New Build in Red Stick- **pic heavy** 3-25 update

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Re: New Build in Red Stick

No really visible progress to show pics of, but a nice heartwarming moment.

So I have been shovelling and wheelbarrowing gravel into the pool for a nice base for the concrete. 6 in over the whole 20X30 pad. Every evening after work. Tonight I have been really pushing it and am almost finished, I want to get to rebar and plumbing this weekend.

I am out there on wheelbarrow #30 for the evening, 25 shovels per wheelbarrow load. Sweating like a prostitute in confessional. My daughter (7 years) comes out and talks with me for a second, and then says "dad you must be working hard you are sweating all over!" and disappears. A few minutes later she comes out with my big mug filled with ice and water and tells me to take a break. She wants to put the rocks in the barrow for a while. I am grateful as heck for the water and sit down on the patio reading TFP. Darned if I dont hear a steady shovel-dump going. And no pansy shovels either. I am counting them, and at 35 she yells at me "Daddy you have to move this coz its too heavy for me!" She has the wheelbarrow overflowing. I go and dump it and put my gloves on thinking that she has probably had it with that work stuff... NO, she tells me to go sit back down and we do that two more times before I tell her that I am really proud of her and she has done enough shovelling. (I was worried about her hands with no gloves on my shovel). She goes and grabs the rake and starts spreading the gravel in the pool bottom while I am dumping more in. about 30 minutes later she says "daddy my skin is coming off and its kinda hurty!" Crud. Well I dressed her hands and sent her off to watch from the sidelines, but I tell ya, that one interaction with her was what made this all worth it, especially when she talked to me a second ago and said "Dad the pool will be better because we worked together on it huh?"

Oh my, there seems to be something in my eyes... the message seems to be getting through!
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick

I know how you must feel; I have two girls myself and it's always nice to spend time where we can. Unfortunately they don't shovel. You got a real doll there.

I hope you got your jets. I puchased my though a local supplier called PEP. It's a pool supply store. I got normal Venturi jets about 12 of them, the ones you can feed air through blower.



Regards and looking great.
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick

Yep, In desperation I contacted the manufacturer via email, and be darned if I didnt get a call back in about 1 hour, and he said he located some in stock at a dealer who was willing to expedite and I got em shipped overnight to me. They are sitting on my front porch now. Waterway venturi jet bodies about 15 of em (I got a few extras on the advice of someone on here) and I hope to get em installed this weekend or next. Think I will be doing some plumbing tomorrow and starting on the main pool body rebar on sunday. Monday is a holiday, so we will just see how far I can get!
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick

Lershac,
There is something about little girls and dads. It is hard to explain unless you have a couple and I do. Thanks for sharing that.

We are in the process of getting our pool done now as well. My smallest is 3 and she follows me around every where. She seems to be alot like your daughter. She loves helping her daddy. My oldest (16) wouldn't be caught dead with a shovel in her hand but that is ok too. But yesterday we are filling the pool and getting the liner sit and getting the steps cut in and she is dying to get in (My little one). I held out as long as I could.... but i had to let her so we get in and walk around in the shallow end for a little while and she just lights up. Keeps telling me thank you daddy for the pool. Thank you! Thank you! Giving me hugs.... Just lights up... you could tell how much she loved it and how excited she was to get to this point after being out there with me every night doing stuff. It was something I think I will always remember. It was one of those moments that make you realize why you work so hard and how lucky you really are.... It touched my heart in that way only little girls can do to you. It kind of made it all worth it for me....

Anyway thanks for your story and good luck with that build it looks like it is going to be really nice!
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick

ohhhh, just laid out my stake lines and I am going to have to take about a foot off the tanning shelf. 1' X 10' X ~5' ugh. 2 CY of dirt. Ugh. Ugh Ugh Ugh. and this dirt has turned into caliche... hard as a rock.
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick

Lershac, just a suggestion with the shelf. Make sure that is dug exactly the way the engineering prints call for. If you remember my own forum listing, the excavator got my shelf/entry area wrong. I had to remove the steel and then redig the shelf at an angle all way down until it was level with floor. The shotcrete then is used to fill it back up to the grade your plan calls for; this, as I understand it, is to prevent the shelf from separating later if the shell or shelf settles independently. I guess make sure its right the first time, even though it will be a pain in the behind. Happy Digging
:cry:
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick

Not a ton of visual progress this weekend.

Finished the gravel into the pool (about 15 tons of gravel moved by hand. More brains than sense I guess)

Framed in 3 sides of the pool, the top of the board is the top of the bond beam. I have not framed the 4th side b/c I am still figuring out how to do it in my head, the board is just going to be hanging out there in empty space due to the overdig by the excavator. Got to figure out a way to support it.

Dug and plumbed skimmers (they are not mounted yet, just sitting in holes). One of the skimmers the hole I put it in is not open to the pool, but the skimmer will be tied to the pool with the bond beam wrapping around the top of it. I dislike the idea a burying the skimmer in gunite b/c what if you need to do a repair? The other is open to the pool area due to the overdig.

Dug stairs into shelf (about 2 Cu Yd of dirt/clay) and moved that dirt out of the pool.

