New contract / New build - SE Pennsylvania, Gunite free form pool and spa

Jump to latest Follow Reply
good idea kim. they flashed my hole cause of al the sand I had. it was a pretty expensive for me cause my gunite crew was 2.5 hours away. i paid for it on my own. my builder made no money one it. check this out. 600 dollars worth of material. 2800 labor cause of the drive out and back. total time at my house to do it. 2 hours. lol was worth it though.

gorilla. . . that is a sweet looking layout. very very cool!
 
jimim said:
good idea kim. they flashed my hole cause of al the sand I had. it was a pretty expensive for me cause my gunite crew was 2.5 hours away. i paid for it on my own. my builder made no money one it. check this out. 600 dollars worth of material. 2800 labor cause of the drive out and back. total time at my house to do it. 2 hours. lol was worth it though.

gorilla. . . that is a sweet looking layout. very very cool!
Click to expand...

OUCH! But worth it for peace o mind!
 
Thanks guys - I did chat with our project manager over email yesterday. He installed a pump to keep running water out of the deep end. As per the contract, any damage/repair due to rain is on them anyway. So far it's held up pretty well with some decent storms last night.
 
So r u doing the plaster this year then or waiting till next season? This was one of my biggest headaches with the scope of my work besides the pool. First plan was to hold plaster till following season and so everything else but my builder and another builder not from my area who has been coaching me said to get it done in the 1 year but also to watch the date the plaster goes in cause of our winters. We started last year as early as we could and kept moving if u ever read my build the whole plan was to have the plaster in by mid July cause of a trip but if we didn’t make that make sept 1st was the cut off point due to curing and ph and just the newness of the plaster and closing the pool close to that. Lucky my builder came in 3 days before our mid July cutoff. I’m so happy we did cause even with closing as late as I did which was like November I think. The ph was still crazy climbing.
 
jimim said:
So r u doing the plaster this year then or waiting till next season? This was one of my biggest headaches with the scope of my work besides the pool. First plan was to hold plaster till following season and so everything else but my builder and another builder not from my area who has been coaching me said to get it done in the 1 year but also to watch the date the plaster goes in cause of our winters. We started last year as early as we could and kept moving if u ever read my build the whole plan was to have the plaster in by mid July cause of a trip but if we didn’t make that make sept 1st was the cut off point due to curing and ph and just the newness of the plaster and closing the pool close to that. Lucky my builder came in 3 days before our mid July cutoff. I’m so happy we did cause even with closing as late as I did which was like November I think. The ph was still crazy climbing.
Click to expand...

We anticipate plastering this year but given how things have been doing it's likely that stage will not be until Mid-September I'm guessing? I will talk with them about it as the time gets closer, but if we do I'd plan on closing as late as possible (November like yourself most likely) and monitoring the ph through the winter if I can by pulling the cover back, etc. I'm not sure what they'd say if I asked to move the plaster to next year?
 
Yesterday I reached out to our Project manager and scheduler to check on the status of our plumbing. I was informed they JUST ordered the equipment yesterday, I was/am pretty fuming that 2 months after signing and over 2 weeks after dig/rebar that they just got around to ordering the equipment. We only found out because the scheduler asked about the status equipment from purchasing. The good news is I was only expecting rough in plumbing prior to gunite shoot but I guess we're getting all the equipment as well?

Ugh...of course we're finally getting a break in weather in the next 3 days and after that another solid 5+ days of rain. I was told they'll have the equipment ASAP, we'll see.....the pool walls are starting to cave quite a bit from the rain...they'll definitely have some digging to do!
 
