acid. I guess it was all the plaster and rough stone pieces they had polished off. This doesn't show up well in the photo. In person, it was a brown-looking gunk almost like washing clean your hubcaps of grease.




You can see the guy is pouring (it really was more of a pouring rather than a spray) the acid over the sun shelf tiles and plaster. If you look closely at the plastered spa wall, one part is dark which is where he has poured acid, and then he moved back to the spa wall after he finished the sun shelf.




After the acid wash, once again they power wash over every inch. They get even more dark gunk off the plaster. You can sort of see that it's lighter where he has power washed like when a driveway is power washed.





I was really glad to see the guy doing this. He had a little cup of the blue plaster and checked everywhere for spots needing a little plaster fill. The care for details these guys give is great.




Here's proof I served Gatorade at least once! Maybe I've really been making that up all alone??????? But you know I did it once!!!





The acid wash process isn't finished. I'll post the rest after I do some dishes. The last part is the inspection. I thought it was really interesting, also.
Thanks again for stopping by and taking time to follow this build!
Suz.
 
Now the inspection part of the plaster and acid wash. To me this was interesting and important. It showed me they have pride in their work and want to continue the integrity of their product and work.

This is the same guy who came on Tuesday to inspect during the plaster. He's with MMG. He seemed so stern at first, but he was the nicest man. I can't believe I didn't get a close up picture of him - gorgeous eyes and very handsome - I think he said his name was Alberto. But the way he said it made your knees weak (can I say these things?).




This next guy was from PebbleTec to inspect. He lives in Modesto, California. He said it was his second time to Texas - he did NOT like the humidity! His name is Joel, and a super nice guy, also. He really wanted to know what I thought about the process and why I chose PebbleTec. He was interesting to visit with. I also had a school-girl crush on him!




Look how he's going over the pool. He paid really close attention to the waterline area and other nooks and crannies.




Here you can see he's really looking at the wall while the other guy is installing the drain covers.




Here, Joel is using his knife to chisel or scrape something he didn't like. He kept that knife out much of the time and did some chipping/chiseling/scraping throughout the pool. Not enough to make me worried about the job, but enough that I knew he was picky which I appreciate.




You can't see anything, but this is the one boo-boo that I know of. One of the under waterline tiles popped off. The guy had just finished putting it back on. If that's the only one in all those tiles, that's not bad at all. I hope no more pop off.




The hardened slurry from Tuesday without the sides.




She's filling up! A lovely shade of green.




The view from above before the madness of two landscaping crews and a slave-driving boss!

 
So beautiful!!!

My wife grew up a lot of her life in Modesto. She lived there when we met. I'll have to ask her and her parents if she recognizes him. My father-in-law is in the construction business so it is possible.
 

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