Build thread: Vinyl in-ground, 18x40, Fastlane, Autocover.

[bmoreswim]

You can patch your liner if the dogs get to it. You'll have your poolhouse forever! And you'll have a nice convenient place to do your testing.

I'm waiting for a doggie swimming party picture by the way.

Looking great!

 

[lazygirl1978]

Thanks Kim and bmoreswim. Appreciate the thoughts!

The fastlane hasn’t been set up to connect to my phone yet, so I’m not sure how fast it’s going, but I was able to adjust my stroke to it easily! It was neat how we could have a couple people in the current (plus the dog) at once. I’ll get a picture soon.

Dog had to go to the vet yesterday, so I asked if they dremeled nails, and they do! So now my usual groomer and the vet groomer have cut and dremeled his nails, and I think it’s been effective. Nails are so smooth with the dremeling! Bmoreswim makes patching sound like no big deal which is nice to hear. Must remind myself that it’s not the end of the world if it happens!

Two setbacks. Pool people arrived at 4pm to install the cover today only to discover that they had a tan cover and not grey. Sigh. At least they caught it! They’re trying to get new fabric overnighted for Friday delivery and think they can maybe install Friday.

Second, my contractor wants to be there for spa installation because he needs to cut a hole for my conduit somewhere special. He is out of town May 11, so we had to reschedule to May 24. C’est la vie. I’m working on my patience!

I need to buy my b-ball goal.

Attached you’ll find Fred wishing to get back in the pool!

 

[kimkats]

OH that is neat more than one person can swim/use the current at once..............of course Fred counts too!

Yeah at least they caught it but............gurrrrrrrrrrr it was not the right color!

Fred, if you were my doggy you would be allowed to get back in the water if you showed me those puppy dog eyes LOL

I do my dog's nails. I can talk you through how to do it if you want. That way you can do touch ups as needed.

Liner fixes are very easy. I would go ahead and order this: Amazon.com : Boxer Adhesives No.110 Vinyl Pool Repair Kit : Swimming Pool Maintenance Kits : Garden & Outdoor That way you have it already..............in my world that will mean you will never need it so it is a win-win!

Kim

 

[lazygirl1978]

OH that is neat more than one person can swim/use the current at once..............of course Fred counts too!

Yeah at least they caught it but............gurrrrrrrrrrr it was not the right color!

Fred, if you were my doggy you would be allowed to get back in the water if you showed me those puppy dog eyes LOL

I do my dog's nails. I can talk you through how to do it if you want. That way you can do touch ups as needed.

Liner fixes are very easy. I would go ahead and order this: Amazon.com : Boxer Adhesives No.110 Vinyl Pool Repair Kit : Swimming Pool Maintenance Kits : Garden & Outdoor That way you have it already..............in my world that will mean you will never need it so it is a win-win!

Kim

Thanks, Kim! Do you Dremel your dog's nails? I didn't even know that was a thing until I found out my inlaws do it (rather than clipping) to their many golden retrievers. I have kept Fred's nails trimmed but hadn't bothered Dremeling much --- and now my nail clippers are dull, so I've been outsourcing rather than fix the clipper issue. Fred LOVES going to his doggy daycare place where they will clip & Dremel for me.

Great idea re: the vinyl kit. I am also a fan of the "have it so you don't need it!" school of thought. Buying it right now. Thanks!

Just found out they've ordered the 8' La Mesa diving board for me, so that was good to hear.

So far I have rescued 3 frogs from the pool. I've counted 7 frogs in the autocover housing but they can get out of there on their own (not sure if they'll hang out in there after the cover gets installed...), so I haven't rescued any of them yet. My 7yo loves this (and so do I!).

 

[kimkats]

FROG LOG!!! you need a frog log. Google it and see if it is something you need to help the froggies out!

Yes I do Dremel my dog's toe nails. Like you say it gets them much smoother and neater. He works on his peanut butter kong while I work on his feet. We are both happy!

