New contract / New build - SE Pennsylvania, Gunite free form pool and spa

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Very nice build. About to make a thread of my own, oddly in the same area and did not run into the issues you have, expecting to have an issue crop up eventually.

One question I have for you and the others here is, are you concerned about plastering/finishing this close to the end of the season? I'm doing Luna Quartz and with perfect execution the 28 day cure won't be complete till mid-October. I don't know if the hot/cold cycles of Fall, or if the colder water temps will impact the cure and longevity of the finish?
 
Yosh said:
This is one amazing build. Looking really nice!
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thank you!

kimkats said:
Of course the tile you wanted is no longer available :roll: gurrrrrrrrrr! Happy hunting to find a new one.

Kim:kim:
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ugh, I know. Hope to have something picked soon.

normie said:
Very nice build. About to make a thread of my own, oddly in the same area and did not run into the issues you have, expecting to have an issue crop up eventually.

One question I have for you and the others here is, are you concerned about plastering/finishing this close to the end of the season? I'm doing Luna Quartz and with perfect execution the 28 day cure won't be complete till mid-October. I don't know if the hot/cold cycles of Fall, or if the colder water temps will impact the cure and longevity of the finish?
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I’m thinking the same thing - realistically probably wouldn’t plaster until early to mid October with the way things have been going here. At this point I’m thinking to push plaster until the spring.
 
Yeah I started thinking about that today reading posts here. I mean, even if I can plaster in the next two weeks, that leaves the curing process precariously poised at the time of year we could actually get freeze. If I can't run the heater because of sediment, things could go very wrong very fast.

Going to need some thoughts from the rest of the team on this.
 
Plumber came back a 3rd time today to wrap up most of the equipment (everything but salt cell install). Still slow, but progress. We talked this morning and he was supposed to label everything but I guess he forgot or ran out of time. There are quite a few valves so most likely a good idea to label them now. I'll give him a call later.

Electrician is on deck next, then gas/water line and tile/coping.

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Also they set me sample pictures of our travertine coping - thought this looks pretty awesome so figured I'd share:

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I mentioned this earlier in ur thread I think about waiting till spring if u went into September. Ur ph will be ur biggest issue over winter. Even with me closing my in November when I opened it was high. Luckily I had zero scale but I worried about it all winter and I was plastered in July.

Just wait. I was told if I waited to make sure u fill the shell with water half way to prevent it from floating. It prob won’t but he adviced me on it to be safe.

Im just going to throw this out there but if u wait on plaster I was going to wait on tile and coping too since it wasn’t a long process.

Im just throwing it out there. Just the advice I got from a northern builder before my builder promised to have me done by my deadline in July if we started early when the weather broke and he kept on me. I took his word and changed my game plan. He made it by 3 days early.
 

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kimkats said:
I LOVE the stone!!! That color is my fav!!!

What are your plans for the around the equipment pad? Stones, pavers, ????
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Thanks! Most likely will do river rock/stone and some stepping pads/stones to walk on them. Will be working with our landscaper to tie it all together as he's much better than I at that. :)

jimim said:
I mentioned this earlier in ur thread I think about waiting till spring if u went into September. Ur ph will be ur biggest issue over winter. Even with me closing my in November when I opened it was high. Luckily I had zero scale but I worried about it all winter and I was plastered in July.

Just wait. I was told if I waited to make sure u fill the shell with water half way to prevent it from floating. It prob won’t but he adviced me on it to be safe.

Im just going to throw this out there but if u wait on plaster I was going to wait on tile and coping too since it wasn’t a long process.

Im just throwing it out there. Just the advice I got from a northern builder before my builder promised to have me done by my deadline in July if we started early when the weather broke and he kept on me. I took his word and changed my game plan. He made it by 3 days early.
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Most likely we'll wait til next year unless we're given a very compelling reason not to. I'm looking at factoring in 1) time to cure and control ph (most important), 2) having to pay to close/open again, and 3) considering the final costs of buying a cover and plaster which we could defer

kristmas said:
That travertine is going to look awesome. Love it!
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Thanks! We can't wait to see it come together.


BTW a few other overall updates:

1) I decided to swap both pumps (main and features) to the Pentair 3HP Intelliflo (previous water feature pump was spec'd for 1.5 Superflo but wanted the additional flow with the new 3" pipes and also will have the ability to control speed with the new pump)
2) Original waterfall was spec'd at 11'w x 4'h x 5'd but given the scale of the pool are planning to increase to 18'w x 4'h x 5'd. This will bring the waterfall to fill almost all of the area between skimmers.
3) Most likely will need more retaining wall than the PB originally spec'd (shocking, I know). I should have a new estimate soon. May also consider using boulders vs. the wall as well.
 
