New here with new in ground vinyl pool bottom finish quality

[cudavic]

Hello all,

I am new here and have just had a 38' x 18 oval in-ground liner pool installed.
My concern is the finish on the cement pool bottom and what is acceptable as far as smoothness or deviation of high low areas. Overall the bottom looks fair IMO, however when you turn the pool light on it amplifies the waviness.

I have had two pools in the past, however I have never had a pool light in either of them so I do not know what to expect as far as a acceptable pool floor finish. Can someone shed some light on what is reasonable and what is getting to carried away with my expectations.

Below is a link to my pool photo build. Thoughts and comments are welcome.

http://s29.photobucket.com/user/cudavic ... t=2&page=1

Here is another link for the liner as this is where my concerns was with the pool bottom surface finish.
Some of the photos are before I cleaned the leaves out so forgive me.

http://s29.photobucket.com/user/cuda...?sort=3&page=1

As you can see there is one wrinkle in the liner that I can hopefully get out in the spring by lowering the water level and using a couple toilet plungers to work it to the outer wall panel.

This second set shows the stairs.

http://s29.photobucket.com/user/cuda...?sort=3&page=1

I am not sure what to think as the stairs have to land on top of the metal wall panel so you cannot make them any lower than they were installed. Is it possible that they installed the wrong style stairs? It almost looks like these are supposed to be used with a finished concrete coping where the liner bead is instead of the white bull nose coping.

Finally here are a few of the finished pool and spa photos.

http://s29.photobucket.com/user/cuda...?sort=3&page=1

Thanks in advance, Victor from N.E. Georgia

 

[JohnT]

Re: New here with new in ground vinyl pool bottom finish qua

Welcome to TFP!

It appears you have linked to your Photobucket page rather than the actual images.

What did they use to finish the pool floor? Is it vermiculite and cement?

 

[Leebo]

Re: New here with new in ground vinyl pool bottom finish qua

At night with clear water and the light on it's VERY common to see imperfections in the bottom of a vinyl liner. Often it almost looks like the surface of the moon depending on how well or poor it was installed.

 

[cudavic]

Re: New here with new in ground vinyl pool bottom finish qua

Welcome to TFP!

It appears you have linked to your Photobucket page rather than the actual images.

What did they use to finish the pool floor? Is it vermiculite and cement?

Hello John

Yes I just linked my photobucket account as I having problems getting my photos to upload.
I know they did not use vermiculite as when I asked them they said it was more of a mortar mix, IE: sand and cement mixture but definitely not vermiculite.
During the day it looks decent other then the small wrinkle in the shallow end which I am going to try to get out using a toilet plunger.
I do have a couple other concerns as far as the plumbing for the spillover spa, as they did not use 3-way valves.
Instead they used a series of six shut-off valves and no back-flow preventer.
I tried to post a photo but it will not accept the file, maybe they are to large.

Thanks for you response. Vic

 

[JohnT]

Re: New here with new in ground vinyl pool bottom finish qua

Normally vinyl pools are pretty ugly with the light on. Some of it will work itself out over time, but it will never look as good at night as it does during the day. Pool lights are pretty harsh light and every little imperfection makes a shadow which makes it stand out.

I don't use my light at night other than for cleanup when swimming is over. I prefer tiki torches around the pool. They provide enough light to see the bottom, don't attract bugs and aren't as glaring. Plus the pool looks better under torch light.

 

[cudavic]

Re: New here with new in ground vinyl pool bottom finish qua

Thanks John

I like tiki torches as well and was thinking about putting some around the fence. LOL, when I get a fence as I am broke $$ now.
Hey how can I upload photos? Do I need to resize them? They are high resolution much more than the 250K allowed.

Sincerely Vic

 

[jasonknox]

Re: New here with new in ground vinyl pool bottom finish qua

I agree with the comments above. I finished my own pool with a sand base and thought I had it perfect. When the light shines on it, it does not look so good.

 

[JohnT]

Re: New here with new in ground vinyl pool bottom finish qua

With just a link to the photo rather than uploading them. When you look at your library in Photobucket, there will be 4 links below the thumbnail. Just copy the IMG link and paste it into your post here.

 

[cudavic]

Re: New here with new in ground vinyl pool bottom finish qua

Thanks again, here are a couple photos of the valving for my spillover spa.
As I mentioned earlier I do have a couple other concerns as far as the plumbing for the spillover spa, as they did not use 3-way valves.
Instead they used a series of six shut-off valves and no back-flow preventer.

 

[JohnT]

Re: New here with new in ground vinyl pool bottom finish qua

Ouch!

No unions and those cheap, red handled valves that will fail in a few years are so close to the wall that you can't replace some of them. They did you no favors with that plumbing.

 

[cudavic]

Re: New here with new in ground vinyl pool bottom finish qua

Ouch!

No unions and those cheap, red handled valves that will fail in a few years are so close to the wall that you can't replace some of them. They did you no favors with that plumbing.

You confirmed my fears.
I guess if and when they fail I will have to separate the top cap from the retaining wall and lift the block out to extend the piping.
Not very happy about this. :grrrr: Vic