IG Vinyl Build: It's Happening!

[Newdude]

Not sure how I’ll do with the grass this time of year though.

It will probably surprise you. Pretty much if you water it, it will grow. Not as quickly, but it will grow. Although, with seed prices being insane, you might want to wait if it gets any colder to maximize your precious commodities investment that you needed a HELOC for.

 

[kimkats]

For the small wrinkle you can use a toilet plunger to move the wrinkle a bit at a time. You might be able to get it all the way out or over to the wall where it will not be noticed.

 

[Dirk]

For the small wrinkle you can use a toilet plunger to move the wrinkle a bit at a time.

I'm afraid we're going to need pics or video of that... someone toilet-plungering their pool!!

 

[kimkats]

That and my turkey baster get a lot of blinks but hey they work!!! LOL

 

[TKpoolOH]

For the small wrinkle you can use a toilet plunger to move the wrinkle a bit at a time. You might be able to get it all the way out or over to the wall where it will not be noticed.

I like the idea. We will wait until spring time to give it a try. Water is 56. Snow is in forecast Tuesday. Thinking that wrinkle can wait.

 

[TKpoolOH]

Few little things left to do Monday morning, but should be all set for underground inspection Monday afternoon.

 

[TKpoolOH]

Oh forgot to ask this question…have intellibrite 5g leds. The pilot screw they provided seems to be too short. Barely goes on to hold intellibrite in. Anyone have any insight on that? Am using the Pentair large quick niche with it.

 

[ajw22]

Oh forgot to ask this question…have intellibrite 5g leds. The pilot screw they provided seems to be too short. Barely goes on to hold intellibrite in. Anyone have any insight on that? Am using the Pentair large quick niche with it.

Maybe @1poolman1 has experience with that.

Can you post a pic of the way the light niche is installed?

 

[FuturePoolOwner]

What are the dimensions and depth of your pool?

 

[Dirk]

Few little things left to do Monday morning, but should be all set for underground inspection Monday afternoon.

Have you considered running any extra empty PVC conduit or pipes in those trenches (before or after the inspection, but before they backfill)? Now's the time. You might thank yourself later, if you decide to add some yard feature(s).

Empty 2-3" conduit (with sweep elbows) for high-voltage:
- post lighting
- extra 120V outlet(s)
- mosquito light
- animal shock wire transformer
- flood lights
- bistro lights

2nd empty 2-3" conduit (with sweep elbows) for low-voltage:
- low voltage landscape lighting
- speaker wire
- several cat 6 cables (for security, cam, intercom, internet, HDTV, etc)
- irrigation control wires
- sensor wires (security, temperature, etc)

Water pipes:
- bird-bath fountain
- drinking fountain
- extra hose bibs
- irrigation valves

Drip tubing:
- for planned irrigation
- for as-yet-to-be-planned irrigation
- backup spares

Gas line:
- space heater
- fireplace
- fire ring
- bbq

You can just lay empty pipe and pull things later. Relatively easy and cheap to throw these in the trenches now. Expensive if not impossible later. Even if you've already got some of these things covered, throw in a few extras, in case they fail. I can almost guarantee that you will think of something you'll want back their later, for which a pre-run underground pipe or conduit will come in handy.

 

[TKpoolOH]

Maybe @1poolman1 has experience with that.

Can you post a pic of the way the light niche is installed?

No, they’re under water now. It’s per the manual.

 

[TKpoolOH]

Have you considered running any extra empty PVC conduit or pipes in those trenches (before or after the inspection, but before they backfill)? Now's the time. You might thank yourself later, if you decide to add some yard feature(s).

Empty 2-3" conduit (with sweep elbows) for high-voltage:
- post lighting
- extra 120V outlet(s)
- mosquito light
- animal shock wire transformer
- flood lights
- bistro lights

2nd empty 2-3" conduit (with sweep elbows) for low-voltage:
- low voltage landscape lighting
- speaker wire
- several cat 6 cables (for security, cam, intercom, internet, HDTV, etc)
- irrigation control wires
- sensor wires (security, temperature, etc)

Water pipes:
- bird-bath fountain
- drinking fountain
- extra hose bibs
- irrigation valves

Drip tubing:
- for planned irrigation
- for as-yet-to-be-planned irrigation
- backup spares

Gas line:
- space heater
- fireplace
- fire ring
- bbq

You can just lay empty pipe and pull things later. Relatively easy and cheap to throw these in the trenches now. Expensive if not impossible later. Even if you've already got some of these things covered, throw in a few extras, in case they fail. I can almost guarantee that you will think of something you'll want back their later, for which a pre-run underground pipe or conduit will come in handy.

That is one long laundry list of ideas! All valid and great points. I do have one extra 1” pvc conduit with sweep elbows for an additional electrical need if I can think of one. Anything I’ve tried to think of I would do all on my covered patio next to the house (TV, bistro lighting, etc.). No need for any gas, I’m all electric. I also have flood lighting off the house that illuminates the entire backyard already. Actually considered not putting lights in the pool (who wants to cut holes in their liner!) because the entire pool area is already illuminated. Thanks for all the thoughts though.

