New DIY Pool in Kearney Missouri

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akmiller78

Member
Apr 6, 2021
13
Kearney, MO
I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a new pool kit (likely from royal). There are some things I'm sure on (I think) and some I'm not.

The things I think I've decided on:

- 20x40 (or 44) Rectangle with Auto-Cover (42" walls)
- 4' flat bottom pool
- Liner over steel step with tanning ledge
- Pentair VS pump
- Pentair Cartridge Filter
- 4 LED Lights
- Heat Pump Heater
- Cantilever Coping
- No main drains

Things I'm not entirely sure of yet (but need to figure out quick):

- Steel wall or Polymer
- What salt chlorinator system I should buy

The steel wall vs polymer seems to come down to this for me. It seems like steel may be easier for a DIY job as I can backfill after walls are set and it sounds a little simpler to adjust panels for leveling with steel?? I realize it's much heavier. Everything I've seen and read about Polymer is that I should really fill the pool, while back-filling. That means I couldn't pour my cantilever deck until the lining is in and pool was full which seems like it isn't ideal. I'd be curious on any thoughts/expertise along these lines?

Regarding the salt chlorinator I'm new to this overall so I'd be interested in opinions on this?

Any other thoughts would be appreciated as well!
 
Just some food for thought. Just received my kit from Royal, all was perfect. But I got all my mechanicals from Polytec Pools, pump, filter heater and lights. Pool automation 521905 Pentair IntelliCenter i5P with IC40 came from Marina Pool Spa & Patio. Good luck. Now with the questions you asked hopefully someone who knows will give you the right answers.
 
theewings5 said:
Just some food for thought. Just received my kit from Royal, all was perfect. But I got all my mechanicals from Polytec Pools, pump, filter heater and lights. Pool automation 521905 Pentair IntelliCenter i5P with IC40 came from Marina Pool Spa & Patio. Good luck. Now with the questions you asked hopefully someone who knows will give you the right answers.
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Excellent, and congrats...now the fun begins! Any particular reason why you ordered mechanicals from elsewhere?
 
Why only 4ft? You get a big guy in the pool and the water is going to hit him in the groin throughout the pool.
 
With 42" walls, how will you get to 4' water depth? Are you planning a cove all the way around? We did 48" steel walls (also through royal) to gain the extra height. Our shallow with those is pretty shallow (no bottom cove).

That being said, 2 of us placed the steel walls pretty easily...even the 8 foot sections. Was easy enough to plumb, level, and square. A transit made the job waaaaaay easier.
 
Royal offers a 4ft with small cove on the stair side.

Our family is small and in most pools I’m in people congregate in the shallow and the deep end is mostly unused.

Is it ok to backfill polymer without filling at same time? Seems several of the construction photos I’ve seen on here people are doing that.
 
Order has been placed. I ended up going with:

- 20x44
- auto cover
- 4'6" flat bottom with small cove
- steel walls
- 6ft tanning ledge
- pentair vs pump
- pentair 320 sq ft. cartridge
- pentair heat/cool pump
- pentair Intellicenter with swag

I've been warned to not do the salt because of the auto-cover but it sounds like if you wash and clean routinely and maintain it, it is fine.
 
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I'm doing a DIY Inground pool and looking to order my electrical cable for my feeder to my equipment pad (for variety of reasons my pad will be 100ft from my house and approximately 150ft from panel). I've already purchased the Pentair Intellicenter with the 150 AMP sub panel built in. I'd like to have 100 amp service at the panel with a little extra room if needed. Here is what I'm looking at ordering and was curious if there were specific opinions on if this is enough:

- 2 AWG THHN (3 at 150ft each to reach my panel within the house) 2 AWG THHN Building Wire
- 6 or 8 AWG shielded THHN (1 at 150ft for the ground wire) 6 AWG THHN Building Wire
- 2" Schedule 40 for in-ground run and schedule 80 for where it comes above ground

Does this sound reasonable? Anything else to consider when doing this up front to plan for future?
 

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IMG_0297.jpg
Dig is essentially completed. Have a bit of ground water in one corner as seen in this picture that I have to routinely pump out. I don't think it is enough that will cause any serious issues (I hope not). We have had a lot of rain here in the midwest up until about a week ago. Everywhere else is rock hard clay which seems ideal for strong foundation!

Look to start setting panels this weekend.

Curious on the best way to get the pool floor nice and level when putting the poolkrete down. I was told that when pouring large basement foundations they will often put rebar in at the elevation the floor should finish at and as they pass those points knock the rebar down into the ground. Anyone use this method when doing pool floors or is there something else to do?
 
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When we did our floor, we put rebar pins in each corner and tied string lines as guides wherever we needed. We came back the following day, pulled the pins and filled the holes. We used a transit extensively to check our levels as we went. Our floor turned out great and our liner fit like a glove.
 
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Still in progress. Along with my available time, a vacation I just got back from, and the weather (lots of rain) it has been a bit slow going. That being said, the walls are up and almost all leveled. The rain washed out some of my dig so there will be some re-work there but figure no reason to do that until we are closer to being ready to pour the bottom.

Couple of updated pictures (one showing just how much rain we got!)...
 

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It fit really well. I tapped rebar down periodically throughout the bottom (in a grid like fashion) and I used a transit to tape each piece of rebar where the bottom should be. The we hand troweled and pulled the rebar as we went past it. We did ok, but obviously that method would never give you a perfect result.

Honestly, if I was to do it again (with a larger flat bottom pool like this), I'd probably put 2x4's down in like 6 ft sections and get the tops of those level and at floor height so I could screed it for an extremely level/perfect finish. You could even form the whole thing that way and pour it and screed them, then pull up your 2x4 forms and fill in where they were. Really just depends on how perfect you want the floor to be. I will say, with pool lights, your floor will show all imperfections.
 
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