New OB in Sacramento Ca

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Good job on it all! That is really coming together. You are SO right in that even if you pay someone it does not guarantee it will be done right.

Did the kids fall into their beds as soon as dinner was done?

Kim:kim:
 
The kids hardly broke a sweat, it took them the same amount of time to fill the trench as it took me to dig another one, if they were tired it was from all the bickering they did not the work? :eek: What can you do, one is a teenager and the other is the stereo typical "little brother."

I don't have any petroglyphs but we did have some concrete fossil molds added to a few areas. We have a small dinosaur skull, pectin, big fang/tooth, couple raptor claws, and a fossilized fish placed around the rock work. :D

Passed pre-deck inspection this morning :kim: pre-plaster is next, then final. A ton of work to do this week / weekend we have to finish trenching and drainage for the laminars, install the French drains, layout the planter box areas, friday we get 19 yards of base and 19 yards of sand delivered for decking, we get to haul the gravel and sand in, compact it, then level for paver install and that's should cover my next few days? Then we get to start decking, just in time for 100 degree weather. sorry tired and grumpy... and by Monday probably sun-burnt.
 
Its been two weeks of hard labor, all drainage is done, ditches filled, 19 yards of gravel imported and compacted, 12 yards of sand imported... then exported. I had another 19 yards of gravel delivered this morning and when I get home tonight I have a wheelbarrow and a shovel waiting for me.... I made a mistake on gravel and sand, I had 3" of gravel for the deck and was going to do 2" of sand well that's not the right way to do it and after I got all of the gravel installed and some of the sand it was to low for the deck to look good so I removed as much sand as I could and pilled it up off to the side and got enough gravel to raise the deck another 2 1/2" to 3" this should bring the pavers up to a nice height regarding our house and give me a proper drainage slope. OB is allot of work especially when you make mistakes (and I do) but I still look at it this way I have spent $2k on sand and gravel and on equipment rental it will be another $500, I will have spent 3 days getting the area graded and level, I don't know how much time it will take me to install the pavers I imagine a while especially since I will do it on weekends and days after work BUT the lowest bid I have gotten was $15k for installation, I would have to mess-up a whole bunch to even come close to those costs. My plaster is scheduled for July 17 so I have a little time to get everything buttoned up and get the pre-plaster inspection so I am hoping I am good? The good part of all of this is that I am able to walk into my backyard and you can see that its getting close to done and its exciting, its supposed to be 104 on Saturday and sunday but I am looking forward to doing this so maybe I am a little :crazy:
 
Hey you are also saving on GYM costs!!!! Did it break your heart when you first realized it had to come back out??? Some adult words, a beer or 5, then move forward again! That is quite some savings!! WOW!

Kim:kim:
 
It was only a couple inches of sand so it wasn't bad at all, the gravel going in wasn't fun but I now have about 6 1/2" of gravel so that's plenty of base for the travertine.

Here are some "fossil" pictures and a couple after I watered the rocks (they still aren't growing).

fossils
IMG_8398.jpg

fossils
IMG_8397.jpg

and more fossils
IMG_8400.jpg

rock color is pretty well done, needs to be sealed then it will really show, without seal it looks very dull and flat.
IMG_8401.jpg

rock with a shot of the gravel...
IMG_8402.jpg
 

Attachments

  • IMG_8399.jpg
    IMG_8399.jpg
    46.8 KB · Views: 210
dustin2471 said:
It was only a couple inches of sand so it wasn't bad at all, the gravel going in wasn't fun but I now have about 6 1/2" of gravel so that's plenty of base for the travertine.

Here are some "fossil" pictures and a couple after I watered the rocks (they still aren't growing).

fossils
View attachment 81226

fossils
View attachment 81231
Click to expand...

Those are AWESOME! :bowdown:
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Thank you for the kind words and feedback, I appreciate them! Spreadsheet.... I may have some catching up to do in that department :eek: I only have a couple of subs that I can / would recommend so if you are interested in them PM me please.

