New Fiberglass Build SW Chicago

[gingrbredman]

And so it begins! Destroying the yard is a sight to see! Marked everything out, shot their levels, put up the temporary fence and got to diggin!

I put up three Ubiquiti cameras last weekend so I can be the ultimate stalker while this project is underway. I am told a month from start to finish and this is only day 1

Camera 1




Camera 2


Camera 3

 

[gingrbredman]

Big day.... We have a FB shell in that hole!

Pretty exciting day with all the chaos. PB finishing up the base, a crane, a flatbed with a shell, and the whole block waiting for the install.

Crane operator doing an empty run...


Neighbors across the street were tailgating for the occasion, all the kids watching this unfold...



Shell up, up, and away.


Final positioning...



Me getting in just to take a pic


So far so good. I'm really liking the "Ocean Blue" G3 color, the "bling" as my wife calls it is very nice in the sun. Have to put a little water in it tonight, and then stone and more water tomorrow. Progress feels nice.

 

[CircaSurvivalist]

Congrats on delivery! Exciting times for sure!

 

[gingrbredman]

Stone backfill continues. And the mess really has started! We had been dry for a while, then Sunday and today some rain, so the mud has now found its way even into the garage. The crew has been great with cleanup at the end of every day, but mud is mud and it will travel.



It feels like Christmas morning with some stuff getting delivered today.


Coverstar auto cover being worked on now. Concrete collar tomorrow, then maybe patio begins Monday.

Also decided to just bite the bullet now and get the slide installed now. While its a big hit to the budget, we haven't seen the budget for a while now anyway, so it will be ok. The local distributor had a Typhoon slide in stock, and they are usually backordered, so got a good deal on it.

 

[CircaSurvivalist]

Looking good!!

 

[gingrbredman]

Patio coming along.



Pump, filter, bubblers running. Lots of junk in the pool and its cloudy. No salt or chemicals added yet. Gas line is being installed as I type.



Got the robot out, the brush, net and spent Sunday just trying to clean up. The robot has picked up a lot at the bottom and it is getting clearer each time I brush and run the robot.



Equipment pad should all be straightened out by tomorrow. The guys plumbing "rushed" getting everything connected and while it works, they must have misplaced their level and square. Owner PB wasn't there when it was done and he was even disappointed and not up to his level of satisfaction, which is as high as mine, which is nice to hear and not have any arguments about it.

Slowly but surely we move along, hope to be all wrapped up by the end of the week.

 

[crimson avenger]

Looking good!

How big is the patio around your pool?

 

[gingrbredman]

Looking good!

How big is the patio around your pool?

Thanks! The side by the house is 6'. The side towards my patio is 4' and the other sides are 3'. After seeing it all down, kinda wish I would have gone a little bigger on the 4' and 6' sides, I have the room, but at the time, this is the sizes we went with to stay in our budget, or at least close to it. But, in the spring, I can always expand these sections, once the bleeding of money has stopped and the wound has healed.

 

[gingrbredman]

Had the Intellicenter hooked up yesterday. Heater is fired up and sucking cash out of my pocket as we try and heat this without the cover. The cover should be in by Thursday. No swimming in the future, just making sure everything is set up. Salt goes in today so the water temps need to be up a bit to get the SWCG working. Bubblers are on the controls, as well as the lights, and slide will be next, that gets put in today.

Lighting is one of my favorite things, so seeing them on last night was great! I am losing the battle with the leaves for now with all the wind we have had and no cover.

Just a couple gratuitous night shots....

 

[Candurin]

Which LEDs are those? The Pentair microbrites?

 

[CircaSurvivalist]

Lights are looking good! I like how they are all positioned on one side...it really lights up the whole pool, smart move!

 

[gingrbredman]

I do like how the lights all face away from the house. My youngest daughters room is right above the pool and she has the best view in the house, without being blinded.

We did go with three Pentair Microbrite lights. With a 30' long pool, our PBs "standard" package came with two lights, but we added a third one. We probably could gotten away with just two, the pool is only 14 x 30, but do like how much light fills the pool with three. The ledge and steps really are lit up at night. Also glad I didn't go with the LED lights in the bubblers now. For that cost (~$1,700 per bubbler), I don't think that extra light would have been worth it. With the darker color pool, some colors aren't as vivid as others, but still very happy!

Final touches coming soon!

 

[Candurin]

Perfect. We are doing a two-part fiberglass pool, one 6' section is a tanning ledge and the 31' is the actual pool itself. Your photos made me glad that I upgraded from 2 Microbrite LEDs to 4 LEDS (1 in tanning area and 3 in main pool).

 

[gingrbredman]

More progress during the week. Slide got put it, and the yard put back together. Was nice to see a truckload of sod delivered and the whole project begin wrapping up.



Still have the orange safety fence up, this will come down on the 30th when the fence comes in. I do enjoy the look of the new sod. The yard was a bit neglected knowing it was going to get destroyed and its nice to see it back to some kind of actual usable space.



