New Pool Build - Massachusetts

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Ascew

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LifeTime Supporter
Mar 20, 2015
273
Mendon, MA
Hi All,

I have been reading this forum for some time, and I swore I would start my build thread early, but alas, I delayed. There are so many choices and decisions, and with each and every one we second guess ourselves. I am grateful this forum exists, as my husband and I have referenced it several times over the past few months. Anyway, excavation has finally commenced and I am beside myself with excitement and nervousness. We have never built a pool, and this isn't an easy one.

Thought I would post here, share my stress with some experienced people that, hopefully, can help me laugh through these next few weeks. The general reaction from the pool builders that we first contacted was mostly "You want to put a pool WHERE?!?" or "This is the hardest/worst yard I have ever seen a pool put into". One pool builder, a local guy, has run his company for 30 years and had a book of references with phone #'s to call, and had the "Oh! I can see it!, yeah! But I think I would swing the deep end a bit more into the slope". Needless to say, Paul inspired confidence. He assured me that he could build the pool, and the deep end definitely wouldn't blow out the back and run down the hill. The deep end is going between the trees on the lower level, the sundeck is going where the bamboo is and the stairs will be sort of where the stone steps are.


Here is the yard before any work started.2015-04-13 08.14.50.jpg2015-04-13 08.47.01.jpg
 
We are also from Massachusetts and starting our build soon. We built a pool at our last home and really missed it, so after 3 years of thinking we are moving forward. Can't wait to learn more about your build. We are using a smaller company this time and really hoping for a better experience.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! My husband got the photo bucket account set up, so hopefully this morning I can get pictures posted to get this post caught up to where we are now. Back in April, we had trees removed. We hired a tree company to take out 12 large ones that could potentially hit the house on the way down. Watching those trees get lifted over the house in "small" sections by the crane is a story in and of itself. Here are a couple pictures of that.



It was really amazing to watch that crew. They stacked all the larger pieces, and chipped all the brush. After they left, my husband and father took down 22 smaller trees that were farther from the house. I am pretty sure I will be dragging that wood out of the forest for years to come.

In May, we had a guy come with a portable sawmill. I didn't even know these things existed, but they are SO cool. My husband loves to build stuff, and we are always tinkering with some new idea, so having piles of lumber on hand will be nice. Here is a picture of the mill.


During May, we finalized the Master Plan. It is funny to hear bk406 with a reference to the cost of the retaining walls, since our estimate came in at 28K. I almost fell over. I consoled myself that since we were told that with the amount of fill we needed we should wait a year to pour the decking it spread the cost over a couple years. That news almost broke my heart. The thought of putting this gorgeous pool in, and wrapping it in cheap fake green grass for a year was almost more than I could bear. I quickly came to see it as a blessing, when we got the quote for the walls! Also, it gives us time to live around the pool and see exactly where we want the decking to be. There have been countless references about not getting enough decking.

Anyway, finally, just last week, they started to dig. So far, it has been an interesting dig. On the first day, the ground was so uneven they couldn't lay out the template. The objective of the first day was to dig out the stumps, and level the area enough to lay out the template the next morning.


By the end of the day, I had quite a pile of rocks.
 
First thing the next morning we got to lay out the template and position it! YAY! The objective for day two was to dig out all the soft dirt and fill with a solid base.

The first thing they did was build a ramp from the driveway to the lower yard. I had no idea a loaded truck of fill weighs 90,000 pounds. (Who knew building a pool was such an educational experience).

Then a mulch road through the yard (sigh) to the pool site.


The truck loaded with 3/4 " fill couldn't back up to the pool site, so the excavator had to give him a little tug.


The excavator dug out the soft dirt and 5 truckloads of fill was added. At the end of day 2, we had a pile of soft stuff that the kids couldn't resist climbing, a dive rock picked out (next to the shed), and a base of solid stuff to build the pool on.
 
On day 3 of excavation, they brought in the compactor. In sections, they dug out the solid base fill, added some of it back, compacted, added a bit more back, compacted, repeat.


Once the whole area was compacted the template was laid back out and the actual digging of the hole commenced.


We had a little water trickling in from the uphill side. Paul says it is pretty common and they will add a hydrostatic valve in the deep end, just to be safe.


That is where we are now. The pool kit should be arriving tomorrow or Wednesday. The only thing I forgot to mention was that on day 2, when we laid the template out, we decided to raise top of pool by a foot or so. This is wonderful news because it is the tipping point for the retaining walls. We might be able to get away with a natural rock wall, using our own rocks as opposed to an engineered wall system. The downside of course is that the master plan has been thrown out the window, and we are winging it from here. Have to wait and see.
 
Hi, I'm Ascew's husband.

It wasn't just that the pool was being raised one foot. It was also moving eight feet away from the hill, sliding a little further from the deck, and rotating the sun deck further from the hill. The four together meant they didn't have to cut as far into the hill.

I nearly had heart failure when the estimate for the retaining walls came it at $28K - $36K. The extra fill with the new position will likely cost $4K, but will save us many thousands on the retaining walls.
 

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I am fascinated by all this big machinery. I missed my calling in life. I chose accountant, should have been a landscaper. Big machinery is so cool!

I am really hoping we can do natural bolder walls and don't need engineered retaining walls. Dex by Terra was the company that we worked with to create the original plan, that included all the retaining walls. Can't wait for the pool kit to arrive, in the meantime, I am reading this forum, and second guessing pretty much everything. Most of the other pool builds have these beautifully landscaped yards, mine will be years of work.
 
Ascew said:
I am reading this forum, and second guessing pretty much everything. Most of the other pool builds have these beautifully landscaped yards, mine will be years of work.
Click to expand...

Dont worry. My yard looked like they dropped a nuclear bomb on it. Putting in a pool destroys the yard and I was worried it would never get put back together. Once everything was graded, the deck went it, plants, etc etc it was fine.
We finished the pool labor day, and by next June it was all back together and looked great.
 
bk406,
Thanks for the encouragement!

Karynkjd,
I am still trying to figure out how to find peoples builds, I looked for yours and bk406's in between battling the bittersweet vines and the thorny bushes on the terrace that will have the pool equipment! If you post a link, or know how to find them, that would be great, I can't seem to look at enough pics pool builds! Massachusetts and lagoon styles of course being of special interest. :)

I have been looking at build posts on and off all day, it is so exciting, and so great to have this group of people to share with. No one has commented on our choice of pool equipment (pump, heater, filter). I am assuming/hoping that means we have a good solid plan. We have never had a pool, so no experience to draw on.
 
We are in central Mass. We chose a gas heater based on what friends in the area said. Everyone we talked too said a heater is a must, or the swim season here is just too short. One of my friends has a heat pump, and wishes he had a gas fired heater. He says in the early and late part of the season, he has to run his heat pump for 2-3 days to get the water warm for the weekends. I am not a big fan of cold water, but the kids don't seem to mind it, we will have to see how it goes. The pool is mostly for them.

We took all the lattice off the deck stairs over the weekend to see how it would look opened up. We are planning to move them more to the north end of the deck, so that under the deck can be a sitting area overlooking the pool with some shade.
 

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