New Build Northern California Spring 2020

[Slmcveigh72]

We have concrete pouring on Tuesday
Before the concrete is poured, does this configuration look right to you?
The company that is installing the equipment is telling us they will be putting the intellicenter on the metal “H” (circled in red). For some reason I always imagined it would be mounted to the house? The metal seems too flimsy to hold that expensive Intellicenter, however, I have never done this before so I don’t really know.
Can anyone give me some feedback?

 

[kimkats]

Well first off you do NOT want the pipes to have concrete around them. If you ever need to get to them you will have to bust out the concrete so.........tell them no pouring around the pipes. They can pour the equipment pad behind the pipes. Then you will put stepping stones and rocks in front of the pipes for walking on.

The H.......go out there and lay hands on it..........it is firm? does it seem like it will bend or give WHEN someone trips on it or mis-steps and kicks it? If not then ask them to move it back to or by the wall. YOUR money YOUR way!

 

[Slmcveigh72]

Thank you! The concrete guys are totally planning on burying the pipes in concrete, so I am so happy I posted! That makes so much sense in case something goes wrong down the road. THANK YOU!

 

[jimmythegreek]

I would mount it to the wall no need to have it floating out there. Makes it hard to secure conduits going to amd from the box

 

[kimkats]

I would ping the PB and let him know about the change of the plans for the pour so they will be ready with new forms and a way to cut the metal around the pipes.

I just something else! There NEEDS to be "chairs" under the steel. They can be pieces of foam, brick, etc. anything that gets the steel off the ground. Now they might try to say "We will pick it up with our hands" NOPE! You and I both know that heavy steel will sink AND they will be walking on it so...........

You are going to have your hands full when they show up on Tuesday. Head up, shoulders back, smile on face, cooler full of cold drinks and maybe some yummies will help them come to your way of thinking faster! I will be thinking about you!

Kim

 

[Slmcveigh72]

Thank you. Unfortunately, there isn‘t really a PB to call. We started this process with an excavation company who markets themselves as pool builders, they said we could OB and they would help to guide us through the process. As soon as we signed the contract they became very hard to deal with and then COVID hit and they stopped working. I called and asked them to let us out of our contract so we could find someone to help us get this pool built. They responded that they would have their guys come out as long as they could social distance and wear masks. We said “no problem” and the rebar and plumber came out a few days later. We have struggled with this company right from the get go, including having to have them re-do the size of the spa, having to get forceful about the Intelicenter with the IC60, failing inspection because of only having 3 grounds, and so on....
I can’t imagine getting through this process without TFP. @kimkatz you have truly been a life saver to me through this process!
I probably would have abandoned this project by now if I didn’t have you all to lean on

 

[kimkats]

As soon as we signed the contract they became very hard to deal with and then COVID hit and they stopped working. I called and asked them to let us out of our contract so we could find someone to help us get this pool built. They responded that they would have their guys come out as long as they could social distance and wear masks. We said “no problem” and the rebar and plumber came out a few days later.

sigh........................bad people! SO bad gurrrrrrrrrrrr

I can’t imagine getting through this process without TFP. @kimkatz you have truly been a life saver to me through this process!
I probably would have abandoned this project by now if I didn’t have you all to lean on

Okay so you know what should and should NOT be done now. I would even go as far as getting spray paint to paint where you want the steel removed from. Get some cardboard or something big you can write on.............DO NOT PUT CONCRETE HERE kind of thing.

Do you have a fence you can lock? I would think about locking it so they cannot come in without you talking to them first.

Want to fly me out there to take care of them for you LOL

Kim

 

[bmoreswim]

Any updates on the concrete or otherwise?

 

[Slmcveigh72]

Phew, sorry we were able to go back to work, so I haven’t been updating as much. they finished concrete on Friday.....just one little issue.
Whoops, they forgot to match up their lines! The concrete company owner was awesome and is coming back this week to rip out the two areas next to the door and re-do them to match up the lines. We were even home and keeping an eye on them, and this still happened. This is looking out the main sliding glass door to access the pool deck.