FYI.. we had been told we needed walls.. then we talked to some fill guys. Guys who have been tossing different types of dirt at situations for 30-40 years. All 3 told us it was no issue to fill our yard with 1000 yards of mixed material without walls. Walls would give us 90 degrees, but, would've required structural engineers for anything over 4 feet, and we're probably at 8-12 feet of raised height.

We even were able to avoid any walls in our "sunken" fire pit area. We have a sloped mulch bed and 5 - granite steps, so that's another ~3' drop.

Wall work quoted for just the 3' sunken fire pit was equal to:

1000 yds fill for slopes (rabble, 6 minus gravel, etc)
400 yds loam
machine time
hydroseed
granite steps
plants/planting
irrigation rework
tree removal
clearing our existing patio
surveying

Point is we got a big bang for our buck by avoiding walls at all cost. May be worth investigating, or as you said going with reclaimed boulder walls.
 
blazin said:
FYI.. we had been told we needed walls.. then we talked to some fill guys. Guys who have been tossing different types of dirt at situations for 30-40 years. All 3 told us it was no issue to fill our yard with 1000 yards of mixed material without walls. Walls would give us 90 degrees, but, would've required structural engineers for anything over 4 feet, and we're probably at 8-12 feet of raised height.

We even were able to avoid any walls in our "sunken" fire pit area. We have a sloped mulch bed and 5 - granite steps, so that's another ~3' drop.

Wall work quoted for just the 3' sunken fire pit was equal to:

1000 yds fill for slopes (rabble, 6 minus gravel, etc)
400 yds loam
machine time
hydroseed
granite steps
plants/planting
irrigation rework
tree removal
clearing our existing patio
surveying

Point is we got a big bang for our buck by avoiding walls at all cost. May be worth investigating, or as you said going with reclaimed boulder walls.
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Thanks! Let me see how the numbers shape up. I'll definitely keep the alternatives in mind though. I hope we're not looking at anything too crazy but if so maybe we can look at a mix of fill and boulders.
 
Autofill box went in today - next up (weather permitting) are backfill, tile/coping, water to autofill/gas plumbing, then electric. Let's pray we get a break in weather since the forecast doesn't look pretty for the next 7+ days here.

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kimkats said:
One more big thing done!! Here is hoping for the weather but it sure does not look good :(
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As predicted, weather pushed us back a few days. We were scheduled for backfill and tile/coping this past weekend but were put off for reschedule now. Just odd that they don't schedule the next available day??

Plumber was able to come out to do the "inside the house" valve work for the gas and autofill line today at least. Yard is a complete mess and rain on/off today so no trenches could be dug for gas or water lines yet. Electric scheduled for mid week, let's see what the weather holds.

On another note - While poking around on amazon this weekend, I found a amazon warehouse deal for a "used - like new" Intelliph unit for 212 bucks. Hard to pass that up, so I picked it up. I likely won't run it for a long while as once we finally do the plaster/fill (spring of 2019) the acid demand will be more than the system can provide, but will plan to use it for maintenance later on.
 
good find!

weather here is a wreck!. been raining literally non stop for the past 27 hrs! non stop! took 2 inches of water out at lunch and i'm thinking i should be taking more out tonight. the worms are in full effect too so been scooping them out.

good luck!

jimi
 
jimim said:
good find!

weather here is a wreck!. been raining literally non stop for the past 27 hrs! non stop! took 2 inches of water out at lunch and i'm thinking i should be taking more out tonight. the worms are in full effect too so been scooping them out.

good luck!

jimi
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I know what you mean - we pretty much had straight rain Saturday, Sunday, and quite a bit of today. Tomorrow and the rest of the week? Yep, more rain. :(

Jim - BTW noticed in your thread you're into theater/AV builds. We need to chat some time - that's been a long time passion of mine as well. :) Are you on AVS? I have the same screen name there. I'm big on the DIY stuff and built all of my subs in the theater and some of the speakers. Up until recently was doing everything on my CNC.

The theater - 4th iteration or so of this room. Fully treated (walls/ceiling/floor), Seymour AT screen w/ false wall, Sony projector, Yorkville and JTR speaks, Sherbourn amps, 10 x 18" sealed subs, approx 12,000 watts for LFE.

Upstairs - JTR Noesis front stage, 2 x Seaton Submersive subs, Denon AVR, etc.

Outdoor - 3 zone w/ Sonos connects, Onkyo AVR, JBL LFE under deck (work in progress w/ pool)

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Some of my subwoofer enclosures I've built -

subs front.jpgsubs unpainted pair.jpg
 

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