Lol I think it's really dependent on the situation. We did owner build and contracted out some of the heavy labor. Had an issue with one sub. I'd 100% take OB stress/effort any day over relying on somebody else who's.... Difficult. I've seen some horrific stories of builders on here that confirmed my desire to cut out the middle man.
16' x 30' Flat Kidney Owner Build
- Thread starter dleonard1122
- Start date
Not a whole lot of progress until just recently. My concrete guy came out and they poured the footing for the paver coping. Now that that's done, I think this will be a big weekend for us. I'm hoping to spend Saturday getting the inside cleaned and vacuumed out, maybe touch up the pool base anywhere that needs it, and then Sunday I have helpers coming to put the liner in. Fingers crossed everything fits with minimal wrinkles. I plan on using my shop vac to pull a vacuum while using the garden hose to get some water in the deep end. 13,000 gallons of water is scheduled to be delivered next week so if all goes well we might be swimming in a weeks time.
Wolfepack88
Gold Supporter
- Jun 21, 2020
- 829
- Pool Size
- 17690
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Jandy Aquapure 1400
How did you resolve the water coming in from the panels? Do you have a way of preventing that or extricating the water if it does? A dewatering pipe, drain or something?
I actually haven't done anything about that yet. My thinking is that I'm going to duct tape all of the wall panel seams (to enable the vacuum to suck the liner tight to the walls) and then put the liner in. I'm hoping the pressure of the liner being istalled and vacuumed to the walls will help keep most of any water out until I fill it up with water, at which point the pressure inside of the pool should really seal and keep water from getting behind the liner.
IF my plan doesn't work and we do get water behind the liner before I'm ready to fill the pool completely, I'll have to stick a hose down there between the liner and the walls to pump it out.
Lastly, once the pavers on the coping and around the pool deck are complete it will direct all water away from the pool so this will stop being an issue.
This morning was pretty hectic. I tested positive for Covid last night (mild symptoms) and then this morning my FIL was planning to come over and help me with the liner. He ended up coming over for just the morning today and I wore a mask the entire time and we were both comfortable with that.
The other chaotic thing we ran into is that within the past 24 hours the weather forecast changed and now we're looking at 2" of rain tomorrow night into Tuesday. I did not like the idea of only having 2" of water in the hopper and nothing to stop water getting behind the liner, so instead of waiting for a water truck we planned to just fill up from our well. I managed to hook up one of my 3 garden hoses to our irrigation system clean out that comes right off of the irrigation main, so that put out a lot of water. Crucially, enough water was coming out of the 3 hoses to keep my pump from cycling on and off, which was the only way I'd feel comfortable filling the pool from the well. I'm certainly lucky to have a 250' deep well with clean water.
I ran the garden hoses for 3.5 hours today and I've got 4" in the shallow end. The main drains are installed. Tomorrow I'll do the faceplate for the steps and then turn the hoses back on and fill the rest of the way (hopefully) and put the faceplates for the skimmers and returns on as the water rises.
There are a few small wrinkles in the bottom of the hopper, but nothing I'm going to lose sleep over. We are small people who probably won't be touching the bottom there anyway. My only concern right now is the back left wall is pulled really tight. It's still got some stretch to it, but as the water level rises it's gotta push to fill in against the wall. I'll be praying for my vinyl liner to hold until it gets full.
The other chaotic thing we ran into is that within the past 24 hours the weather forecast changed and now we're looking at 2" of rain tomorrow night into Tuesday. I did not like the idea of only having 2" of water in the hopper and nothing to stop water getting behind the liner, so instead of waiting for a water truck we planned to just fill up from our well. I managed to hook up one of my 3 garden hoses to our irrigation system clean out that comes right off of the irrigation main, so that put out a lot of water. Crucially, enough water was coming out of the 3 hoses to keep my pump from cycling on and off, which was the only way I'd feel comfortable filling the pool from the well. I'm certainly lucky to have a 250' deep well with clean water.