Kim

 

[lazygirl1978]

FROG LOG!!! you need a frog log. Google it and see if it is something you need to help the froggies out!

Yes I do Dremel my dog's toe nails. Like you say it gets them much smoother and neater. He works on his peanut butter kong while I work on his feet. We are both happy!

Oh, great idea re the PB Kong! I haven't broken that thing out in awhile.

I have been interested in the critter saver things I've seen mentioned in the forums! I guess there's a good chance I won't have the pool covered all the time (per bmoreswim's post on another thread, I think, about how he uses his cover), so it would make sense to get one! I'll check out Frog Log.

 

[lazygirl1978]

The Autocover housing drain isn’t draining so well so my contractor is going to try to clean out the pipe, which is oddly two inches wide while the drain opening is 4”. So, I told pool people to not install the cover til Monday.

In the meantime, it appears they came and installed the diving board! 8’ was the only answer. We love it! I was surprised because I figured the Autocover installation would be difficult with the diving board installed.

 

[kimkats]

You NEEDED 8' for sure looking at that pic! Has doggy gone off it yet? I see someone has!

How much you want to bet it WILL be harder to install the cover but it is a different crew so they don't care because they don't have to deal with it.

Kim

 

[lazygirl1978]

You NEEDED 8' for sure looking at that pic! Has doggy gone off it yet? I see someone has!

How much you want to bet it WILL be harder to install the cover but it is a different crew so they don't care because they don't have to deal with it.

Kim

My thought exactly! I’m waiting to hear about it tomorrow....

Fred hasn’t gone off it yet! I think we’ll need to show him how

 

[lazygirl1978]

So close to being done!

Autocover is on. I love it, but my pool isn’t staying quite as clean as I’d hoped! I think there’s still so much dirt around that it’s hard to keep up.

I still don’t have programming. The pb came by two weeks ago and wasn’t familiar enough with the new Pentair system to do it, so the Pentair rep is coming on Wednesday. The pool builder was messing around with the system trying to make it so that my pump didn’t run some weird schedule without me asking it to, and I’m the process she made it so my Fastlane loses power at some regular interval. I’ll be glad when I can use the pool lights and it all works the way it should! The pump still reverts to running schedule. Sigh.

Poolhouse has a bathroom and a floor, and the outdoor shower works! It’s a delight. My heatpump is also sort of amazing...I’m scared to see my electric bill, but hopefully it’s not so bad.

It cost about $100 to fill the pool with city water. That was less than I expected!

Still plenty of loose ends. Autocover housing is a little tight so it pops up in the heat. My robot stops working after about 20 minutes even though the controls/app say it’s running. Hopefully we get it worked out this week. My spa comes on Friday!

Photos attached.

 

[kimkats]

Where are those wonderful hooks? Such a good idea to have them ready to be used!

Gurrrrrr on the equipment!!! Here is hoping the rep can get it all worked out.

You have wanted that outdoor shower from the very beginning! How nice is it to take a run, shower then jump into the pool???

 

[lazygirl1978]

Where are those wonderful hooks? Such a good idea to have them ready to be used!

Gurrrrrr on the equipment!!! Here is hoping the rep can get it all worked out.

You have wanted that outdoor shower from the very beginning! How nice is it to take a run, shower then jump into the pool???

Hooks are in the shower changing area! Sorry photos were weird to load so all of them didn’t get through. Here’s a “real life mess” version.

And a “last day of school pool party with muddy dog” pool pic. (Water is so cloudy! Hard to see though in the photo.) Already added some bleach and will start the robot in an hour when the dirt settles.

 

[kimkats]

You are already loving having that pool house I bet! What a wonderful area you have created for your family!!

Those hooks are already earning their keep!!

LOL "and muddy dog".........everyone had a blast it sounds like!

Kim

 

[ash_leigh]

The Autocover housing drain isn’t draining so well so my contractor is going to try to clean out the pipe, which is oddly two inches wide while the drain opening is 4”. So, I told pool people to not install the cover til Monday.