Still a little work to do, but its coming along....

 

[gingrbredman]

On another note, last week my PB tells me to "take a water sample to the pool store, and tell us what they want to do".

I was taken back a bit, thinking, "you want me, to take the sample....... to the pool store.......to tell us what to do next?" I have read a lot, a lot of PBs do a nice job with the builds, but just do not understand the chemistry, and it looks like my PB is one of them. I have been very happy with my PB, very happy how this is all coming together, I just made the assumption they also would get the pool "started" and ready to go, at least to a bare minimum, with some understanding of what the water needs to be like. It seems they rely on pool stores to get them there.

This was moment of "ahhhhhh, this is why I have been obsessed with TFP for the last couple months... preparing me for this moment" lol! It was a good thing and bad thing. the bad is I would have expected them to get to some kind of baseline water, then I take it over. The good is no one put anything stupid in the water, no magic pool store potions, and I got to jump right into the deep end with the process.

So I cracked out my entire test kit, all bundled up in a nice and easy package, and got to work.....



That is my "pool ipad", a mini we are going to have by the pool area for controls. Waterproof case and all, with the Pentair Intellicenter app and Pool Math installed.

At first my numbers were crazy it seemed, but did the tests a few times. Salt was low, no chlorine or CYA to speak of. PH and ALK off, but once I entered all the results, a nice and easy explanation of what to do next was there for me.

Retested Friday morning and they were closer. Retested again this morning and we are right where we need to be.

Water temp is 80 and outside temp will be in the low 60s this afternoon. Gonna take a ride down the slide and embrace this!

 

[Texas Splash]

 

[CircaSurvivalist]

Your build seemed like it went really smooth/fast and turned out beautiful! Congrats!! Is it heated? Our water temps are in the mid 60’s down here (no heater)

 

[gingrbredman]

Your build seemed like it went really smooth/fast and turned out beautiful!

Thanks! The build has gone pretty smooth so far, we are right at 4 weeks, and we were told it should be about 4 weeks. Next week we should have the cover installed, go through the whole pool features (kind of final inspection and final payment due), and then they will close the pool.

A few issues along the way, they backed into my air conditioner bracket and bent it, that should be fixed today. Despite all the conversations about the importance of the Comcast line with remote working, learning, etc. and Internet, the last day of "digging", they actually severed that line. They were able to "patch" it, and Comcast came the next day to run a new line. I was sure they would have taken out my neighbors fence, as tight of a squeeze it was, but that went untouched!

The plumbing at the pad isn't quite "plumb" still, but they said when they close the pool and take all the stuff apart that will be fixed.

Finally, they need to touch up the spot where the auto cover will go. With CoverStar, and Latham pools, there is a spot, under where the leading edge will go, that you will be able to see the concrete collar if we do nothing. It is very strange to me this is the preferred way of installation, but my builder is talking with Latham and Coverstar about how to "fix" this. Either a tile, or perhaps even some actual gel coat from the manufacturing process will work, but that will have to wait until spring with the temps down here now.



Here is what the APC cover looks like installed, this is from my neighbors pool...



Unfortunately, I couldn't go with an APC cover with a Latham pool if I wanted the warranties.

 

[gingrbredman]

Is it heated? Our water temps are in the mid 60’s down here (no heater)

Yes, the pool is heated right now. Water is actually at 78 degrees now, and the outside temps are about 55. The SWCG needs to have temps higher than 60 I believe to produce chlorine, and we of course wanted to try out the heater so it is cranking right now. Will shut the heater off today now that everything is working.

Funny thing about the SWCG, I almost forgot I had the IC40 installed, and the volume is about 12k gallons. I had the generator at 100% for a few hours in the beginning for chlorine production, then must have turned it off too late. Chlorine was up to 11 (apparently 3-6 is preferred according to pool math). So now that everything is working right, and the pool water is balanced, its time to shut it all down and patiently wait for spring.

 

[BrittanyV]

Finally, they need to touch up the spot where the auto cover will go. With CoverStar, and Latham pools, there is a spot, under where the leading edge will go, that you will be able to see the concrete collar if we do nothing. It is very strange to me this is the preferred way of installation, but my builder is talking with Latham and Coverstar about how to "fix" this. Either a tile, or perhaps even some actual gel coat from the manufacturing process will work, but that will have to wait until spring with the temps down here now.

Your pool looks great! We are so jealous that it went in so fast compared to ours. Our dig day was March 16, and our concrete pour is just nearing the end (hopefully they finish tomorrow if the weather cooperates).

Just curious if you came up for a plan for this area between the cover box and the end of the FG pool. We have the exact same situation with our Imagine Pool / Coverstar combination. Right now it is just broom finished concrete with the top face of the pool exposed (like yours). I don't love the look, but we will see how it turns out I guess. I tentatively have them planning to use the same acid treatment on this strip of concrete that they are using on our stamped coping. My hope is that it will help make it look more uniform with the rest of the pool.

I'd love to hear / see how you ended up!