West Georgia Pool Build! Swimming by Summer '16

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I think we are going to nix mosaics. Waiting on a quote from the rock guy to the PB for what his labor price would be on the fire pit. The stacked stone wall is amazing looking (pics coming!) and a fire pit to match somewhere on the patio will just add to the awesomeness.

Before the rock got here a few weeks ago, the tile was done. The pics below were just taken today. Coping is not yet installed, the guys are just trying to get it sized. My wife really wanted a deco tile mixed in with plain, so we have about 18 out there. It's about 1 every six feet:


Way too many choices for grout. 30 or so. We went back and forth and talked to the rock guy and PB. "Do we go dark or light" drove us nuts. I think we found one we like. It's a tan-ish brown. Originally we were thinking gray but I didn't like the concrete colored look to it. The color we picked will stand out a bit, but once it's recessed within tile it should look good and go with the coping.

I managed to slide the sample piece between tile to get a few pics in both light and shade:


 
Initially, the retaining wall that was going to have to go behind the deep end was going to be 10-12 feet off the pool and follow the curvature. One of the PB's guys was out here last week and he mentioned he could put a sharper turn in wall and cut the hill off a little sooner thus giving me significantly more flat space. It was difficult to imagine because there was a ton of dirt piled up where the wall would be cut. We made a rough paint line and I put it all in my wife's hands since I had to leave town. Well, she did a great job explaining how we wanted the wall to curve. I bugged her for pictures all week as the dirt was moved for the wall, footers poured, etc.



They did a great job cutting it out. So much more flat area than I though we would have. Awesome. More to come on the wall tomorrow....

Pavers

So the whole switching to pavers thing. We are going with Belgard Lafitt Rustic Slab. Color Avondale. They are large pavers with a bit of texture to them. The biggest pain in butt with trying to figure out which color to pick and if we wanted the pavers was trying to find accurate pictures online. It appears that Belgard offers different colors dependent upon what region of the country you are in. In addition, the lighting of pictures online is so variable that it's difficult to know what you are getting. I was sold on the color and style when I found a picture online of a shade similar to ours. I should have saved the picture - it was on Belgard's FB page - but I found the landscaper that installed it and he told me it was a similar shade to the Avondale.

I ended up buying up from the 1,500 sq. ft in the contract to a little over 1,800 sq. ft - the whole truck load. We have plenty of room for it. A few pictures below. All of these are the same shade....the difference is interesting. I guess we'll see what happens when the truck gets here.

I pulled this picture of the pool off of Houzz.com -


And then these random shots. Still Avondale -


 
LOVE. LOVE, LOVE!

-the tile with the pretty added! OH yeah! nice touch!

-grout-good shoots using the light and shade. LOL on getting the sample in to really see it!

-wall move------that fella should get a steak dinner with all of the fixings for giving you that much usable space around your pool!

-paver-LOVE the color pick! So much interest in each paver.

Tell your wife thanks for the pics!

Kim
 
I can relate on the retaining walls to create flat deck space. It's going to be great! Our retaining wall completely circles our pool and was transformative.
 
Right on Sheree...I let her handle all the tiles and figure the happier she is, the easier it is to hear 'yes' to when I keep adding stuff.

The rock guys have finished all of their work on the wall and the coping. The waterfall is next. These guys are amazing, and I am blown away at their quality of work and the attention to detail. I had no idea my wall would look so cool and like bmoreswim said - how it would transform the whole area.

The same day they poured the footer for the wall, the poured the equipment pad. It's rather large which is good...kind of some 'free' patio space so I can use the pavers elsewhere.


Footer in, blocks going up for wall:


They got this up in one afternoon. 97 feet. I didn't realize there would be multiple levels and that it would have flowing curves. It is very nice.




This kid is one tough supervisor:
 
Rocks going up. Took these hard workers about a week and a half to finish it all. While they were working on the wall, they'd break for a bit and do some coping. Just to change things up I guess. As they were building the wall with the blocks, I just assumed it would be tiered as the number of cinder blocks stacked changed. Wrong. I was making coffee last Friday morning and heard a saw. They were slicing the blocks to make it a smooth transition as the number of blocks stacked went higher.












