IG Pool Completed ✔️ Build Thread 📸 FINAL THOUGHT

[Riddler0520]

I'm assuming hes drying out the pool generally and the goal is plaster. For base prep the natural displacement of sub surface water by the drains is sufficient if they work properly

As for my pool I have a vinyl liner not a plaster pool. My water table is very high in a heavy rain my liner would float if I didn't have water evacuation. My pumps are set high up but can be dropped below pool bottom depth if needed. I have 2 full perimeter drains, one to pump pits that's deep, one natural pitch at the shallow floor depth. Basically you shouldnt build a pool where mine is, unless you got lotsa cash or build pools

yes, we are are sooo close to completion......his goal is to dry out the ground where the decking will be installed....he will escavate some more of the dirt/clay and he said will lay down 8-10" of ABC base, thicker than he normally does he said....

My Q I keep ask he is - yes I understand we are pulling the water out of the ground and drying it out and yes I assume by doing so will allow for a thick sublease to be installed and compacted....but what happens after the fact and pump is removed and water table rises - - - he doesn't seem concerned .....I know the base will will be solid, but what about underneath it

Once we get that done, hoping this week, although there are a few days of rain in the schedule - then its just final grade and pebble sheen

Thank you and Rich for all your help and reassurance through this build

 

[Riddler0520]

yes, we are are sooo close to completion......his goal is to dry out the ground where the decking will be installed....he will escavate some more of the dirt/clay and he said will lay down 8-10" of ABC base, thicker than he normally does he said....

My Q I keep ask he is - yes I understand we are pulling the water out of the ground and drying it out and yes I assume by doing so will allow for a thick sublease to be installed and compacted....but what happens after the fact and pump is removed and water table rises - - - he doesn't seem concerned .....I know the base will will be solid, but what about underneath it
I do know as I have mentioned before we have like 3-4 dump trucks of gravel alone around perimeter, underneath and probably 2 dump trucks of ABC material

Once we get that done, hoping this week, although there are a few days of rain in the schedule - then its just final grade and pebble sheen

Thank you and Rich for all your help and reassurance through this build

 

[jimmythegreek]

I deal with clay here the majority of the time. My routine is to use geotextile fabric under all my base material. It not only strengthens the base like adding rebar to concrete, it keeps the base stone from mixing with the dirt over the years as the soil migrates thru water table cycles. It's not very expensive and cheap insurance. I actually laid geotextile under my whole pool floor before the stone base went in.

Theres no issue with water coming up after the base is down. That will happen naturally regardless. A proper compacted and thick enough base layer mitigates those variables. I often end up with 12-18" here we have grey clay in spots that is pure play-doh just gotta dig it out and replace it

 

[Riddler0520]

@Dirk @jimmythegreek @kimkats

Haven’t been on the site since late Nov as we got busy with a few other things but wanted to post some updated pictures of our deck.
For those following the build thread you will recall lots of water/drainage issues. This didn’t change when it came to deck install. Ultimately what the PB did after I think getting just tired of trying other things was excavate out about 2ft of soil and bring in truck loads of clean gravel for base, then 6” of ABC on top of that. All that gravel as a base seems to make the deck base basically concrete solid. We added to the sq ft of deck from original drawing above and finishing up the grading still of the yard trying to create swells to direct wate5 away from pool (well, at least surface water).

We did hem/haw over what color travertine go with. End of day we had so much veneered stonework that we wanted contrast with travertine and for it not to be to dark and fight with all the stone colors - so we went with Ivory

The stonework still needs to be washed and will be sealed with Aquron i-shield - think everything will pop a bit more once cleaned/sealed

Anyways - a few odds and ends left but almost ready for Pebble. Like many others we are agonizing over the color. Pebble Sheen Prism or Blue Surf are our two final choices - any thoughts ?

Now shifting focus to putting yard back together and getting sod, irrigation quotes etc....

