1st Pool Build | Sugar Land - Skimmer Repairs Done - Hardscape Finished

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ajw22 said:
Well you can ask him what the standard practice is for encapsulation of rebar by gunite?

Or you can file that answer away should you have a problem in the future.
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I have a meeting to finalize the tile at their main offices. I'm gonna bring it up one time to the designer and see what he has said since he's a straight shooter. From there I'm gonna discuss in person and see if anything changes. I'm pretty sure it will stay the same and I will be filing this for sure with screenshots for further reference if anything should arise.

Out of curiosity, what is the main concern if the clearance is not exactly 3" etc.
 
stack24 said:
Out of curiosity, what is the main concern if the clearance is not exactly 3" etc.
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It does not need to be exactly 3”. But rebar that is not covered, encapsulated, with gunite is doing nothing to support the structure of the pool.

Gunite, concrete, without rebar cracks and is not structurally strong. Rebar within the concrete holds the concrete together. Rebar can only do that is it is encapsulated by the gunite.

You will have shadowing where the gunite cannot get behind areas of rebar. Those gunite areas will be prone to cracking because they do not have the rebar support within.
 
ajw22 said:
It does not need to be exactly 3”. But rebar that is not covered, encapsulated, with gunite is doing nothing to support the structure of the pool.

Gunite, concrete, without rebar cracks and is not structurally strong. Rebar within the concrete holds the concrete together. Rebar can only do that is it is encapsulated by the gunite.

You will have shadowing where the gunite cannot get behind areas of rebar. Those gunite areas will be prone to cracking because they do not have the rebar support within.
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So I went today to finalize the tile selection and told my designer the concerns with the rebar and he said to send a picture to him and he will talk to the owner and let him know about that and see what he says.

Last night I went out there and saw I could give it some room by moving one of the cement pieces to that side and it pushed it up to give some clearance, but I didn't want to leave it until they say their piece. Because I don't want any reason I do something to have an effect since it moves that whole side of the rebar up since they are connected.
 
@ajw22 So just to update, the designer called me back and said the project manager will be coming out to dig a bit to allow the pipe to go down on one end and check the rest of the rebar and pipe there. Essentially he also did exactly what I did which was place more bricks in strategic locations that raised all of the rebar above the pipe.

I guess so much for "standard practice"

Gunite was scheduled for tomorrow and still shows "weather pending" in their system but my luck we got rain starting tonight all the way through Sunday. 90% tomorrow so i'm sure we aren't going to get that done. They were trying to push me up the schedule to have it done this morning so then I would be clear but looks like we should be pushed to Monday which is first partly cloudy day before rain on Tuesday again.

He just finished getting the pool covered a bit to anticipate for the rains.

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stack24 said:
@ajw22 So just to update, the designer called me back and said the project manager will be coming out to dig a bit to allow the pipe to go down on one end and check the rest of the rebar and pipe there. Essentially he also did exactly what I did which was place more bricks in strategic locations that raised all of the rebar above the pipe.
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Glad you kept after him to do his job.

I have little patience for lazy contractors who do a shoddy job and give what they think are uninformed owners BS answers. Call them out a few times and you get their respect and the quality of their work improves. I did that in front of my son in a house we were renovating for him and he got an education in Contractor Management 101.
 
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ajw22 said:
Glad you kept after him to do his job.

I have little patience for lazy contractors who do a shoddy job and give what they think are uninformed owners BS answers. Call them out a few times and you get their respect and the quality of their work improves. I did that in front of my son in a house we were renovating for him and he got an education in Contractor Management 101.
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I agree. I did that a ton when we were building our new house. There is enough information online and in these forums to learn a lot. I hate to be "that" guy but when it comes to half assed answers etc that is when it bothers me.

Thanks for pointing it out and giving me a chance to fix the problem.
 
No updates since we will have 3 days of rain and hopefully Monday will be the day we Gunite. I do have a question and don't know if it's something I should be worried about.

