New Build in NE FL

Good to know about the sealers. I called Laticrete and spoke to a technical advisor rep. He said the Enhancer series has a water based sealer for travertine that will soak in to the stone, protect it, and give the wet look. Expected wear is 3 to 5 years. I believe the other sealers were 5-10 as you stated pushin glass. Will have to see which one is going to be best for us. And you are so right on having to be your own GC. I feel like we need a 30k discount for being our own GC and having to hold every subs hand throughout this process. Seriously, not one step has been done without at least 1 mistake, usually more. And who knows what kind of cluster it would have been if I wasn't home every day. Today the private inspector was out to check the gas lines. He said this company is the best PB they inspect for and always have excellent builds that have no issues and are done quickly. I guess we are the lucky ones and all the bad juju came here. Let's hope the final project, the plaster, goes off with no mistakes at all. Maybe we can finish on a good note. His pics and pools we saw in person (he was a PB before switching to strictly plaster) were very nicely done.

The plaster guy sent me pics of the iredescent mini glass beads today. One is an ice blue and the other a white. They are very pretty and would allow us to get the mini pebble with glass (he strictly does the finishes the way NPT teaches them and even though you technically can do mini pebble and glass, he will not do it so no point fighting him) and also have a finish no one in the area has as this is a brand new product.

So I told him we want to go with Tropics Blue mini pebble and take out 3 bags of white pebble and add in 2 bags of iredescent blue and 1 bag white mini glass per batch and then hand cast abalone at the end. The NPT reps and plaster guy both agree the white will add more sparkle too.

Construction manager is still saying plaster and water next week. We can't see it. There is so much work to be done still.

I put a call in to construction manager to let coping guy know things need to be fixed on spa and also, they are short on material again. Only 7 pieces of coping left and the wall alone is 10 feet of coping. That doesn't include fixing the spa. I am sure I will need to be on the look out and make sure they don't try to steal from the deck material (looks completely different).

Oh here is the pic of the blue iredescent mini glass beads
20451939_10212309509720076_7454325571178621303_o.jpg


And these are the white iredescent mini glass beads
20617111_10212309509040059_7880930032234330968_o.jpg
 
That is a great way to show you the pretty! Very nice of him! I like your plan with -/+ of the beads!

I wonder if you put a sheet or blanket on the stone you do not want them to use will stop them? Out of sight, out of mind? You can even add a note "I will HURT you if you use this stone!"

Kim:kim:
 
Deck crew is finally here (only 1.5 hours late). I did a quick walk thru with them, showing them that the tape doesnt mean replace, it just means an issue. I pointed out the scratched ones and then also the uneven areas. They said they are going to repair the deck where needed and build the 2 door patios today. I think they will just be starting and not finished today as over 25% of the deck needs leveling and about 10-15% needs replacing.

I did mark the spa coping as well. The guy asked me (even though he doesnt do coping) and I showed him the 6 pieces that weren't cut properly and the 2 pieces that are scratched. This is a younger guy, I would guess early 20s, so hoping he understood my English as well as he said he did. Lol

Rain has started but thankfully the bad stuff is just south of us. Looks like a little more than an hour before some stronger stuff gets here. But at least we have some work being done. And hey, the rain does cool things off and clouds keep the sun off of them.

Last night we signed the paperwork from plaster company talking about variation in the finish, etc. There was a line saying weather conditions can cause normal mottling which is a haze or cloudy appearance and is not considered a defect. I know I read about mottling on here but can't remember what was said. Will try to search and see what was posted.

PB sent us the change order detailing the plaster finish (and not a word about the cost). I know just to do Tropics Blue it was $1200 and that doesn't include any glass beads. But after all the issues esp with my glass accent tile, I think it is acceptable. Honestly, with all the issues combined and having to basically GC this ourselves, I think the upcharge for laying travertine, the screen upgrade, and all the little stuff should be washed but I doubt that will happen. But hey, we are getting our finish and it will be beautiful so def a positive. And hoping these guys do a good job repairing the deck and we can keep moving forward.
 
Guys got about half the deck leveled and laid out both patios. The older guy working on the patios said tomorrow he will finish them with concrete and sand. I assume they will replace the damaged pavers after they level everything. Brought them all fresh ice water as everyone who has our water here loves it and asks what brand (lol Uhm Florida? We have a deep well and no chemicals). Trying to keep them happy so they do it right this time and no issues. Thankfully the heavy rain held off and they got 2.5 hours of work today.

Here is one patio they have laid out. Need to measure to make sure everything is correct
20643128_10212319326165481_535498183914465849_o.jpg
 
Guys got about half the deck leveled and laid out both patios. The older guy working on the patios said tomorrow he will finish them with concrete and sand. I assume they will replace the damaged pavers after they level everything. Brought them all fresh ice water as everyone who has our water here loves it and asks what brand (lol Uhm Florida? We have a deep well and no chemicals). Trying to keep them happy so they do it right this time and no issues. Thankfully the heavy rain held off and they got 2.5 hours of work today.

Here is one patio they have laid out. Need to measure to make sure everything is correct
20643128_10212319326165481_535498183914465849_o.jpg

You might want to go to Home Depot or lowes and get a downspout extension to move the water away from your pavers. The water coming down will need to be moved out away from your patio otherwise you will end up with a hole.
 

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Brent, we are going to do french drains off these down spouts to direct the water away from the house. Given we are in a flood evacuation zone, we need to do everything we can to move water from the house.

Check on that. We learned the hard way after a few hard rains and I later observed that the water coming down the spouts was eroding the soil it was falling onto so we directed one spout into the 4 inch pipe which ran into the preserve behind our property and I also had an internal deck drain installed which connected directly into the 4 inch pipe. On the other downspout I just put a plate to divert water gently onto the lawn. We have 3 downspouts total coming off the super gutters. Unfortunately when we have very hard downpours, it seems that the channell drains around the pool can't seem to handle the large water run runoff, but after a few minutes it all drains off the pavers :cheers:
 
Great call on the drains...before the pool my spouts were eroding my soil so I burried all mine with pop-up heads further out in the yard and it works well. Patio looks terrific ShantellyLace!
 
Thank you! We dont have gutters anywhere else (have been saying we need them for 10 years but money always goes to other things bc who wants to buy gutters? Lol)

No one showed up today. Hubby messaged construction manager and told him. CM was not happy as they were scheduled to be here. Hubby also asked if the electricians were scheduled and still no but somehow plaster next week and no lights or bubblers are wired up and there are 2 giant holes in the shell that CM cut out to get to the bubblers conduit. So yeah we aren't holding our breath for plaster next week. But at least we got that change order signed and it is being ordered.

Oh we did get our gas tank filled today since we passed our inspection (we had to do all the gas stuff ourselves. Funny how the subs and inspections we organized all got taken care of quickly and correctly). Now to stain the fire bowls and as soon as the coping is finished we can hook it all up.
 
Bubblers are finally installed correctly. Electricians should be here to finish tomorrow morning. Not sure about deck or plaster as there's still a ton of prep and cleanup to do. The timeline of this pool continues to make me livid. There is no way this pool company will make me happy after all of this.

- - - Updated - - -

At least we got our test kit and whale brush!
 
Yeah. The electricians came this morning and Installed the 5 led lights 2 in the pool, 2 bubbler lights on the tanning ledge and 1 in the spa. Still need to hookup sheer decent led and the 3 deck lights. Of course pool builder must have those deck lights installed and ready for wiring. Who knows how long this will take. One thing is for sure they will have to force my last payment with a lawyer before I give them money when water is I and they havn finished the rest of the projects.
 

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