Edit: there are a few things left to finish with deck - they have to fix radius cut around tree bed, and do another round of poly sand to completely fill joints ++ build stairs from first landing area up to yard for easy access

That pump will go in tree bed, it is just keeping under the pool dry but the pipe will stay. I guess if ever the need arises to drain the pool I can hook up a pump and pull water out from underneath shell

As a reminder behind the pool we will put decorative pebble down about 18” to form edge, then start sod so the lawn guy isn’t throwing clippings over the edge

 

[Dirk]

Looks great, I like the contrast. Pebble color? There is no color too dark for my taste. But just about any color is going to work with what you've got. Try not to rely on swatches. Visiting pools with water in them is best. Remember, the color will vary with depth. It'll look bluest in the deep end, less so in the shallow end, and might look grey on your ledge. That's why it's best to see your color choice in a real pool, if you can. So there are no surprises.

Just FYI... Did you mean the sod will start 18" away from the pool? Mine was about 5' away and the gardener would still always get clippings in the pool. I don't know if that was the mower or the blower. Your pool's water will be salt water eventually, with or without using an SWG, so splashes on grass might not be kind.

 

[Riddler0520]

Looks great, I like the contrast. Pebble color? There is no color too dark for my taste. But just about any color is going to work with what you've got. Try not to rely on swatches. Visiting pools with water in them is best. Remember, the color will vary with depth. It'll look bluest in the deep end, less so in the shallow end, and might look grey on your ledge. That's why it's best to see your color choice in a real pool, if you can. So there are no surprises.

Just FYI... Did you mean the sod will start 18" away from the pool? Mine was about 5' away and the gardener would still always get clippings in the pool. I don't know if that was the mower or the blower. Your pool's water will be salt water eventually, with or without using an SWG, so splashes on grass might not be kind.

Thanks Dirk - you and others have been so helpful for months going through this build - turned out to be a lot bigger of a project than I expected.

the pebble around the edge - haven’t chosen yet but assume with natural tones (browns, greys etc) to tie into everything else - we really only need it behind the pool where the grass is closest to the water - I just said 18” but might go wider to create more of a buffer to grass - not like the kids will be playing much on that grassy area - the main grass area is off to the right of the pool


I like darker colors too - originally thought of Ocean Blue but in the shade figured that was to dark - our yard I would describe is more shade than sun and trying to take that into account - medium blue light look dark blue if that makes sense

I think I like Prism better, and it’s a tad darker than Blue Surf @ncpoolguy has a similar build to mine and love his color of water

getting out to see pool finishes in the middle of Covid is proving more challenging than I would have hoped - we have asked the pebble plaster installer now if he has any customers that won’t mind us visiting and looking

you feel good about what we did with all the gravel under deck base ? I literally think we have 6-8 dump trucks of gravel under the pool, as backfill and now under deck - crazy

I’ll keep you posted as we progress

 

[Dirk]

I'm not well schooled in the best way to prep under a deck. @jimmythegreek knows that stuff. Maybe he can weigh in.

When you say "pebble around the edge," are you talking about a rock hardscape material? Keep in mind that kids will lose things over the edge, like pool toys and balls, etc, and they'll want to climb out of the pool and cross that border to retrieve their stuff, so they'll want to be able to walk across that surface. And then walk back across it and jump back in. So whatever the material, it should be feet-friendly and something that won't stick to their feet and end up in the pool. Or...

You could plot a few pathways across the "rock mote" using either the paver material or the coping material. Just a few stones, maybe a few inches apart, to span the rock. You don't have to do much. Just lay them on the dirt, or maybe a bit of sand to help level them, then surround them with the pebble material. Maybe you still have some of the pavers or stones leftover? Or could still buy a few more pieces?

I bought a whole palette of flagstone to match my pool's coping and have built several pathways. One near my pool to cross the ground cover I planted. One in my side yard, and a few out front. Then other stones steps to be able to cross mulch to get to the gas meter, the breaker box, etc. Ties all my yards together and allows me to cross landscaping areas while barefoot. So if you buy more pieces, you might keep an eye out for other areas you might want to have some stone pathways.