Gorilla83 said:
We anticipate plastering this year but given how things have been doing it's likely that stage will not be until Mid-September I'm guessing? I will talk with them about it as the time gets closer, but if we do I'd plan on closing as late as possible (November like yourself most likely) and monitoring the ph through the winter if I can by pulling the cover back, etc. I'm not sure what they'd say if I asked to move the plaster to next year?
Click to expand...

u can watch ph in winter but like I was told don’t cause u really can’t do anything about it safely. It’s going to go out of range but to pour acid in wothoutcthe pump going is very chancy. I spun in chlorine all winter though the ice woth a sump pump to keep it algae free but I didn’t touch any acid. I just prayed I didn’t get scale. I added some anti scale stuff another builder herexrecommended and opened as early as possible.

Thats the most u can safely do I was taught. The pump worked awesome for chlorine mixing. Threw it in deep end with a 4 foot hose attached with end cut off. Let it whip around for 3 hours as I poured chlorine over it. Worked perfect. Learned that all here.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
I would think they can get ur equipment very quick. My builder got mine from his distributor in 3 days. The distributors stock a lot of material I noticed from talking with him. Vs when I buy audio/video gear from my distributors if not direct from factory.

You up should be good there. Anthony S like to only send guys out once at least when I talked with them. They told me plumbing and equipment in in 1 day. Electrical 1 day. Anything longer than that would be my paying unless they got tied up. If it was me adding I had to pay for each trip. And it was a nutty number. I also told them I was not doing plaster that year. That didn’t like it but I said that’s what I was doing. They gave in. A friend of mine just did a pool with hem and they did plaster following spring.

I didnt end uo using rhem cause cause I found a local builder I actually knew and liked better. But those were my experiences from talking with them.

- - - Updated - - -

I don’t know what others would say here but I would not do plaster past end of August. Latest u can stay open would be November 1st ish in general I would say from past winters. But others might say different. I say the time I do coming from a builder down south of me who I trust dearly and he said his plastering stops sept 1st in general. I trust him. I wanted him but he was too far from me. But he coached me right from start to finish.

- - - Updated - - -

Plus u got cutectime for shell before plaster. You got to cure in our area. I just don’t want to see anything go wrong for you. Just throwing things out there. I curedcforcthe 30 days. My builder said the same. He didn’t want to chance it. Over those 30 days we did plumbing trenches. Pad. Setup for concrete decking at that time. Then his guy came back in for tile and coping.
 
jimim said:
I would think they can get ur equipment very quick. My builder got mine from his distributor in 3 days. The distributors stock a lot of material I noticed from talking with him. Vs when I buy audio/video gear from my distributors if not direct from factory.

You up should be good there. Anthony S like to only send guys out once at least when I talked with them. They told me plumbing and equipment in in 1 day. Electrical 1 day. Anything longer than that would be my paying unless they got tied up. If it was me adding I had to pay for each trip. And it was a nutty number. I also told them I was not doing plaster that year. That didn’t like it but I said that’s what I was doing. They gave in. A friend of mine just did a pool with hem and they did plaster following spring.

I didnt end uo using rhem cause cause I found a local builder I actually knew and liked better. But those were my experiences from talking with them.

- - - Updated - - -

I don’t know what others would say here but I would not do plaster past end of August. Latest u can stay open would be November 1st ish in general I would say from past winters. But others might say different. I say the time I do coming from a builder down south of me who I trust dearly and he said his plastering stops sept 1st in general. I trust him. I wanted him but he was too far from me. But he coached me right from start to finish.

- - - Updated - - -

Plus u got cutectime for shell before plaster. You got to cure in our area. I just don’t want to see anything go wrong for you. Just throwing things out there. I curedcforcthe 30 days. My builder said the same. He didn’t want to chance it. Over those 30 days we did plumbing trenches. Pad. Setup for concrete decking at that time. Then his guy came back in for tile and coping.
Click to expand...

Jim - Appreciate the input, thank you. We'll see how things fall out over the next month or so but it's extremely unlikely we'll plaster before mid-September. We will have to play it by ear though for now. :)

And you're definitely correct about A&S only allocating one day per step. They told me that upfront and I had no real objection since things should get done in concentrated bursts of work. The exceptions I was told for us would be the waterfall and retaining wall as they will require quite a bit of effort.
 
