New Pool coming to our yard soon!

[newfool]

Well the hard stuff is done (finding someone trustworthy to do the job).

The plans - basically a square shaped pool to maximize the use of our yard/pool space.
Pool to be 3.5-5.5' deep, pebble sheen interior with paver deck and screen enclosure.

The yard before we cleared out all the palms.

The 2 palms we had to save - they were too nice to get rid of. The one cluster was 2-3 tons with the dirt in the root ball! It took me 4 hours to dig out the root ball on the cluster, I couldn't believe all the rocks I was hitting.

Temporary home for the palms until after the pool is dug and landscaping begins.

Site Cleared and ready to go - layout this Friday!

I will keep the photos coming as progress takes place.

 

[Butterfly]

Hey newfool and welcome to TFP!

Your palms are beautiful

Thanks for sharing your build with us. You already know we love pix! :-D

 

[wgshockley]

Hi Newfool,

The palm grouping appears to be an Areca Palm. I had 2 groupings relocated in my back yard to have a pool installed. (Build Pictures to come once landscaping is decent). I too was surpised at the size of the Root Ball these things have. So far the transplant has been very successful. Make sure you give it plenty of water for the next few weeks. Once they re-establish themselves, your good to go. Best of luck in your pool build and please share pictures of the build.

Bill

 

[Vandal]

Looking good. I was wondering about the areca palms myself because I'm trying to design some landscaping to go with our new pool. I have an 8-foot space behind the pool bordered by a fence that I'm trying to soften a bit. Would this work there or is the root system too invasive in that tight of a space?

 

[Vegasmom]

Your pool plan looks great. Best of luck to you with your build! Love the palms...where in FL are you? I grew up in Ft. Pierce and have relatives in Miami and Gainesville. I have wonderful memories of my childhood...it was a great place to live. 8)

 

[newfool]

Thanks for the welcome JJ. And yes, from lurking I know pics are a mandatory :-D

WGS, the big palm is an areca and the smaller to the right is called a robilini palm. I was surprised when I started digging around that palm, I made a 12' diameter cutting and there were still roots running through, they go far and wide for water, but not deeper than about a foot. Really amazing. Did you fertilize yours at all while it was waiting to be replanted?

Vandal, I am sure you can put the areca between your pool and fence, the roots are like thick spaghetti strings. Once they hit concrete they will stop and go around. As I mentioned above they dont go deep at all. Another suggestion, depending on where you live, ever think about bamboo? The clumping variety is non-invasive and I am going to put several along my back wall where I will be fencing out the neighbor.

TY Vegasmom, I am originally from up north, but its been fun living down here in Tampa Bay.

More pics to come, tom. is layout!
:-D

 

[newfool]

Ok, so Friday was layout and wellpoints to drain the soil of excess water. The local municipality required us to test our ground water prior to pumping the excess water out of the ground and into the street. Being so close to the coast, the only thing they will find in the test is sea water! But they have to do it anyway. Its delaying the dig at this point. Tom. we should have some word as to when the dig is scheduled.

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk14 ... 50_IMG.jpg

 

[newfool]

New progress being made!

Well after a delay for water testing, today the shell was dug out, steel was done and plumbing was stubbed. Tomorrow is inspection on steel and wed or thursday will be gunnite. Woo hoo, progress! Tile won't happen until maybe next tuesday due to holiday. But I'll put in a sneak preview of tile as well as pics (of course). My wife took the photos I was at work all day so I will climb down and measure everything to be sure (aka pain in the Rear).

digging this morning

saving dirt for landscaping

little one wondering whats going one

full shot of shell

other shots of shell

swimout at deep end

water line tile

Specs:
I have forgotten about the nitty gritty that some folks like and i apologize:
pebble sheen white diamonds
12-15k gallons capacity
2" pipe being used throughout
2 main drains
5 returns
1 skimmer line
pentair intelliflo 4x160
for now using chlorine tabs until we get situated and decide the best route for us regarding chlorination/cleaning
200 sq ft media filter
full width (~7' wide) swimout at deep end

 

[newfool]

Supprise,Supprise PB is being great and making up for lost time. Steel inspection was early today, so they sent out gunite crew in rain to shoot a skim coat. Basically enough to hold back walls until tomorrow. Tomorrow they will set light, returns and shoot shell. I hope they leave it nice and smooth.