Installed drywell in-pool plumbing and stubbed out to bond beam exit.

Installed main drains and stubbed out to bond beam exit.

Made a mess with my tools that I am too tired to clean up right now. Siesta time.

My wife is a real trooper and got down there and shoveled gravel and spread it with a rake, and took about a zillion grade shots with me. My daughter also helped shovel the gravel and warm my heart (thanks!).

I have developed a pattern for working in the heat and humidity here (its currently 94 deg F and about 60% humidity according to my barometer). In the morning I do heavy work until it reaches 92 or so, usually around noon or 1. Then I eat and clean up, do any running I need to do for odds and ends, and NAP. I sleep until around 5, putter around until the shade hits the work area with plumbing and odds and ends, then get back out there and do heavy work until around midnight. I am also noticing I am adding to my wifes workload with extra laundry (2-3X showers a day) :(

We will see how I work during the work week. I usually am pretty pooped when I get home in the afternoon/evening.

Pic for progress. Notice how much SMALLER the gravel pile is in the back.

framing.JPG


A question for those that have installed rebar in a pool. How do you START? Where to start? Lay down all the laterals in the bottom and then cross them and then work up the wall? I am thinking the first vertical piece I put up will be a PITA b/c there will be nothing to secure it to the vertical. Just temporarily pin it in place? Kind of a pain doing this by myself. I need another guy to help.
 

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Re: New Build in Red Stick

Unfortunately, I CANNOT go 3", its just for the part from the jet body to the jet itself... need about 30-45 feet of precisely 2.5" sched 40. Our local Lowes sells sched 40 3", so if I could I certainly would use it.

Oh well off to southern pipe tomorrow then.
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick

Argh. Just walking around measuring things... I am 7" too high on that back bench seat. That with a few other areas I want to clean up I think I will be renting a mini trackhoe next weekend. I am really tired of the hand digging and the time it is taking. I have a 65 foot X 5" wide X 2 foot trench to dig too so it will allow me to knock that out as well.
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick

We hired a PB for our project. I watched them work and I took lots of photos (most of them for time lapse videos). This is the only pool I have ever had built, so this may not be the "Standard", the "Best" or even the "Right" way to do it.

#1 - They completely dug out the pool, spa and baja shelf
#2 - None of the plumbing was installed until after the rebar
#3 - The baja shelf was 'created' in several steps:
1) Framed out with rebar at the same time as the rest of the pool. See the Gunite Video
2) A layer of 'new' gunite was first shot onto the bottom of the step area. This is about 18-22" below the finished shelf
3) Lots of the 'Rebound' from the walls of the pool was scooped into the step
4) The top layer of the step and the sides were all 'new' gunite
5) The step was then cut down to the finished size like the rest of the pool
- The finished step is about 12' x 8' x 2' of solid concrete
- The remaining 'rebound' was thrown out of the pool and used to fill in the 'ramp' the bobcat used to dig
#4 - The shelf/rest/ledges we created in the deep end were also framed out with the rebar, they are contained within the perimeter of the pool and not dug out as a separate level. If your step will be outsise the perimeter of the pool I have no clue how they make those steps

I created and uploaded the first 8ish hours of rebar work. The two guys that installed the rebar were pros. They showed up before the sun and worked until it was done. I think it was a 15 hour day. They used two manual tools to bend and cut the rebar (no power tools at all). During a bunch of the first video they are working on the spa out of frame. The spa was framed up floating in the air. I'll attach a photo, let me know if you want it deleted. The video is in HD, so you can watch it full screen.

Rebar 1
http://youtu.be/X-915V4rii4

Rebar 2
http://youtu.be/7Zi9lckHv2s

Rebar at night
http://youtu.be/hEReiGAkByc
 

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Re: New Build in Red Stick

In a rare perfect storm of shipping, 32 boxes from 3 vendors all arrived today on a single UPS truck. Albeit a small ups truck, but my stuff was the only thing on it, and my driver was very happy. It looks like a pentair freight train derailed at my house.

only things left to order are the heat pump and the filter. The heat pump I am probably going to get locally out of new orleans (thanks josh!) and the filter I havent decided on where to order from yet. Its a ccp520 and huge, so shipping will be a lot. Anyone have a line on good price on that?
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick

Rented a mini-trackhoe today to do some trimming on pool hole and go ahead and dig a trench for drainage from deck drains. I plan to install the deck drains level, so the pipe they feed at the bottom of each section will go down to a buried sloped pipe to drain off. This way I dont have to try to slope a 50 foot deck run away from the house, I just slope the drainpipe in the ground that goes to a catchment where the water is pumped out to a pop-up at the street. I have a very FLAT piece of land.

Pics.

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In 5 hours of joystick time and $300 I did what would have taken me a miserable long weekend digging by hand. Fair trade in my book, plus it was fun learning how to operate that thing.
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick

Pipe Laid, testing joints with a shaker test.

Pic

watertest.jpg


Never before in my DIY career have I used up an entire can of PVC glue. Not only did I use a whole can, it was a BIG can. Still have plenty of primer tho.
 

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