Finally finished my pad renovation!

[joshua5438]

I have been working on this for the past few months, mostly on the weekends between a million other projects and have finally completed it. I am excited to see how it all works out. Right now it feels like I have a brand new pool. haha.

This was taken last spring just before I opened the pool for the first time (purchased the house after it was closed for the winter 2015).
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e91/joshua5438/Pool 2017/20160402_121024_zpseyyuz4ue.jpg

This is pretty much how it looked all last year. It did not have a timer or anything. I would run the pump all night and manually pour chlorine in each night. The valves for the skimmer and drain we nearly impossible to shut on and off. The switches for the pumps were mounted to the side of the pumps so it was always fun turning them off early in the morning and not knowing what could be hiding, waiting to attack. haha.


This is what I get to start the year off with this year.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e91/joshua5438/Pool%202017/20160402_121024_zpseyyuz4ue.jpg

I have full automation for the pumps and the lights. The shutoff switch for the pumps is mounted above the filter so I can manually turn them off for back washing or emergency shutoff. I now have a chlorine tank with a stenner pump under the house.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e91/joshua5438/Pool 2017/20160402_121024_zpseyyuz4ue.jpg

and here is a picture of the inside of my sub panel, just because I am proud of how it turned out as I have never done been this in depth with electrical before.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e91/joshua5438/Pool 2017/20160402_121024_zpseyyuz4ue.jpg

I have also added a junction box for the pool light, as the existing one was not up to code. Also ran all new wiring to all the lights around the pool and ran the wire in conduit. Wires were not to code before and 75% of them were not even buried. I installed two GFCI outlets, one at each end of the house in case I need to have power for pool maintenance or entertainment. I had 5 (90 to 100+ foot) Oak trees cut down that were growing over the pool. Maybe this year my pool will get above 76 degrees! I have actually added river rock around the pad and hope to do some landscaping soon. I plan to open the pool this weekend and get the chlorine tank filled. As you can see in one of the pictures I installed a door on the outside of the house just above the crawl space access door. That is a locking fuel fill cover for an RV. All I have to do now is back to the fence with a full tank of chlorine and pump it into the barrel under the house. I chose this fill cover because it was locking, has a fill cap inside and also has a vent tube in case the barrel needs to vent, it will vent to the exterior of the house.

 

[Protlost]

Wow a ton of work and it looks great!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sseaman]

Congrats, you should be proud of all that work. It is nice when you can take your time and plan it all out and not rush to completion.

 

[Mr Bruce]

That is very nice, but more importantly....

Where are you buying chlorine? Price?

 

[BattleOfYakima]

Wow! That was a major upgrade! Congratulations on the beautiful and functional new setup! Enjoy your time and energy savings! You certainly earned them! What will you do with all that money and time you freed up? lol

 

[joshua5438]

Thanks guys! It was a lot of work and I learned way more than I ever imagined!! It will probably take a while before I actually start "saving" money after all I spent doing this. It's actually worth the piece of mind knowing everything is now to code and safe! I was very hesitant last year to swim with the pool light on. Just had too many wires lying around and splices with electrical tape to patch the 120volt wires. I also replaced the bearings in the main pump as they started making noise the week I closed the pool last year. I have a total of $6 in that. I could not justify a new pump at that price.

I am buying my chlorine from Socar Chemical Co in Greenville, SC. It is 12-15% / $135 per drum (55 gallon). I still have a few other places to check in to but they have been the cheapest and best service so far.

 

[kimkats]

You have some MAD skills! WOW! That is something to be very proud of!

Kim

 

[rmasonjr]

Outstanding work!
What is the panel next to your sub-panel? Is that your automation controller?

 

[joshua5438]

That is my automation panel. I am currently beta testing it for Wincor Pool Systems. Only used it to control lights but will be in full use after this weekend, when I open the pool.

 

[Divin Dave]

That's very nice work Joshua. Not only does it look better than any pro would do, it will make trouble shooting much easier in the future should ever need to do that.

 

[BattleOfYakima]

I also replaced the bearings in the main pump as they started making noise the week I closed the pool last year. I have a total of $6 in that. I could not justify a new pump at that price.

Wow! Thank you for sharing that! Now I know that might be a DIY fix rather than a pro! What a massive potential savings and faster! Last time they had the motor for many days and it was much more than $6. Thanks!

