San Diego In Ground Pool Build w/ Pictures
- Thread starter MattM
- Start date
Great pics. Thanks for posting. We ourselves just started buidling our pool this month and imagine my surprise to find out that we too are using Sundancer here in San Diego! Plumbing should finish up tomorrow....fingers crossed. Looks like they finished your pool and came to ours.... Small world.
Well, we had some issues waiting for the inspector to come out and approve the steel. Finally happened on Friday.
One item of note - apparently, pentair requires a 2ft clearance around all sides of their heat pump so you can't place them like an a/c compressor with one side near the house wall. As a result, we've had to complicate our plumbing a little bit. Most of our pool equipment is going up on the side of the house. But the heat pump and our existing a/c compressor are going to be moved onto the backyard hill behind the pool with a new small retaining wall and concrete platform there.
Solar came out also on Friday and put 550ft of helio cool panels on the roof of our 2nd story house and then did the plumbing to connect the panels to our main equipment area. There is a slight question of if any of their pipes need to be pressurized now/etc...I thought they pressurized last week, but the pool dancer said it was unpressurized today.
Gunite completed this morning!
Pics will be posted below shortly.
Jjg: yep, sundancer does seem to be the pool builder to go with here in San Diego. Who is your rep? Ours is Jim.
One item of note - apparently, pentair requires a 2ft clearance around all sides of their heat pump so you can't place them like an a/c compressor with one side near the house wall. As a result, we've had to complicate our plumbing a little bit. Most of our pool equipment is going up on the side of the house. But the heat pump and our existing a/c compressor are going to be moved onto the backyard hill behind the pool with a new small retaining wall and concrete platform there.
Solar came out also on Friday and put 550ft of helio cool panels on the roof of our 2nd story house and then did the plumbing to connect the panels to our main equipment area. There is a slight question of if any of their pipes need to be pressurized now/etc...I thought they pressurized last week, but the pool dancer said it was unpressurized today.
Gunite completed this morning!
Pics will be posted below shortly.
Jjg: yep, sundancer does seem to be the pool builder to go with here in San Diego. Who is your rep? Ours is Jim.
The deep end will have an intellibright 5g light and a set of built in steps that connect to sealed steel rails to exit the pool. I think the cutout is for the steps. I already asked the pool builder if they are supposed to look like that at this stage, and he said yes, he'll be putting in the actual steps later.
Our rep is Jay. We did a lot of research too and Sundancer seemed to be the best choice for us. We are scheduled for our inspection tomorrow and hopefully gunite on Wednesday (hoping it doesn't rain until later in the day).
MattM said:
Do you mean that you will switch between two sets of returns?
Also, please post pics of your equipment pad - sounds very unique
carlscan26: yes, according to my understanding (which may be wrong) there will be two sets of returns - one in the bottom of the pool and the second just under the waterline. When the automatic safety cover is active(covering the pool), the returns on the bottom of the pool are used and this allows the warm water returning from the solar panels/heat pump to mix with the colder water which normally is at the lowest point in a pool (especially as the cover will be increasing temperature of water at the top of the pool). When the pool is in use, and cover is open, the surface returns are used to create a strong flow of water around the pool and ensure that anything floating on the top of the pool reaches the skimmer. My understanding is that the intellitouch automation somehow enables this to happen seamlessly.
One issue that has become a concern -- we're in an area with extremely high natural water hardness(14-17 grains/gal, 240-290 ppm). I'm trying to figure out if there is a filter or other solution we can put in just before our auto fill unit to control calcium and other mineral levels. Otherwise, I can see significant pain long term. I'm sure there must be some solution somewhere for this (pool builder said to avoid general water softeners as they would negatively impact the pebble sheen).
I've never heard that about softeners. A lot of people use their home water softeners to maintain the level in their pools and no issues have been reported. I'd ask specifically what the problem is.
MattM said:
Interesting idea. I've only got the returns near the surface. I balance the suction between the main drain and the skimmer, usually about half and half. If I'll be leaving the cover closed I may draw more from the main drain, if open more from the skimmer. I'm the source of "automation" though, having it truly automated is pretty cool.
Long time since we last updated status -- but we did water the gunite 5-6 times/day for 2+ weeks and then a trench had to be dug around 3 sides of the house for the electrical piping to go from the panel to equipment. Lastly there was figuring out where to put the heat pump, which material and what form to use for the coping, and watching as all the pre-decking work was completed by the PB.
However, the good news, the coping is now complete and it looks awesome.
Ended up going with sealed "outback" color concrete mixed heavily with sand and a capstone form. I'll try to get pictures in the next few days. Decking is scheduled for next week. That will be sealed stamped concrete with a jigsaw grid pattern, ash + light beige colors, and anti-slip additives. Fingers crossed.
Equipment + all electrical should be complete before thanksgiving, and pebble sheen + auto safety cover around Dec 1. If all goes to schedule and we get the water conditioned and automation programmed the way we want it before new years, than the entire process will have taken roughly 7 months (3 months to investigate/design/sign contract + 4 months to build and startup). Not that long of a time for such an important part of our home for the next 30 years.
However, the good news, the coping is now complete and it looks awesome.
Ended up going with sealed "outback" color concrete mixed heavily with sand and a capstone form. I'll try to get pictures in the next few days. Decking is scheduled for next week. That will be sealed stamped concrete with a jigsaw grid pattern, ash + light beige colors, and anti-slip additives. Fingers crossed.
Equipment + all electrical should be complete before thanksgiving, and pebble sheen + auto safety cover around Dec 1. If all goes to schedule and we get the water conditioned and automation programmed the way we want it before new years, than the entire process will have taken roughly 7 months (3 months to investigate/design/sign contract + 4 months to build and startup). Not that long of a time for such an important part of our home for the next 30 years.
coping:capstone form, outback colored concrete w/ sand
deck: light beige + ash colored/stamped concrete in the grid pattern shown, we'll be sealing it next week with a clear penetrating non-glossy coat and non-slip additive. I'm hoping the stamp pattern / deep grooves + additive will allow the deck to stay reasonably non slippery when wet (crossing fingers).
deck: light beige + ash colored/stamped concrete in the grid pattern shown, we'll be sealing it next week with a clear penetrating non-glossy coat and non-slip additive. I'm hoping the stamp pattern / deep grooves + additive will allow the deck to stay reasonably non slippery when wet (crossing fingers).
Matt, what is the little jut out to the left on the cover-storage side of the pool?
I really like how your coping and deck came out. Every time I see concrete coping done well, I love it. They don't do so much concrete coping here in Texas, so I'm afraid if I have them do it, it'll be screwed up in some way or another since it isn't something that they do very often.
I really like how your coping and deck came out. Every time I see concrete coping done well, I love it. They don't do so much concrete coping here in Texas, so I'm afraid if I have them do it, it'll be screwed up in some way or another since it isn't something that they do very often.
Note that the coping seems to change colors quite a bit -- when wet (as pictured - we had just sprayed off construction dirt from the prior day), it becomes a very dark grey.....as it dries the color becomes light grey.