Concrete pool up north

[orthofish]

Mats,
I can't give you an opinion on the filter yet. My pool is under construction also. Who will finish first :?: :?: :lol: Maybe in 1-2 weeks.

Kudos is a kind of a way to praise someone. Considering what you have accomplished so far, KUDOS :!: :!: :!:

 

[Henry Porter]

I'm sorry Lynn! Now I feel kind of stupid. I've read your log yesterday
You know to much wine to the dinner 8) Your pool will be really cool and BIG. Can't wait to see what the water will look like with that surface.
Kudos...Yeah I kind of like it, suits me good 8)
Have a nice weekend Lynn

 

[cancuntom]

Henry,
I can tell you from our experience that there is a difference in the quality of ceramic tiles. When we built our pool we choose 3 colors that we liked. Two of them were from one manufacture and we had little or no breakage of the tiles. The third color was from a different manufacture and the quality was very much substandard to the other two. Many of these tiles broke very easily. I'll dig out the boxes of overage tiles and post a couple of pictures for you. You can also get many different mosaic tile "fishes" to give the bottom and sides of your pool some interesting character. We tried to have a couple of them ordered and installed but they would have taken so long to receive that we had to give up on them because it would have delayed the completion of the pool by 3-5 weeks.

You can get them in mermaids and dolphins etc. They really dress up a pool done with ceramic tiles and make it your own.
I'll post a couple of pictures tomorrow, if I have time of the boxes of the good and bad tiles.
Thank you for your kind comments about my blog.............that is what makes it worthwhile doing it.

 

[Henry Porter]

Looking forward to the pictures Cancutom

Here is a few pics of todays work and also ladies and gentlemen one shot of Henry Porter Camera never treats me well and I can't stop wondering why

Over to the poolbuild!
Light clinker bricks are attached to the ground bricks with two vertical 10mm rebars that are hammered down in the concrete. This should give the construction som extra stability. When the first shift of bricks are mounted all around the pool, will I take home a small excavator to dig out all dirt around the pool and put gravel on the whole area. I feel that I can't put water in the pool without doing this first and after all that is something that I have to do sooner or later anyway before I pour my deck.

Pool equipment should arrive late this week in Gothenburg. Suit my schedule well since I shall go away a week with my job and can pick them up on the way home

That's all for now!

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[Henry Porter]

Here I am

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[cancuntom]

The following two pictures are of two of the boxes of extra tiles used in the pool. The dark color blue were used to define the water surface around the perimeter side walls and the lighter color was used on the side walls.
The darker color tiles were thicker and better made overall. We had no breakage problems with them at all. They were made in China but the box makes you think they were made in Italy. They measured 20.4cm x 19.92cm x 4.2cm thick.



The lighter color is from an unknown manufacturer and sold thru Astral Pools here in Cancun. These tiles broke or chipped if you looked at them too long. We had to replace quiet a few of them after they were installed but before we added water to the pool. They measured 20.1cm x 19.8cm x 3.8cm thick.



I would have to say the better tiles are thicker. The photo shows the back side of the tiles that goes into the grout. The other side is perfectly smooth and flat. They peel off the backing paper after installing.

 

[PaulR]

Here I am

"Watch out--I have a cement mixer and I'm NOT afraid to use it!" :lol:
--paulr

 

[Casey]

Nice to finally see you Henry Porter! 8)

 

[dlduvall]

Ahh..The man behind the mirror is revealed. Nice to meet you, Henry!

 

[Lershac]

Man just look at the guns on him. Must be all the work building his pool!

 

[cobra46]

With all this slang we'll have Mats talking like an American in no time. No offense meant to our friends north of the 49th.

Mats,

Guns are slang for arm muscles. Typically used when they are larger than average.

 

[Gooserider]

Wonderful job, looks really good so far.

Sorry I haven't responded to your comment about the cement / gunnite finish on the pool - for some reason I didn't get a notice that a response had been posted recently, so I hadn't been following the thread.

I have also heard that concrete is somewhat porous, but my understanding is that it isn't very much so if it is thick enough, and once it is soaked through. I certainly don't normally see any signs of water loss from anything other than evaporation. It may also depend on just how the concrete is made, what's in it, and so forth - since the pool was built before we got the house, I don't know the details, all I can say is mine doesn't appear to leak.