Part of the old PVC pipe that used to have my electrical before the re route is still in the ground and almost now acts like a drain when it raining. The water that falls in the back of the yard by the boxes just flows through this pipe and right now into the pool. So my question is, when everything dries up and they shoot gunite is this is something I should worry about? That everytime it rains essentially water will flow into this pipe and stop at the pool gunite? I just don't want to have issues in the long run when it rains or sprinklers turn on etc.

I had brought up the pipe being there and they said that's not a big deal, but that was before the rain and I noticed it essentially is draining. Should I be concerned or it's not gonna matter when all said and done and Gunite is shot and probably some will get into the pipe?

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Thanks
 
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Where is the other end of the pipe that water is getting into?

I would want to cap off both ends of the pipe.

I can't predict what may happen but all those folks saying it is not a big deal will be long gone should there be a problem.

My concern would be water eroding the ground where the water is draining.
 
ajw22 said:
Where is the other end of the pipe that water is getting into?

I would want to cap off both ends of the pipe.

I can't predict what may happen but all those folks saying it is not a big deal will be long gone should there be a problem.

My concern would be water eroding the ground where the water is draining.
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So we have the utilities in our yard so it would probably be coming from around the back corner of our house. The other end of the pipe is underground as well. When it is raining just water going into the ground and down this pipe and since it's now empty with nothing in it. It used to be the PVC where our main electrical was going to the house from our utilities that was re-routed.

I will shoot them an email and see about getting it capped off.
 
stack24 said:
Part of the old PVC pipe that used to have my electrical before the re route is still in the ground and almost now acts like a drain when it raining. The water that falls in the back of the yard by the boxes just flows through this pipe and right now into the pool. So my question is, when everything dries up and they shoot gunite is this is something I should worry about?
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I would dig up where the lawn is draining to this open end pipe put a $3 cap on it. Ensure there is no break below where you dig it up. I am surprised that they did not cut this during the dig and just cap it on the end leading to the pool. Why would they leave it coming into the pool wall (or maybe that is the steps)? It would be good to cap this end as well but with all that rebar there it may be hard to get to. Obviously the gunite will go into it but you still need to stop water entering that pipe from the lawn side.
 

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Couple of updates....oh yeah GUNITE day! Got pushed back a couple days cause of the rain from Thursday to today. We got word early in the morning they were coming today since it rains tomorrow, then clear skies for the next week or so. At least i won't have to water it tomorrow with all the rain coming. ( I take it he will put back the pump he had on the bottom of the shell to make sure water doesn't just sit at the bottom)

Also an update on the pipe, they of course put gunite in one end but the project manager let me know he did get my email (I cc'ed the whole crew and designer of course) that he will cap it off on the other end later.

I'll have a final picture later but here are some pictures of progress so far.

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Am I going to have to make a big stink about this or does this happen? Looks like part of the step chunked off. They put in more rebar and tied it in and he is filling it back up by hand in layers.

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They just completed the job. Should I start watering it a bit today since the bottom looks like it's drying out? Or should I wait till tomorrow. Well probably the next day since it is raining tomorrow.

Is this little notch for the auto fill? looks to be in the area on the plumbing diagram.

I did also notice about 4 inch chunk of gunite the back lower portion raised wall which will be tile had fallen down I figure they will probably fill that in later, but should this worry me a bit more that pieces have fallen off? IMG_0031.JPGIMG_0032.JPGIMG_0030.JPG
 
Question guys. While bonding with my pool something caught my eye and before I email the builder I wanted to see if I am seeing this right.

On one side where we have a 6 inch raised beam we also have the skimmer. Our design calls for a single 12x24 tile to go across so 6 inches would be the raised beam and 6 inches the water line.

From looking at the Skimmer it’s 14.5 close to 15” to the bottom of the skimmer.

They told us they would be filing the inside of the skimmer with matching tiles but given the measurements wouldn’t this be leaving about 2-3 inches of no tile on the skimmer?

Don’t want it to look weird since it’s part of the feature wall.

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Discuss it with your builder because you have to cover that area with tile. Your bond beam looks to be 7' and your skimmer mouth another 8". You may need to adjust your tile design.
 

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