I ran the garden hoses for 3.5 hours today and I've got 4" in the shallow end. The main drains are installed. Tomorrow I'll do the faceplate for the steps and then turn the hoses back on and fill the rest of the way (hopefully) and put the faceplates for the skimmers and returns on as the water rises.
There are a few small wrinkles in the bottom of the hopper, but nothing I'm going to lose sleep over. We are small people who probably won't be touching the bottom there anyway. My only concern right now is the back left wall is pulled really tight. It's still got some stretch to it, but as the water level rises it's gotta push to fill in against the wall. I'll be praying for my vinyl liner to hold until it gets full.
I have no one to blame but myself. I'm the idiot who partially unscrewed two skimmer mounting screws through the liner, instead of skimmer faceplate screws. Doh! I'm such an idiot. Everything was going too smoothly and for 2 minutes my concentration lapsed.
Anyway, guess who got an early lesson in vinyl repair?
Thankfully(?) both of the holes are right to the sides of the skimmer face plate, so they're partially covered by the vanity cover plate and they're right at the water line so not somewhere I'd really expect be a high risk for leaking. I doubt anyone but me will ever notice it. Boy did I feel like a moron though. I did manage to get the both skimmer, return, and step faceplates successfully installed though.
The better news is that the pump is running! It took a bit to get primed and I started to get worried, but eventually it came through. I added 7 bags of salt to try to eek up to 3600 ppm, and I have 5 lbs of CYA sitting in socks in my skimmers waiting for the water to get up to them. Lastly, I added a gallon of bleach just to get some FC in there since it's well water and it's going on 2 days now.
Oh, and I did the first cannonball in the pool just a little bit ago. It was glorious.
Anyway, guess who got an early lesson in vinyl repair?
Thankfully(?) both of the holes are right to the sides of the skimmer face plate, so they're partially covered by the vanity cover plate and they're right at the water line so not somewhere I'd really expect be a high risk for leaking. I doubt anyone but me will ever notice it. Boy did I feel like a moron though. I did manage to get the both skimmer, return, and step faceplates successfully installed though.
The better news is that the pump is running! It took a bit to get primed and I started to get worried, but eventually it came through. I added 7 bags of salt to try to eek up to 3600 ppm, and I have 5 lbs of CYA sitting in socks in my skimmers waiting for the water to get up to them. Lastly, I added a gallon of bleach just to get some FC in there since it's well water and it's going on 2 days now.
Oh, and I did the first cannonball in the pool just a little bit ago. It was glorious.
And right on cue we got 3 inches of rain and I need to drain my pool. Almost poetic isn't it?
Side note, I need to go get backwash house and figure out how to hook it up to my 3 way diverter valve that I'm going to be using as a drainage point.
Side note, I need to go get backwash house and figure out how to hook it up to my 3 way diverter valve that I'm going to be using as a drainage point.
So learning SWGs is on easy mode right now. The days are getting shorter and the sun is getting lower in the sky. When you miss an adjustment, you make too much FC and a few days later it's funny when you 
.
So you'll figure out the current daily FC loss to the sun, and make the SWG produce that much. A week or two from now you'll see the FC drifting upwards and it's time to dial down the unit. Lather, rinse, repeat. Don't micromanage if one day is cloudy and you make some extra FC. More FC than you were trying for several days in a row ? OK, step in and dial it down.
In the spring it's the exact opposite. You start early and at a low setting because there isn't much UV demand in April. But it cranks up quick and you will be on the lookout to match it. July and August (and maybe some of June) are our peak season and after that it drifts down again.
.So you'll figure out the current daily FC loss to the sun, and make the SWG produce that much. A week or two from now you'll see the FC drifting upwards and it's time to dial down the unit. Lather, rinse, repeat. Don't micromanage if one day is cloudy and you make some extra FC. More FC than you were trying for several days in a row ? OK, step in and dial it down.
