Discovery Bay Pool Build

[joeprunc]

Well we received our Pool Permit approval July 14, 2021. Its now August 1, and A LOT has happened.
We are planning on a geometric 35' x 15' L style guinte pool with a raised spa and tanning shelf.

Plan is the following (pending to change):

Equipment:
IntellProXF VSF, Heater 400K BTU/HR, Intellicenter - i8PS, IntelliChlor IC60 Cell (SWCG), Clean and Clear Pool CCP520, (2) Intellibrite 5G Pool Light, (1) Intellibrite 5G Spa Light, (2) Glowbrite.

Hardscape:
Ivory Travertine coping, NPT Sierra Blue Slate Mosaic waterline tile, mini pebble (color TBD), Pool deck stamped concete

 

[joeprunc]

Day#1 - Demo, I was amazed how quick everything was torn out and demoed. Trees, concrete, deck, spa.

 

[joeprunc]

Day #10 Dig Day
12 trucks and a long weekend.

 

[joeprunc]

Day #15 Plumbing

It was a hot day but these guys did a great job with all our rough plumbing, gas, and electrical. Used 2 1/2" dia piping and laid everything nicely side by side. We will back fill a large portion of the trenches with sand to help with the clay soil movement (summer to winter). Also ran a loop and electrical for future solar tie in.

We have one suction at the south end (usually wind comes from N or NW). I let them work their magic with pool return locations (they put 4 in on the N and W pool edges). I'm kind of curious as to how the orientation of the pool return nozzles are going to be to get the best turnover. I did also purchase a Dolphin Active 20 pool robot, but there is also a suction line on the west end for if I were to use a suction pool cleaner in the future. Will I need to plug this suction, or just use it as another pump return (do I need to put a screen over it or maybe a valve at equipment)?

 

[joeprunc]

Rebar is going in as I'm writing this. Now we need to work with coping, water line tile, ledger, concrete, and pebble color.
Also need to line out where our drains, landscape lighting, irrigation, speakers, etc are going to go.

We are hoping to use NPT Sierra Blue Slate 2x2, and 2" thk square edge ivory travertine, and NPT Philadelphia ledger stone for raised spa.

Looking to pair with a Medium Blue color (maybe Aqua Blue). My wife is extremely adamant about having NO GREEN water coloring. My friend's pool is a great blue and we are liking the water color.

 

[Rocket J Squirrel]

there is also a suction line on the west end for if I were to use a suction pool cleaner in the future. Will I need to plug this suction, or just use it as another pump return (do I need to put a screen over it or maybe a valve at equipment)?

The suction port will come with a plug of some kind. It's a safety requirement. Something like this:

W400BWHP - Vacuum Lock Safety Wall Fitting - 1-1/2 Inch MPT - Hayward

This Hayward Vacuum Lock Safety Wall Fitting is 1-1/2 inch MPT. It is designed to be used with various Hayward automatic pool cleaners including the Navigator pool cleaners.

www.poolweb.com

 

[joeprunc]

Thank you @Rocket J Squirrel . That will be perfect.

Half of the rebar went in yesterday. These guys are moving.
With Gunite in our near future we are now playing around with the spill over from the raised spa.
Option 1: One Fairly wide waterfall

Our coping length on the raised spa will be approximately 10' long, so I was thinking of splitting that length into 1/3 for symmetry. So spill over would be 36"-40" wide.​

Option 2: One Narrow waterfall

Something like 18" wide so we have a spillover that is longer and more pronounced.​

Option 3: Two Narrow Waterfalls

Have two waterfalls that are 18" wide each (either two on the main pool side, or one on the pool side and one on the Baja Shelf side.​

​

 

[joeprunc]

With the rebar in, we will be putting only one spill over in. I think we are going to go with a 40"-48" wide spill over.

Rebar is done. Two Regrets: I wish I made the baja shelf 10' wide (vs 8'). Wish I knew about the JetArray 2x2 or JetArray inline for the spa.
Oh well, as with every build you have to draw the line somewhere.

Question:
Has anyone put a sloped back (angled back) in their spa? We use to have an above ground spa that was contoured and very comfortable to sit it...I'm looking to do a 7 degree slope on the back, and a 2 degree slope on the seat to better contour to the body, but worried about spa jets making contact with your back or debris settling on the seats. Does anyone have insight on this?

 

[joeprunc]

Spa Layout Question? Gunite is Saturday, and I have to have the plumbers come out and modify one of the returns. I mentioned to my builder potentially adding spa jets....
Should I keep the 6 jets and 4 sided seating?
or
Modify to 8 jets and 3 sided seating?

 

[Haku84]

Joe - I figured I will respond on your thread rather than on Ellen's. My pool is 7ft deep, the shallow end is gray but I kinda like it. Reminds me of like a beach with rocks at the entry before you actually get into the ocean. I have posted some pictures of the baja stair, the pumps are on so its kinda hard to tell.

 

[Haku84]

With the rebar in, we will be putting only one spill over in. I think we are going to go with a 40"-48" wide spill over.