Gorilla83 said:
Jim - Appreciate the input, thank you. We'll see how things fall out over the next month or so but it's extremely unlikely we'll plaster before mid-September. We will have to play it by ear though for now. :)

And you're definitely correct about A&S only allocating one day per step. They told me that upfront and I had no real objection since things should get done in concentrated bursts of work. The exceptions I was told for us would be the waterfall and retaining wall as they will require quite a bit of effort.
Click to expand...

If you're following my thread, I was told by my construction manager a few things were 1 day. Well.. 2 days into coping, meaning they showed up two separate days to work, it's not finished, so that would make them at a minimum 2 days over on a 1 day estimate.

Electrical has been like 4 days so far and I believe they have at least 2 days left.

So, just be careful and make sure you keep your expectations in check. I was originally in a trust then verify mode, now I'm full on micromanagement on every deliverable to ensure they execute as agreed. It's... wonderful. /sarcasm
 
You guys would go nuts with my build. I’m in a full year now and got another to go. Lol. But I’m also only being worked on when my guys or my dads buddies are not on another job since I’m a ”friend” job. Lol ya the pool is done but nothing else is yet. We r all over the place. I was lucky with my builder. I micromanaged but I built my own home and was the contractor so I was in charge of everything. Same with my pool build. Had a builder but everything else was me. He just dropped my pool out to coping and then it was us taking over. I knew from day 1 he was slow cause he is a small company cause he doesn’t trust anyone. So coping was like over a week and tile was over 2 weeks I think. Lol

just keep on top of everyone and speak up.
 
blazin said:
If you're following my thread, I was told by my construction manager a few things were 1 day. Well.. 2 days into coping, meaning they showed up two separate days to work, it's not finished, so that would make them at a minimum 2 days over on a 1 day estimate.

Electrical has been like 4 days so far and I believe they have at least 2 days left.

So, just be careful and make sure you keep your expectations in check. I was originally in a trust then verify mode, now I'm full on micromanagement on every deliverable to ensure they execute as agreed. It's... wonderful. /sarcasm
Click to expand...

Good to know - the fact that the first part of the build (dig) already took 2 days should be an indication of what's to come, LOL. As long as you have your expectations set accordingly like you said it really isn't a big deal. At the end of the day we'll all wind up with a really nice oasis. :)

jimim said:
You guys would go nuts with my build. I’m in a full year now and got another to go. Lol. But I’m also only being worked on when my guys or my dads buddies are not on another job since I’m a ”friend” job. Lol ya the pool is done but nothing else is yet. We r all over the place. I was lucky with my builder. I micromanaged but I built my own home and was the contractor so I was in charge of everything. Same with my pool build. Had a builder but everything else was me. He just dropped my pool out to coping and then it was us taking over. I knew from day 1 he was slow cause he is a small company cause he doesn’t trust anyone. So coping was like over a week and tile was over 2 weeks I think. Lol

just keep on top of everyone and speak up.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jim - at least you knew that going in and I'm sure you're saving a boat load of money by controlling most of the work yourself. If I had just a little bit more time or if I was to start this process over again that's exacty what I'd do.

On another note I got word that our equipment shipped out yesterday so hopefully not TOO much longer before that goes in. Let's hope for a small break in the weather next week as well.
 
Next week for us looks rough again here in nepa. We literally live in a rainforest anymore I think.

As as long as the equipment is at ur place even if not installed is good. At least it will be there. Setting the pad up is easy work. They knocked mine out in a few hours. Grant it the guy doing the pipes forgotcto glue 45 percent of them. Lol. My builder and myself fired up the pump after fill and the pad literally exploded. He was so mad. Sooooo mad. Lol. Thankfully all the underground glueing was done by his main man. And I was homexthst day backfilling when he was glueing. So we know that was fine. It was funny though. Literally forgot to glue st least 10 thinks. Awesome.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply