Pool Build - Baltimore

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Thanks again for the kind words.

YippeeSkippy said:
We love our Coolaroo shades. You'll enjoy them enormously. Get the cordless crank ones.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear...and we did get the cordless version. I have one of them up and they will be great. Here it is in action. The second one will be immediately to the left of it on part of the long pavillion side. I also took shots of the bungee tie-down and top bar for folks to see. I'd say they can handle winds easily up to 10 MPH and a gust to 15. I'd be uncomfortable higher than that. But we are in the habit of no umbrellas (and now no sunshades) in too much of a breeze already.

Coolaroo shade by Snowman 10, on Flickr

Coolaroo bungee attachment by Snowman 10, on Flickr

Coolaroo top bar by Snowman 10, on Flickr

One of our coneflowers in bloom... I love all of the colors are available in now. And they self-seed a bit which is great for me since there is plenty of space to fill in over time.

Coneflowers in July by Snowman 10, on Flickr

And of our doggies who got brave enough for their first "real" swims yesterday. Real defined as not falling in or being thrown in. Thank goodness for hairnets in the skimmers!

Brooks swimming by Snowman 10, on Flickr

Lacey swimming by Snowman 10, on Flickr
 
I was planning to build it. I've built several big decks/pergolas, including ours by the house. But then decided this was a bit over my head, more literally (too high) than figuratively. It was built in Amish country and installed in 3 hours or so. NOT cheap. You can price them all out at http://www.fifthroom.com/pavilions/. Probably cheaper to have them stick-built by someone and certainly cheaper by 1/2 to 2/3rds if you DIY. So I paid for ease of the process. We did have footers (thicker areas of concrete) included in the deck when it was built with a pavilion in mind. Ours was technically custom designed because of the footer placement and resulting top side dimensions - but they were awesome to deal with.

I've been thinking about your project and how to get shade. I'll post a few thoughts over there.
 
bmoreswim said:
A few pics of our maturing pool lansdscape which is mostly perennials. Enjoyed a great afternoon yesterday snoozing on the float. To all of you in process...the rewards at the end are worth it!

False sunflower in front of coral and pink Drift roses. Shenandoah Switch Grass in the pots, which did overwinter in them. Achillea 'Coronation Gold' beyond the diving board behind Liriope 'Big Blue'.

Upper pool landscape by Snowman 10, on Flickr

Overall view from the driveway. Seems our newest family member photobombed me taking care of her business.

Pool from driveway by Snowman 10, on Flickr
Click to expand...

I saw these pictures when you posted them the other day but didn't have time to post a comment.

I LOVE your landscape! I have these pictures as well as Suz's saved to my phone for future reference. That yellow and pink combo is just my thing!
How tall and wide do the false sunflowers get? Do they require full sun? I have knockout roses so I know the drift roses will be easy, are the false sunflowers easy/low care as well? I have brown thumbs :(
 
Thank you. For these I just plunked the false sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides) down by the drift roses by the pool entrance. A friend gave me two plants last fall. But I like the look too. They are about 4' tall now (says 3-6') and it says they can be 2-4' wide. I'd bet 4' would be more accurate. It may not be a tight 4' but a little more open possibly. Mine are in full sun which is best. Says they can fall over/flop if they get too much shade.
As I heard once about perennials in years one, two and three...survive, grow, thrive. So true.
 
Thankfully this wasn't my pool's pH test. But it was my fill water's pH for the first 17 years we lived in our house. I just kept putting off getting a neutralizer but had one too many related issues to ignore it any longer. So over the winter we installed an acid neutralizer. Our pH was 5.5 per our plumber since our tester doesn't go that low. I have a bypass of the neutralizer for the line that fills the pool. I can use the low pH water to my slight benefit since ours generally rises due to the SWCG and I won't waste the calcite needlessly on the pool.

IMG_2101.jpg
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
There's no 'they' when you have a well. Just our native juice.

But yes, several minor failures and annoyances but no big floods before we fixed the water. House plumbing is CPVC but all fittings/fixtures are of course fair game.
 
Ah, yes, cpvc will do the trick. I was thinking you can't even use pex because of fittings. Wow, a well into an acid pool eh? Interesting. I know some wells in tx smell like sulfur, I never thought about what the pH might be.
 
Our water is pretty good overall (both for a house and pool) except for low pH for house. Since our TDS is low, it has a good appetite for the Calcite (crushed marble), which increases pH. Otherwise you have to use a Corosex (magnesium oxide) mixture (read more expensive). Our resulting increased hardness still seems to be acceptable - no complaints yet from the shower cleaner.

But the taste is perfect - no taste. I've become a bit turned off by some treated water now having been on our well water so long. Seems the acid hasn't been a problem for us, just a few house plumbing internals.

Next up I'll post about our new life ring buoy...
 
Last edited:
Here is the life ring buoy I just bought (it's the 24" size). It replaces one that did not age gracefully. This one is hard plastic filled with foam. Two improvements (I think) over our previous life ring are the shell and the rope. The other ring had a soft thin orange layer over the foam. This became horribly black and stained after 4 years. I left it in the pool for a while after the first year to no avail. Any scrubbing would cause the orange to peel off. Eventually the orange ended up beginning to peel anyway. Second was the rope. The old rope dried out and became crispy and would break apart when touched. This will happen with most any rope I suppose, but this rope is replaceable due to the method of ring manufacture. Word of warning - Don't hit a troubled swimmer in the head with this ring - it might lead to their demise (though they were probably going down anyway) instead of rescue (it's quite hard and heavy). In addition to the life ring buoy, I also keep a dedicated pool pole with a safety pool hook attachment mounted right above the ring by the pool entrance. Do others have more or less pool safety equipment by their pools? Always interested in that aspect. Hopefully it's never needed.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001HBX5V2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Dock Edge Life Ring.jpg
 
bmoreswim said:
My plumber installed a system pretty much like this one...

My experience was that our plumber was notably cheaper than a dedicated water treatment company.

http://www.cleanwaterstore.com/neutralizer-upflow.html#item=NF003940&tab=tab1
Click to expand...

Great idea to use a plumber instead of the dedicated water company- we had a water company come out here and they wanted an absolute fortune.....we decided to do nothing as we dont drink the well water anyway and it wasnt "that bad" and had no contaminates ...I want to get it done, but I wasnt paying 10-15k for it.....
 
Thanks Helen. Probably will open Easter weekend. Off that Friday. I hope to pop the cover before that because I have one small tile in a skimmer to reattach and then grout.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply