It has begun in FT. Myers, FL.....finally!

[Talon170]

I thought I could finally post in this section as we broke ground today. I have not posted since I wrote in the "Introduce Yourself" area of the forum back in July. It has taken this long to interview and get quotes from different builders. That doesn't mean I haven't been lurking here.....every single day. We have been working on this for a couple of years so to actually have it happening is somewhat surreal. I cannot thank the people on this forum enough. The education I have recieved and will continue to recieve has been priceless.
As with many on here, we wanted to create our backyard oasis. But, like many here, we had a budget. We wanted lots of deck space. We wanted a paver patio with a firepit. We wanted a spa, and of course all of this except the patio with the firepit, would need to be screened in and attached to our house with existing porch with all pavers. Then, thinking about wet kids running on our slippery tile through our living room to get to the bathroom made us realize we needed to knock a hole in our house to put a door into the spare bathroom, which of course, would need to be within the screened in area.
At first, the pool was a free-form kidney style. Then after thinking about the size of pool, maximizing deck space and how we would use it,(2 kids ages 9 & 5) we went with a 15' x 28'rectangular sport style pool with spa and sun deck. The pool is a little smaller than we had originally planned but we had to stick to the budget and still get everything we wanted. Equipment/ lighting will be Pentair. I'll post those details later.

I will attach a few photos here and then add them as we go. Thanks again to all who contribute.

 

[Talon170]

Some more photos of the progress:

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome again! Thanks for posting the pics. Everyone really likes to see pool builds so please log your progress as you have time. You have certainly done a thorough job of pre-planning and it will pay you back over and over as your build progresses.

(Your grass looks great! Is it centipede?)

 

[Talon170]

Welcome again! Thanks for posting the pics. Everyone really likes to see pool builds so please log your progress as you have time. You have certainly done a thorough job of pre-planning and it will pay you back over and over as your build progresses.

(Your grass looks great! Is it centipede?)

Thanks! I like to call it "Greeds"................grass and weeds.

Rebar is in now. The crew can't shoot until Tuesday so work has stopped until Monday when plumbing and final forming will be done. I'll take some more photos today.

 

[Talon170]

No concrete today. The pool builder couldn't schedule an inspection in time so the concrete has been put off until tomorrow. We have a pump continuously running to keep the water from filling the bottom of the pool. We are very anxious now for the concrete. We were nervous and apprehensive to start but now with a hole in the yard with wood and rebar all over, we are now ready for things to progress. Attached are a couple of photos of where we're at. By the way duraleigh, I think most of our grass is what is called floratam. Not positvie though. The other photo below is of the first piece of pool equipment we invested in, thanks in part to this forum.

 

[Brentr]

Keep the pics coming

 

[Talon170]

Woohoo!! Concrete!!

Little girl anxious to have a pool!

 

[Talon170]

Here is a link to the Photobucket album that has video of the shoot:


http://s906.photobucket.com/albums/ac270/talon170/Pool/

 

[257WbyMag]

Man, that's looking really good!

 

[Talon170]

Finished shooting! I do have a question. Our PB mentioned that if we wanted stronger concrete, we could water it but did not go into detail about how often. I have read other posts where people are watering several times a day. Any recommendations?

 

[shuye]

Looks good. We just build our pool in August - we sprayed the concrete 2 times a day (morning and evening) and just enough to wet down the concrete.

Steve

 

[Talon170]

Thanks Steve. How many days did you do the watering?

 

[bigdav160]

We watered ours for over a week but I've concluded the first day is the most important. The concrete was so warm vapor was coming off it when watered.

 

[Talon170]

Thanks for the info bigdave. I just finished the morning watering. I'll water until Sunday night as we both return to work Monday.

 

[Talon170]

I haven't posted recently as not much has happened since they shot concrete last week. The forms have been removed. That's it. I have a question though. The ground water that is in the pool is a very dark tea like color. Will this stain the concrete and bleed through the pool finish? The staining comes from a very odd ( for around here) area of sediment. It was very dark and difficult to break through. Most all sediment is light colored shell and or sand. When I break a chunk apart there is a distinct acid odor. Almost like a sulfuric acid or battery acid smell. Very strange. Any input is welcome.
Dave

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Don't worry about it...groundwater can be all sorts of funky colors. It probably won't stain the concrete and even if it does it won't seep into the pool.