 

[EskimoPie]

Hey Newfool, thanks for the pictures! I'd never heard of them doing a partial gunite shoot like that. I've always heard that putting new concrete over old makes a poor bond and leads to separation there. Any experts care to comment?

 

[newfool]

Its true cold joints in concrete are weak spots. In this case they just flashed the area with a thin coating of concrete mostly to keep the walls from caving in. It was raining pretty heavy the morning of the shoot. As you can see in the photo, the rebar is still exposed so I dont think there will be any issues in bonding, but would welcome all inputs.

 

[newfool]

Well the shell was finished today. I didnt get home until after dark but I took a quick peek and everything looked pretty good. I did notice that on the top of one wall the shell wasnt level, but that will be built up when the bullnose is set. Here are some more pics:

 

[newfool]

Not much progress today. Spent much of the day watering the shell. Man is it thirsty! PB said that someone will be out tomorrow to strip the forms and possibly do some cleanup and grading. The coping is supposed to be delivered as well. More to follow next week. :-D

 

[newfool]

Well after some more delays :x the forms were stripped today and the backfilling began. Sometime before I got back from work the bobcat hit a 6" drain line I had put in. The drain line was clearly staked out and it was the same operator that was here before, who was warned about it! Stuff happens. PB was cool about paying for it, but I was still out there for 4 hours fixing it. I wonder how he will comp. me for my time?! Anyways, more drama occured on the friday before the long weekend with the wrong pavers being delivered! Take a look for yourselves. The manufacturer states shade variations, but this was two different colors! Turned out the manufacturer had changed their dyes on that color 6 months ago and the rep. didnt update anybody's samples!! Nice. We ended up going with the original color we had initially chosen so we weren't really upset, it just caused some anxiety over the weekend. The PB was good about acknowledging email and phone call so we were pretty happy with that, just wondering if the curse and delays will lift.

Wrong color, no, change in lots! I dont have a pic of the new paver yet.

Damage done:

Only good thing about today was we nailed down a schedule - supposedly, we'll see....

Tomorrow - Coping and tile - if they have time they will also grout according to PB

Mon and Tuesday they will do electric and plumbing as well as form up for footer for screen enclosure.
Wednesday will be inspections for all above
Thursday or Friday - they will pour the footer
Next Monday will be paver installation to be finished on Tuesday
Tuesday or Wednesday will be measure and cut parts at factory days for the pool enclosure
Thursday will be installation possibly of enclosure
Friday will be pebblesheen if not then following Monday and fill up of pool!!

This is of course best case scenario. The PB is motivated to get this done and get rid of me :-D before other things go wrong.

 

[newfool]

True to his word tile and coping as well as grouting was done today. From photo's it looks like they did a nice job. I will check it out first thing tomorrow morning. Enjoy the photos.

 

[heikejohn]

This is starting to look like a very nice pool!

Keep the photos coming

 

[newfool]

Thanks John I was wondering if anyone was looking :?: LOL Yep, more progress and pics to come over the next week.

 

[chrisa]

wow, it looks amazing!!!
keep the photos coming, I love watching the progress.
we start our renovation on our pool in acouple weeks (sandblasting, plaster, tile line, skimmer replaced)...don't you wish things could just be done over night

Chris

 

[newfool]

Thanks Chrisa. Yes, def. sometimes we can be impatient waiting and watching! Good luck on your renovation! Post some progress pics for us!

 

[cobra46]

I really think those colors look great and can't wait to see it finished.

Boy I really love the the plants in FL.