Rebar is done. Two Regrets: I wish I made the baja shelf 10' wide (vs 8'). Wish I knew about the JetArray 2x2 or JetArray inline for the spa.
Oh well, as with every build you have to draw the line somewhere.

Question:
Has anyone put a sloped back (angled back) in their spa? We use to have an above ground spa that was contoured and very comfortable to sit it...I'm looking to do a 7 degree slope on the back, and a 2 degree slope on the seat to better contour to the body, but worried about spa jets making contact with your back or debris settling on the seats. Does anyone have insight on this?

Interesting thought with the slope back, I did the rolled edge on the spa so that its more comfortable on the neck. Did you get any feed back on the slope in the spa?

 

[joeprunc]

Joe - I figured I will respond on your thread rather than on Ellen's. My pool is 7ft deep, the shallow end is gray but I kinda like it. Reminds me of like a beach with rocks at the entry before you actually get into the ocean. I have posted some pictures of the baja stair, the pumps are on so its kinda hard to tell.

Thank you for the additional photos. I love that deep blue and think it looks absolutely stunning. I'll be sure to show these to my wife, but I'm not sure if she wants a deep blue or not. Is that travertine Ivory color?

Didn't receive any comments on the sloped back, we gunited this weekend, and did not do any thing special. Talking with the crew they stated they had never done it before....I didn't want to be their "first".

 

[joeprunc]

Gunite this weekend went quite well. Excited for the next steps.

We had our water line tile and travertine delivered today. They couldn't get 12" x 24" x 2" Ivory travertine....but could get 18" x 24" x 2". It will cost a little more, but I figured I'll save on the back end with less sqft of concrete

 

[joeprunc]

Oh and our tile/coping.
Travertine Ivory Modern - 2" x 18" x 24"
Sierra Blue 2" x 2" Mosaic

 

[Haku84]

Thank you for the additional photos. I love that deep blue and think it looks absolutely stunning. I'll be sure to show these to my wife, but I'm not sure if she wants a deep blue or not. Is that travertine Ivory color?

Didn't receive any comments on the sloped back, we gunited this weekend, and did not do any thing special. Talking with the crew they stated they had never done it before....I didn't want to be their "first".

Yes it's tumbled ivory travertine. The blue shade is different at different times of the day. The picture below is at 1pm and the second one at 10 a.m. I added 4 bags of glass beads Puerto Rico Blend that was hand broadcasted during plaster.

 

[dandannoodles]

Looks great! Will follow. We are deciding pool tile right now and also plan on going with a more neutral colored porcelain rather than the blue/green glass mosaic you often see. Your friend's pool looks great! Do you know what color finish it is? Looking forward to seeing how your pebble comes out!

 

[joeprunc]

Looks great! Will follow. We are deciding pool tile right now and also plan on going with a more neutral colored porcelain rather than the blue/green glass mosaic you often see. Your friend's pool looks great! Do you know what color finish it is? Looking forward to seeing how your pebble comes out!

We received more of our tiles and coping in I'm quite happy with my wives decisions on a neutral finish. . His finish is Sapphire Blue Pebble Plus with extra glass and abalone.

 

[joeprunc]

Good progression yesterday. Coping started!

However the guinite was not level at all, we had to float quite a bit, 3+ inches max. I'm worried about the depth at the deep end, I wanted 5'-6". But I'm assuming with the floating and due to the dig being a bit deeper, were going to be almost 6'-4" (I found our the gunite crew did not fill in like they were paid to). Should I make our PB fill in the bottom to keep closer to 5'-6"?

 

[Haku84]

Good progression yesterday. Coping started!

However the guinite was not level at all, we had to float quite a bit, 3+ inches max. I'm worried about the depth at the deep end, I wanted 5'-6". But I'm assuming with the floating and due to the dig being a bit deeper, were going to be almost 6'-4" (I found our the gunite crew did not fill in like they were paid to). Should I make our PB fill in the bottom to keep closer to 5'-6"?

I'm no expert, but If you are unhappy doesn't hurt to alert the PB to the error.

Coping looks nice, also if you are going to get abalone shells make sure to research regarding the staining they will leave in your plaster, there is alot of threads and feedback on TFP about it. After reading and seeing pictures, and my PB not able to provide me with the source of where he would get the shells. I decided not to add them, I'm very happy with the glass tho.

 

[joeprunc]

More progress last weekend. Very happy with the ledger stone that my wife picked out.
I couldn't find any photos of the tiles we used online.
Coping: Ivory Tumbled Travertine 16" x 24" x 2" modern (from NPT)
Waterline tile: NPT Sierra Blue 2" x 2" Mosaic (from NPT)
Ledger Stone: Philadelphia Jumbo Ledgerstone (from NPT)

Being and engineer, I questioned the slope of the spa spillway. The builders sloped the spill way towards the pool (so when nothing is running the spillway will be dry). The slope is maybe 1/2" over the 16" run. Personally I felt it should be sloped the other way. They promised me they do this on every pool. Scouring online I couldn't find any guidance on which way to slope the spillway....aside from the 1/4" relief cut if all else fails.

Any advice on how is your spillway sloped? We are looking for a pronounced spill over.