New build - 18x36

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ntobik said:
Just wanted to chime in and say I'm glad to see another Pittsburgher on here building a pool! Best of luck with the build, I'll be following the thread.

We're in the North Hills and had 100 swim days in this year. Going to upgrade my heater in the spring and I'm hoping for 120 days next year, it's not a terrible place to have a pool.
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Hey ntobik....we're in Greensburg (about 20 miles SE of Pittsburgh). I had an above group pool previously and got very little use out of it due to cold water. We had a solar heater that was relatively ineffective.

On this pool, we're getting a heat pump. Not sure of the model just yet. I'm shooting for May 15th - October 15th but that may be a bit ambitious - 150 days of swimming. We'll run the heat pump and also have a solar cover on at night.
 
Veccster said:
Hey ntobik....we're in Greensburg (about 20 miles SE of Pittsburgh). I had an above group pool previously and got very little use out of it due to cold water. We had a solar heater that was relatively ineffective.

On this pool, we're getting a heat pump. Not sure of the model just yet. I'm shooting for May 15th - October 15th but that may be a bit ambitious - 150 days of swimming. We'll run the heat pump and also have a solar cover on at night.
Click to expand...

I don't think that's ambitious at all. That's essentially what we did, although we stopped swimming late Sept.

We have a gas heater. I opened the pool when the water was 74, ran the heater for a day and jump started it to 85. Then kept the solar cover on when we weren't using it. It was hot this summer, but the pool was between 85-92 all summer. When we did our "polar bear swim" on October 1st it was still in the mid 70s. I used the heater three times for about 30 hours of total heating. With a better heater I'm hoping to extend the season into mid-October next year.
 
Question on drainage...

We have a downspout pipe that crossed the excavation area toward the deep end of the pool. The builder cut the pipe and intends to add 45 degree fittings and reroute the pipe along the backside, and reconnect with the pipe on the other side. The pipe terminates in a gravel pit further down in the yard (a swell). This part is all fine with me.

I just learned that he is not going to bother with a french drain around the pool. Instead, he is going to add a T fitting to the pipe that extends up a little bit. He'll cap the ends of that pipe with a perforated fitting - so water can enter. IF water builds up around the pool, his thought is it will find it's way to that perforated opening and drain into the swell.

The pipe does conveniently come out right near the footer of the steel walls.

Is this enough? Should note that we're on a hill and don't typically have ground water issues. Also, we're going to have a large concrete deck around the pool so not much water should even be able to get in there.


I'll edit and include pictures - as soon as Photobucket and/or Tinypic are back online.
 
I don't see the need for you to have a french drain system underneath your deck on the upper side of your pool. Since you are on a hill, like we are, with generally well draining soil, there should not be an issue. We do have a retaining wall on the upper side of our pool with a french drain behind it, but that's for a retaining wall and my downspouts direct water towards the area. My only concern would be if you have large volumes of surface water on the uphill side of the pool draining down towards the deck (which is sloped away from the pool uphill so to speak). Then you could possibly be creating a situation where water wants to pool on the upper side of your deck/pool. But hopefully your general drainage is around your pool area and I'd expect no resulting issues.

What is commonly done as a precaution for vinyl pools is to have one or more well points installed (vertical PVC pipe of a certain diameter which goes down below the pool depth) on the upper side in your case. Then if you need to drain the pool, you could peer into the well points to determine what the water table looks like. Mostly likely it would be very low or not visible. But if the water was visible, then a pump would be dropped in and ran during the time the pool needed to be emptied or water lowered (liner replacement time for example). That would be the most I would expect needing to be done, and probably isn't even necessary.
 
Thanks bmore. Here are some additional pictures that clarify the pipes (and some update to the progress).

I don't think we generally have too much water coming down the hill. Our downspouts and french drain for the house go into the pipes. The street above the house has sewer drains (newer neighborhood). And the pool is directly behind the house.

