Northern California Build

[mud]

Howdy! Love the seemingly endless supply of information and helpful people on this forum.

Today is the 2nd day of our dig. We're building a 600sq ft free form with spa.

Unfortunately, I've hit water at about 3 feet in the shallow end of the pool. The deep end is dug out deeper but has no water (dirt still separating shallow from deep ends). PB believes its from excess sprinkler water from neighbors who have a higher lot elevation. PB is going to dig out a bit extra and place gravel at the bottom and of course have hydro-static valves in the pool. Anything else that should be done?

Pool plan:

Pool laid out:

View of dig:

Water at about 3 feet:

 

[Samantha_in_AL]

That's going to be one great looking pool. Keep us updated on your progress!

 

[mud]

Dig is complete! I'm excited because I thought for sure it was going to take more than our contracted 2 days but they did finish on time. Didn't finish until late sunset last night so no pics yet.

Water continues to leach out of the soil and is of course collecting in deep end. Pool bottom will be a muddy mess when plumbing for in-floor is installed, hopefully on Monday.

 

[whoozer]

nice layout!

 

[mud]

Thanks for the compliments! Mostly my DW's ideas.

Here's a picture of the completed dig. They are probably going to flash with gunite on Monday so nothing collapses and then plumbing on Tuesday.

 

[mud]

Plumbing is delayed since I placed a contingency in my contract on the in floor cleaner. If my dig wasn't completed in 2 days due to hitting large rocks, I would of had to drop the in floor cleaner to save money (which I probably should of done anyway but that's another story ). PB couldn't order plumbing material until he knew if in floor was a go or not. It is a go so design is complete and rough plumb should begin in the next few days.

In the mean time, they flashed the pool to prevent collapse due to the unusual late-May rains here in Northern California:

Here is the in floor cleaner design:

 

[mud]

Some of the rough plumbing is completed and the rebar is going in today.

Skimmer and auto-level:

Leaf canister for in-floor:

Pad:

Main trench and some in-floor:

Spa and baja shelf:

More in-floor and still seaping ground water:

 

[RC51Jim]

Nice build! Wow. lots of ground water, where in Northen-Cal are you?

 

[mud]

We're in the foot hills east of Sacramento.

 

[cobra46]

From the look of the houses I guessed you were near me.

Howdy neighbor.

 

[svenpup]

From the look of the houses I guessed you were near me.

Howdy neighbor.

Same here

Looks like it's going to be fantastic.

 

[mud]

Thanks for the welcome fellow neighbors!

I think it will be great though it will take some time to get the rest of the yard finished. We'll have landscaping, a new wooden deck, and a shade structure of some sort to complete over the next year or two.

 

[mud]

Good progress over the last 2 days. Rebar was completed, gas and electric run is completed, and more rough plumbing.

Question: water seepage continues though it is very slow. PB says I do not need rock spread along the bottom or a dry well installed. Any opinions on this?


Part of electrical/gas run:

Completed rebar:

Junction box, ball valves for deck jets, and I think air intake for spa jets:

Equipment pad with solar stub and water features added:

 

[taekwondodo]

Make sure in that wading area you get a "mount" for a shade umbrella!

 

[mud]

Thanks taekwondodo. We did indeed get that done.

Here are a few pictures of the gunite that was completed today.

 

[mud]

Not a whole lot going on this week.

Next week the waterline tile will be placed. It's the 6x6 blue guy in the middle of this photo:

Tile around the outside of the spa will be a custom 2x1 blend of Oceanside Tessera similar to Moroccan Desert but with blue instead of the purple (one other color was swapped too but can't remember which). It was ordered late and won't be here for another 2 weeks.

I'm getting a series of gunite cracks in a line but nothing too big. What should be done with these? None are bigger than 1/8".

Installed some new drainage lines all the way around the pool and fixed the damaged lines. Plumbing trenches were filled with sand first.

 

[GCS]

Looks good. This will be really nice once it is finished.

I really like the shape/design of this pool a lot. These free form styles are by far my favorite.

Greg

 

[mud]

Finally making some progress after the owner of the pool company (great guy, great company) had to deal with a death in his family and then got sick himself. My PB helped him pick up the slack and my pool suffered for it. We're back on track though.

Anyhoo, here are some photos.

Water line tile and glass tile around spa. The glass tile always seems to look different every time we look at it. Spillover will be a piece of black granite.

Raised deck with sitting wall and the same glass tile surrounding some water features:

Here is a view of a good portion of the yard. You can get a sense of the deck that will be poured next week, the tiny builder spec porch that I need to re-finish now and eventually rebuild when we have money again, and the serious amount of landscaping work in my future.

 

[mud]

Decking has been completed and we should get plaster next week!

 

[Shane1]

Man that glass tile is a super nice touch!