Lap Pool On The Hill

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Re: Lap Pool On The Hill

Going to be interesting how rain runoff affects your pool.

Oh yeah, it never rains in California. Never mind. ;)
 
Re: Lap Pool On The Hill

"It never rains in California, but girl, don't they warn ya?
It pours, man, it pours" Albert Hammond - It never rains in southern California + text - YouTube

Jerry, I love your chunky travertine veneer on the raised bond beam. Any chance of a close up photo? Mind saying where you sourced it? I'm in the Bay Area, looking to do an outdoor kitchen in something like this once I get my pool done.
 
We have a snag. The concrete guy has flaked. He was supposed to start yesterday... No show, no call. I sent him an email cutting him loose and asking for our $1K deposit back.

I suspect that the job was just too complex for him.

The pool guy said "I have this pinch-hitter concrete guy I always call when we get in trouble". OK, I called Mr. pinch hitter, he came out. He absolutely knew what he was doing. Knew all the intricacies of building on a hill. He said "I can start on Monday, and we'll be done in two weeks". Sounded good to me. So he went out to his truck and worked up a quote.... SEVENTY SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.

*********** Ouch. ************

We were expecting to spend maybe $30K on concrete. We can shuffle money a bit and come up with it, but....

I told him that for a sum of that size, I really needed to get multiple quotes. Maybe it costs that much because - that's how much it costs.

Concrete is expensive, grading is expensive....everything nowadays is expensive. Except computers. :)

He charged us $3600 for wood for the forms. His concept is fairly elaborate, and will be really beautiful: a staircase coming down from the pool deck
the full width of the deck. It would eliminate the need for an engineered retaining wall. I'm not sure if it will work; I was just outside with sticks and
string measuring the rise & run. Gotta do a little math. He says he needs to put a landing every three or four steps, otherwise he will have to pepper
that wide staircase with bannisters every XX feet.

So this morning, I hit Yelp, Angie's list, Homeadvisor and Craigslist, and sent detailed emails to 25 concrete
contractors asking for a quote.
 
Re:  Lap Pool On The Hill

PrehistoricPool said:
"It never rains in California, but girl, don't they warn ya?
It pours, man, it pours" Albert Hammond - It never rains in southern California + text - YouTube
Click to expand...



Jerry, I love your chunky travertine veneer on the raised bond beam. Any chance of a close up photo? Mind saying where you sourced it? I'm in the Bay Area, looking to do an outdoor kitchen in something like this once I get my pool done.[/QUOTE]

Wow, thanks for that link. I just listened to that song again. Really took me back.

The veneer is a product of nptpool.com.


http://www.nptpool.com/hardscapes/stone-veneer/travertine-splitface20180617_145552[1].jpg
 
$77,000??????????????? :shock: Bet you blinked more than once with that one!!!! Yeah need to check to make sure he is spot on............I can see what he is talking about and it will be oh so pretty..........but $77,000...........................OUCH for sure!!!

Kim:kim:
 
I was just out there with sticks & strings. The full width staircase idea Just Won't Work. Because.... at the narrowest point, there is 15 feet from the pool edge to the planter retaining wall. The height of the coping is 62 inches above the level of terrain at that lower wall. To go down 62 inches, you need 9 6.8-inch high steps. In order not to have bannisters ( say every 5 feet along the wall, Ick! ) you have to have a landing in the middle. All of this would limit the deck along the pool to 4.5 feet wide :(.

I emailed all this to Mr. 77K, and he said "I'll make it work somehow". I don't understand how. Measurements are measurements.
 
A landscape architect or designer with pool experience might be a worthwhile investment relative to the cost you're considering. They usually have some alternate ideas to take advantage of the shape of the land.
 

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Re:  Lap Pool On The Hill

ajw22 said:
Going to be interesting how rain runoff affects your pool.
Click to expand...
Well, it does rain. A little. Occasionally.

Actually, a lot of attention has been paid to that.
There is a french drain under the middle of the pool. There is also a french drain at the bottom of the raised bond beam. The french drains go to pipes that terminate in daylight further down the hill. There is a retention basin on the other side of the house.

The decks will all have a slight tilt away from the pool.

There is a V ditch at the property line that routes water from neighboring lots around mine.
 