Here I recently replaced grass with mulch and ground cover. When the ground cover finishes filling in, I'll still be able to get to my lemon tree. (If I can ever hope to get a lemon off the d--n thing!) The kids use these steps all the time to recover their toys. Notice it matches well enough, but not quite perfectly with the existing flagstone inlays in my deck. Now is the time to buy more if you want a good match, otherwise months or years from now you might have trouble finding the same color/texture. (Ignore the two stone anchors and the rope, that's for something else.)



Here's more in my front yard. Same: to get across the same ground cover once it fills in (another lawn replaced). I snuck in a few stones into the city's park strip so that guests could get from their car across the rosemary hedge. Otherwise, when the rosemary matures, it would someday be impassable.



I did all these myself. Pretty easy. Just cleared the mulch, put down some sand for leveling, smushed in the stone, then filled the mulch back in. A few have started to "rock" a bit as I step on them, I just lift them up and throw down a handful or two of sand to re-level them. Eventually they settle in.

 

[jimmythegreek]

Looks good that's a popular layout for a sloped site. You can never have too much stone base. Costs way more to fix one birdbath than a load of stone. Your on the home stretch

 

[Riddler0520]

I'm not well schooled in the best way to prep under a deck. @jimmythegreek knows that stuff. Maybe he can weigh in.

When you say "pebble around the edge," are you talking about a rock hardscape material? Keep in mind that kids will lose things over the edge, like pool toys and balls, etc, and they'll want to climb out of the pool and cross that border to retrieve their stuff, so they'll want to be able to walk across that surface. And then walk back across it and jump back in. So whatever the material, it should be feet-friendly and something that won't stick to their feet and end up in the pool. Or...

You could plot a few pathways across the "rock mote" using either the paver material or the coping material. Just a few stones, maybe a few inches apart, to span the rock. You don't have to do much. Just lay them on the dirt, or maybe a bit of sand to help level them, then surround them with the pebble material. Maybe you still have some of the pavers or stones leftover? Or could still buy a few more pieces?

I bought a whole palette of flagstone to match my pool's coping and have built several pathways. One near my pool to cross the ground cover I planted. One in my side yard, and a few out front. Then other stones steps to be able to cross mulch to get to the gas meter, the breaker box, etc. Ties all my yards together and allows me to cross landscaping areas while barefoot. So if you buy more pieces, you might keep an eye out for other areas you might want to have some stone pathways.

Here I recently replaced grass with mulch and ground cover. When the ground cover finishes filling in, I'll still be able to get to my lemon tree. (If I can ever hope to get a lemon off the d--n thing!) The kids use these steps all the time to recover their toys. Notice it matches well enough, but not quite perfectly with the existing flagstone inlays in my deck. Now is the time to buy more if you want a good match, otherwise months or years from now you might have trouble finding the same color/texture. (Ignore the two stone anchors and the rope, that's for something else.)

View attachment 172438

Here's more in my front yard. Same: to get across the same ground cover once it fills in (another lawn replaced). I snuck in a few stones into the city's park strip so that guests could get from their car across the rosemary hedge. Otherwise, when the rosemary matures, it would someday be impassable.

View attachment 172439

I did all these myself. Pretty easy. Just cleared the mulch, put down some sand for leveling, smushed in the stone, then filled the mulch back in. A few have started to "rock" a bit as I step on them, I just lift them up and throw down a handful or two of sand to re-level them. Eventually they settle in.

Your yard is great Dirk, guess that’s the fun part over time for sure. I actually have about a 1/2 pallet of flagstone leftover from their stonework - might need more but was thinking about stepping stones as well. Possibly having decorative pebbles/rocks and putting flagstone spaced in it for their feet as that’s an excellent point in crossing over that barrier back into the pool or into the lawn. Good thing I guess is nothing that I’m considering is permanent so to speak albeit no one likes rework. Something I’ll learn over time is how the pool/yard is really utilized by the kiddos and adjust from there.

I’ll post some pics next week after we finish up deck, steps etc. and begin to finalize things for pebble.

I’m interested in seeing how the spillover looks/sounds as I have this “image” in my head and we will see how close it gets.

