New Intex 32x16x52 build with deck (lots of pictures)

[Brett S]

We are both exhausted, but we finished the ground prep and got the pool up





It’s got a few inches of water in it now. I need to leave the house soon and I’m going to turn off ge hose while I’m gone because I’ve heard that it’s best to keep pulling out the legs as the pool fills, so I want to make sure that I’m around as it’s filling, at least until it gets to the point where I can no longer move the legs.

 

[Brett S]

I did discover one thing that helped as we inserted the poles into the liner. The instructions say to lay the liner out flat, but trying to insert the pole on the first long side proved to be very difficult because the pocket for the pole wasn’t totally straight when the liner was laid out like that.

On the second long side we discovered that it was 100 times easier if we flipped the liner back over itself like this:

That made the pole pocket perfectly straight and the pole slid in very easily.

 

[kimkats]

Well done! Good idea to be there to move the legs as needed. Smart!

Kim

 

[setsailsoon]

Great thread! Get your test kit ready!

 

[Brett S]

I’ve got another lesson learned today. As I was preparing for the pool and preparing the placement of the leg supports I had two conflicting drawings.

I had this one from intex:



Which shows that the outer length and width, which would be how far the legs stick out is 34’x17’10” for the 32x16 pool.

However, I also had this drawing from another thread here:



This drawing shows that the legs extend 7” from... something. Unfortunately it wasn’t totally clear what the 7” measurement was taken from. It looks like it’s probably from the ground cloth, but I didn’t use the ground cloth that came with the pool, so I didn’t know what it’s dimensions were.

I assumed that intex knew what they were talking about and when I placed my leg supports I made sure the centers of the supports were 34’ apart on the long side and 17’10” apart on the short side. That way the legs should end up in the center of their 15” pads.

Unfortunately I realized this morning that intex did not know what they were talking about. The legs wound up about 2 or3” from the inside edge of each pad, rather than in the center.

It would seem like the drawing by the forum member is much more accurate and that 7” measurement is taken from the ground cloth or something with dimensions of 32’x16’. Despite what the intex drawing shows, the actual outside measurements of the pool are 33’2”x17’2”.

So, I just spent an hour this morning moving all of my pads in about 4 or 5 inches, pushing them right up against my foam, which is 32’x16’. This puts the legs pretty close to the center of the pads and I feel much better about where they are.

Luckily there was only 5 or 6 inches of water in the pool and I was still (barely) able to move the legs off of the pads so I could reposition them. Had there been much more water in the pool I would have been unable to move them.

 

[Brett S]

The pool is continuing to fill. It’s got about 27 inches of water in it right now and I’ll keep filling until I go to bed later tonight.

I started setting up the pump and I did decide to use some PVC pipe since I wanted some longer runs. I had to order the intex to threaded 1.5” adapters, but amazon says they will be delivered by 8AM tomorrow. Gotta love amazon.





I‘m pretty comfortable working with PVC and I almost trust my pipe gluing skills enough to fill in the trench before it’s been leak tested, but I figure that I’ll be able to get everything connected and get the pump running tomorrow, so I may as well leak test it before I backfill.

 

[kimkats]

What an adventure! Good thing there was not that much water in it yet! You sure dodged a bullet on that one! GOOD JOB!!

Kim

 

[Brett S]

The adapters came and the filter is connected and running. The pool is almost full, not much more than an inch left, then I’ll do my first set of tests and see how the water seems.

 

[Newdude]

Looking sweet !! And another thought for a possible immediate shade fix. My umbrellas only worked in the middle of the day when the sun was overhead. Most of the time the shadow was a full 15 ft from where I wanted it. So i ended up using an offset cantilever umbrella outside the pool area, but overhanging inside. They swivel a full 360 degrees and i could easily shift it every 30 minutes as needed to keep the shade where i wanted it. It worked so well that i bought a second one and put them side by side. I also cut and cemented steel pipe right at my pool fence (schedule 30/40 I forget) because its inside diameter fit the umbrella poles perfectly so i could throw out the big bulky bases and get the umbrella 2 ft closer to my patio area. (The square poles wouldnt work for this of course). I got the 11ft umbrellas (they also have 13 ft) and i can effectively shade 22+ feet however I see fit, regardless of where the sun is. Late in the day when the guests are having dinner, the shadow is even bigger between the too.

In your case you could put the bases right at the pool wall and have most of the umbrella over the pool. Or figure out what size pipe you would need and get the umbrella completely over the pool. The stock bases get filled with sand or water and the umbrellas blow over. I cut my bottom open and filled it using cement and it helped some but not entirely. When i put the poles in the ground i used 5 bags each. Overkill but worth every penny @ $5 a bag. They will not budge now. The umbrellas fold down when not needed and pop right out for storage. i cap the pipes to keep water out in the off season.

