07 March Update - Starting on gutter at the sun deck end and next steps
This is another big day. All during this project I've been trying to explain (unsuccessfully) how the gutter system will work to my wife and other friends. Even some of the subs seemed a little puzzled except the ones that had done it before. I've also gotten quite a few questions about this design and how it works from others here. I almost dropped the concept but was encouraged by a post from
@ajw22 to investigate how it is done more commonly in Europe and other locations. The more I looked into this the more became excited about doing this on our pool. The photo's I captured after work shut down yesterday are starting to show how it will work:
The back edge of the pool is a standard infinity edge that spills into a basin behind the pool. The distance from the back top of the infinity edge to the bottom of the basin is about 5' and the basin containment wall is about 2' below the pool. So the basin that is holding pool spill-over goes about 3' below grade and it's 3' wide.
The entire remainder of the pool is surrounded by a gutter between two 6" walls that go down and join together about 1' below the surface and combine to form a 1' wall the rest of the way down. We construct this by forming the outer 6" wall first. This operation has just started at the sun deck end of the pool. Next step will be to place the 2"x3" strips of architectural foam right inside the wall and then shoot the inside of the wall. Gunite is a fabulous material for this since they first shoot a big long strip of gunite around outer steel mats and then the forming crew comes behind to shape the top very precisely with string lines they set. Below you can see the first section of outer edge with my architectural foam in place. The foam is exactly to dimension and the fit is perfect. I wasn't that surprised at the perfect foam dimension but the concrete finishing is way more precise than I imagined it could be. I am so glad we chose Prestige Gunite for this job!
Hard to tell exactly how precise the fit is while holding the camera but when I push the foam into the concrete wall it's exactly right:
This edge will continue around the pool after all the walls are up and that won't happen 'till late today. Both ends will transition from the rectangle to a 2" piece of pipe that will elbow down to the basin. This is where that pipe will eventually be installed on one end that will dump into the basin:
When we plaster and tile top of the inside wall will get a 6" tile that slopes up 2% into the gutter. The back side of the gutter will have a 6" tile that slopes 5%. This will allow me to block in a valve on each end of the gutter so it is completely flooded and all the flow is forced over the wall. When this happens pool level increases about 5/16" so the tile slope behind the gutter accommodates the rise in level so pool water is not spilled out of the pool all over the pavers. Of course if the swimmers are very active some could spill out but that happens in any pool.
Next Steps:
This morning the forming crew will install a plywood form for the infinity wall. That's the final piece of work for the forming crew other than tear-down of the forming in the pool but I'll have them back to run pipe through the trenches over to the equipment pad. They've done a great job for me and I like the idea of having one crew do the piping in the pool and all the way to the pad. Way less chance of mix ups! Not sure how the license works in other jurisdictions but here in Martin County Florida the forming and steel sub license qualifies him to do all the plumbing and bonding inside and exterior bonding and run it all to the pad. Then electrician and plumber or OB hook everything at the pad and sub-panel. I'll probably do the plumbing myself since I don't really like most of the installations I've seen from the plumbers so far. Nowhere near enough unions, and very little thought about future operation and maintenance. For electrical I may go either way but probably prefer the sub if he's available and he's already signed on to my permit so I'll have to get him to "bless" my work before final electrical inspection. My electrical sub did the entire house electric and does superb work very fast at a reasonable price but he's extremely busy and this is a pretty small job for him.
Any questions/comments/suggestions are most welcome.
Chris
