New AGP build, summer 2020 St. Louis

[eyedoc_01]

Hi all,

I was encouraged to start a pool build thread on my experiences, so I thought I would share in the hopes that someone can learn from my mistakes experience.

We decided to get a pool due to coronavirus concerns about going to the large public pools. As you see from the picture, we do have room for it in the backyard. The previous had actually had an AGP, but when we arrived all that was left was an ugly low spot in the yard that collects water and mud.

By the time we decided to get the pool, very few pools were left in America, it seemed. And the local pool stores said the factories were on backorder and it would be two months to get delivery and install. My wife was able to use her internet search skills to find a 27' Saltwater Aurora all resin pool, which arrived yesterday!

Bad news is the permit process around here takes about 3 weeks. 48 hours to "quarantine" application, then 10 days to review, then potentially a site visit to ensure it's flat enough, then we can put the pool in. Anybody else run into this kind of trouble?

Here's an overhead view of the yard with pool location.

 

[eyedoc_01]

Initial dig weekend was June 6-7. Rented a walk behind Bobcat. Took 7.5 of 8 total rental hours and a water level, but got pretty close. Even digging down a few inches to the low spot creates a tremendous amount of dirt! I dumped it on the high side of the pool since there was a big dip there. Now it appears a retaining wall will be our best bet functionally and cosmetically.

We realized early on we would need to upgrade the electric in the garage to pass code. The previous homeowner consistently took a lot of shortcuts. For instance, I recently discovered that every three prong receptacle in our TV room actually was NOT grounded, it only had hot and neutral wires. Not only that, but he'd jumped the ground screw to the neutral to fool an inspector. That's not just lazy, that's actually dangerous.

So excavation was going pretty well until I "discovered" the conduit that runs electricity from the house to the garage was buried 6" deep only. Thankfully I didn't break it with the bobcat, just pulled it up a little. Our electrician must have assumed that the conduit was buried to code (minimum 18") since a) that's code and b) the conduit leaves the basement at least 2 feet below grade. Anyway he had recommended leaving the conduit in place and pulling through 10g wire to make a 40 amp subpanel in the garage. But due to that discovery, we are now going to do an overhead drop from the house to the garage for the subpanel. At least it's one more thing in the house that will be up to code!