Budget DIY Vinyl 18x36 Build

[cj gal]

We have always wanted a pool with a diving board, and planned to get a DIY kit online when the economy improved.

Well, last summer we were able to get an almost complete kit (a few things were missing, such as liner, light fixture, braces) for $2000 on Craigslist. Everything is about 5 years old...it was just sitting in this guy's garage and backyard for all that time (there was some dispute with the builder and then he and his wife got divorced and they never had the work done).

The wait is over! We are currently (as I write) having the vermiculite troweled--one of the few things we are hiring out. My husband and I built our first little 25 years ago, and 5 years ago, we along with our three sons built our current house. At that time we promised our boys that we would build a pool with a diving board...but then the economy happened and our plans were postponed, until we came across this great deal.

We started in January, working as time cash allowed. The pool is going to be no-frills, but the water will be wet, and they will be allowed to dive in.

Pictures to follow...

 

[harleysilo]

You can't post a heart lifting story like that only to tease pictures at a later date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[cj gal]

Where the trees are, is were the pool will be.

Hubby clearing trees. We have our own excavating business, so dirt moving equipment was not an issue for us.

Attaching the a-frame braces

Bringing the excavator in to dig the deep end

Finished dig

Ready for the concrete collar

After they had the bottom so nicely sculpted, we had rain, rain, and more rain. Several typical Southern downpours. One night we had 5 inches... the deep end washed out and we had 12 inches of water in the bottom...

So after re-defining the dig, we decided we needed to be pro-active:

The guys doing the vermiculite are friends of ours. They are masons and have never done vermiculite before, but they are doing a stellar job! I am very impressed with their work so far

 

[ssgumby]

Looking great!

What are the braces you are using to hold the cover up with?

 

[MassNerd]

Cool story! Looking forward to more pics.

How are you anchoring the steel walls to the ground? Installers in our area usually pour concrete around the outside of the wall in addition to staking the braces into the earth.

 

[cj gal]

Five-foot rebar pounded into the ground at an angle...with 1" PVC pipe inserted over them. It's worked great so far. We had some rain while they were in the middle of trowelling verm, and were able to pull the plastic back over really fast....and it looks like another shower is on it's way.

 

[cj gal]

MassNerd--the rebar/PVC holds up the plastic cover to keep out rain. We did pour a concrete collar over the wall braces and stakes.

 

[cj gal]

MassNerd--now I understand why you asked that question...because in the pics you can't see the concrete collar, right? The reason for that is because it has been partially backfilled over the concrete.

 

[MassNerd]

You got it! Didn't see the concrete so I was wondering if you forgot something partial backfill explains it. Looking good!

 

[cj gal]

Vermiculite is done! Unfortunately after the verm guys left this morning, our dog walked on it! Ugh.

We were able to fix it--sort of. But what was a flawless job, is now very flawed. This just makes me sick.

Is there any chance we can sand it smooth after it's hardened? The part they did yesterday is now hard enough to walk on carefully.

Liner is going in tomorrow afternoon.

 

[cramar]

Man, I feel for you.
I did a real fast search and there are such things as concrete sanders, if there's an equiment rental place in your area maybe they have something.

 

[ssgumby]

Man that sucks! Looked like a great vermiculite job.

 

[cj gal]

Installed the liner today! We had a crew come out to do this as well. They only got here about 2 PM and were actually only here about an hour or so, after we had a bit of water in it, they left and we finished up with the faceplates, light, and skimmers ourselves.

Were able to get the waterline touching the skimmers by dark. We ran a direct 2" PVC line from our well (which is good for 45+ gal/min), and a 3" PVC line pumping from our old AG pool (130000 gal.). We shut off the water for the night and will top it off in the morning.

Liner is Parthenia Travertine from Vynall. It's a blue-ish gray color, and I am really liking the color of the water!

It was a good day.

 

[ssgumby]

Love the liner, this is what we are going with. Did they make it off your basic dig specs, or did you measure using their sheet? How long did it take them to make yours?

We are doing the vermiculite Saturday!

 

[cj gal]

They made it to our measurements. We ordered it through a local company, and I believe it took about 10 days.

Good luck with your vermiculite!

 

[bmoreswim]

Can we see a mug shot of the offending pooch? We need to know who to look out for! Project looks great and looks like a pretty good fix after the intruder. Are your friends doing some concrete decking for you?

 

[cj gal]

For bemoreswim, a picture of the bad girl who caused us so much stress:

She really is a very good dog--I'm sure once everyone was out of the pool that day, she just needed to go see what the big attraction was in there for two days! We had the light on last night, and discovered that the poolcrete job was not "flawless" after all. Not bad, you can see trowel marks on the slope and a number of imperfections where we fixed the poolcrete.

This morning, we finished filling (only about 2 inches more was needed), and hubby flushed the lines, then started the pump circulating. This is what we got:

Apparently there was a lot of mud in the lines around the main drains from when we had water in there before poolcrete. Ugh. And it was so clear yesterday!

This is what it looked like a few minutes ago. It think it may have cleared some since this morning, but then again, it may just be the light?

And yes, concrete decking is the next thing, and the sooner the better! Some of the guys who did the poolcrete will probably be finishing the concrete as well.

 

[MaMaC]

Wow this looks awesome. Just curious, what is approx cost of liner. I'm currently researching cost of vermiculite in my area. Is there a DIY site you referenced for your project? Considering DIY...althought you folks make it look easy! Love your dog...looks like something by shorthair would have done!

 

[cj gal]

MamaC- the liner was around $1200, but we got a discount on that. We referenced this site a lot--lots of good information here...also there is other info on the net, and also search youtube for "diy vinyl pool" and such. Also, we talked to people we know who had pools built, and learned a lot that way as well. We are avid DIYers, so this was just another "fun" project. Hubby has a background in construction, and we built our own house (twice). The fun for me really comes when I can landscape and put the finishing touches on the pool area and make over the ugly shed we got free for a pool house.

I think you really must decide for yourself whether a diy pool is something you could do and what your priorities are. For instance, I have a high tolerance for mess and disorder if it means getting something I could otherwise not afford. Also, I only work part-time and from home, so that helps as well. Maybe other DIYers will chime in....

 

[cj gal]

Someone asked me if I have any more recent pictures, so here are some more in-progress pictures. We have been swimming since May, but not much relaxing happened last summer. The scenario was more like work, jump in and cool off, do some more work, jump in again, etc. Even after we had water there was still a LOT of work to be done!

We are now about 90% done with the project and looking forward to a summer when we can actually fully enjoy the pool. But it was SO WORTH IT.

Putting the shed in place. Still needs a lot of work.

Please try not to notice the clutter and mess in all these pics! Work first....

Painting the fence. The one thing that I am not sure if it was worth DIYing... It took a LONG TIME....to build and especially to stain. Hoping it holds up... When it was all done, we were wondering if we should have spent 2-3x the money and got a metal pool fence....

Finally laying sod. It was a very wet summer. Red dirty/mud everywhere. So happy when the sod was laid.

Installing the safety cover and closing for the winter.