 

[kimkats]

Nice to hear someone is doing their job right for your build!

 

[Slmcveigh72]

We have tile???
This is the first step in the process that hasn’t had and issues.
We are scheduled for equipment install next Wednesday. Let’s hope it goes well.

 

[Sparks22]

I like the accent tile on the step/seats!

Could you tell me more about the design of different seat heights in the spa? Are the two smaller pipes in the footwell of the spa for jets for calves, or something else?

 

[kimkats]

They did a GREAT JOB!!! LOVE it all!!!! SWEET!

Kim

 

[jimmythegreek]

Looks really good I like the tile choice too.
As for the concrete pour they do that for a reason. Usually you dont want a cross pattern on control joints its better to have T patterns. Like if it were blocked out you would have 3 blocks then 4 blocks then 3 or something similar. Gives less chance of up and down movement when it cracks. In this case the joint is too close to the existing to look right I'm glad hes redoing the other part for you

 

[Slmcveigh72]

There are supposed to be jets at the floor of the spa. I had no idea what we were doing when we had the spa built. If I had it to do over again, I would have micromanaged the jets and placement of the jets a little better. The excavating company that markets themselves as a pool builder assured me that we would love the finished product and when I questioned him (the owner of the company) about the types of jets and the placement of the jets after they were installed, his repose was “well how long would you really spend in the spa anyways? The types of jets don’t really matter, you will only be in there 5 minutes at a time”. That is concerning to me. I will definitely update once it is functIonal and let you know what we would do differently or if it ended up being ok.

 

[kimkats]

sigh...............you poor thing..........they don't have solid answer for sure..........one day it will be done and you will be in the spa more than 5 mins with a cold one in your hand!

 

[jimmythegreek]

Spas are tricky to build well. Building a pool is pretty straight forward when you leave the plumbing and electric to the subs. Hopefully its decent

 

[Slmcveigh72]

We heard from the “owner builder company” today about our equipment. The good news is, they will be here next Tuesday to install the equipment, the bad news is that after asking the owner of the company repeatedly if we needed to order the equipment ahead of time and being told “no” it was all in stock, we now learn that wasnt true.

In order to get the RayPak heater we had on our list (that was given to them over a month ago) we would have to wait 2-3 weeks and then reschedule our inspection, plaster and the dreaded “owner builder company” to install it.

We have reluctantly decided to go with the Pentair heater to be able to finish this project. The owner of the company also gave us grief about not cementing in the pipes. When we pushed back he said in his 30+ years in the business he has never seen anyone leave the pipes out of the cement. After all our research on the internet it seems crazy to me that he has never seen this done.
He also called back a while later to let us know he went ahead and “Upgraded“ the Pentair heater to a commercial grade heater to make up for the fact that we couldn’t get the RayPak. This will “only” cost an additional $200. Have I said yet how I can’t wait to be done so we don’t have to deal with this company anymore?!?!

I called around to see if I could find someone else to supply and install the equipment but being this far into June everyone is booked out for months. So, we either grin and bear it, or we wait.....I guess we will grin and bear it.

I am not posting to be negative or to seem like a complainer. I am hoping that any other OB‘s will see some of the mistakes we have made and avoid them for themselves.

 

[bmoreswim]

I think its just a good realistic viewpoint. Everything has tradeoffs and you are making the best of the choices available. Good job staying focused and not tapping out with frustration.

 

[kimkats]

I will only say this for you GURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR nothing else works.

You are doing a great job keeping a level head and making some tough but good calls! Solid thinking in everything you are deciding on and why.

Pipes in cement-guess showing him 100 pics of it being done outside the cement and good, sound reason for doing so would not help him understand...........I can almost hear him whine "but this is how we always do it" sigh...........get over it guy!

Soon, not soon enough, but soon it will be done!