Eeek! I'm so excited I'm dancing around the house with my coffee in hand waiting impatiently for the dig crew to show up! I got myself a time laps camera and will be taking ALL the pictures and it'll become a time-lapse video of about 30 minutes that ALL new visitors to my backyard oasis will have to watch before being allowed to step foot in the pool! I will stand upon the ledge of my spa in a speedo and holding my trident and pronounce in my deepest sonorous voice: "Behold my movie or enjoy standing upon only solid ground, heathens!" and then the spa fountain will burst into spray behind me and all will be right with my world.
Build starts today! 6/15/20
- Thread starter Belikin
- Start date
- Jul 16, 2012
- 7,206
- Pool Size
- 27000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Keep up that spirit. It will serve you well during construction. No pictures necessary of the above. We trust you.
Love your signature!
Love your signature!
.........No pics of the banana hammock part. We need pics of the rest.
My kids and I played hookey on dig day. It was a Monday and when the crew showed up to pick up the backhoe a cat had gave birth to kittens over the weekend in the bucket. They asked my 4 and 8 yo girls to watch the kittens so they could dig the pool.
Yeah, They still haven’t topped that. They might not ever.
Yeah, They still haven’t topped that. They might not ever.
I remember our pool construction....was at work 90% of the time watching the Ring Camera mounted near the pool on my phone like a deranged stalker.
Turbo1Ton
Gold Supporter
- Dec 26, 2019
- 1,837
- Pool Size
- 14500
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Yes! My screen time usage on my phone went up like 2 hours a day during the pool build!
--Jeff
Desert Dog
Silver Supporter
I don't see a cooler with refill supplies. If you don't have one you will need one. Might has well may a floating one, you will soon need it.
Be sure to offer the workers water and/or Gatorade as needed! Maybe a large pizza after a "successful" excavation. They appreciate stuff like that.
*started to check weather to see if it would rain in.......... North........East......Florida.... never mind* It will rain. Enjoy the mud !!
They look like they’re getting burned. You should lower some lotion down in a basket.
I am assured this is fairly common but our lot apparently was built up with alot of backfill during house construction. So, the dig was going great here in NE Florida and then they hit hardpan that appears to be mostly impervious. This means that with all the rainfall we get, the soil above the hard pan doesn't drain all that well and overnight 2 days ago we had several areas where the walls are watering and collapsed inward. So, today, we have had a submersible pump buried under a rock base for the last 48 hours dewatering the area. The PB tells me that after the pool is complete, if/when we ever need to redo plaster or anything like that, we don't want to ever empty the pool entirely without drilling some relief holes in the bottom of the pool to equalize water level.
Today is planned to finish shaping the pool out with more wood and a crapton of pegboard so there is a backing for the steel which is planned for Monday with shotcrete shortly after that.
I'm still excited, we can see the shape of the spa, and size of the pool and it's super fun to look down from the 2nd floor at the big muddy hole in the ground and imagine swimming.
I do have a question. It's not on the drawing but it shouldn't be a big deal to ask for a ledge/step in the spa that can be used for stepping in, or for one my vertically challenged family members to sit on so they aren't up to thier nose right? I read about it here at TFP recently and even had it obliquely mentioned by one of the workers when he said, "oh, the edge of the spa is just the right height so you can sit down and then rotate your legs in to get in" and I thought to myself, "ok, but maybe a step would be good too". Big deal to just ask them to make a step? I assume i need to specify BEFORE steel.
Today is planned to finish shaping the pool out with more wood and a crapton of pegboard so there is a backing for the steel which is planned for Monday with shotcrete shortly after that.
I'm still excited, we can see the shape of the spa, and size of the pool and it's super fun to look down from the 2nd floor at the big muddy hole in the ground and imagine swimming.
I do have a question. It's not on the drawing but it shouldn't be a big deal to ask for a ledge/step in the spa that can be used for stepping in, or for one my vertically challenged family members to sit on so they aren't up to thier nose right? I read about it here at TFP recently and even had it obliquely mentioned by one of the workers when he said, "oh, the edge of the spa is just the right height so you can sit down and then rotate your legs in to get in" and I thought to myself, "ok, but maybe a step would be good too". Big deal to just ask them to make a step? I assume i need to specify BEFORE steel.
Turbo1Ton
Gold Supporter
- Dec 26, 2019
- 1,837
- Pool Size
- 14500
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
In the spa, shouldn't be too big of a deal. I'm not certain but I don't think they have to have steel in it. Think they can build it up with the gunite when they shoot. I would do it as that is one of my wife's complaints, is that she wished there was a step to step down into the spa with. I told her in 20 years when we re-plaster, we can see about that. 
--Jeff
--Jeff
Just spoke with the site supervisor and we'll have the step added. He says though, that I have to decide what I want to do with the jet that would go there. Apparently, they don't normally put bench at the front of the spa spillover so you can stand and look over into the pool. So, with 5 jets, our options are to have the jet either be at butt crack level if you are sitting on the step, which certainly sounds somewhat interesting, or to have it be on the front of the spa where you'd stand, which makes it a crotch jet. I feel like i remember those fondly from my childhood so i'm not sure what to do...
Would love another update!!!--Keep em coming! (we are waiting for permits)
Steel began this morning. They tell me they are hoping to shoot gunite Thursday or Friday.
Measured and double checked all my sizing and I've got extra length and width everywhere by about 20" or so even with the pegboard in place. They tell me this is to give them room to build up the concrete appropriately with all the cave in's of the edge we've had and the final dimensions will be as specified or slightly larger, and they guaranteed it won't be smaller.
Measured and double checked all my sizing and I've got extra length and width everywhere by about 20" or so even with the pegboard in place. They tell me this is to give them room to build up the concrete appropriately with all the cave in's of the edge we've had and the final dimensions will be as specified or slightly larger, and they guaranteed it won't be smaller.