In the meantime, it appears they came and installed the diving board! 8’ was the only answer. We love it! I was surprised because I figured the Autocover installation would be difficult with the diving board installed.

Hi Lazy girl! Thank you for documenting your build! This has been a great read. How wide is your concrete behind your diving board? We are in our design phase and I was thinking 4 ft would be enough.... but looking at yours, I may need more. Is it 6-8 ft? Also- Did your PB have to do anything special to put your benches in the deep end? Mine told me I couldn't have the benches in the deep end AND an automatic cover... something to do with the way the benches are installed. Did yours do anything special that you know of to pull it off? I'll be showing him a picture of yours this week Thank you!

 

[lazygirl1978]

Hi Lazy girl! Thank you for documenting your build! This has been a great read. How wide is your concrete behind your diving board? We are in our design phase and I was thinking 4 ft would be enough.... but looking at yours, I may need more. Is it 6-8 ft? Also- Did your PB have to do anything special to put your benches in the deep end? Mine told me I couldn't have the benches in the deep end AND an automatic cover... something to do with the way the benches are installed. Did yours do anything special that you know of to pull it off? I'll be showing him a picture of yours this week Thank you!

Happy to help! I can't remember how much concrete is behind the deep end, but I'll try to measure it today. Around 6-8' is the right neighborhood! The deep end benches were poured in when the walls and steps were poured in, and there was definitely no issue with them and the autocover. I can't figure out why or how there could be an issue with that? Maybe he doesn't want people crawling out and onto the lid? It doesn't seem to be an issue for us. We love those benches!

 

[lazygirl1978]

Hi Lazy girl! Thank you for documenting your build! This has been a great read. How wide is your concrete behind your diving board? We are in our design phase and I was thinking 4 ft would be enough.... but looking at yours, I may need more. Is it 6-8 ft? Also- Did your PB have to do anything special to put your benches in the deep end? Mine told me I couldn't have the benches in the deep end AND an automatic cover... something to do with the way the benches are installed. Did yours do anything special that you know of to pull it off? I'll be showing him a picture of yours this week Thank you!

Ash_leigh, I have 7' of concrete behind the autocover housing. It ends up being 9' and a couple inches from the edge of the pool to the far end of the concrete. Hope that helps! Did you want to know how much is actually behind the back edge of the diving board, too? I didn't think to measure that, but I can!

 

[ash_leigh]

Ash_leigh, I have 7' of concrete behind the autocover housing. It ends up being 9' and a couple inches from the edge of the pool to the far end of the concrete. Hope that helps! Did you want to know how much is actually behind the back edge of the diving board, too? I didn't think to measure that, but I can!

Awesome. Thank you for checking!!!

 

[lazygirl1978]

Update! We opened the poolhouse back up today, on April 2 (winterized it in November). Pool opens tomorrow, April 3. I'm nervous because we had a little problem last fall...

Want to hear my horror story? PLEASE learn from me. I was leaving town for a girls' trip on a Friday afternoon, first Friday in November. Came home from work in the late morning to finish packing and hit the road. I noticed the pool looked a little low. (I can tell with the cover closed.) Turned on hose thinking I'd turn it off just before I left for the airport.

Guys, as I was driving home on Monday morning, I realized, with horror, that the HOSE WAS STILL ON.

My self-loathing was so bad that I couldn't even post here! My husband and kids were home all weekend. We'd told the pool company we didn't want to close til Mid-November because we wanted to see whether we'd use it, but it had been too chilly for weeks. Husband just thought it had rained and that's why there was water on the cover.

My husband turned the hose off, and I got home about an hour later. The autocover had tripped its circuit breaker because the housing well had been flooded. Started pumping off water, and opened the pool. It looked OK!

