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

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Re: New Build in Red Stick- **pic heavy** gunite shoot!

Craig said what I wanted to say only he said it much better. :goodjob:

Lershac, you just cleared the major hurdle, congratulations.
:party: Great job and thank you for sharing it with us.

John
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick- **pic heavy** gunite shoot!

Guys, I dont know what to say except thanks! All of my major projects are intentional exercises in patience. Long ago I made mistakes that highlighted this great personal fault. So I intentionally engage in projects that take a long time, to develop my ability to be patient and be able to wait for "the payoff". I have found it very rewarding, frustrating, depressing, uplifting, and on and on in that vein. A microcosm of life itself if you will. The one thing I am slowly working on now with this project is asking for help. I find it really hard to just open my mouth and ask a friend to lend a hand. I have done it a couple of times on this project and will continue to work on that in the future.

All in all, very very positive outcomes all.

Anywho, I intended to strip the forms today, and this weekend my oldest is supposed to come and help clean up, and my day laborers want to work this weekend as well, so I want to get the dirt and trash cleaned out from around the pool, and setup a good work area. Next major milestone will be getting the concrete under-deck poured and finished, then I will move back on to the pool. This will give it time to cure. So the order of operations there are:

1. Clean up pool area, strip forms, move dirt, prepare the area for work.
2. setup the drains. I have 6" nds channel drains that will go in the center of the deck. 6' from wall and 6' from waters edge. Thats all those pipes you see sticking up out of the ground, they will be connected to the channel drain sections and in turn to the sump.
3. bring in additional gravel to go under concrete sub-deck. about 10-12 more yards of varied size river gravel. I have a good source of this from a client. He has been exceedingly generous so far and dropped off 14 yards at the pool dig at no charge. I hope to be able to get him to let me pay him for this load.
4. Form up the sub-deck around the pool. This will be interesting. I have never formed slabs between two structures that were taller than the intended slab to be poured. Not sure exactly how this is done as of now, if anyone has any tips, please chime in! These will be reinforced with #3 rebar at a maximum of 12" centers, less if I have enough rebar (I think I overbought on the rebar)
5. Pour and finish. I plan to bring in a couple of finishers, it will be about 12-13 yards of concrete (1100 sf of 4" slab = 366 cu ft = 11 yards plus some additional for the top of the sump and a few other small items I want poured like a ramp into my shop.) I also plan to use a line pump to get the concrete from the street to the pool area, I have no idea what the pump rental will cost, or where to get one.

Then I will move on to tile and coping, and then to plaster and fill, with equipment setup somewhere in there. Then I will bring in about 6 yards of sand to underlay the travertine pavers. This way as I am laying the pavers, I can hit the pool to cool off (this may be a really bad idea as it could lead to serious delays).

We laid out some of the coping and waterline tile (that will also go on top of the submerged beam of the spa) and are having second thoughts on the subway tile we chose on a whim one day and have plunked down over $800 for. I will take some pics and post here as I would like everyones opinion on it.

We had also tentatively chosen french gray diamond brite plaster, but my wife is beginning to rethink that, and is now leaning toward a blue, either tahoe blue or the super blue. We have gone and seen a few pools with dark plaster, and it is not something we would choose, though one thing with dark plaster, photographs tend to highlight the people in the pool more, while with lighter plasters, the people in the pool seem to be secondary and not the focus of the photographs. But the purpose for the pool is fun, relaxation and enjoyment. We recognize that the VAST majority of our interaction with the pool will be just looking at it, so we have focused on that, and what is pleasing to us there. So I think we are going to go with a brighter, lighter color for plaster to enhance the appearance of the water. The blue we have seen from island beaches in the Caribbean are our guide. Fond memories there.
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick- **pic heavy** gunite shoot!

Lershac:

I'm not sure if you've done this yet, but something to think about before you add the decking...

Have you run bonding wire to the rebar in the pool shell? You should be running an 8 gauge copper wire to connect to the rebar of the pool itself, as well as any decking rebar within 3-5 feet of the water. Then, this bonding wire should be run to the pool light junction boxes, and ultimately to the equipment pad to connect up to the pool panel, pumps and heater. I don't know if Baton Rouge requires an equipotential bonding grid or not, but you should do it regardless. It would help to dissipate any stray current around the pool and protect swimmers from any stray currents in the pool. The bonding grid should be connected to any metal (e.g. lighting niches, ladders, fences, etc) that are in or near the pool. While the deck is not installed, this would be a perfect time to add this if you have not already considered it. I believe this requirement was added to the National Electric Code in 2008, so it might be worth having a look.

