New build in the Nashville area

[Teecee33]

First time pool owner. They just started digging last week. We found rock at 5 feet so we are having some fun with that.


General specs:

• Overall pool will be 25'ish x 43'ish. It will be a T shaped pool with the deep end/diving board being a bit longer.
• Depth goes from 4' to 8.5'
• 
  
• Above is the rough drawing my wife came up with. The dimensions are not perfect but you get the idea.

Equipment:

• Hayware VSP
• Hayward Sand Filter
• Hayware AquaPlus Panel with Salt Cell
• Hayward Smart Automation
• Hayward Gas Heater
• Diving Board
• 3 LED lights in the pool(may add more)
• Stamped and Stained concrete
• Dolphin Robotic Cleaner
• Sun Pad with bubblers
• Rock water feature that is large enough my two boys can jump off
• Hot Tub
• Fireplace
• Outdoor bathroom
• Extending our current patio and making the patio finish match the pool
• Covered gazebo somewhere on the back side of the pool. It is not on the drawing but it is something we decided to add recently. I am thinking something 16 x 16 or maybe a bit larger. We might move our outdoor bathroom to the gazebo and make the gazebo larger. I am kinda leaning towards putting the bathroom out by the gazebo so I can have a wall that is covered for a TV.
• A few lamp light posts with outdoor plugs at the base of them.
• Conduit ran for wireless access point and a few outdoor speakers.

I just had an irrigation system put in last summer so we will have to get that fixed afterwards....and my beautiful green yard...RIP.

I also attached a picture of the dig.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Welcome to TFP TeeCee I *like* your design very much! You have made a good compromise between sport pool and diving pool. I love that.

My only concern is how the change between shallow and deep- how will that be addressed?

Beautiful yard....nice and flat. Sorry about the rock

Maddie

 

[Teecee33]

Welcome to TFP TeeCee I *like* your design very much! You have made a good compromise between sport pool and diving pool. I love that.

My only concern is how the change between shallow and deep- how will that be addressed?

Beautiful yard....nice and flat. Sorry about the rock

Maddie

It will just be a slope down, per whatever codes is. My PB told me what the slope has to be per foot and that is what we are doing. That is why we extended the deep in part of the "T" on the right to be 4 feet farther to the right to help with the deep end slope and give us a larger deep end. So if you are looking at our pool from a drone, it might look a little lopsided to the right. Before we extended, the slope was going to start towards the middle of the pool and we thought that would be weird. So we extended it enough for the slop to start on the right edge of the bottom of the "T"

Maybe we will be finished after 2 days of rock digging, worst case 3 days. I thought my yard was SUPER flat but once they start digging at got all of their measure tools out, there is a downward slope in the back. We have tons of dirt so they will feather that out and make it look flat though. RIP my grass.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I wish folks could cut that sod off and sell it so many times its such gorgeous grass. A small way to recoup the money on the pool, eh?

Maddie

 

[Teecee33]

I wish folks could cut that sod off and sell it so many times its such gorgeous grass. A small way to recoup the money on the pool, eh?

Maddie

MY father in law did steal some of the sod so some of it got put to good use.

 

[Apsuhead]

That’s going to be a nice setup. I was going to rent a sod cutter before our dig last November but the PB showed up 2 days early. Good luck

 

[Teecee33]

Great news. They are done with the $$$$ rock part. They worked late last night to finish. I also attached the drawing of the pool dimensions. My wife thinks we need to make the pool bigger. I am trying to tell her that it should be a pretty good size.

 

[mizzourah2006]

My wife thinks we need to make the pool bigger. I am trying to tell her that it should be a pretty good size.

Is she saying this after seeing the dig or just from seeing the layout? When they spray painted it I thought ours was going to be pretty small too. It looks bigger when they get it framed and you can get down to the pool level to look at it. 25' by 43' seems like it will be a pretty big pool.

 

[Teecee33]

I am concerned the pool walls are too high. We hit lots of rock and we want a 4-foot base and an 8.5 deep in. the PB mentioned that since we hit so much rock, we are gonna raise the walls about a foot, and use the door from the dig to smooth out around the pool so there is no sloop. I am concern about how this will look

 

[bmoreswim]

It's the 16' width on that pool that might give it the feeling a being a wee bit skinny. It's really no problem in usage, especially with the T section. But your eyes may see it as skinny. The dimension that many think is pleasing is the length being twice the width. However, in your case, if I did anything it would be to widen it to 18'. For reference, our pool is 18' x 38'.

The slope of the pool from deep to shallow is the most dangerous part of the pool. Meaning that's where most of the head to shell contact happens. It's not straight down as most people don't dive straight down. Going any amount more conservative than code is insurance against that potential contact. But also make sure you have an umbrella policy in place - for anyone with a pool.

On the pool being raised. Well, in your situation, too high is better than too low, since its more or less a standalone pool and not directly tied to other elevations such as a patio. Or it's far enough away that it can be easily mitigated. The PB saying there won't be any slope is a bit disingenuous. Of course there will be more of a slop if the pool is 1' higher. What he is saying, is that the slope will be pretty gentle because he's planning on taking the spoils out further to avoid much of a slope.

Side note, having all of the spoils as your surface for planting/sod is not ideal. You can ask @jimim how much topsoil he'd put down then use half of that and you'll be fine. But seriously, for a good lawn, using the pool dig spoils isn't the best solution, though it isn't always that bad either.