Where we HAVE had an occasional problem is at the points where the pool wall is penetrated by the pipe fittings for the returns and the Pool robot pressure line. It seems that there is just enough expansion rate difference, and possibly movement in the pipes that a small leak can develop over time between the PVC pipe and the concrete. When this happenned several years back, I patched it with some two-part underwater hardening epoxy, and haven't had any sign of problems since...

Gooserider

 

[Vegasmom]

Very impressive, Mats! I can't contribute to the technical side but have enjoyed seeing the work you've done so far. I'll be looking forward to seeing you bring it to completion. Great work!

 

[Henry Porter]

hahaha thanks everybody for all the funny and friendly comments.
There is not any guns left on me that is for sure. I have lost many pounds from the hard labour I have exposed myself during this build. But I can say that I have 3pack now, so I travelling pretty good for an old bloke like me 8) I think I weigh 93kg today, when I trained bodybuilding I was steady at 105kg but that was a long time ago

Gooserider I understand that you had problems with leaks if your pool walls penetrations wasn't sealed with some sort of bonding materials like mine syncoflex sealing or any other "concrete fittings" before they where poured in. Concrete doesen't bond to plastic or metall that good so they leave the construction with an direction for leakage. I have a picture in this thread showing one of my lamps that I have prepared with syncoflex.
I was actually considerd your option for our pool but I have all the holes in the walls from all the braces that keept the form together so that must be concealed with a top surface of any kind.

I'm home after a week away and my poolequipment arrived just on time in Gothenburg so I was able to pick them up on my way home. All it took was a small detour of 350km but I have them home at last. no visible signs of any damages from the long time in transit and it feels so good to have my precious goods finaly at home

May I ask for your opinions regarding the tiles of the pool.
The tile plate I showed in my second last post was frost proof and I can use it for the pool. Now I came to think of that a plate with a rough texture like that might be uncomfortable to step on. It might also cause problems keeping the pool clean? A smooth surface must be easier to keep clean and easier for the pool robot. Or am I exaggerated the problems?

Thanks again everybody
Mats

 

[Henry Porter]

The following two pictures are of two of the boxes of extra tiles used in the pool. The dark color blue were used to define the water surface around the perimeter side walls and the lighter color was used on the side walls.
The darker color tiles were thicker and better made overall. We had no breakage problems with them at all. They were made in China but the box makes you think they were made in Italy. They measured 20.4cm x 19.92cm x 4.2cm thick.

Hi Cancutom!
Thanks for the picures showing how a real pool mosaik should look like. I have read that to get a proper bonding to the pool wall the mosaik should have backing paper like yours and not be assembled on a net. I shall meassure the thickness of the mosaik I have at home to see if they match any of your numbers.
Maybe a stupid question but did you buy the chinese made mosaik direct from China?

 

[cancuntom]

Hola Henry,

The Chinese made tiles were purchased here in Cancun from the pool supplier that provided all of our mechanical equipment. They sourced them from Mexico City. We ran into trouble near the end of the project because the lighter colored tiles did not arrive from Mexico City when promised. They would have a new excuse day after day, some were outright lies. such as: "Oh! the tile is at the Cancun airport and customs won't release them"......duh.....no customs are necessary within Mexico! But they eventually showed up...........and guess what? .......they are the thinner tiles that are in the photo above. So I suspect a substitution was made. Thankfully they are the ones used to do the sides of the pool and will never have to bear any weight.
One thing that we were also concerned about was the slippery-ness of the concrete surrounding the pool. So they mixed a lot of coarse sand into the mix for me. When they were done it was too coarse and would have torn up everyone's feet. This was also true of the mix they used on the patio. So I had them knock it down a bit with a hand grinder. It worked out OK and isn't slippery when wet. But I still cringe when I think about watching Pablo bent over at the waist for 3 days grinding away with a little 4" electric grinder. I think that is the only power tool they used on the entire project. All the re-bar were bent using a simple hand held bender. These people are amazing with what they can do without proper tools. They are incredibly resourceful workers. As an example they determined level by using a length of clear plastic tubing with water in it! They certainly gained my respect.