I did consider a pipe for verifying water level / sump pump. Before we backfill with gravel, that is something I will discuss with him. Its only the cost of a short pipe and could save a lot of pain in the future. Even if overkill, it's cheap insurance. What are the downsides?

Pipes coming from the upper side (from downspouts):


Where they will reconnect to:



Backside of house:



Steps / Bench:



Deep end bench:



Deck supports are in place:






 
I see zero issues with drainage on your (beautiful) site. Though that wouldn't stop me from dropping a pipe of the appropriate diameter in just in case. No downsides, just an exposed/capped pipe somewhere.

Is the PB planning to add radius corners to your pool? I've heard of numerous issues over the years of folks with square corners on vinyl pools having difficulty getting/keeping the liner corners aligned. Radius corners allow for more wiggle room.
 
Here is the drainage solution....a double sided drain that will sit down in the gravel backfill. The pipes continue a few more feet and terminate into a gravel swell (large pit dug when they built the house). I'm satisfied with it. And the builder certainly saves a bit of cash by not needing pipe for a french drain (which was originally discussed).






He also added additional deck support where the waterfall box will sit.

 

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Back with an update and question. They are getting ready to pour the cantilever coping border around the pool. It's going to be a darker brown than the rest of the decking.

My question is if they should ROUND the outside corners of the border. The inside corner will be rounded the same as the 6" radius corners of the pool. As of now, it looks like the outside corners (where 2x4's meet) will be squared. Should the outside match the inside???







He's expecting we'll have around 14 yards of concrete.....1,100 sq feet of decking. Everything I read is get as much as you can afford.
 
I think whether or not you round the outside corners of the cantilever coping has a very big impact on the vibe of the pool. In my mind rounded corners makes me think of 70's or 80's pools. While square is much more classic (or contemporary ironically).

Square outside corner:
http://www.poolsrus.com.au/images/pools/xFREEDOM-POOLS-PHOTOS-189.jpg.pagespeed.ic.vzgII254px.webp

Round outside corner:
http://tulsacustompools.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/rectangle-liner-corner-stepps.jpg

I saw many more examples on Google of the squared outside corner on pools where there is cantilever coping and the coping is delineated in some way. Given your house style I think the square outside corner is a better fit.
 
I spent a long time on Google Images looking for an example that had rounded inside and squared outside and came up empty. Lots of examples of rounded and rounded. Nice find!!!

I agree on the classic and contemporary. What do you think about the layout of our concrete decking then? Our purpose in rounding everything on the outside was to soften the straight lines of the rectangle pool. Perhaps it will be a nice contrast???

The border is brown (called Lava) and the decking is Sandstone.
 
I think that rounding the deck will look nice with the square outer-edge coping. Some people seem to go overboard with the deck curves, which can impact functionality. My goal would be to soften the look while retaining the surface area.
 
I appreciate your input.

The rounded areas do serve a purpose...the deep end curve (which will soon be extended a bit further out) will accommodate a slide. The bumped out area in the shallow end (near the steps) will be for loungers. And coming off the long straight center of the deep end will be a paver area with a built-in firepit.
 
Ok...we kept the 90 degree outside and radius inside corners. They are pouring the border today.

Any suggestions on deck jet placement? We have 4 jets. My thought is two in deep end (short side) and 2 in the shallow end on the long walls.

Here:

 
Well, the wife kapootzed that idea. So we decided on putting the 4 jets on the same side....closest to the house and evenly spaced. otherwise, it might be too cluttered with the waterfall box, slide and stairs/benches. Secondary benefit is that it will push all water toward the 2 skimmers.
 
My pool has three returns on one side pushing water to the two skimmers on the other side. And one return on the other side producing opposite the surface flow & a bit down lower (it's a pressure vac return). All works fine. I'm going to ditch the cleaner and put a return fitting to direct the water towards the bottom.
My setup clears surface debris fine.
 

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