Progress

View attachment 84675View attachment 84675

Stuff is starting to happen. Fast. The pool has been gunite'd. The tile has been placed. The rails for the autocover have been installed. We had to wait a month for the concrete guy to start on the decking. He started on Monday. In five days, he
* Graded both of the main pool decks, one on the downhill side, one on the uphill side.
* Built the forms for the retaining wall for the main downhill-side deck.
* Graded the uphill area for the solar field. We decided to have him pour a slab for that, for a trouble-free installation.
* He also put a bump-out on the uphill deck, so we can have a shed or gazebo up there.
* He trenched for a electric socket on the uphill deck.

The pace of work has been nothing short of furious. At one point, he had THREE earth moving machines on my hill.

A small setback yesterday; we scheduled an inspection for the retaining wall forms. When the inspector arrived, they were
finishing up positioning and fastening the rebar. The inspector refused to inspect, and read me a lecture about scheduling
inspections for unfinished work. The contractor was fit to be tied. He had to call the concrete company, cancel the delivery, and put it out another day. In general, this particular inspector was one of the more sour ones I've encountered. He emphasized that as an owner-builder, I would be responsible for any reinspection fees.

My own little contribution to the project: A pedestal for the autocover keyswitch. It consists of a square box, fabricated of 1/8" thick mild steel, that the plastic autocover switch box will slide into. Welded to a piece of 2" steel tubing ( also 1/8" wall thickness ) that will hold it at a decent height. To make it a little less industrial, I obtained a cast steel frog sculpture to weld on top.

View attachment 84676View attachment 84676View attachment 84677

I also plan to obtain and mount all necessary fencing and railings. I might have to switch our two exterior gates from opening inward to opening outward. We'll see. If the inspector makes me, I'll do it. We have reasonably good metalworking equipment - a MIG welder, gas welder, TIG welder, plasma cutters, a metal-cutting bandsaw: this kind of simple ironworking is a piece of cake.

In addition, the sauna we ordered will be delivered as a pile of wood that you put together. And also the shed that my wife wants. Gonna be a busy September.

Urp. Big setback yesterday. County inspector came out "You need a permit for that retaining wall". The contractor had decided that it didn't need a permit because it was 4 feet high - four feet from what? From Grade. The County OTOH measures it from the BOTTOM of the footing. Five feet, need a permit.

The thing that bites is that I had had a retaining wall engineered. It was a cantilevered wall ( which is what the engineer likes, and his software supports ). I had emailed the contractor the drawings from the engineer "Can you build this?" "Sure". But when he came out, he built the wall *he* liked ( gravity wall ). Read me a lecture about how it didn't need to be engineered, and how I had wasted my money on the engineering. I didn't insist, I trusted to his experience.

After a bit of grumbling, he took it with good grace, and his crew is taking apart the unapproved forms. I figure that's on him; because he HAD the engineered plans, and chose to ignore them.

...So I went to the County with the engineered plans and calculations. They said "We'll issue the permit in four to eight weeks. Maybe sooner because it's an addition to an existing permit and you're in the middle of your project."
 
Permits and mess ups=:thumbdown: but it sounds like it is all working out! Yeah if you have the plans but do not use them..........you get to pony up to fix it!!!

Inspection timing has to be hard.......seems to me if they were that close to being done.....he could call it good! gurrrrr!

Your pics are not coming through this time. I really want to see them! That froggy sounds neat!

Kim:kim:
 
This whole thing has gotten just a little unpleasant. The concrete guy read me a lecture this morning about how I "shouldn't have involved the County". How could I do that when the whole pool project is on a permit? His second in command yesterday remarked that "they hadn't had any plans" ( except maybe for the engineers plans that I had emailed his boss a month previous? )

The County inspector has delivered me THREE lectures: one, about how I shouldn't have called him when the forms weren't complete, Two, about how I should have done my research and known that the wall was too high and would require its own permit, THREE, about how my contractor shouldn't have called his friend in the department, and actually FOUR, about how the inspector only wanted to talk to ME, the permittee and NOT
to my contractor.

I am having to really ride the contractor on some of the details; I had put a ham radio feedline in the trench, and they broke it; they had
bent over a water pipe and failed to pack it in sand.

Hindsight being 20/20, we begin to slightly regret not having hired one of those boutique pool guys who supervise creating the whole environment. Oh, well.
 
Re: Progress

jerryk1234 said:
View attachment 84675View attachment 84675

Stuff is starting to happen. Fast. The pool has been gunite'd. The tile has been placed. The rails for the autocover have been installed. We had to wait a month for the concrete guy to start on the decking. He started on Monday. In five days, he
* Graded both of the main pool decks, one on the downhill side, one on the uphill side.
* Built the forms for the retaining wall for the main downhill-side deck.
* Graded the uphill area for the solar field. We decided to have him pour a slab for that, for a trouble-free installation.
* He also put a bump-out on the uphill deck, so we can have a shed or gazebo up there.
* He trenched for a electric socket on the uphill deck.