But then I saw that there were large flat "bubbles" in the liner in the deep end. They were really hard to see. I tried using the french drain to pump out the water that was causing the liner to float, but I never could get it to work. The pool company came out on Thursday to check things out. I was at work, but they said the liner was fine and not floating at all. Then they closed the pool without me getting to verify that the bubbles were gone. So.... I really hope they were right. I'll find out tomorrow!

LESSON: ALWAYS SET A TIMER BEFORE YOU PUT THE HOSE IN THE POOL. I know, I know, I'm not the first person to say that. I didn't think I'd need one because I was just leaving it on 30 minutes or so. Wrong. So wrong. I feel awful about all that water! (But my water bill was actually better than it was when we were irrigating the new sod...) Hopefully no permanent damage was done. Next year we'll close the pool first of October, I think.

****
Other updates:

1. The fastlane suffered some bad corrosion last year before my PB found the right anode. I'm interested to see how it did in the water over the winter....the PB said it would be fine, but Endless Pools says you should remove it for winter... will report. There was a nasty rust stain on one side of the box, over a warning label, and the PB said they'd fix it. I will keep on them.

2. We put sod in FINALLY in late June. It did pretty well all things considered. In process of trying to seed and aerate now, but it's been wet for weeks.

3. The hot tub arrived Memorial Day weekend! They brought the wrong color.

(Remember they brought the wrong color autocover at first, too!) I was SO glad I was there to recognize that it wasn't right before my contractor installed it. They brought back the right one in an hour or so and we got to use the spa for the weekend. The setup for the Caldera salt system is weird, but I liked it in practice. I want to put new water in this weekend, so am going to use my Ahhh-some that I bought last fall. I'm excited.

4. I had the thought in January or so that it is super cool that I get to use my pool this summer and I don't have to build it again! It's been wonderful not having a mud pit in the backyard this winter!

5. Figuring out a final plan for furniture. Haven't settled on anything yet, so I still feel like it's in progress a bit.

6. You know how everyone says to put your lights so they shine away from the house? I told them I wanted that. My PB said that I wouldn't have good light coverage if I put three lights on the same side. So she said put one in middle on the other side. But then the installers put the far-side light in the deep end "so it would light up the swim-out bench." I was told to trust them, that they build a lot of pools. This was Crud. I should have stuck to my guns and said ONLY LIGHTS ON THE HOUSE SIDE OF THE POOL! As it is, I use the lights very little because they attract bugs. But still.

7. Speaking of bugs, we put a Dynatrap mosquito catcher in the backyard, and it worked REALLY well. Will probably buy a second one this year for the front yard but I really hate emptying them! A huge spider took up residence in it. It was kind of cool but also a little nightmarish.

Pictures coming! And the 2020 Pool Opening results....

 

[bmoreswim]

Hey there! Good to have your mistake in the rear view mirror now I'm sure. Thanks for providing a nice detailed update of things.

I am curious how the housing well flooded. Ours has a 4" drain at one end that can handle any volume of water. Did your drain get clogged? Or does it not drain to daylight properly?

Hope all ends well with the liner view tomorrow!

And I saw I never commented on your finished pictures of everything. It all looks great! And thanks for the doggie swim party pics too!

 

[lazygirl1978]

Hi bmoreswim! Thanks!

I am curious how the housing well flooded. Ours has a 4" drain at one end that can handle any volume of water. Did your drain get clogged? Or does it not drain to daylight properly?

Argh. So I brought this up when they put in the housing. "Where's the drain?" I wanted to know. They said, oh, you want a drain? I guess mostly they just let it...seep out. Or something. But they put a drain in...there's a 3" hole in the bottom of the housing with (not kidding) a 1" pipe and gravel around the pipe to fill up the rest of the hole. That 1" pipe drains to a low-ish spot in the yard, but not all the way to the cypress trees beyond the poolhouse, which is where it should really go. It's a half-*ss job for sure. But it didn't give me any problems until my little screw-up, at least. I was so relieved when the motor still worked!