Appreciate all the help - I can honestly say this site likely saved this build (hopefully)

 

[Dirk]

That's the great thing about the stone paths I laid out and the way I built them. It'll be easy to move them around should I ever need to...

 

[RoyR]

Power wash and clean that shell and SPA interior before the waterproofing / plaster....

 

[mbnc1]

How did everything end up with this build?

 

[Riddler0520]

How did everything end up with this build?

Hi and thanks for asking

we are just waiting in pebble - a few delays occurred the last 6-8 weeks
They had to lift up some of the deck to get to a line of Conduit because it was cracked and they couldn’t pull through the bubbler line - that’s now all fixed and put back together

we created some delay ourselves as we were undecided on color

and weather - past 1.5 weeks and looks like next week rain rain and more rain - good news is the deck has held up well with all the rain - the water seems to be channeling away from deck

I’ll be sure to update thread once plaster pebble occurs and we finally wrap this up

 

[Dirk]

I can't now remember... Did I share the meter trick with you, for determining your water volume when you fill the pool for the first time?

 

[TexasEd]

I can't now remember... Did I share the meter trick with you, for determining your water volume when you fill the pool for the first time?

I will need to know that in a couple months.

Edit: I thought about it. I would use my hose to fill a five gallon bucket and time it. Divide that time by 5 and I will know how long it takes to put a gallon in the pool from that hose. While filling the pool time how long it takes to fill the whole pool and divide that by the time per gallon to get the number of gallons in the pool. Is that it?

 

[Dirk]

Sorry, no time today. If I don't make it back to your thread, ping me when you get closer. It's definitely something you'll want to do...

 

[Carnut12]

Wow that looks amazing I’m in the process of moving to GA and we will likely go Gunite this time (we were reluctant to do so in New England) our lot slopes slightly down like yours and this is very similar to what I was thinking from a Spa spilling over at the high end standpoint.

Did you design this or did they? Can’t wait to see the end result.

 

[Riddler0520]

Wow that looks amazing I’m in the process of moving to GA and we will likely go Gunite this time (we were reluctant to do so in New England) our lot slopes slightly down like yours and this is very similar to what I was thinking from a Spa spilling over at the high end standpoint.

Did you design this or did they? Can’t wait to see the end result.

Hi, and thank you for the kind words..Due to the lot, 5ft elevation drop and water/drainage issues this has been a journey for sure. I had a good sense of what we were looking to do and the PB helped bring it to life through multiple revisions but our intent was to leverage what we had and create a dynamic spillover with an extra large spa as a key feature.....plaster should be done within weeks and sod installed mid month..will be sure to post final pics.

 

[Dirk]

I thought about it. I would use my hose to fill a five gallon bucket and time it. Divide that time by 5 and I will know how long it takes to put a gallon in the pool from that hose. While filling the pool time how long it takes to fill the whole pool and divide that by the time per gallon to get the number of gallons in the pool. Is that it?

That will work, but there's a much easier, more accurate way. You use your home's water meter (out at the street). You take a pic of the meter reading just before you or the plaster guys start the hose. Then you minimize water use during the fill: turn off irrigation, no laundry, minimal or no showers, minimal toilet flushes, etc. Then you take another pic of your water meter when the pool reaches halfway up the skimmer opening. The difference between the two numbers is your pool volume. If you took some showers or flushed, you can subtract a few gallons from the number, but either way if will be very close. The advantage to this method is that you can use as many hoses as you can muster to speed things up.

You might mark halfway up the skimmer opening with some tape, because it's hard to tell where that is when water is in the opening, due to reflection and refraction, and because it's always in the middle of the night when the pool gets full!

Be sure your PB and the plaster crew know what you want to do, because they'll start the fill immediately after they're done, and you can easily miss it. Locate the meter well in advance, clean it out if you can't get at the numbers easily. Don't wait until they're ready to fill to go looking for it.

 

[Riddler0520]

PebbleSheen Prism Blue
Acid wash tomorrow then I have 3 water tankers coming to fill

Will post pics once full and equip start up

home stretch