In the spring it's the exact opposite. You start early and at a low setting because there isn't much UV demand in April. But it cranks up quick and you will be on the lookout to match it. July and August (and maybe some of June) are our peak season and after that it drifts down again.
Thanks! I just finished my first complete round of testing with the TF-Pro Salt (I think I shared my results with TFP, not sure if you all can see them). So far FC is low, so I set my SWG up to 40% to see if that handles it. We got a ton of rain today and the pool has been pretty dirty with all of the salt I've been adding and the nothing but dirt surrounding it. I need to pick up a brush and a vacuum tomorrow.So learning SWGs is on easy mode right now. The days are getting shorter and the sun is getting lower in the sky. When you miss an adjustment, you make too much FC and a few days later it's funny when you
So you'll figure out the current daily FC loss to the sun, and make the SWG produce that much. A week or two from now you'll see the FC drifting upwards and it's time to dial down the unit. Lather, rinse, repeat. Don't micromanage if one day is cloudy and you make some extra FC. More FC than you were trying for several days in a row ? OK, step in and dial it down.
In the spring it's the exact opposite. You start early and at a low setting because there isn't much UV demand in April. But it cranks up quick and you will have you been want to throw a ball? There's a yellow ball in my be on the lookout to match it. July and August (and maybe some of June) are our peak season and after that it drifts down again.
My CYA socks are taking their sweet time in dissolving. I suspect I'll still need to add more of that when it finished but hopefully it's at least above 0 now. I assume I need to wait for it to fully dissolve before testing again.
My CH was low at 25 but for a vinyl pool I suppose that doesn't matter too much. TA is high at 110. I'll probably drop the PH down from 7.8 to 7.2 and then see how that affects things, but this is low on my priority compared to getting the FC and CYA where I want it.
Always use LC to boost it now, then try to maintain with SWG. Boost more as necessary.
I had 4 of the same bags from the same pallet, all air tight per squeezing. 2 dissolved in 2 hours and 2 took 2 days. The cold hose water isn't helping either. But like you said, some is better than 0 for now.
Correct. 100 is a good number for vinyl when you get around to it. Unless you are getting a gas heater that the manufacturer wants 200.
TA is perfect where it is. Managing the PH will bring it down to wherever it wants to be Never chase the TA(IL).
Awesome. Count the CYA as you know it's in there one way or the other. Work at squeezing it. If it's not better tomorrow, use a bucket of warm water and strain it when adding back to the pool.
*it is an honor to help you dial in
YOUR.
FULL.
POOL !!!!!!
It's not even mine and it doesn't seem real.
YOUR.
FULL.
POOL !!!!!!
It's not even mine and it doesn't seem real.
Boosting the SWG up to 40% had me overshoot FC and now it's at 9. I just lowered it back down to 20%, hopefully it'll fall into place and maintain a steady 5 or 6 there.So learning SWGs is on easy mode right now. The days are getting shorter and the sun is getting lower in the sky. When you miss an adjustment, you make too much FC and a few days later it's funny when you
So you'll figure out the current daily FC loss to the sun, and make the SWG produce that much. A week or two from now you'll see the FC drifting upwards and it's time to dial down the unit. Lather, rinse, repeat. Don't micromanage if one day is cloudy and you make some extra FC. More FC than you were trying for several days in a row ? OK, step in and dial it down.
In the spring it's the exact opposite. You start early and at a low setting because there isn't much UV demand in April. But it cranks up quick and you will be on the lookout to match it. July and August (and maybe some of June) are our peak season and after that it drifts down again.
Whenever you foul up, foul up on the high side. After a while, you'll just leave it there preemptively for whatever may come tomorrow.
Except for Salt and CYA tho right? Lol
My FC has been bouncing around 7-8 at 35% on the SWG with the pump running 55% most of the day and only 18% at night. I haven't worried too much about lowering it. Might take it down a little when winter comes but considering I've found an number of dead frogs in the pool lately, I'm perfectly happy to leave it a little high. 