You'll never see that worker again. You'll see your backyard and any of its flaws until you move.
Amen to that. The PB has been very understanding and said the same thing to me. I do have to walk a fine line - given these guys are doing my tile and coping. I plan on having a private talk with my pool builder to let him know that I expect him to watch over this sub to make sure things run smoothly here on out. My PB has been really good overall, and given he's a 3 generation pool builder company, he know he values his impression he leaves on others .... so I don't expect any issues.
Did they ever figure out what was plugging up the original drainage?
Yes, so here's the full story. The original contract stated that the they were demoing the back of the yard but leaving the side yards and front as-is, and they would tie into the existing two lines (one on each side of the house.) I knew one of those lines was bad, but didn't know the full extent until everything was demoed and I saw terrible roots in one of the two pipes. So on the "bad" side of the house I opted to pay them extra to do the entire line to the street, cutting out a channel in the sidewalk on the side of the house. It was on this side where I noticed the water wasn't draining out of the pipes. When I provided that feedback the PB made them re-dig it out and redo it to get the pitch correct. On the other side unfortunately they have to deal where they were tying into the pre-existing line, which honestly is too high. Our backyard was naturally sloping into our house (that is the farther you go in the backyard the higher it was.) So the drain pipes used to be easy to pitch because it just needed to follow the relative path of the ground. But since they leveled the backyard for the pool, it gets a little tricky. We added a RBB in the back to help hide the pitch per say, but the very back end corner of the pipe may be an issue. I'd say they have some room for adjustment, but not much. In that area we aren't putting pavers, it'll be a planter garden so if the pipe is along the surface it isn't the end of the world.
Here's hoping the "worst" is over. The StepStone coping and pavers have arrived, so hopefully they go in next week, followed by NPT StoneScape Mini Pebbles. We haven't picked the color - the PB mentioned that Tropic Blue w/either glass or abalone was the most popular choice.