This link is an expensive one, but very similar to the ones I got on clearance for $150ish each.

Amazon.com : PURPLE LEAF 11 Feet Double Top Deluxe Sunbrella Wood Pattern Patio Umbrella Offset Hanging Umbrella Cantilever Umbrella Outdoor Market Umbrella Garden Umbrella, Beige : Garden & Outdoor

 

[Flying Tivo]

Just noticed that you used non-pressurized elbows on the pipes. It should have been Sch40 pressure rated, probably its ok, just make sure you keep an eye on it. You should hard pipe your waste MPV, you dont want water near your support wood or pump pad.

 

[Brett S]

The pool is full and the test results are in



FC - 8.2 - This is a little higher than I intended. I had added some bleach as the pool was filling and used pool math to figure out how much to add, but I just realized that I thought I was adding 6% and I was actually using 10%. I’ll just keep my SWG off for a few days and let it drop.
CC - 0
pH - 7.2 - Might even be a little under 7.2 but still above 7.0. A little on the low side, but not too bad
TA - 180 - A little high, but I’ll wait until the pH goes up before I try to bring it down
CH - 180
Salt - 3000
Temp - 64 - Definitely too low, but I think I’ll have to wait for Mother Nature to help with this

I didn’t measure CYA yet. I added 7 pounds of dry CYA, but it hasn’t fully dissolved yet. I’ll wait for that to dissolve, then I’ll measure it. I think I’ll probably have to add another 2 or 3 pounds to get where I want to be though.

Now I just need to get the yard cleaned up and start work on the patio and the deck... and maybe some sort of shade as well.

 

[jseyfert3]

Looking good!

I almost got that pool, until someone here pointed out a 26' round on Walmart rollback for a ridiculously low price, so I immediately bought it. Still snow on top of frozen ground up here in Wisconsin though, so you are about 3 months ahead of my install. ?

Is that the OEM (Intex) filter and pump?

 

[Brett S]

Looking good!

I almost got that pool, until someone here pointed out a 26' round on Walmart rollback for a ridiculously low price, so I immediately bought it. Still snow on top of frozen ground up here in Wisconsin though, so you are about 3 months ahead of my install. ?

Is that the OEM (Intex) filter and pump?

I saw your thread, actually, but unfortunately when I was looking at buying a pool the ridiculously low price had already disappeared, otherwise I might have wound up with that same 26’ round pool if I could have figured out how to fit it in my yard.

The filter and pump is the Intex 16” sand filter/pump/SWG all in one. It’s not the filter and pump that came with the pool... I bought it last year when I wanted to add a SWG and a better filter to my old pool, but it is the intex brand. I believe that if you got a pool with a SWG then this is what you would get with it, although possibly a slightly newer version.

 

[kimkats]

I am loving the placement! That is purrfect!

Kim

 

[AusPhil]

Just noticed that you used non-pressurized elbows on the pipes. It should have been Sch40 pressure rated, probably its ok, just make sure you keep an eye on it. You should hard pipe your waste MPV, you dont want water near your support wood or pump pad.

Consider the stock intex/bestway pumps max out somewhere around 10psi from memory the risk of the non schedule 40 pipe bends bursting is likely zero

 

[Brett S]

We are starting to plan for phase two of this project, the patio and deck, and we had a brilliant idea. I think we are going to remove the screens and frames from the existing porch.



We’ll still put pavers in the area in front of the porch where the water level and wheelbarrow are, installing the pavers at the same level as the floor on the porch, making it into one large unified space instead of two smaller separate spaces. Something kind of like this:



I’m thinking that this should make it into a much more useful space as well and allow us to make the deck a bit bigger, maybe even wrapping the deck around the pool a bit.

The downside is that we lose the screened in porch, but I’m not sure that’s really the end of the world. Bugs haven’t really been a big problem here and if I decide that I really really want a screened in area later I’m thinking that I can just install a screen enclosure coming out from the house that includes the new patio area.

 

[Cavmedic]

Orlando in the house. Looking good. Nice job on the install.

 

[Newdude]

I’m lovin it too. Sweet job with the picking out and doing parts Brett.

 

[kimkats]

Oh I like that idea!! That would open it up great! You can also gets a couple of the OFF lanterns. It is almost like having a dome around you!

Kim

 

[Brett S]

Here are the rough plans that we’ve come up with for the patio and deck design. We’re going to remove the screens from the porch as I suggested above and run pavers all the way from the deck into the porch, so it will be one unified surface. The high portion of the deck will be at pool height and the lower portion will be about half pool height just to add visual appeal and help break up the big height difference. I didn’t put dimensions on the drawing, but each square is 6 inches.