 

[Talon170]

Don't worry about it...groundwater can be all sorts of funky colors. It probably won't stain the concrete and even if it does it won't seep into the pool.

Thanks for the response. PB confirmed this as well. After a week with nothing happening we finally have progress. Forms are gone and pool is backfilled. We have some very low spots in our yard so we had all the dirt spread to level it out. We are also having some gravel laid down for a pad to store our travel trailer on.
Today they are starting the process of putting the water line tile in. We had to have the spa wall repaired as I spotted a crack and it sounded pretty hollow. Things are moving slower than we'd like but I would rather have it done right and take a little longer. Here are some photos:

 

[Talon170]

Photos from yesterday. Coping today.

Pavers and coping!!

 

[Talon170]

I'm sorry I haven't updated this thread in a while. Between delays with PB, the wonderful flu the kids brought home from school and believe it or not, rain I haven't had much to talk about. The photos below show the current state of our pool. The coping is on and grout almost finished. When I first laid down a piece of coping against the water line tile I was pretty disappointed with the color. A lot more chestnut color than I had anticipated. But now after it's all installed, I really like the contrast. This is just my opinion, but I think if a coping color is chosen to match the water line tile too closely, the lines could be blurred between the two. Which is opposite the way I was looking at paver and coping colors originally. One of the many things I have learned with this process.

The plumbing is mostly in. The PB was here till 8pm last night working. He has been sick as well and the rain has slowed him down. I can't really blame him on the slow progress. Besides, he's a friend of ours we've known for 13 years. He's been very good to us with this project. I never thought there'd be as many issues as there has to deal with though. The latest was on Monday I came home and the Porta-john truck was stuck in our ditch...........for the second time! Now, I fully expected an area of the ditch(which is part of our lawn that has grass and I mow) to be tore up with equipment and trucks. The PB was very good about letting us know about that and I don't have a problem with it.

For whatever reason, the first Porta-john truck driver that got stuck drove beyond the area of the ditch that was tore up and went in to get as close to the porta-john as he could and got stuck.(In deep sh** ) All four wheels sunk in grass and mud about a foot deep. He had another truck and driver show up with a chain and was able to get out after a while.
I was frustrated but also understand his job and what he has to do so I let it go.

On Monday, this driver evidently didn't get the message from the other driver, didn't see the huge ruts from the first incident, didn't think to get out of his truck to check the ground and drove parallel through the ditch to get as close as he could to the john and proceeded to get REALLY stuck. :x (even deeper sh** :lol: ) I came home to two trucks or "honey wagons" playing tug-o-war on our street and ditch. It wasn't working pulling the stuck truck out backwards so they had the brilliant idea to try and pull out the truck by pulling it forward. So the pulling truck positioned his truck half on and half off the road and ...yes.....got stuck.
To make a long and 3 stooges type story short, both trucks did get out but proceeded to tear up a very large area of our lawn no where near where the other trucks were using for access. Not to mention the wear and tear to the company trucks. If they had worked for me, they wouldn't have been the next day. Neither of the drivers approached me to apologize, and to top it off, they left a pile of form material and gravel that they had dug out of the dumpster for traction :grrrr: And I thought these guys were used to cleaning up sh**!! I mean no disrespect to other drivers out there....just these two clowns.
One call to the PB and the porta john is gone and he is going to grade our yard and backcharge the porta john company.
Sorry for my rant. I consider it my therapy.

It sounds like things may progress a little faster here the next week. We'll see. I sure would love to ring in the new year while sitting in our new spa!!

 

[Talon170]

I finally have a few minutes so I thought I'd post a few photos. The footer for the screen cage was poured the other day along with a pad for our shed that we wanted to relocate. The plumbing runs were pretty much completed as well. When our PB pressure tested the plumbing, it wouldn't hold pressure. He thinks it might be the main drains or maybe in the spa runs where they had trouble with the walls and needed repair. I hope it's in the main drains! The lighting wires have been run and lights are staged for installation. The next step is to fix the leak then the pavers will get installed. Looks like I won't be ringing in the new year in our spa. Next year I guess. Again, I would rather have it done right than rush through it. Have a Merry Christmas!!