O/B Woodland Hills, CA

[Frank Rizzo]

Ive started my Owner Builder pool here in Southern California. It's just my wife and I (no kids) so this is an adult pool. My wife wanted a "shoebox" so that is what we've designed. The pool ends up being 12' wide and 30' long (10,500 gal), 6 feet of Baja deck with bubblers and a 6'x6' raised spa with spillway and 10 jets. All the equipment is Jandy with SWG and their Versa-Plumb piping kit, Im doing an in floor cleaning system and Jandy RS/PS4 with the iPhone interface. I've included an allowance for a Pebble Tec type finish. Ive carved an 8x8' cutout in my small hill adjacent to the pool and will be building a CMU (concrete block) enclosure for the equipment, hopefully it cuts down on the noise. Coping will be poured in place cool deck.

Design:


So far, we have only chosen the waterline tile: We are looking for an Aqua/turquoise water color - so if anyone has any suggestions on pebble finish - i'm all ears!

Before:

My excavation guy was well equipped. 3 dump trucks, 2 Bobcats and a backhoe for a 12x30 pool.

Plumber is coming Monday....

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[Killer95Stang]

Great start!

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum. That's a nice setting.

 

[kimkats]

Love the tile picks. Which one are you using where?

What will you put in the dirt across from the house? That could be fun to fix up!

Kim

 

[apapaz2]

Looks like a great start. I used Master Tile too and loved the results. Good luck!

 

[Frank Rizzo]

Looks like a great start. I used Master Tile too and loved the results. Good luck!

Thanks dude. You are the reason I have 10 jets in the spa! like you, they are going to add a 1.5hp spa pump!

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[Frank Rizzo]

Here is a video from the security cam that I cut down to :45. Check out how close the bobcats are. the pool is only 12' wide!


http://www.youtube.com/attribution_...tch?v=lzNmqcd2-0I&feature=em-share_video_user

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[Frank Rizzo]

Rough (in floor) Plumbing done, Steel tomorrow!!!

 

[Frank Rizzo]

Steel done today.
Plumber comes back Monday to plumb the pool and spa.

The steel guys love rectangular pools!
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[daytimedrama]

Looking good! You're going to love that pool come summer in the valley. Those tandem bobcat drivers have skills!

 

[kimkats]

LOL on the bobcat chasing that one guy! It almost looks like he did not want to move but the bobcat just kept on coming!

NICE job so far! Have you measured everything to make sure it is deep enough, wide enough, long enough, etc. Add in about 3 inches for gunite and plaster.

I hope you have your test kit already. You are going to need it soon! Look in my siggy for the one we use and love.

Kim

 

[Frank Rizzo]

LOL on the bobcat chasing that one guy! It almost looks like he did not want to move but the bobcat just kept on coming!

NICE job so far! Have you measured everything to make sure it is deep enough, wide enough, long enough, etc. Add in about 3 inches for gunite and plaster.

I hope you have your test kit already. You are going to need it soon! Look in my siggy for the one we use and love.

Kim

Thanks for the reminder!!!! I'll get on the test kit right away.
My Gunite will be 12" thick...

 

[kimkats]

12" inches thick for gunite????? That pool will NOT be going anywhere!

Kim

 

[Bigcarbs]

Looking good so far. Wish I had the room to add a spa like that

 

[mooveebuff]

Wow...they're moving right along! I really love the design...very classy. Can't wait to see it when it's done!

 

[Frank Rizzo]

Finished all the plumbing. I have 10 jets in my 6x6 spa . Also got all the rough electrical in and everything else needed for pre plaster so I called for inspection.

Thanks City of LA. The inspector(s) showed up a day early and I had the permit cards and stamped plans inside the house and I was at work...He called me and explained there was too much loose fill in the baja deck and his soil poker was going too deep and wanted a field memo from a geologist to make sure "everything is OK" and left a correction notice. Oh well. Methinks he was not happy about the lack of plans and permit cards. He kept asking who the contractor was and I had to explain that I was the O/B.
Ive already called the soil guy and got a field memo. He wants the Pool Engineer to verify a couple of things, so by the time i get everything papered up - I should be shotcrete-ing next week. Just as well, it is supposed to rain Sunday so the original plan to shoot Monday was not going to happen anyways.

 

[Frank Rizzo]

Up date. Its been a few weeks.
I have to recind my comments about LA City DBS inspection. It turns out that the inspector was correct and the Engineer did not take into account the "surcharge" of the hill "immediately adjacent" to my pool. Per the correction notice, I hired a geologist who confirmed the problem - so went back to the pool engineering company and asked why it was not designed correctly. They missed it and reengineered the steel specs. I called the steel guy back out and they had to remove a bunch of the 3/8" rebar and replace it with 1/2". While this was going on, we had a couple of really good bouts of rain that washed all the muck into the deep end and pretty much buried the rebar.
So it all worked out well for me. When they pulled the old rebar out, it gave great access to remove the loose fill and muck to be removed:

rebar removed -

Cleaning out the bottom:

New rebar installed (1/2" on 3" centers!!)
Keep in mind there is 12" of 3000psi shot crete on top of this..

Next is cement installation!

 

[Frank Rizzo]

Shotcrete was this week:

now I'm rain proof!
it probably won't rain until next year - but none the less.

Equipment started showing up. It's like Christmas!!!

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[kimkats]

OH what wonderful progress! I am glad the rebar all worked out in the end! NICE catch insp!

Kim

 

[Frank Rizzo]

Still been working on this project.
We changed our minds a lot as we went along.

We decided that the old 4" CMU wall needed to go, so we got rid of it and installed slumpstone (we should have done this before digging, but oh well)

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