New pool (big 20 x 60), some pics and questions

[aschueler]

Okay, lets see how these come out & if it works. We live on a farm, and our "back yard" is about 1 acre, so we have lots of room for the pool. You can see our old barn in the background, which I plan to demolish someday.

The first: my 9 month old son supervising:

Next is the supervisory cattle dog:

 

[aschueler]

New pool day 1

Merged threads. Butterfly

Florida sand! We live in northern/central FL with a little elevation, so we have dry & loose sand. Some cave-ins are inevitable.

The above are pics of the deep end. They did finished this on Friday, and left the shallow end for today with they pretty much cleared out. I don't have these pics online yet, but you can today start to really see it coming together.

We can't believe we really are getting this thing.

 

[orthofish]

Re: New pool (big 20 x 60), some pics to start (day 0)

That is going to be one huge pool. Your boy is very cute.

Here in Tn. you would be crucified for tearing down such a nice barn :-D

Looking forward to more pics.

 

[snssewell]

Re: New pool day 1

Oh wow it looks HUGE! I bet you are excited. Make sure you post some pics when its done! Would love to see.

 

[poolenvy]

Re: New pool (big 20 x 60), some pics to start (day 0)

You should turn that great barn into a pool cabana or poolhouse typr building.

 

[aschueler]

Re: New pool (big 20 x 60), some pics to start (day 0)

Before everyone feels sorry for the barn:

It's about 25 yrs old, the timbers are kinda getting soft & the metal is loose in spots. Also, it's hot enough to stew chicken for most of the year in there. I'll replace it with a smaller hay barn later; it's just not all that stable anymore although it looks OK from a distance.

 

[aschueler]

Re: New pool (big 20 x 60), some pics to start (day 0)

More pics coming from photobucket once my wife can get them up on there.

They have added the rebar, and did the first day of concrete today; of course, we got hit with a freakishly violent thunderstorm right in the middle of their concrete. They finished up after it stopped raining, and plan to come back tomorrow to finish it.

Two days for the concrete make sense of the dimensions of the pool, but I am worried because of how crappy the concrete looks right now; is it normal for it to looks so irregular? Again, I will have pics soon but dang I hope it gets smoother soon.

 

[aschueler]

Finished Concrete today -- does this look OK to you guys?

Merged threads for history. Butterfly

I guess there are more layers (like plaster etc) coming, but these cracks are worrying us and there's no one available at the pool place to ask.


Today was day 2 of the doing concrete, and these cracks have pretty much immediately showed up (essentially before it was dry):

(First, general overview)

This is the deep end

Shallow end looking to deep end:

Gratuitous cute baby

Are those cracks normal for the first day of concrete with nothing else added like plaster etc? I am hoping and assuming that this is something that will be OK and fixed with future stuff.

 

[dattia]

Re: Finished Concrete today -- does this look OK to you guys?

I don't know about those cracks... but I am sure that is one cute baby! :-D

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Re: Finished Concrete today -- does this look OK to you guys?

OMG what a cute baby!

And totally distracting from the issue at hand!

Hopefully someone with construction experience will weigh in (I have none ).

 

[Butterfly]

Re: New pool (big 20 x 60), some pics to start (day 0)

Gorgeous baby! :-D

Sorry, don't know about the crete cracks.

 

[aschueler]

Thanks for the compliments on the boy.

However, I wonder if it was a mistake to post his picture....

 

[tsunami]

renovxpt recently posted a helpful link about pool cracks on another forum:

Cracking Up

 

[aschueler]

Okay, its been a bit of a long story -- was too busy with life to keep up some posts.

Anyway, we got to a certain point and then it became apparent that the pump on our well was not sufficient to fill the pool in a reasonable amount of time. Of course, I didn't realize this would be a problem at first and was pretty irritated to find out I needed a new well and pump. Would have been nice to know at the beginning, but there you are.

Anway, I roughly calculated it would have taken somewhere around 2+ weeks to fill the pool. Apparently the plaster has to be covered within a few days or it falls apart. So $6 grand later we have a new well and pump; lots of course went wrong with this, but it got operational in time to fill the pool. We had a 1 1/4 inch pipe attached directly to the well pipe bypassing the house plumbing, and the approx 40k gallon pool filled in about 1 day, surprising everybody.

They came by the next day to start the pump and clean the yard up. One of the most annoying parts of this whole thing was how crappy my yard looked for so long.

The pump has been on for two days now, and I am brushing the sides down dutifully. They say I can get in the pool at this point, but the pH is still really low and I don't want to walk around looking like a giant lobster if I get a rash from the acid.

How long until the pH gets a little closer to normal? Also, I got the SWG (two of the to run in parallel); they said it won't be needed for about 1 month. Do we ever add chlorine at all or just a bunch of salt when it's time then turn them on?

Anyway, here are a few pics for the pic hungry crowd:

This is the morning it was almost full:

Also a couple of critters:

 

[learthur]

Maybe someone else can comment too, but I think when you use more than 1 salt cell they are typically plumbed in series, not parallel.

YES! You need salt in the pool before you turn them on.

That's a very large pool. enjoy!

Lee

 

[Buggsw]

Why won't the SWG's be needed for about a month? You do need chlorine. Maybe it's because of new plaster? But you still need chlorine and you will need MA, I would think because new plaster pH usually spikes a lot.

 

[reebok]

from what I understand salt shouldn't be added to a new plaster pool for the first 30 days. I believe it has to do with the plaster curing but I'm not 100%.
good time to use some trichlor pucks if you have some and a way to dispense them. otherwise dichlor would be a good choice, or the old standby CYA plus bleach. I would definitely talk to the builder before adding any chemicals on my own though. they build these things for a living so I doubt they let them get green in the first month.

 

[camelai]

We used tri-chlor pucks in a floater for the first month I did add chlorine most days to keep it around 2ppm. No salt for the first 30 days for the SWG they told me. They said no swimming until the water was balanced and clear of plaster dust. We brushed it 4 times a day the first two weeks and tested the water twice a day. I used a lot of acid the first few weeks still using some, PH is an ever rising issue.

 

[Brad S]

Maybe someone else can comment too, but I think when you use more than 1 salt cell they are typically plumbed in series, not parallel.

YE

Parallel

 

[aschueler]

Pool builder came by today and cleared up a lot of the questions. He added some chlorine and stabilizer; the SWG won't be started for about 30 days because the salt does strange things to the plaster, plus it apparently runs at a higher pH than curing plaster appreciates.

So for the first month, I get to add lots of chlorine anyway. I got most folks saying I could get in, so I did this weekend. I was really careful, just swam some laps (purpose of the pool after all), and got out then showered. The pH was pretty low, but my skin etc seems to have tolerated it well. I always wear goggles, so it wasn't an issue with the eyes.

In a couple of weeks I get the Hayward Viper pool cleaner hooked up, then a couple of weeks later the SWG.

Yay!