Semi-DIY Build in SE Louisiana

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Make sure that you check all your boxes of Arctic lagoon tiles. Open them and make syre they are the same. They may be different even though they are all Arctic Lagoon tiles from NPT. You can see the trouble that I had with finding the matching tiles in my build thread.
 
Thanks sseaman

cchopkins, thanks so much for the tip and for passing me on to your build thread. That is going to be an incredible pool. It's really encouraging to see how nice that tile looks on your pool. We have been waiting a long time to see how it looks on ours. Sorry about the delays and trouble with your color match. I checked our shipment when it came, but I'll give it another look just to make sure.

If it took the pro's a month to do yours ... it'll probably be Christmas for me :(

Looking forward to seeing the rest of your build.
 
You are welcome! You will love this Arctic Lagoon tiles. One thing my tile guys did was they put some prep work first onto the gunite shell. the material is grey looking, kind of like regular concrete. They did that because the gunite shell does not give a uniform smooth base for the tiles to lay on. After the prep work dry for a day or so, then they use white thinset to set the tiles. Not sure if this is helpful to you, but just passing to you as extra info....
 
Thanks again.

Grout is going on pretty easily. I did about 30 linear feet yesterday evening and it didn't take long at all. One thing we really like about the grouting is that it is partially filling in some of the holes in the tumbled travertine. Looks better and still has some grip to it. I may consider trying to get grout or that special paver sand to have the same effect on the trav pavers.
 
Thanks for the plumping schematics. How many Valves total did you have and actuators. Also where did you get your equipment from? Iam ready to buy the equipment and looks like I will get them online.
 
Smarino said:
Thanks for the plumping schematics. How many Valves total did you have and actuators. Also where did you get your equipment from? Iam ready to buy the equipment and looks like I will get them online.
Click to expand...


Four 3-way valves. Each of those has an actuator. Five gate valves to control the amount of flow for certain lines.

I just keep searching for lowest price. The best prices I could find on Pentair was usually through Sunplay, Pool Supply World, and Pool Supply Unlimited. Waterway spa jets from poolpartsonline. Then a combo of amazon, ebay, wherever for skimmers, drains, and other plastics.
 
Coming along did shoot the gunite last week this is the point where I want to be to finish. Finding a Plummer that knows what he is doing turned up to be the hardest part most are associated with PB or do not want to do it. Still looking if not may get some helpers and do it myself one week-end
 
Thanks imperator. For the Polaris looks like you tapped to the pool return and used just a gate valve. I see the other gate valves used for skimmers and main drain. What is the 5th one for? I saw some design from jandy for the spa they add a bypass with a 2 way valve and check valve to the spa return. Is this necessary what is the purpose?
 

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Yes on the Polaris. I T'd off the return line and plan to use one of the gate valves to control the pressure to the polaris. I'm using a variable flow pump, so I'll try to adjust everything to get the right pressure when it kicks into cleaning mode. If you go this route, you'll need the non-booster pump rated polaris. The other option is to get a second booster pump. Plumbing is a little different if you go that route.

Anxious to see how the non-pressure rated polaris performs.

The 5th gate valve was used for the bypass on the SWCG. I plan to have plenty of flow coming through my returns when I use the heater on the spa or pool. The bypass may be needed to keep the SWCG running optimal.

I felt this was worth it because it I kept hearing friends say they were not big fans of salt because they still had to run chlorine tabs. In a lot of cases, I'm thinking it was the wrong kind of flow through the unit.

Jandy design ... the check valve on the spa return is to avoid having a raised spa drain (siphon) into your pool. It's a must have. Not sure about the bypass and the 2 way.
 
Interesting design to use non pressure Polaris. Sounds like a good idea.
I was going with the 280 and booster pump. All I saw in the plumbing for this is that the SWCG is after the booster pump so I am wondering where you tap to this since they use the pool return or is it ok to do it after the SWGC.
 
Still moving along at about the same pace with some good progress in the last week. I have started the prep work for the glass tile. I did plenty of research on the what materials and method to use to install the glass. After changing my mind a couple hundred times, I went to a company that sells tiling materials and in about five minutes all of that research went out the window and I bought what the manager swears will be the best approach. I'm going with laticrete 254 for a thin base layer, hydroban to water seal, another later of 254 as thin set for the glass install. So far I am really impressed with the laticrete products.

First step was to smooth out the surface where the glass would be installed. I used a 3/8 inch piece of weather stripping underneath the coping to leave room for an expansion joint. Then I troweled in a relatively smooth layer of the 254 thin set. I could not get it exactly smooth, so I'll go back in tonight and use a hand sander and/or grinder to get out the seams and rough spots.




I had to figure out a way to make a 3/8 inch padding of thin set so that the overall glass height (off the surface of the pool) will be consistent with the height of the plaster. I used 3/8 piece of weather stripping to make a form for this.


Then I just smoothed out a layer of 254 thin set in the space.


The result was a very clean foundation for the glass. This really worked out great and I highly recommend spending the $100 on the weather stripping to make the job easier.


 
Continuing to work through this brutal heat we're having in Louisiana. Hitting 96 with about as much humidity as you can squeeze into the air. Still making good progress and no heat stokes yet.

Spent two afternoons grinding smoothing out the base layer of thin set to get ready for the glass. then put on two coats of hydroban. This stuff was very easy to apply and only took a few hours to get it all in place. Notice how perfectly the color of the hydroban matches the pond scum that currently is ... my pool.







Then I got to work on installing the glass. It was not nearly as difficult as I expected. I figured it would take several weeks and it only took one. I figure this was mainly because I did all my leveling ahead of time with the coping. We are blown away by the tile (like everyone else who has used it on this site). It is really something to see. Amazing how it changes appearance depending on the lighting conditions. High noon direct sun is incredible. It takes on a multi-color'd gold/silver/etc color during that time.







It was well worth the waste in glass and multiple bags of grout to get a color that worked best for us. We ended up going with ployblend unsanded bay leaf color which is a grayish green. It blends in nicely with the arctic lagoon.



I went to a local granite shop and they turned my on to this marble/quartz manmade stone for the bar stools and the spa spillover. Very attractive stuff and they say it'll hold up best out of everything they have in a salt/cholorine environment.



 

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