The back of my pool was about 3'+ out of the ground and the level was raised with the spoils. Mind you there's a massive slope on the back side but I embraced the landscaping challenge it created. I like to have some greenery (but not lawn) inside of the pool fence so I put it back a bit. But my situation was different as the lot was very sloped. But it would look fine with what he wants to do in your situation.

IMG_6808 - TFP.jpg

• bmoreswim
• Oct 30, 2020

House20 - resized.jpg

• bmoreswim
• Oct 16, 2019

 

[Teecee33]

@bmoreswim Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your thoughts and I agree with you, 18' would have probably fixed that feeling of it being small. Nonetheless, I know it is a large pool and when we stand on the far end the pool looks massive. I am getting less concerned about the elevation close to the house and now I wonder what we will do with the part that left and right that are close to the fence. On the right, the deep end, we want to kinda swing the concrete out in a semicircle to allow more room for the diving board and running/jumping into the deep end. Our plans kinda have the concrete pretty close to the fence. I wonder what we do there. Maybe some rock landscape with a few shrubs that help hide the elevation change?

I think we are going to sod the yard again although I am not sure. I will 100% consider the thoughts on the dirt. I do enjoy a healthy weed-free green yard and I am willing to do a little extra to achieve that sooner. I know the irrigation will have to be almost completely redone besides the 2 lines that go down the long length of the fence.

 

[Teecee33]

Walls are going up.

 

[jimim]

It's the 16' width on that pool that might give it the feeling a being a wee bit skinny. It's really no problem in usage, especially with the T section. But your eyes may see it as skinny. The dimension that many think is pleasing is the length being twice the width. However, in your case, if I did anything it would be to widen it to 18'. For reference, our pool is 18' x 38'.

The slope of the pool from deep to shallow is the most dangerous part of the pool. Meaning that's where most of the head to shell contact happens. It's not straight down as most people don't dive straight down. Going any amount more conservative than code is insurance against that potential contact. But also make sure you have an umbrella policy in place - for anyone with a pool.

On the pool being raised. Well, in your situation, too high is better than too low, since its more or less a standalone pool and not directly tied to other elevations such as a patio. Or it's far enough away that it can be easily mitigated. The PB saying there won't be any slope is a bit disingenuous. Of course there will be more of a slop if the pool is 1' higher. What he is saying, is that the slope will be pretty gentle because he's planning on taking the spoils out further to avoid much of a slope.

Side note, having all of the spoils as your surface for planting/sod is not ideal. You can ask @jimim how much topsoil he'd put down then use half of that and you'll be fine. But seriously, for a good lawn, using the pool dig spoils isn't the best solution, though it isn't always that bad either.

The back of my pool was about 3'+ out of the ground and the level was raised with the spoils. Mind you there's a massive slope on the back side but I embraced the landscaping challenge it created. I like to have some greenery (but not lawn) inside of the pool fence so I put it back a bit. But my situation was different as the lot was very sloped. But it would look fine with what he wants to do in your situation.

IMG_6808 - TFP.jpg

• bmoreswim
• Oct 30, 2020

House20 - resized.jpg

• bmoreswim
• Oct 16, 2019

@bmoreswim he is a real funny guy isn’t he. Lol

my grandfather and father owned a large landscaping business. I’ll give you his answer not what my father and myself did.

most will say 2-3 inches. It’s not enough he felt for really strong root growth if you were planting a grass that is not very drought tolerance like blue grass. He always used 6 inches on all jobs.

I’ll tell you what I used but that’s only only because I’m not paying for delivery like others and I get material much cheaper. For me the time and money to get full in and then top 6 inches wasn’t worth it so I just went all topsoil. Like 16-18 inches in my front yard. But let me tell you I’m always moist enough out there for green grass. Lol then then the same when I redid my side of yard after the pool.

long story short I would be doing nothing less than 3-6 inches of a good topsoil mixed with mushroom mulch and some type of other compost. Finding swamp drudged dirt is your nimber 1 best option. It is the richest blackest soil you will ever find. Number 2 is good river soil. Not the sand rocky stuff.

Jim

 

[duckcmmndr]

Maybe it's just the angle...but it looks like the walls are really high in relation to the ground on all sides. Why are they putting them on blocks like that?

 

[Teecee33]

Maybe it's just the angle...but it looks like the walls are really high in relation to the ground on all sides. Why are they putting them on blocks like that?

Yes, the walls are high. The plan is to use the existing dirt, and maybe more, to feather out the height difference. I was a bit worried about it until the PB came out with some string and showed us what the angles would be, where the concrete would be, etc and now we feel much better about everything. Dang rock in TN.

@duckcmmndr I checked out your pool build and I was amazed. Great work.

 

[Teecee33]

Today the PB put concrete on the outside base of the walls. I guess plumbing is next.

 

[Texas Splash]

Little by little. Take lots of pics. They come in handy later.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Little by little. Take lots of pics. They come in handy later.

And we want to see them as the pool progresses!!!

 

[Teecee33]

Working on the tanning ledge and steps into the pool. I think plumbing will be next week.

 

[Teecee33]

Plumbing codes passed yesterday. Looks like they are getting ready to do some electrical conduit.