Austin's Newest Swimming Hole

[delrayser]

I noticed in the rendering of your design in your first post, it shows those steps as capped. Why weren't they capped as shown in the design?

Wow, good eye! We actually changed the design a little after he submitted the original drawing. Since it was hand-drawn we didn't make him redo the whole thing. Basically, we asked him to use stone on the raised exterior wall of the pool, as opposed to stucco, because we liked that overall look better. To keep the total cost of the project the same, he suggested not doing stone on the stairs as a trade-off.

I'm going to follow up with him on the score line today, and express my deep reservations about how it will look. If he does it and we don't like it, we can always cap the steps with stone afterward.

Trying to stay positive for plaster day! It's 7am and the crew's already been here for 30 minutes!

 

[delrayser]

PLASTER!

 

[Winnie-the-Pool]

Lookin' good!

 

[JimMarshall]

If i may dare to say so, that water is going to look SEXY

 

[delrayser]

Acid wash:

AND WE FILL!

Don't worry, I put a sock on the end of the hose and moved it to where it's flat in the deep end rather than running down the side. Was getting 6.5 gpm so I ran a second hose and am now up to 11 gpm. Took my fill time from 45 hours down to 26!

 

[Winnie-the-Pool]

Can't wait to see it full. Looks like they did a good job on the plaster.

 

[delrayser]

About 5000 gallons in! I don't have the patience for this!

 

[Winnie-the-Pool]

Are you doing the startup or is the PB?

 

[delrayser]

Are you doing the startup or is the PB?

PB. He's supposed to handle the first 3 weeks or so. I think I'm going to play dumb and let him do what he wants to do, but watch him like a hawk so I know what's going in on any particular day. And of course I'll be testing the water as we go, just for practice.

 

[kimkats]

I have loved getting to know your pool this morning! Love everything about it! Sorry to see the wash out but glad to hear the PB will be taking care of it. I WOULD be there to keep an eye on how they do it to get the fill all the way under there and in tight. They might (who are we kidding? will) take the lazy way out and just push some dirt in there and call it good.

Since I am just now catching up on this thread I have a couple of things to share with you. The first is a set of links I put together for new pool owners:

Print these out:
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule

Pool School - Recommended Levels

Bookmark these:
Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

Pool Math

Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Make sure to ask any and all questions you might have no matter how small! We have all been where you are at one point.

Next is to ask what test kit the PB gave you.

Now here is where you have to help me help you.....for some reason I can't seem to link to a PDF file so I need you to google "NPC start up card". Find the PDF of it and print it out. Show it to your PB and see what he says. I have been told this is one of the better plaster start ups out there. If you follow this your plaster should last longer and be even more Trouble Free!

Kim

 

[delrayser]

And the sun rises on a NEW POOL!

A couple more glamour shots:

My understanding from reading the forums is that once the PB gets things started up and the chemistry balances, the green tint will likely go away?

 

[delrayser]

Make sure to ask any and all questions you might have no matter how small! We have all been where you are at one point.

Thanks Kim! I won't be shy about asking questions. Have been lurking on the forums for a while and think I've read every Pool School article several times over. I have a chemistry degree that I never get to use anymore, so this is all scratching an itch for me!

Next is to ask what test kit the PB gave you.

He hasn't given me anything yet, he's doing the first few weeks of startup before he does his pool school with me. But I asked about the test kit a while ago and he said it was just some cheapie $12 kit from Leslie's. I think it's probably their basic OTO kit, which I'll keep on hand for sanity check tests later on down the line in case I need it. I've already got my K2006 in hand for everyday use.

I need you to google "NPC start up card". Find the PDF of it and print it out. Show it to your PB and see what he says. I have been told this is one of the better plaster start ups out there. If you follow this your plaster should last longer and be even more Trouble Free!

Found it! That's a great summary of instructions. Our pebble is from CLI, and I'd already pulled their startup card and it appears to copy heavily from the NPC one.

 

[Winnie-the-Pool]

Looks Great! And it blends in so well with your existing space!!!

I know you said you're going to let the PB do start-up, but here is the link to the start-up procedure that Kim referenced above, in case you want to follow along:
https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.npconline.org/resource/resmgr/Docs/startup-card-current-rev3_wa.pdf

I think they recommend turning on the pump as soon as it's full. What time do you expect to see PB?

Do you have a test kit and pool brush yet?

 

[delrayser]

I think they recommend turning on the pump as soon as it's full. What time do you expect to see PB?

He should be coming by shortly, so I'm going to hold off until he gets here so I don't mess anything up. The startup instructions do say to immediately start the pump but I don't see what a couple hours is going to hurt.

Do you have a test kit and pool brush yet?

I have a K2006. No brush yet, but that's included in the stuff PB is supposed to provide, I expect he'll bring it by today.

 

[delrayser]

One thing that came up on this thread is that my fill volume, as determined by my water meter readings, is somewhere in the vicinity of 13,500 gallons. The PB had previously estimated about 17,500, so that was a bit of a shocker to me. To be fair, that estimate was from the on-site supervisor when I asked him for a ballpark estimate one day after the gunite had gone in, so I wasn't expecting a super accurate number, but he was off by about 20%. The designer never gave us a volume, just the outer dimensions, and the contract doesn't say anything about volume, it just lists approximate dimensions.

Not that there's anything I can do about it at this point, so I'm focusing on the silver lining that my chemical cost should be about 20% less than I'd originally expected.

 

[Winnie-the-Pool]

The pool and patio are the perfect scale for your yard and the existing space... and then there is that 20% savings!

The hard part is over, now just enjoy it

 

[JimMarshall]

Whats going in for landscaping?

 

[delrayser]

I'm glad I have the recommended startup procedures to look at, because my PB for sure isn't following them. He just came out to do "startup" and got the pump going, threw a bunch of MA and dichlor in, and then proceeded to dump an entire tub of stabilizer into the skimmer. He's supposed to take care of the pool for the first few weeks but I learned today that only involves weekly visits. After seeing his startup procedures I'm thinking that's not a terrible thing after all.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Noooooo...not in the skimmer?!? Oy! Well, if he'd had clogged it it would have been on the company to fix it. You dodged a bullet there!
Did you backwash some out??

Its sort of a shame he has to come at all.... <sigh> Will you be around during next week's visit to see what he does then? Gotta keep an eye on things it seems.

Maddie

 

[delrayser]

Noooooo...not in the skimmer?!? Oy! Well, if he'd had clogged it it would have been on the company to fix it. You dodged a bullet there!
Did you backwash some out??

I was about to but then folks in the other thread talked me down from the ledge. I'm so paranoid about excessive CYA after reading the forums for a month that it sent me into a spiral. But the experts tell me that even 80 ppm CYA isn't the end of the world and I don't need to worry about backwashing right now. So I'll let it go, do a test tonight, and just keep my FC in the target ranges.