Construction underway...finally - Katy, Tx

[Hobbescom]

After a LOOONG wait for a locked-in gunite date, construction has finally arrived! Anyone interested can find my initial post here. Kicked off today at 7am with marking the pool, framing, and then got to digging. Wrapped up the dig about 1pm and they moved across the street to start the dig on my neighbors pool. I watched them measure everything 8+ times at each spot, but I'll spend some quality time in the hole tonight once it cools off and confirm everything is correct. Plan now is for rebar tomorrow morning, plumbing tomorrow afternoon and/or wed, and gunite on Thursday!

Important details:

Pool Size/Shape/Stuff:
- Rectangular 17x34, 105' perimeter, 576 sqft surface area
- 3.5 to 6 foot depth
- 1 channel drain and 2 skimmers
- ~6x9 sunshelf with 2 bubblers and umbrella hole
- ~7x7 spa with 6 jets and 2 round anti-vortex drains
- Raised 3-tier back wall with scuppers
- 8 foot exit bench/step bump-out on deep end
- Bench under center scupper
- PebbleTech Pebble Sheen (haven't picked a color yet)
- Travertine for coping, raised wall, and spa spillover

Equipment:
- Pentair Clean & Clear Plus cartridge Filter
- Pentair IntelliFlo 2hp VS pump (Main)
- Pentair 1hp WhisperFlow pump (Booster)
- Silencer 1.5hp Air Blower (Spa)
- Pentair MasterTemp 400K BTU heater
- Pentair Prowler Robot Cleaner (not sure if 920 or 930)
- Pentair IntelliCenter for automation
- Pentair IC40 SWCG
- Pentair IntelliBrite color LED (2x pool, 1x spa)
- extra space on pad and plumbing stubbed out to add a chiller next year

Random other stuff:
- Autofill and overflow drain to street
- Spraydeck on new decking (~300 sqft) and existing covered patio (~700 sqft)
- We have 3 kids, so a safety fence around the pool will also be added separately.

Finally, I couldn't sign off with a slew of photos!

 

[Texas Splash]

Nice! You AND your neighbor huh? 2 for 1 special?

 

[Kahler33]

That is an amazingly clean dig!

 

[Hobbescom]

Nice! You AND your neighbor huh? 2 for 1 special?

BOGO.....I wish! PB got a bit of a discount from his tradesmen since they’re all knocking out 2 pools in one trip, which he passed on to us.

 

[Hobbescom]

That is an amazingly clean dig!

Yeah, I was extremely impressed with the crew. Looks like they stamped it out of the ground! I watched them check every measurement multiple times, checked for myself tonight also and everything is dead on.

 

[Hobbescom]

Rebar work completed this morning. All looks pretty solid. Plumbing stub-out set for tomorrow and gunite on Thursday!

 

[Hobbescom]

Had some fun with the security camera today and made a couple time-lapse videos of the last two days activities:

Day 1 - Dig

Day 2 - Rebar

 

[Sollace]

Very nice pictures, great looking pool!
I was wondering about that side yard entrance. That didn't make sense until you said your neighbor was doing his at the same time.
Now. The question is. . . What will you do about that second story behind you and them looking over at your yard, pool? Landscape plans?

By the way, we were in Katy 18 years. Great place.

 

[Hobbescom]

Very nice pictures, great looking pool!
I was wondering about that side yard entrance. That didn't make sense until you said your neighbor was doing his at the same time.
Now. The question is. . . What will you do about that second story behind you and them looking over at your yard, pool? Landscape plans?

By the way, we were in Katy 18 years. Great place.

Actually the neighbor also building is across the street. We’re on a cul-de-sac so our side yard is super skinny but the neighbors is huge. The plan was to take down about 40 feet of fencing between the houses and hug my property line as much as possible, but the excavation crew made the decision to go through the neighbors yard instead. I was not happy when I saw that, but luckily we’re pretty cool with the neighbors. They had a really bad drainage issue on that side, so we’re also doing some regrading with all the extra dirt. Win/win in the end.

 

[Hobbescom]

Oh, and yes...we’ll be doing some landscaping to get some privacy. Haven’t really talked about what that will look like yet though.

 

[Auburn02]

the excavation crew made the decision to go through the neighbors yard instead.

Dang, without checking with either you or the neighbor first? Glad it will work out in the end though.

And I too am astonished with how minimal the disruption is to the surrounding yard. I have an expectation of everything within 10-15' of my pool perimeter being completely destroyed, maybe I'll be surprised.

 

[spd500]

Oh, and yes...we’ll be doing some landscaping to get some privacy. Haven’t really talked about what that will look like yet though.

I wanted to install sun sails for some shade and some privacy from the back neighbor's second floor, but they are not allowed by our HOA and I am on a corner lot where they could see them from the road. If you are allowed to have them you might consider it as an option in addition to landscaping.

 

[Whiskeyfox]

Good luck on gunite! Congrats on your dirt hole for now My was 1.5 weeks after dig/rebar here in spring due to delays involving the gunite trucks and it made me stress that whole time.

 

[Hobbescom]

Good luck on gunite! Congrats on your dirt hole for now My was 1.5 weeks after dig/rebar here in spring due to delays involving the gunite trucks and it made me stress that whole time.

Well, we got delayed again at the last minute. Gunite should be happening tomorrow now, but there’s some rain in the forecast...fingers crossed that it stays away!

 

[Sollace]

We are north of you ) We had a lot of rain today.

I was thinking about shade and pools . . . One way you can have some privacy with that house behind you is put a few umbrella's up. Make sure they put some umbrella sheaths around.

 

[Hobbescom]

It's been an adventurous 2 days with gunite and making our 'final' tile/coping/stone selections. Gunite started yesterday about 10:30am and we got hit with a couple of downpours in the middle...#texasweathersucks. The crew started up again this morning about 7:30 and finished us up around noon before moving on to the neighbors. I'll be happy when the trucks finally roll out of the cul-de-sac in a few hours and we can get some peace & quiet again! Time-lapse videos of gunite are being worked on now, but in the meantime, here are a couple pics of gunite and our deco selections. The weird angled pipe on the right side is to drain some ground water out and will be patched up in a bit.

 

[HermanTX]

Howdy from Katy (East of 99). Looks good. Hopefully you can get a month or more of swimming, although you could heat the whole pool as well. I have not tried that it but it is tempting. Just ensure you invite your neighbors for a swim for their "contribution" to the build.

 

[Sollace]

Looking good! That suggestion to have the neighbors over for a swim is excellent!

 

[Hobbescom]

Yeah, I will definitely owe all the neighbors a swim after all the noise the past few days. 4 of the 5 houses that border ours also have pools, so we could do a ‘progressive-dinner-swim’

And now, the gunite video. Had a bit of a cave-in midway through on the back wall.

 

[Sollace]

Windy day! Nice video! Love how they stand around talking and comparing notes. Looks like a great crew there!