The other supervisor:


I just realized I have no updated pics with all coping done. I'll get some today and post tonight!
 
Dldave! I see you're in Douglasville. We just moved here in December. We're originally from Alaska. The home we bought had an 18x36 roman style diving pool already. It's our first pool so we're still trying to figure everything out. We're considering a solar heating system or a heat pump but that may change after we actually get to use the pool for the summer. Right now we're so anxious to swim (and we have a handful of times) but the water temperature runs between 62-64 degrees. Nice to see someone on here locally to bounce ideas off of.

PS your pool is going to be beautiful. Love the pictures
 

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You'll never regret going for the paver and for only $1 more/sq ft it's a no brainer. You have real quality crews working there. As you said it could easily be tiered at the top of the wall but the extra attention to have a smooth slope is the difference between good and great. Can't wait to see this through to completion (though not as anxious as you, haha).

-Chris
 
That looks awesome! It is really going to change your yard and how you use it! WOW! What awesome craftsmanship they are using! Like artist with a big saw!

Please take the PB name to PM just in case. We have found it is better this way. THANKS!

Kim
 
Pool almost done and looking so awesome. I'll get pics soon. Plaster in. Have jumped in...it's cold. My 6 year old doesn't care.

Nectarologist said:
You'll never regret going for the paver and for only $1 more/sq ft it's a no brainer. You have real quality crews working there. As you said it could easily be tiered at the top of the wall but the extra attention to have a smooth slope is the difference between good and great. Can't wait to see this through to completion (though not as anxious as you, haha).

-Chris
Click to expand...

Definitely quality crews....things have been great, and everyone has done quality, caring work.

Kissafish - PB sent through PM. Kim - I thought it was okay to mention good things about PBs.

Have a nice day all!
 
Hello all!!

I've been neglecting inside the house stuff for work outside, around the finally completed pool! It's been totally finished for 3 weeks, but we've been able to swim for about the past month.

Things slowed down a lot at the very end: the pavers I switched to were delivered and installed and it was then when it was realized that I'd need 7 more pallets!!!! Talk about being broke. I could have stopped right there, but I wanted things the way I had in my head, so I said "go for it". There was delay getting the pavers to us - they had to be made. During that same time period, PB had someone in their family get very sick and eventually pass away. It was really tough on them and slowed stuff down. It was a bit frustrating but out of anyone's hands.

All is finally good though...so, I'll start where I left off and get the build completed on this thread over the next day or two. Enjoy!!

.....................

I'm still amazed at how much work and care went in to the stone work. As they finished the wall, they also worked on pool and wall coping. They finally started working on the waterfall as well. I asked Pedro to leave one rock hang off to the side for a diving rock and he incorporated it beautifully. They also did an AMAZING job on the steps. Way above and beyond anything I was expecting. I just never really thought about it but in addition to the wall having a footer, the steps and waterfall did as well. Also never really thought about how the waterfall and steps would be build up with a cinderblock base.

Beautiful work that took these guys 6-8 weeks to do....(this work took place in March and April)











 
More stone work:













Waterfall complete. On the right side of the pic, you can see the semi-circle steps in process:



- - - Updated - - -



Because I hadn't spent enough yet, we did go ahead and add a fire pit. It's pretty nice:

My six year old in the background hammering rocks!




My 2 1/2 year old ... put him in, he climbed right out:
 
Plaster day finally came the 3rd week of April. Like most of the big events during this build, I wasn't in town. We did go with Blue Surf and it was a great choice.

After an acid wash, filing commenced. It was slow. We live in the back of the neighborhood. Pressure has never been great, but the filling was really really slow. My wife started filing the pool about 3p. I got home from a trip around 11 and was really excited to go out and see the Blue Surf (it was dark of course). With my flashlight in hand, I went to check out the finish. I couldn't get over how little water was in the pool - maybe 1.5-2 feet in the deep end. Went to bed, woke up at six thinking it would be half full and it was barely 3 feet deep in end. I was a little concerned about water lines forming with how slow things were going.

