New Pool - Southern New Jersey

I started to dig them out, but then said forget it after I became drenched in sweat and bent the shovel on the ground. It was like cement from not watering and getting beat on by the sun. I did get the heads out and dug up the junction but they tore the rest out with the excavator.

Unfortunately, when I tried to turn the water on, there was a bad leak after one the valves so I can't even run my front yard or backyard around the perimeter where I have fruit trees until I get that capped. I figure after the pool gets dug I will get my guy out to troubleshoot and get me an estimate to fix the 3 broken zones.

I also don't know if my side yard still work after they ran the dump trucks over it. The must've hauled 20-25 loads out and were working two dump trucks pretty consecutively.


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Quick update...

Not much has happened since last week. However, I did get a call from PB and he said that plumbers are scheduled for tomorrow and he's called the town to set up the inspection. He's looking at Gunite being done early next week.

Here's where we are now:

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Slowly but surely it'll happen. Keep on your PB to make sure schedules happen... if things get shifted for whatever reason, there's no reason you shouldn't be informed etc.

We too had sprinklers get destroyed and had to water a few different areas around the house manually until I got the lines repaired.
 
One thing that has me concerned is that the original design had the steps on the right-side of the pool. Somewhere, the PB decided to take it upon themselves and move them to the front right corner. That is what was showing on the engineering drawings I saw when they came out to do the excavation. I talked to the PB representative at that time and have sent a follow-up email to let them know that they were in the incorrect spot, however, I'm not sure if it is making its way back down to the subcontractors. It looks like they put a return pipe right where the steps will be going and I don't know if that is going to cause an issue down the line or not when they come to spray the gunite. I did go out and talk to the gunite guy when he was here doing his measurements. I gave him a copy of the original design that was supposedly used to create the engineering drawings.
 
Your pool is going to be beautiful, I love the idea of moving the tanning ledge to across from the spa. The infringement on the actual surface area of the pool is what took me so long to make a final decision on my pool - I wanted the tanning ledge but I wanted a decent size low end and deep end. You will have the best of both worlds.

Have you thought about keeping the steps to the side so you have true dedicated swim lane, or is that not a necessity? Although I promised we would all be big swimmers when we got the pool, we do everything except swim laps, we play basketball, volleyball, games in the deep end and dive off the jump rock.

You and I are in the same boat being in NJ, we don't get nearly enough time to enjoy the pool, the summer goes so quickly! Having the heater helps for sure, and you have a spa which I sometimes wish I did but was afraid b/c of the weather in NJ it would be better getting a stand alone b/c I could use it all year long. Well, I never did, so no warm water for us! :)

I love your design, and cant' wait to see it built. What did you decide on for the finish? Plaster, quartz?

It's funny, I never looked at your builder and I am in Berlin Boro, probably should have! :) Looks like they are doing a great job and really listen to your concerns.

Good luck and I'll enjoy following your build.
 
Thanks - we are really looking forward to having it done! Moving the tanning ledge to outside the perimeter of the pool was a good idea. I didn't like the idea of giving up internal real estate to 12" of water while also losing some of the symmetrical design.

We have thought about keeping the steps to the side. However, I'm kind of big into the symmetrical look of the design and I think having the steps thrown into the corner defeats that purpose somewhat. My PB got back to me and said they could've been moved because of worries with meeting code. I have a raised beam that comes into part of that half circle and he thinks that putting the steps so close to that raised beam might not pass inspection (too big of a drop off or something). It didn't really make sense to me since all along the back wall will be a 31" raised beam. I told him earlier that I would take a look at it and give him a call back. I tried giving him a call but haven't heard back from him yet. He did say I could discuss it with the guys doing the gunite, but i want to make sure that it meets code before committing to a decision. Unfortunately, I have no clue what will and won't meet code to pass inspection - that's why I hired them.

On another note - Gunite is going in tomorrow!
 
Gunite has been the most fun process, other than the first dig... it is a good idea to be there though, if you can. A few issues came up that were solved immediately, and i asked that they do a few things that were more looks than function.
 

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Yes, I will be there. I primarily work from home when not travelling and made sure that my schedule aligned to me being able to be home. What kind of things did you ask them to do for you? I'd like to ask them to add a step onto the tanning ledge and a couple of steps to make it easier to get into and out of the spa - haven't seen those items on any diagram yet.
 
Moved the water falls, I wanted them to be a bit more symmetrical. Made a bench, then made it a bit bigger. Made a swim out step in the deep end. Then thankfully they caught the wet deck depth. I wanted eight inches of water, but then I would have broken code because of the height from the coping to the bottom would have been greater than 11 inches, causing me to have a step, which I did not want. I will end up with 7.5 inches of water with the pool overfilled a bit (perfect for the ledger chairs I want). Last, I had them smooth out some areas that, although the plaster would cover, for my piece of mind. Last they asked about the umbrella holes, which I hadn't even thought about, and we added two. All that was no extra charge...
 
Interesting about the wet deck (is that a tanning ledge or baja ledge or whatever other name they use?). Ours is slated to be 12" deep, but don't see a step in the design. So, that could be a 15" step down. We do have them putting an umbrella hole in our tanning ledge and we do have 2 swim out benches in the deepend already designed in. Our point of contention right now is the placement of the steps in the shallow end. So, we will have to go over that in the morning before they start to gunite.
 
Interesting about the wet deck (is that a tanning ledge or baja ledge or whatever other name they use?). Ours is slated to be 12" deep, but don't see a step in the design. So, that could be a 15" step down.

A rose by any other name.. is still a rose...lol.... yes, all the same. at 12" deep water, you will be at approximately 16.5" step down. 12" water + 3" tile (above water line) + 1.5" coping... so I went 6" + 3 +1.5 =10.5 to be in compliance with our local code and not need another step. I can over fill the pool so that only 2" of tile show and get 7" or more.. The wet deck or ledger chairs typically like 5-9" but no deeper than 12, unless you get deep chairs, which are actually raised...
 
Now you get to start bonding with your pool aka watering it! Once you get tired to doing that you can use sprinklers to help you out. This will help slow the curing down. You may still have some small cracks but that is okay. The plaster will fill it in.

:kim:
 

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