The pace of work has been nothing short of furious. At one point, he had THREE earth moving machines on my hill.

A small setback yesterday; we scheduled an inspection for the retaining wall forms. When the inspector arrived, they were
finishing up positioning and fastening the rebar. The inspector refused to inspect, and read me a lecture about scheduling
inspections for unfinished work. The contractor was fit to be tied. He had to call the concrete company, cancel the delivery, and put it out another day. In general, this particular inspector was one of the more sour ones I've encountered. He emphasized that as an owner-builder, I would be responsible for any reinspection fees.

My own little contribution to the project: A pedestal for the autocover keyswitch. It consists of a square box, fabricated of 1/8" thick mild steel, that the plastic autocover switch box will slide into. Welded to a piece of 2" steel tubing ( also 1/8" wall thickness ) that will hold it at a decent height. To make it a little less industrial, I obtained a cast steel frog sculpture to weld on top.

View attachment 84676View attachment 84676View attachment 84677

I also plan to obtain and mount all necessary fencing and railings. I might have to switch our two exterior gates from opening inward to opening outward. We'll see. If the inspector makes me, I'll do it. We have reasonably good metalworking equipment - a MIG welder, gas welder, TIG welder, plasma cutters, a metal-cutting bandsaw: this kind of simple ironworking is a piece of cake.

In addition, the sauna we ordered will be delivered as a pile of wood that you put together. And also the shed that my wife wants. Gonna be a busy September.

Urp. Big setback yesterday. County inspector came out "You need a permit for that retaining wall". The contractor had decided that it didn't need a permit because it was 4 feet high - four feet from what? From Grade. The County OTOH measures it from the BOTTOM of the footing. Five feet, need a permit.

The thing that bites is that I had had a retaining wall engineered. It was a cantilevered wall ( which is what the engineer likes, and his software supports ). I had emailed the contractor the drawings from the engineer "Can you build this?" "Sure". But when he came out, he built the wall *he* liked ( gravity wall ). Read me a lecture about how it didn't need to be engineered, and how I had wasted my money on the engineering. I didn't insist, I trusted to his experience.

After a bit of grumbling, he took it with good grace, and his crew is taking apart the unapproved forms. I figure that's on him; because he HAD the engineered plans, and chose to ignore them.

...So I went to the County with the engineered plans and calculations. They said "We'll issue the permit in four to eight weeks. Maybe sooner because it's an addition to an existing permit and you're in the middle of your project."
Click to expand...

wow u live in an area where inspectors think they r more important than they really r. I’m so sorry u got to deal with that kinda new stuff. I would have lost it on them.

I so glad I didn’t have to deal with any of this. I had like 1 inspection for the whole pool. My pool house permit was obtained in 5 mins.

- - - Updated - - -

jerryk1234 said:
This whole thing has gotten just a little unpleasant. The concrete guy read me a lecture this morning about how I "shouldn't have involved the County". How could I do that when the whole pool project is on a permit? His second in command yesterday remarked that "they hadn't had any plans" ( except maybe for the engineers plans that I had emailed his boss a month previous? )

The County inspector has delivered me THREE lectures: one, about how I shouldn't have called him when the forms weren't complete, Two, about how I should have done my research and known that the wall was too high and would require its own permit, THREE, about how my contractor shouldn't have called his friend in the department, and actually FOUR, about how the inspector only wanted to talk to ME, the permittee and NOT
to my contractor.

I am having to really ride the contractor on some of the details; I had put a ham radio feedline in the trench, and they broke it; they had
bent over a water pipe and failed to pack it in sand.

Hindsight being 20/20, we begin to slightly regret not having hired one of those boutique pool guys who supervise creating the whole environment. Oh, well.
Click to expand...
Ur getting lectured cause he prob has nothing else to do with his time and it fills his day in for his pay.

U r doing fine. Nothing to say a boutique company would even be there all the time. Better having ur eyes on all for the whole job.
 
Smile. Nod. Thank him for the education and you will know for next time.

Not that you are likely to do this again in his area.
 
Your poor ears! Having to listen to all of that fussing and mess!

No plans? Really? Hummmm what is this in my sent box??? OHHHHHHH it is the PLANS I sent to your boss!!!! DUH!

Hang strong and it will soon be done.
 

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