PB was over the house the next afternoon / evening doing work and told us to add another hose. I did that and with two running, the pressure was so low in house, sinks wouldn't run. It was 7:30p on a Friday night and PB says "lets go check the regulator in your house". So we shut the water off and pull the regulator off. It was covered with rocks and fabric (who knows how that got there). A testament to the PB's work ethic - he hung out another hour helping me clean it and reinstall it. What a world of difference it made - we had full pressure from two hoses and in the house was a shower, dishwasher and sink...all running fine. Crazy. That pool was on track to take 4 days to fill. After PB helped me fix the regulator, it was full the next afternoon!








 
Nice to catch up! WOW that IS some awesome work! LOVE the jumping rock idea! What a great crew doing the work!

CUTE helpers you have there!

I was being too cautious on the not naming PB and such. I have been told you CAN name them at the end if things went good! SO SING out their names as this build went WAY good!

Kim:cat:
 
The shelf is great, we have been spending a lot of time on it. The kids love the bubblers and when lit at night with color changing lights, it's pretty cool. The benches are getting a ton of use as well. My only regret so far is that as much time as I enjoy spending time on a float at the foot of the waterfall, I wonder if I should have but a bench under that.

So on to pavers .....

First truckload showed up with pavers in mid-May. There were supposed to be 11 pallets on the truck (from me buying up from 1,500 sq ft to a full truckload of 1,800 sq ft) but they could only fit 10 due to weight.

I was a little concerned whether or not the pavers would look ok. With the samples and pictures, it was very difficult to tell what exact color would show up. I also wanted a bit of texture on the pavers and it was really hard to tell from the pictures. I just hoped for the best.

After the guys prepped the ground, they started laying them down. Lots of careful planning went in to this as all the lines had to match up from one side of pool to the next.

I came home from work one day and asked Pedro, "how many more pallets are you going to need?". His response, "7...it's too much, it's too much". :) I asked him if he was sure! I think by this time, after all the stone work he had done and now this, he was ready to be done. I got a good deal on the pavers....$1 buy up per square foot from the contract price of stamped concrete. That 'deal' is why I bought up from the truckload. However..it doesn't seem like a 'deal' when you need 7 more pallets at almost $10,000!!!! :eek: But what are you going to do? By this time, most work around the pool was done, but I wanted the patio under the deck.

They had to order the next truckload, so it added a week to the pool. We were close to complete...it seemed like it was taking forever!! Finally the 7 pallets showed. They installed most. They had 1.5 pallets left. PB asked if I could do anything with them. I told them I'd keep the half pallet but not the full one. I wasn't going to pave under the deck steps but since there was extra, Pedro was able to do it on the last morning they worked on the job.

So, PB took a pallet back and I ended up with a 1/4 pallet left over. And then? It was done!!! (Still needed sod and fence). They started digging in November and laid the last paver the Friday before Memorial Day. While the last pavers were being laid, the dirt pile was spread out. I needed some of the dirt spread flat behind the pool for a play set. In the end we had less dirt than I thought. I have room for the play-set but then a hill. So, I still have a slope like I always had, I just have a really cool pool at the top!!!! We thought about bringing dirt in to flatten, but it gets to the point where we have spent enough money on it and it's great. We could keep spending money to do EVERYTHING but we would go totally broke!!

But, it all turned out pretty darn neat:









Gutter system to catch the run off from gutters. Used to dump under the deck:











All this above pics were the last week of May.

I'll get some sod and fence pics up soon to show total completion. That was all done the 1st two weeks of this month. Now I am doing all the extra stuff.....water balancing (got my test kit!), lights, speakers, TV (trying to sell that to my wife...ha).....having as much fun with that as I am the pool!!
 

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