 

[Dirk]

Do consider landscape lighting. It makes a huge impact. I have throughout. I have both down lights, lighting up the pool deck, and up lights, shining up through the surrounding trees. Plus I hung a very long strand of white mini-LED xmas lights all around my back fence. I call those my bistro lights. Never fails to illicit oohs and ahs when I turn them on. The bistro lights are dimmable. Between that, by under-patio lighting (also dimmable) and the Pentair 5G, I can get some amazing affects. Sometimes it's not about how much light, but rather how subtle the light. I'm a bit of a lighting nerd (a subgroup of my overall nerdiness), so I'm projecting. But it does look really nice. You can't really photograph the affects with a smartphone, so these don't do it justice, but these are at least a good sampling of the variety possible:





All my various electrical goodies are on separate controls. I accomplished that with one circuit and a box full of HA switches out back. But I wish I had separate hard-wired circuits running under the deck (an example of what one can't do later). Which is why I recommended at least a 2" conduit, so you could pull a bunch of wires through it, including pulling a wire after the first pull, which is hard or impossible to do when the conduit is already full of wires.

 

[TKpoolOH]

Do consider landscape lighting. It makes a huge impact. I have throughout. I have both down lights, lighting up the pool deck, and up lights, shining up through the surround trees. Plus I hung a very long strand of white mini-LED xmas lights all around my back fence. I call those my bistro lights. Never fails to illicit oohs and ahs when I turn them on. The bistro lights are dimmable. Between that, by under-patio lighting (also dimmable) and the Pentair 5G, I can get some amazing affects. Sometimes it's not about how much light, but rather how subtle the light. I'm a bit of a lighting nerd (a subgroup of my overall nerdiness), so I'm projecting. But it does look really nice. You can't really photograph the affects with a smartphone, so these don't do it justice, but these are at least a good sampling of the variety possible:

View attachment 458218

View attachment 458220

All my various electrical goodies are on separate controls. I accomplished that with one circuit and a box full of HA switches out bay,. But I wish I had separate hard-wired circuits running under the deck (an example of what one can't do later). Which is why I recommended at least a 2" conduit, so you could pull a bunch of wires through it, including pulling a wire after the first pull, which is hard or impossible to do when the conduit is already full of wires.

That’s some serious lighting effects! Looks awesome, like a resort.

I’m not much of a bells and whistles kind of person. I like to eliminate “moving parts” where I can. I’m gonna like all the features in my pool but I loved how my old pool only had one thing, a pump. So simple, nothing ever went wrong! Another example, I live in what people call the snow belt off Lake Erie and my father wanted to get me a snow blower. I said no thanks, I’ll shovel because all I could think of was the hassle getting small engines to work in cold weather. Plus manual labor is good exercise.

Thanks so much for all the ideas.

 

[TKpoolOH]

What are the dimensions and depth of your pool?

20x40x32 L. Shallow is 3’ deep 16x32 with 16’ liner covered stair. Hopper is 8’6” deep 20x24.

 

[Newdude]

I said no thanks, I’ll shovel because all I could think of was the hassle getting small engines to work in cold weather

Those days are long gone with new machines. All you have to do is stabilize the gas when you purchase it. I add mine to the tank before going to the gas station. If I did it after, I'd get distracted when i got home, 2 weeks would go by and it would already be bad gas. At the end of winter, run it dry.

My 13 year old blower is going strong. It has electric start but it only takes 2 pulls and it will take longer to get an extension cord to start it.

Growing up, watching my dad fight with his every year, even after paying for yearly servicing........ Yeah, No. Those days are long gone if you're using stabilized gas.

 

[Dirk]

Never getting rain sucks... most of the time...

 

[TKpoolOH]

I sooooo wish I had a picture of this! I passed my underground plumbing/electrical/binding inspection today, Yay! The funny part was, it was snowing and raining ice pellets like crazy, so the inspector was like yep, looks good, I’m outta here. On to the home stretch now, shouldn’t be anything stopping me from being completely finished here in October

Question: PB suggested adding phosfree. I won’t have filter running for probably another week. Even though it’s snowing today, it’s gonna be in the 70s this weekend. Thoughts? I haven’t put anything but water in the pool so far.

 

[Newdude]

I say skip the Phosfree. How much organic matter possibly blew in the pool in a week ? It's measured in parts per billion and it takes a while to accumulate enough to care. With no FC, you'll care much sooner, but I don't think the difference between 0 and 173 ppb can possibly matter. Plus, many phosphate treatments particulate and need to be vacuumed after they settle.

Polyquat would be a better insurance if you can't use chlorine yet.

I'd be adding bleach and mixing it with a submersible pump, and then the PQ and phosfree wouldn't be needed.

 

[TKpoolOH]

I wouldn't think much organic matter came in either. I've been playing pool boy and skimming out all the leaves that have ended up in there.

You mentioned Polyquat if I can't use chlorine yet, but then also you'd be adding bleach. Any reason why I can't add chlorine as long as I mix it? Also, my submersible pump is currently being used to make sure my overdig stays dry as it keeps raining/snowing. If I started dumping in chlorine, would I need to add any bleach? Also, is mixing by brushing the pool sufficient water movement after pouring chlorine/bleach or would it definitely need to have a submersible pump?