DIY Pool Rehab
- Thread starter MinerJason
- Start date
Between out of state/country travel for work and a micro burst ripping half of my back porch and a bunch of roofing off of my house, the pool rehab project has been neglected a bit lately. But there has been a little progress, and hopefully a lot more soon. I drilled a bunch of holes, bent a bunch of rebar, and made forms to extend the Baja shelf and add a step. I filled most of the space with sand bags, old pavers, and broken cinder blocks, so the final concrete thickness was only 5-7" for most of it, but it was still a lot of concrete to pour by hand using my little mixer. A friend came over to help run the mixer, but he was hungover and it was 110 degrees, so he got heat exhaustion pretty quickly and I ended up doing the majority of it myself.
My wife asked me to pour a 14'x6' patio for our side door while I was in the concrete pouring/finishing mode. Left room on the end to plant some vines and added a trellis to hide the garbage cans.
I also ended up digging out the plumbing for the water feature and redoing it completely. I was worried that the two 1" lines going into a single 1" tee before increasing to 1 1/2" would provide too much resistance. I chipped out enough of the bond beam to bend the adjacent 1 1/2" return line out of the way in order to fit a 1 1/2" tee for the two 1" lines to feed into. I then put in some rebar and a form for the footer for the water feature wall. Hoping to get that poured today, and start building the wall tomorrow.
My wife asked me to pour a 14'x6' patio for our side door while I was in the concrete pouring/finishing mode. Left room on the end to plant some vines and added a trellis to hide the garbage cans.
I also ended up digging out the plumbing for the water feature and redoing it completely. I was worried that the two 1" lines going into a single 1" tee before increasing to 1 1/2" would provide too much resistance. I chipped out enough of the bond beam to bend the adjacent 1 1/2" return line out of the way in order to fit a 1 1/2" tee for the two 1" lines to feed into. I then put in some rebar and a form for the footer for the water feature wall. Hoping to get that poured today, and start building the wall tomorrow.
How scary that burst had to be! Where y'all in the house when it happened??
When you do get to work on your project you are a beast!!!!! Getting it done and done right!!! Well done!!!
Who did the art work by the door? How was it done?
Kim
When you do get to work on your project you are a beast!!!!! Getting it done and done right!!! Well done!!!
Who did the art work by the door? How was it done?
Kim
How scary that burst had to be! Where y'all in the house when it happened??
When you do get to work on your project you are a beast!!!!! Getting it done and done right!!! Well done!!!
Who did the art work by the door? How was it done?
Kim
Wife and I were at work, but the kids and babysitter were in the house when it happened. They said the dogs ran inside through the doggie door frightened, then there was a crash, and when they looked outside the back porch was in the yard. Neighbors saw it happen, said it looked like a small tornado, about 50-60 ft tall. Moved around a bunch of basketball sized boulders they have on the edges of their driveway, and ripped out a few small trees and shrubs where our property lines meet.
Mural was done by a local artist, as a Christmas present to ourselves. He painted the wall white with house paint and a roller, drew the outline with sharpies, and then used black house paint and a variety of rollers and brushes.
So you built a wall over the brick wall out of ?? and he did the art? SKILLS!!! Where/how did you find them?
I hope you gave the babysitter a little extra after that!!! Bet she could not call you fast enough!
Kim
I hope you gave the babysitter a little extra after that!!! Bet she could not call you fast enough!
Kim
So you built a wall over the brick wall out of ?? and he did the art? SKILLS!!! Where/how did you find them?
I hope you gave the babysitter a little extra after that!!! Bet she could not call you fast enough!
Kim
Ah, I see. The wall to the right of the door isn't brick, it was a framed wall with MDF siding when we bought the house. Shortly after we bought it, I tore the siding off all the non brick walls, insulated the walls, covered them with sheathing and foam, and then stuccoed them.
The artist does a lot of murals around town, including one we really liked at a local music venue. We called the music venue to get his name (Danny Martin), and used that to find and contact him on Instagram.
Yep, and used some plaster chips from the pool to fill in the gaps between the bags.
You might appreciate this. Struggling to get a few small concrete pours done at home, but supervised 99 yds of shotcrete application for work last week (11 nine yd trucks). The environmental group had us put brown dye in the mix so that it blends in with the natural landscape better.
Could be. I know a tunnel guy in CT who was (or maybe still is) involved with training for the sandhogs union.
Yup- that’s him. Super high end pool builder, his pools are optical illusions.. awesome guy
Not sure I even realized he was a pool builder. Some of his designs are pretty amazing, particularly his unusual approaches to coping/high waterlines.
You must be looking at his perimeter wet edges aka launtner edges- insane engineering for sure!
The bagged shoring material is what told me you guys or a third party crossed paths.. cool!
Wasn't able to get as much done as I'd hoped due to monsoon rains most of the weekend, but the skies cleared long enough on Sat mid-day to pour a footer, and enough Sun evening to get started on the block wall.
Between a monsoon storm that ripped the roof off my house last summer and lots of travel for work, the pool project got abandoned for a while. The house is back together, and I finally have the time and money to focus on the pool again. Just finished setting the waterline tile yesterday. Hoping to get the grout done and start setting the stone ledger on the fountain wall today. Plan is to be swimming for some upcoming birthdays, which are only ~3 weeks away. I'll try to post some progress pics along the way.
Last edited:
I also used some photogrammetry software from work to create a point cloud model of my pool, which then enabled me to create a 3D model, and calculate a very accurate volume. Turns out the volume is quite a bit less than we'd previously estimated. Will need to update my signature with the new numbers.
You have been through a lot in this last year!! Where you home with that roof ripper when through? That had to be scary!!!