 

[Matrioux]

Awesome job!

It's been fun watching you dig into each step. You've now got something to be proud of and up to code to boot

 

[CaptainCannonball]

Uh, thank you for making my ex-military brain feel inadequate due to my rats nest panel. That wiring looks great, too bad you can't put a plexiglass cover on it with some led lights

 

[joshua5438]

Thanks everyone! I admit that I will research things way more than I probably need to. I am the type of person that has to know the why, not just do it because someone/something tells me to. But in the end I am usually happy with the results, just takes a little longer to get it all planned out. Next year I hope to start on laying pavers on my existing concrete deck as it has too many cracks and stains. Guess I better start researching that now. haha.

 

[borjis]

ya that wiring is outstanding.

 

[joshua5438]

Just wanted to give an update on my setup. I have been using 32oz of 12.5 to 15 percent chlorine per day injected in the morning with the stenner pump. I have been running my pump from 6am to 9am with my stenner running from 630am to 650am. Then I run my only the pump from 6pm to 9pm. Water is perfectly clear! My FC has stayed between 5.5 and 6 for a month now. All I have had to do is test the water once or twice a week and vacuum the bottom a few times from the storms blowing stuff in. I started off using a small 6 gallon tank that I filled with 10% chlorine to get the pool up and going. That got me thru about two weeks. Since then it has been on the 55 gallon barrel. This pool has truly became a Trouble Free Pool!

 

[kevreh]

Ok thanks Joshua. You might have just EXPANDED the scope of my upgrades I was going to do this year. It looks like you poured a new pad to give your equipment more room to breath? My current setup is cramped, like your first picture. Question- to get your pump level with the intake pipe did you glue the pvc in place with your pump sitting there?

 

[joshua5438]

This started out as a simple "pour a bigger pad" project and kept expanding. The more I touched the more I found was out of code and very unsafe. I am very happy with how it turned out and now i know what I have.

When I connected the pump I assembled the valve and the two 90's first using the two pipes coming out of the ground to get the width of the assembly. I then figured out how far back I wanted the pump and connected the assembly to the short pipe with the union to the pump. Then I was able to level the valve assembly with it connected to the pump to mark the pipes coming out of the ground. Then you can cut those pipes off to the correct length (just be sure to adjust your makings to accommodate the pipe sliding into the 90). Then apply the primer and glue and slide the two 90's down on the pipes and connect the union to the pump. Might be an easier way to do this but this took the least amount of measuring and chances for mistakes. Hope this makes since.

 

[CaptainCannonball]

Just wanted to give an update on my setup. I have been using 32oz of 12.5 to 15 percent chlorine per day injected in the morning with the stenner pump. I have been running my pump from 6am to 9am with my stenner running from 630am to 650am. Then I run my only the pump from 6pm to 9pm. Water is perfectly clear! My FC has stayed between 5.5 and 6 for a month now. All I have had to do is test the water once or twice a week and vacuum the bottom a few times from the storms blowing stuff in. I started off using a small 6 gallon tank that I filled with 10% chlorine to get the pool up and going. That got me thru about two weeks. Since then it has been on the 55 gallon barrel. This pool has truly became a Trouble Free Pool!

I found myself wrestling with the timing. Like you I was dosing in the morning, but then I started thinking if I dosed in the evening, FC would be higher through the night. In my admittedly warped brain, this would give me an average FC, over a 24 hour period, that would be higher than morning dosing.

I dunno, what do you think?

 

[joshua5438]

I found myself wrestling with the timing. Like you I was dosing in the morning, but then I started thinking if I dosed in the evening, FC would be higher through the night. In my admittedly warped brain, this would give me an average FC, over a 24 hour period, that would be higher than morning dosing.

I dunno, what do you think?

Last year my pool was using 64oz per day in the heat of the summer. Since it is still cool here it is only using 32oz per day. My plan is to dose the 32oz in the morning and then start adding time to my evening dose as needed. In the hottest part of the summer I will most likely dose 32oz in the morning and 32oz in the evening. When I added it manually I always added it at night as I ran my pump all night without having a timer. I honestly think that within the 24 hour period, being you added it in the morning versus the evening, it will still use the same amount of chlorine. You will just have a slightly higher chlorine level over night by dosing at night as you do not typically loose much over night.