New Florida Build -- Balancing Water and Final Steps

[johngault007]

We started planning our pool back in January and had a final design done within a couple weeks. Due to some issues with a land survey (long story), our dig date was scheduled and started on May 8th. Luckily for us we have a large enough back yard with very easy access so the excavation crew made quick work of the dig and completed it all in one day. We hit ground water at 3ft (ouch), so the crew spend a good portion of the time setting up the well points and once the water was dried up, easy sailing.

Fast forward to May 10th and 11th, the framing and plumbing crew jumped right in and worked through sun and rain (yes RAIN!). Today we had the inspectors out to check over the work and they gave the OK to keep moving. We do not have a firm date for the gunite, but I'll keep the updates coming as they happen.

Thanks to my lurking on this site, I at least know what to expect and the many questions I could have bothered the PB are minimized to questions specific to our build.

I have many more photos, I just seem to lack the time to process them

 

[cowboycasey]

Nicely done, congrats on the hole in the ground

 

[kevin76]

I'm down in Tampa and the test hole they dug a few weeks ago had water in it. I was fully expecting them to hit groundwater during the dig yesterday, but miraculously they didn't. Maybe the lack of rain the past few weeks helped.

 

[johngault007]

I'm down in Tampa and the test hole they dug a few weeks ago had water in it. I was fully expecting them to hit groundwater during the dig yesterday, but miraculously they didn't. Maybe the lack of rain the past few weeks helped.

That is good news and you are probably right. We live around 1,500 yards from Perdido Bay and have had what seems like a monsoon of a Spring so far. I would guess with all of the rain and being closer to the water we didn't have a chance for dry ground. I'm just glad I anticipated it and had a spare budget for the "anything could happen" aspect of a large construction project.

 

[johngault007]

Got a call from the project manager of the PB today and gunite is scheduled for (some time) next week. He didn't want to give me the exact date too far in advance for fear of it getting pushed right for weather, labor, alien invasions, etc....

Also, he said all of our pavers and tiles are in and will be delivered on the 25th so they are staged for the tile/deck crews to come in. Of course this IS NW Florida so I won't get excited until I see the big spray nozzles on site blasting my beautiful shell of a pool with grey goodness!!!!

I don't really have any more pictures as nothing has been done since the last update.

Cheers,
Tony

 

[johngault007]

Gunite was applied today. The the sub mentioned they were backed up by 2 weeks due to some weather a few weeks ago. With the storms we had, I can completely understand how all jobs were pushed to the right.

We are on the schedule for rough grade on Saturday (2 days from now). Also, all the pavers and coping were delivered yesterday. Things aren't moving as fast as my excitement, but all things aside, I can't complain.

 

[johngault007]

Rough grade was scheduled for this past Saturday, and since it was a holiday weekend I knew better than to expect them. I got an early AM call from my PM and he said they were on their way out to complete the rough grade. It is amazing how much dirt has been moved around during excavation and now moved back during rough grade. But for timelines, I still can't complain one bit, as things are moving slower than my anticipation, but faster than the reality I set for myself.

We do not have a solid date for coping and decking yet, but everything has been delivered and it's just a matter of "when" at this point. In the meantime, I find my solitude in the peaceful activity of watering gunite 2-3 times each day.

 

[Newdude]

We do not have a solid date for coping and decking yet, but everything has been delivered and it's just a matter of "when" at this point

Getting stuffs is a good chunk of the battle for most folks right now. So there is that

 

[johngault007]

Getting stuffs is a good chunk of the battle for most folks right now. So there is that

Yeah Dude,
After reading some of the stories here, I feel very fortunate that our PB maintains a healthy stock of equipment and their supply chain seems to have not been impacted (too much).

 

[johngault007]

Earlier this week it was discovered that during rough grading two of the return pipes were cracked very close to the gunite shell. Me being the optimist (not really), I figured everything would be delayed for months on end until it was fixed. My PB assured me that the coping and tiling would go through as scheduled and that the pipes would be fixed before the pavers went down for the deck.

And, as they have so far during this process, this morning I get a call from the PB letting me know a crew would be out to today for tiling and coping. Even with the slight delay due to the pipe issue, I see us with a fully built pool right around the first week of July as I tentatively planned. Of course I haven't made plans for any parties, because that would just be a recipe for karmic disaster.

