Is this turning into a disaster?

Jump to latest Follow Reply
T

Technobuyer

Bronze Supporter
May 29, 2016
148
fort worth, tx
Hello TFP People,

I've been lurking off and on for a little while, and have learned alot from what I've read. I'm afraid my new pool is quickly turning into a disaster build. I live around the DFW area, and after interviewing several PB's, I settled on one, who was local, had been in business a while, and had built for a few people we knew. We came up with our plans, got our financing squared away, and then waited a bit due to rain.

Last Saturday, the PB booked the excavation crew, despite the week calling for rain. We expressed no desire to press in the rain, and even stated quite clearly our preference to wait. He basically said it could always rain, and they would get it done quickly during the break in rain. I asked repeatedly about the steel and gunite people, and he said the steel crew would be in the next day, with gunite right after that. Well, he forgot about the holiday weekend and we got lots of rain, some minor caving but nothing major. Steel guys came out, and had to start and stop because of continued rain, but after two days got it done. Massive storm last night, lots of water, and about 3' of water in deep end resulted.

Today with forecast calling for even more rain, and gunite crew showed up at 0630 and went to work trying to beat the rain. PB didn't inform crews of the distance, so pushing the gunite took a while. It also took a while to drain the deep end with a sump pump, and in the end, never really got it empty. They did have plastic and masonite down behind the deep end steel. The sump pump ran all day, never getting empty. Still running in fact. The pushed water around toward the pump using the gunite gun. Nevertheless, they made some progress, getting about 1/3 done until the forecast rain hit, and they called it quits to return tomorrow. And yes, there is more rain in forecast for tomorrow.

My big concern is how well will the gunite sprayed tomorrow(or whenever) bond with the gunite they did today?

Alot of the gunite they did today kinda washed out on the bottom. Can they simply spray on top of it again?

There's still a mess in the deep end, that I'm not sure how they are going to resolve.

How big a hit is all this going to be to the structural integrity of the pool?

At every step of the way, I expressed concern for what was going on, and for their doing this in such crappy conditions, and the PB just pretty much blew me off. I've got lots of pics and video, and even pics of him watching what was occurring. I get the feeling he gambled and lost on the weather, and is now in over his head. He said that this is the worst rain he's dealt with while building a pool.

I've attached some pics. What do ya'll think?

432.jpg

441.jpg
 
We are in granbury. Our pool was started three weeks ago. After they finished digging our pool it rained 4". No big deal. They pumped it out. A week later they did the gunite. Same day within an hour we got another big rain. A week later they came out and formed the deck. Big rain the next day. Had to wait 4-5 days then they took a chance and poured. As soon as they got the exposed aggregate done it started pouring. Luckily they got it covered. Everything seems to be ok. Plaster next week when it dries. It's rained over a foot here in the past 3-4 days. I honestly wouldn't worry about it. You will be dry for a long time after Saturday. I don't know much about gunite spraying. But it's a lot different than normal concrete. I think it will bond just fine to the stuff spread previously. It's a different texture. I understand your concern. I think you will be ok though. Don't sweat the weather. You will be praying for rain in July. Rain is frustrating during a pool build. But it looks much worse than it really is.


Matt
 
Welcome to TFP!
Looks like they essentially did a flash coat of gunite to reduce cave-ins. Honestly you are probably getting upset unnecessarily. I would fully expect your PB to make it 100% right with no hit to shell integrity. You have basically no gunite yet to be concerned about the bonding issue. Communication may not be great but that seldom causes pool shells to fail, it mostly just leads to some frustration but not usually inferior products. Try to stay positive.
I do understand your PB's desire to 'move forward'. He may view your requests for managing his schedule as micromanaging him. Most people aren't big fans of that. Maybe it shouldn't be like this in an ideal world, but you'll see after reviewing a sampling of build threads here that building a pool is not an ideal world situation.
I really feel like he will come through just fine and you may be best served to let him proceed on his schedule at this point in the project.
 
Last edited:
In my earlier reply I missed the post showing the partial gunite, however though a two-day shoot is not the norm, it's certainly note unusual and will present no issues. Commercial pools are done in multiple day shoots routinely.
 
bmoreswim said:
In my earlier reply I missed the post showing the partial gunite, however though a two-day shoot is not the norm, it's certainly note unusual and will present no issues. Commercial pools are done in multiple day shoots routinely.
Click to expand...

Thanks ya'll!

Sorry my picture adding technique is not so hot yet. In that second pic, what looks like a flash coat is actually just some cement the steel guys spread around after they finished up to help keep things in place until today. So far his subs have seemed pretty good actually. The gunite guys did flash coat everything today before they started into the main spraying. I think they already knew how this was going to turn out, and wanted to make sure things held in place.

That's a great point about commercial pools. Not being at all familiar with gunite properties, it may be just fine. Sure doesn't look good though.
 
Looks great! Beautiful setting. Will the open space remain undeveloped? Is that everyone's backyards that extend back there?
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply