Rained over weekend, huge mess, aching back!

[cword]

Well....... just when it looked like we got a break on this project Mother Nature put in her two cents worth! It came a huge storm on Saturday and dumped loads of water into our newly dug and rebarbed pool. In fact they had just finished all the rebar/rough plumbing on Friday and it was completely read to have the shell shot when this happened.

It rained so hard that portions of the sides caved in sending even more dirt to the bottom of the pool. The slope from the shallow to the deep end has ruts in it. Ohhhh... you just cannot imagine the mess. The guy that did the work says he is too busy this week to help with the clean up so that leaves yours truly.

We used a sunk pump yesterday and got most of the water out of the deep end, but today we were trying to get all the extra MUD out. The deep end has so much extra dirt in it that there is no space between the rebar and the ground, so we are digging out thick, heavy MUD, then carrying it up the slope and dumping it out.

I am 47 and my husband is 52 so we are no spring chickens! We worked all day on this, our backs are aching and still there is a mess of thick sticky mud in the deep end. We finally just gave up for the day and hope the pool fairy comes during the night and cleans it all out for us.

Does anyone here have any tips on how to do this any easier? We used a wet/vac until the mud got too thick. Now we are shoveling it out bucket by bucket. It is a slow and back backing process, not to mention dangerous with all this exposed steel. We tried putting it into a bucket and lifting it up out of the deep end as well, but that is about as hard.

Anyone got any advice? How about prayers! I think I need a drink and a back rub now.

 

[ideliver]

Sounds like a job for the people that you are paying to build your pool.

Why are you doing the PB's job?

 

[muss08]

This is not your responsibility! Your builder needs to handle clean up at the job sight.

 

[reef n ale]

Wow, Cindy, I have to agree...you guys shouldn't be doing that!

The PB should take care of ALL that clean up.

With that kind of weather coming, the hole should have been covered before the rain even started.

Let them fix it!

Rob

 

[whoozer]

If your PB didn't cover it and you are doing all of his work after he screwed up then I hope your getting a cutback!

 

[Hotrod30]

I think she and her husband are the builder.

 

[cword]

We sub-contracted so do not blame anyone

we sub-contracted this job out so I don't blaim the guy that did the frame and steeling. The storm blew up extremely fast so there was no time to cover a pool this size. It is huge! 20X40 with large spa as well. I guess this is just one of those things you have to be prepared to do when you take on the responsibility to do this yourself. I can't blame anyone, and I am well pleased with the job done by the subs so far. I should have made it clear in my first post that I am subing this out, because if I were not you can bet I would not be doing this clean up. Back to digging..... oh my aching back!

 

[whoozer]

Oh ick Sorry about that. Mother nature sure can be nasty sometimes. Does anyone you know have a tractor that you can at least lower the bucket over a stable edge to dump the mud into instead of hoisting it out by hand?

 

[sevver]

Around here we have companies that have a suck truck. They are called Hydro Excavators, what it is, it they have a truck with a hose on a boom that is about 8" diameter and can easily suck up mud. It may cost you a couple grand, but it is very controllable and they would probably get it close to original. We used them alot to do watermain repairs around a bunch of utilities. It is way faster to suck around Electric, Phone, Gas, and whatever else is in the ground than to dig.

Otherwise, it is going to be the back, or pull out the rebar and redig it.

 

[reef n ale]

Oh, sorry Cindy, I didn't know you were the builder. I wish I could help!!!

Rob

 

[TresW]

I don't know about pools, but when this happens in our commercial projects the rebar has to be removed, the area cleaned out then the rebar scrubbed down and reinstalled. Do not leave any mud/ dirt/ debris on the rebar or it will not bond to the gunite. Sorry to hear about the problems!