These photos aren't the greatest, but I went out after coming back from working out and snapped a couple. We kept everything pretty basic as we just really wanted a quality hole in the ground to swim in.

 

[johngault007]

I was surprised yesterday (Saturday) when I got a call from my PB telling me that we were scheduled for pavers to be installed.

Now we are just waiting for electrical and plaster.

 

[BigPapaSmurf]

Looking good.

 

[johngault007]

Looking good.

Thanks much!

 

[johngault007]

So no pictures this time. But the electricians came yesterday and installed panels and all wiring for the pool. Hopefully we get on the schedule pretty quick for plaster prep and finally plastering! Right now we are only about one week behind the "tentative" schedule from the initial ground breaking, which is not bad at all.

 

[johngault007]

Again, no photo updates as the PM and I walked around all of the construction and talked about the next steps and discussed some very minor items that will be added to the final punch list. The best guestimate is early next week for plaster prep and plaster. Again, I'm not getting my hopes up, because anything can happen in Florida with regards to the weather and other construction delays. But we are still still less than a month over the original projected timeline, so the family isn't cursing at me yet.

 

[johngault007]

So as with every aspect of this build, we have been extremely lucky with the timelines for everything. The PB came out yesterday for plaster prep and was at the house this morning at 6AM already working. It was raining most of the day, so they had a tarp over the entire pool. It was a night and day transition from yesterday to today to say the least. There is some plaster residue on the dry parts, but I was assured this would be removed during the brushing period after the pool is filled. The photos don't show the blue quartz mixed with the plaster, but it's there and I am excited to see how it affects the water color throughout the day.

All in all we were about 2 weeks past the projected schedule, which in my opinion, is pretty good.

I still have rough grade, safety fence install, irrigation work, and sod to complete, but that is all small stuff to get to the final finish line.

 

[cowboycasey]

Nicely done

 

[johngault007]

It only took two days to fill the pool up, and with our water pressure that was pretty surprising. I was completely shocked to find out it was only around $40 to fill up the pool in my area, which is some fantastic news.

But everything went well and the PB came out to start up the system and hand over the keys to the new liquid kingdom. Ok they weren't keys exactly...we took possession of the Hayward vacuum, a skimmer net, brush, and a manual vacuum to use while the plaster is curing for the first 30 days.

We do have final grade next Tuesday and the perimeter safety fence left. But those aren't as exciting as getting the pool started...

 

[johngault007]

Ok, I do have one question. And let me preface with, everything I'm about to type is because my PB still controls the pool until the 28th, and I don't want to void any warranties.

So in order to expose the blue quartz in the plaster, the contractors did a light acid wash before we started filling the pool. Everything went well, and not that I am brushing, everything looks even and there are a few small spots here and there that haven't been fully disclosed. The startup guy said with 2x daily brushing, this will even out in time. I am really not worried about that, because it's barely noticeable.

Yesterday morning after fill up I tested the pH and it was (just guessing) around 10. I am guessing from reading here and pool school that the fresh plaster is the culprit for that. The startup guy added like 4 gallons of muriatic acid, and I tested this morning and the pH was on the complete opposite side of the spectrum and too low to test. He also added 8 bags of salt, which brought the salinity of up (what I tested) as 3600ppm, but the panel is reading 3400 and I'm assuming it's still stabilizing as the salt is balancing out in the water. The pump is running 24/7 on high speed and the SWG is set at 50%.

So here's the question: I asked about calcium additions, liquid chlorine and CYA, and he said not to add anything until the 28th (5 days) as the water chemistry is going to be all over the place. I know that the SWG will struggle to produce enough chlorine and with the lack of CYA, it won't hold in this hot Florida sun. Will it be ok until then to not add anything?

 

[johngault007]

So the pool has been running for 3 days now and the plaster dust has subsided to a very light almost unnoticeable cloud during brushing. As expected, lowering pH is a daily occurrence, but this site had me well prepared.

Today I started adding CYA to the water and will gradually step it up over the next couple days to my target number so my daily addition of chlorine doesn't get eaten by the sun within an hour

Thanks to all who have contributed to answering the questions of others so I was able to lurk and learn!

We have final grade on Tuesday and the cleanup running concurrently.