Great stuff! Major admiration on this side...

Craig
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick- **pic heavy** gunite shoot!

BTW, don't be afraid to ask friends for help. For one thing, dudes like to see their efforts pay off in the short term. It's very cool to build something over a couple of weekends that will stand the test of time. Bragging rights for sure. In addition, you will really find out who your true friends are. A buddy of mine wanted a shed a couple of years back. I decided to design one for him and spent the next six months of weekends helping him build it. Another buddy of mine decided to help in the build and now we are all great friends. My friend is now the owner of a true uber shed that turned out to look and funtion really nicely. Every time I go over to his place, I am just so impressed at how we were all able to accomplish that. And besides, your buddies can come over and enjoy your pool once all is said and done!
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick- **pic heavy** gunite shoot!

REALLY like the clean lines and look. We purposefully chose not to do a spa, in part because I often don't like the way they look. I'm pretty sure I would have thougt differently had I seen this before we built.

I admire your ethic and determination, dude. Very nicely done so far.
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick- **pic heavy** gunite shoot!

CraigMW said:
Lershac:

I'm not sure if you've done this yet, but something to think about before you add the decking...

Have you run bonding wire to the rebar in the pool shell?

Great stuff! Major admiration on this side...

Craig
Click to expand...

Yep have pool bonded on 4 sides, lights, with about 10 feet hanging out of the form on each side. I am putting a rebar grid in the concrete, so according to the head of the local inspections dept I just have to tie to this and then tie the equipment pad bonding wire to the grid as well.
 
Re: New Build in Red Stick- **pic heavy** gunite shoot!

ok, so this weekend was cleanup and planning.

I learned this weekend that only one of my day laborers is from guatemala... the other two are from honduras. Friday I began stripping forms. Did not get very far, as work interrupted. So saturday, My eldest came over to help and she cleaned up while I stripped the forms and putterred around. Tool organization, sweeping, general cleanup.

Sunday my main help came (as well as my daughter) and it was another dirt day. about 8 yards of dirt moved by shovel and wheelbarrow from around the pool ( the mud that was tossed out last weekend). Then a trench was dug from the pool area about 50-60 foot to the front curb. (and under a 4' sidewalk along the way.).

I also installed about 1/4 of the deck drains, getting them at the correct height and level in the horizontal plane. This turned out to be just plain ornery to do.

I will post pictures of all this in a bit.
 

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Rain dilemma advice needed

Mods please merge this after I have gotten responses (with my build thread).

We are about to get 10 to 15 inches of rain they say.

I have a gunite pool shell in the ground under construction. It has a couple of 3" pipes in the bottom the gunite guys put there for hydrostatic relief, but they are blocked up with gunite. I have driven a couple of pieces of rebar through them to try to open them up but it's not much of an opening.

Would it be ok to toss a hose in and run a couple of feet of water into the shell to prevent a float disaster? I can't think of why this would be a bad idea but I would like to solicit everyones input.

I don't care about the water cost. I just don't want this shell to shift due to hydrostatic pressure.
 
Re: Rain dilemma advice needed

What about a large tarp or two, with a pole in the middle to tent it so the rain never falls into the pool? Or make a lean-to type tarp cover and direct the rain to the low side. Possible?
 
Re: Rain dilemma advice needed

frogabog said:
What about a large tarp or two, with a pole in the middle to tent it so the rain never falls into the pool? Or make a lean-to type tarp cover and direct the rain to the low side. Possible?
Click to expand...

It's not the water IN the pool I am worried about. It's the ground water creating enough pressure to lift the pool or shift it. I figure putting water in the pool will prevent that.
 
Re: Rain dilemma advice needed

Ugh, ok. Shell... a key word there. I miss-read your post, spectacles might help me with that I'm sure. I had visions of rebar and dirt and your previous disaster, I'd forgot that you just had it shot last week. Heck, I forgot you were you... with all these amazing pools being built, I live vicariously through all your builds and confuse pools w/the peeps who build them sometimes. :~}
 
Re: Rain dilemma advice needed

I know after mine was gunited we had approx 10" of rain over the next month and the pool filled to approx 2' in the deep end, the water was there for approx 2 mo before I pumped it out. No problems.
 
Re: Rain dilemma advice needed

One more tip. Try to keep rainwater from the roof of your house from running down along the edges of the gunite shell. This is just extra water that you don't want to find it's way to the underside of the shell. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea if you could direct some of this roof water into the pool though or direct it elsewhere in the yard.
 

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