Ahhh.. nope. Something must have happened during the shoot to cause the leak. Hopefully it'll be a fairly simple find and fix for them.
Pool Finally Filled! - Austin, TX BYOP
- Thread starter acue180
- Start date
Stoopalini
Gold Supporter
- Jun 8, 2020
- 590
- Pool Size
- 14060
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
The drop in water pressure was most likely due to the plug inside the skimmer popping due to heat. If so, it's nothing to worry about.
It happened to me the evening they did the gunite, while I was standing outside. It was quite the loud "pop", and the lid of the skimmer (which was tapped down) flew off and a column of water shot up. I contacted the construction manager and he said it was just the plug which popped, and happens quite a lot when building pools in the summer around here.
When they get ready to pressurize the system, they insert a plug into the hole on the bottom of the skimmer, to seal off the inlet. This isn't there when it goes into operation, but is needed to hold pressure during the plumbing check.
Take a look inside the skimmer, and I bet you see the plug dislodged, and probably a large O-ring laying in there too ... or, if it was like mine, the O-ring flew out of the skimmer and landed in the pool shell.
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One of the drops was definitely the skimmer plug, but I don't think the other was. Already spoke to the plumber though and when they come set the equipment they will get it taken care of and fix the bubbler level. I would suggest using Prestige Gunite rather than Hot Crete in Austin area to shoot the pool. Hot Crete was all over the place but I was on top of it. Lots of mistakes would have been made if I wasn't checking and rechecking the plan.
Quick question about watering gunite. I’ve been watering 3x day but due to the heat I tend to only water once when the sun is actually out. The morning and evening waterings are done before sun up and then when its fully shaded. Does this matter? Or should I be watering more than once when the sun is actually on the shell?
Soggydoggies
Silver Supporter
I’m in Leander - I did waterings around 7:30a, 11:30, 3:30, then last one around 8p for two weeks. Builder just said the more you can water the better! On days when the sun was really intense I’d put a sprinkler on in the afternoon.
After watering gunite for ten days the tile/coping sub was still 10 days out so here we are three weeks later to the day the pool was shot.
RPZ/auto fill was done today. Picture is attached.
Tile/coping begins tomorrow afternoon. I feel like we are so close but we still have tile/coping/decking/plaster.
On a side note, the shotcrete crew was terrible. They shot my tanning ledge three inches too high and completely forgot to place our umbrella hole in the ledge. By the time I realized it the concrete had hardened and they had a heck of a time jack hammering and shoveling out the dry concrete. Their attitudes about this was horrible and reflected in the finished ledge. Although they fixed it, I was beyond upset and spoke to the owner of the company. He refunded $1,000.000 from our invoice.
RPZ/auto fill was done today. Picture is attached.
Tile/coping begins tomorrow afternoon. I feel like we are so close but we still have tile/coping/decking/plaster.
On a side note, the shotcrete crew was terrible. They shot my tanning ledge three inches too high and completely forgot to place our umbrella hole in the ledge. By the time I realized it the concrete had hardened and they had a heck of a time jack hammering and shoveling out the dry concrete. Their attitudes about this was horrible and reflected in the finished ledge. Although they fixed it, I was beyond upset and spoke to the owner of the company. He refunded $1,000.000 from our invoice.
Yep, they installed the wrong tile. We wanted Oceans cobalt (blue with blacks) but Oceans blue was installed (blue with blacks/grays). The actual work looks great and we are thrilled with the look of the coping, but this was a big mistake. They offered to rip off the wrong one and install our chosen tile tomorrow or credit us $600 to keep the current one. My wife thinks the grays in the installed tile work well with the gray coping, but I'm not sure! Also I'm not sure if the $600 credit is worth it? Since my wife actually likes the grays instead, you probably know what our decision will be 
We will decide by tonight.
Also included is a picture of my brave cleanup crew!
We will decide by tonight. Also included is a picture of my brave cleanup crew!
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$600 credit and a happy wife? That’s a no brainer, take the credit and take her out for a nice date night!!Yep, they installed the wrong tile. We wanted Oceans cobalt (blue with blacks) but Oceans blue was installed (blue with blacks/grays). The actual work looks great and we are thrilled with the look of the coping, but this was a big mistake. They offered to rip off the wrong one and install our chosen tile tomorrow or credit us $600 to keep the current one. My wife thinks the grays in the installed tile work well with the gray coping, but I'm not sure! Also I'm not sure if the $600 credit is worth it? Since my wife actually likes the grays instead, you probably know what our decision will be
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Also included is a picture of my brave cleanup crew!
Good question. I asked the guy installing it and he said it was normal. I’ll check with my build contact.
Been 3 weeks since last post. In that time we poured decking and plastered. They are actually outside doing acid wash pre-fill as I type! Pictures attached. We went with CLI CrystalStones Smooth (mini pebble) Aqua Blue after agonizing between that, Caribbean Blue, Gray Harbour, and Tahoe Blue. I'll continue updating after we install some artificial turf, get furniture, landscaping, etc.
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And we are filling! Look at those happy faces!
The waterline tile looks fantastic and really, everything looks great. You even finished the pool before your projected timeline. I bet you have happy kids! I was admiring your wall -- Is that 12" high? We're doing a wall, too. I'm getting ideas. Congratulations on a job well done!
The raised beam is 18 inches. Beam wall is chopped tan lueder's stone. Coping Is gray lueder's stone. Pool has already changed color slightly to a more medium blue but haven't seen new color in direct sunlight so I'm excited for the next few days. All my pool furniture should be here in the next two weeks. We also have the mobile SR Smith SlideAway slide coming. It should all be in just in time for Thanksgiving haha. But we do have a heat pump/chiller combo on the pool so when we can sneak swim days in we certainly will! Had a few hiccups at startup but everything should be sorted out. Actually enjoying the chemistry I'm learning with the new kit and pool math app. Guy laughed at me when I told him I didn't want to use the in line chlorinator as primary sanitizer. He said I'd get tired of adding liquid chlorine (bleach) by the second week. Boy will he be wrong! We saved a long time for this pool and I'm excited about the other projects around it too. Turf on my patio and an motorized outdoor shade serving as an extra barrier to our pool will be in soon as well. Is it next summer yet??? Attached pics from a few min ago. Overcast, no sun all day today.
Gorgeous! Happy for you! Will you put in some tall bushes behind the pool to block all those windows?
Tip: Might want to Thompson's Water Seal under your waterfalls on the brick. That'll help will staining.
Tip: Might want to Thompson's Water Seal under your waterfalls on the brick. That'll help will staining.
Can you put a link to this? I can find wood sealer but thats it. So you just apply directly to the stone?
Water color changed from aquamarine to medium blue after one week of brushing and robot. Same time of day and sun exposure.
We love the water color now! Still have irrigation, landscaping, and have to get the ledge bubbler and heater/chiller working through Pentair support. Start up could not set the bubbler right or get heater/chiller working.
