New Build May 2022, Greater Worcester, MA

[Steve-D]

Greetings all.

I'm a new (almost 2 years) member. Previously we owned an 18' round above ground vinyl liner pool (2017-2021). My wife and I moved last June (2021) a little further South and West from the SW Boston suburbs. We immediately got started on a Gunite pool project that had to be put on hold in November.

In late April they came back to finish the job and now its been 1 week since plastering and 6 days with water. The heater will be connected in about a week and the week after that the installers will be back to program the panel (Pentair) in time for Memorial Day weekend. It's a salt system but that is not yet running while the plaster cures so we've only had to manage pH, Alkalinity and Calcium hardness. Mostly we've only had to adjust down the pH and for the most part the water chemistry has stabilized at good levels (minus chlorine). At last check (Wed PM 5/11) pH was 7.4-7.6, TA 100 and CH 220.

According to our project manager the heater needs to stay off until 3-4 weeks of plaster curing at which point they will also turn on the salt chlorine generator but otherwise the pool should be swimmable this weekend except we will need to manually add chlorine (as a temporary measure until the salt generator is activated). My question is does the type of chlorine matter (liquid/unstabilized shock, powder unstabilized shock, stabilized granules) as far as
1. allowing the plaster to cure properly, and
2. blending in with the salt system when that is turned on.

It's supposed to get into the 80's here over the next few days so we're hoping to jump in some time this weekend. Pool details are in my signature. Thanks!

 

[Texas Splash]

Congrats on the new home & pool. As for the chlorine, as long as you know what your CYA is, the type of chlorine doesn't really matter. If the CYA is low, you can use tabs for a short while and the acidity of each tab should help to keep the pH from rising too fast. But remember each tab increases CYA which requires a higher FC level per the FC/CYA Levels. At some point you might have to switch to liquid chlorine or regular bleach if you don't have the SWG running by then. Liquid pool chlorine is stronger (10% or 12.5%) so it's usually a better value. Liquid chlorine can be used at any time with an SWG, so it's fine.

 

[Steve-D]

Thanks for the reply @Texas Splash .
Current water was straight off trucks, 0 chlorine and 0 CYA. This evening I added 1 gal of liquid Cl and 1.5 oz stabilized granular Cl and will see how it looks on Friday. Last test was 7.2 pH, 90 TA and 210 CH so on a good track so far.

 

[Noreaster]

Your build made great progress for our area! Congrats!

We signed in may, for a sept start and an expected completion by Jul 15th 2022. We are ahead of schedule and just waiting for pebblesheen at the moment. ( since there is only a single authorized applicator in new negland )

 

[Steve-D]

Thanks @Noreaster...Good luck with your build.

My wife is a pit bull when she wants something badly enough and an in-ground pool has been on her want list since childhood. "No" isn't in her vocabulary except when she says "The answer is always no unless you ask." She had a tree removal company and pool installer lined up before we even closed on the house (June). trees gone in July, survey in August, well company to move the water line out of the way of the pool footprint (as much as new England rock would allow...ugh!) in September. Actual dig and pool construction started in October and they just ran out of time.

So far this year we've landscaped for a retaining wall and pool shed, fence installed, and dirt/rock from the excavation pushed downslope to create some new useable lawn behind the pool (grass has already started to take hold)! I need to finish filling in the trench for the propane line and then our energy co. can come out to fill the tanks and connect it to the heater. That basically just leaves us with tidying up the landscaping around the pool decking and dropping decorative (river rock) stone to fill in between the decking and the fence. The pool installers still need to place the railing at the steps and that will finish the physical build. Last will be programming the panel and firing up the SWG once the plaster has fully cured. We're told it is swimmable now as long as we manually deal with CL until the SWG comes online...I'll be posting questions related to that separately.

 

[Steve-D]

After 2 days of broadcasting 4 lbs of stabilizer (some dissolved & dispersed directly and the rest in 2 skimmer baskets via sock method) we finally got CYA to register @ 20...low but a start... and for the first time in 3 days we didn't have to add more Chlorine! I expect I'll need to add another 2-4 lbs to get the CYA level up to where the pool installer's recommendation. They say 80 which seems kind of high but I'll be pushing it up slowly so there is ample time to question that and stop before it gets too high. Day 3 in the 80's and we couldn't resist taking that first dip even though the water temp only hit 67.

Finished backfilling the trench for the propane line (and rebuilding the section of the retaining wall it goes under) so now the energy co. can connect it and fill the tanks. We even managed to finish off one small section near the walk with river rock...progress!

 

[Steve-D]

Apparently there is a backlog @ Pentair and so we are still waiting on their availability for our panel to be programmed so that the heater can be turned on (currently the LCD display is blank suggesting no power) and we can start managing the pool from Pentair's app. Salt was added on Friday 5/27 (18 bags @ 40 lbs) and the SWG turned on to the lowest setting (2%). Landscaping is 90% done around the immediate pool area now, too. We're just trying to figure out what to do about creating a blind to hide the equipment without obstructing access to it for maintenance purposes...don't want to put stone down there and then have to remove it to dig an place any posts.

Current pool temp has been between 72 and 74 so refreshing for the Memorial Day weekend heat. It's been cool and gray since then so the solar cover has been on (collecting pine needles). We just want the last of the work to be done so we can move on into a full summer mindset.

 

[Steve-D]

Pentair came out yesterday (6/8) to program the panel and get the heater running....that was the last step for the actual installation so technically speaking the build is complete. YEAH!!

It was a surprise then to find that with the programming set at its most basic level that I could no longer control the pump from its own controls and that we have to use Pentair's ScreenLogic app...only to learn further that on an Android phone/tablet "ScreenLogic Connect" doesn't have all the same functional options as the IOS version of the app (ugh!). I'll save that rant (and programming/scheduling questions) for a separate post.

The other unpleasant surprise was seeing the ScreenLogic app confirm the IC-40 "High Salt" indicator we were seeing with a salt reading of 4600. This is a screw up by the pool installers. I'm guessing that they added about 4 40 lb bags of salt too many. My K-1766 test kit arrives this weekend so I'll confirm the salt level then but in the meantime it looks like I might as well start siphoning off some water for replacement. We just had a heavy rain so I can remove about 2-3 inches without dropping below the skimmer level.

These folks seem to know how to build a nice pool but they certainly don't know how to run one. In any case we're ALMOST done (once the salt issue is fixed). We have landscaping to do outside the fenced area on 1 side of the pool and some landscaping clean up elsewhere around the outside but other than putting up a blind to obscure the pool equipment the immediate pool area is DONE!!