It's not the Sistine Chapel of mosaic jobs.......unfortunately Michelangelo was not available . The pool tile is not slippery because the grout joints provide enough traction for ones feet. We can play water volley ball in it without a problem. We put in a couple of holes for the stanchions to hold up the net in the surrounding cement work.

Saludos,
Tom

 

[Lershac]

Hola Henry,
They are incredibly resourceful workers. As an example they determined level by using a length of clear plastic tubing with water in it! They certainly gained my respect.
Tom

Hey thats what I see alot of the workers here in the states use as well... it works and its a good technically method. Simple and reliable, and no batteries!

 

[Gooserider]

hahaha thanks everybody for all the funny and friendly comments.
There is not any guns left on me that is for sure. I have lost many pounds from the hard labour I have exposed myself during this build. But I can say that I have 3pack now, so I travelling pretty good for an old bloke like me 8) I think I weigh 93kg today, when I trained bodybuilding I was steady at 105kg but that was a long time ago

"Guns" in this context is in the sense of "look at those big guns" or large muscles - it is a more or less complimentary way of saying you have body-builder type muscles (think Popeye the Sailor after spinach... :lol: )

Gooserider I understand that you had problems with leaks if your pool walls penetrations wasn't sealed with some sort of bonding materials like mine syncoflex sealing or any other "concrete fittings" before they where poured in. Concrete doesen't bond to plastic or metall that good so they leave the construction with an direction for leakage. I have a picture in this thread showing one of my lamps that I have prepared with syncoflex.
I was actually considerd your option for our pool but I have all the holes in the walls from all the braces that keept the form together so that must be concealed with a top surface of any kind.

I am sure they used some sort of sealant when they built the pool, but the chemicals they had then aren't as good as what we have now, and pretty much anything will break down given enough time. It didn't seem unreasonable that I would get leaks at that point eventually, and since I put the epoxy on it several years back I haven't had any more problems.

I could be very wrong on the construction, but my understanding of a gunnite type pool is that after they do the initial shape of the pool with rebar and concrete, they give it a "skim coat" of cement with a different composition to give it the final finish. Presumably you could do a coating like that of just concrete and leave that bare. I have noticed that in the areas around the top edge of our pool where the edge tiles have come off, there is a white layer - I don't know if this is just the tile adhesive or if it's some sort of waterproofing coating that went between the outer cement and the finish coating.

I'm home after a week away and my poolequipment arrived just on time in Gothenburg so I was able to pick them up on my way home. All it took was a small detour of 350km but I have them home at last. no visible signs of any damages from the long time in transit and it feels so good to have my precious goods finaly at home

May I ask for your opinions regarding the tiles of the pool.
The tile plate I showed in my second last post was frost proof and I can use it for the pool. Now I came to think of that a plate with a rough texture like that might be uncomfortable to step on. It might also cause problems keeping the pool clean? A smooth surface must be easier to keep clean and easier for the pool robot. Or am I exaggerated the problems?

I seem to have missed the photo of the sample, but what I would suggest if you have a big enough sample is to try standing and / or sitting on it for a few minutes w/ bare feet (or other bits) and see how it feels. Also try seeing how slick it feels when wet. I wouldn't worry about cleaning a shallow texture, but a deep texture could be a problem. A very rough texture may cause you to get more wear on the robots consumable parts (Our Polaris eats the "tail scrubbers" much faster than I'd like...)

Gooserider

 

[Henry Porter]

Gooserider! You haven't missed anything, I saw that I posted the tile picture in another thread. It doesen't matter beacuse I will not use those. I have bought the tile I shall mount in the pool. I went with a white tile in the pool and a dark glass mosaic on the water line and also on the front of the stairs. The glass mosaic is 8mm thick and are what it seems of very good quality :-D

I will be out of town for another two weeks but after that I will mount the tile and fill up the pool. That is almost a promise 8)

We celibrate midsummers day here tomorrow. After christmas is that the biggest holiday here in Sweden and it's a tradition to get really drunk! Since I'm very well mannered i will follow that tradition with great pleassure :-D

Have a nice weekend everybody!
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[Henry Porter]

It's not the Sistine Chapel of mosaic jobs.......unfortunately Michelangelo was not available

hahaha Tom!
Not only an epicure(I looked up that word in the dictionary) but also armed with a great sense of humor
Your pool and backyard is lovely you know that, don't you......

Take care my friend!