The hands are a bit rougher than they were a few weeks ago, lots of callouses and lotion doesn't seem to make them better? The raking part actually isn't that bad (large landscape rake), it was the hauling it in part that wasn't fun. Last weekend I used a skid-steer and it was a breeze (except for the raking), this weekend it was 135 wheelbarrow trips and yes I am feeling a little sore today (but very happy knowing that the worst of it is over). I only had 10 loads on Sunday so I was able to clean the garage and get some front yard work done so the house is starting to get back to "normal" looking instead of a desert battle from WWII. I have to get some decko drains that I am going to run around the backside perimeter of the house and then I can get the rest of the gravel spread out and then sand (again) and finally start paver installation. The savings for DIY is pretty incredible but it really is a ton of work but the good thing about the Travertine paver decking is that pool progress can continue and decking doesn't matter, I don't have to have the deck finished before plaster or inspections or anything like that, the grounding for concrete deck has to be done before the next step can take place where Travertine doesn't have iron in it and isn't conductive so the grounding rules are different (and because it doesn't have iron in it it doesn't get hot on the feet :D). So really the decking installation is at my pace, now my goal is still to have around the pool decked before plaster and as long as I get the majority of it done I will be happy.

Thanks Again!
Dustin
 
This week in OB pool building....

Its been an interesting week or so, I am getting line cracks that run 8' to 12' in a couple areas? I had a contractor basically tell my wife and I that the sky is falling! get your lawyers ready! catastrophic failure is eminent!!!!! So being the calm and now STRESSED and VERY concerned I started doing homework and talking with experts, engineers, gunite contractor, the county? However we came to the conclusion that things were "normal" BUT this contractor was very insistent that "we had major lawsuit issues" again back to our engineer (who by the way was fantastic! Ron at pooleng.com). I spoke with Ron at length on a couple of different occasions and he was never in a hurry and explained things to me in great detail, by the end of our last conversation I was over 98% sure were ok BUT the gunite guy was coming by the next day and that would either validate my findings or blow this thing up? Gunite guy came by and verified my findings and their is 5G color changing LED at the end of the tunnel and I am still walking towards it! We are two weeks from plaster and I am shooting for inspection in 7 days, that will give me time to get things done and take a breath. Let me say this, it took finding pictures that I had taken and another contractor had taken to solidify that everything that has been done is correct or awfully close to it. A very big piece of advice for any OB or really anyone having work done or doing work take pictures from all angles take lots of *EXPLITIVE* pictures!!! It literally can save you thousands of dollars and many sleepless nights! Oh if you were wondering about the cracks, we have had high 90's or higher heat and the pool has been sitting for a while, they are long surface cracks and completely normal...

I finished leveling my gravel last weekend and compacted it, I will run the string-line tonight and start laying down sand and a few pavers tomorrow! I have no idea how long it will take me to do the pavers but I am not in a hurry to finish the deck but I AM very much looking forward to a little relaxation after this is over (even though we are waiting to get our attached patio plans back from the county as I type). I need to take some pictures before I start tonight and I will post when I get a chance.

TAKE PICTURES!!!!
 
Oh Dustin............how mean of him to tell you it was "bad" :( It is normal for cracks to form as it cures. That is one reason it is said to water it. It helps slow down the curing to keep them from getting too bad. I am guessing that person is not allowed by your pool any more!!!

Sounds like you have a good time line going on. One day you will be done and floating in YOUR pool!!!

Kim:kim:
 
Hi Kim! thanks for everything (including support)! I hope you had a good 4th of July!

As the engineer stated some people want to be a "hero" or "savior" and it usually doesn't work out for them.

I started laying pavers down and after a long slow day I did get a fair amount done but have soooo much more to do, this is going to take a while but I think it looks darn good and its funny, after the past week or so of drama we have been in a great mood since confirming everything was done properly. The good news since the gunite guy came our he found a couple spots that sounded a little hollow, he sent a guy out today to bust those hallow spots out and patch them, he is doing so now and we should have an even better pool with a very solid foundation. No delamination here! I took pictures but have not downloaded them to pc yet, I will try to later today? No promises though :D
 
I say it was a win then!

You KNOW I would love to see the pics of what you have done so far! Yeah it might take a couple/few days BUT the day will come when it is the LAST one. Make sure to have someone take a pic of you placing it!!!

Kim:kim:
 
I may have a record here, 5 gunite shoots... yes 5. The (hopefully) last gunite shoot was today and they fixed the delaminated areas which was close to being the entire bottom of the pool. The tech running the crew thinks that when they shot the 4th round of gunite that there was enough moisture to cause the separation between the layers and thats why the need to break out the previous shoot and do a 5th. Hopefully he is correct and its all done, we will see??? I passed pre-plaster inspections yesterday and am ready to go in that department (yes even with huge chunks of gunite missing out of the bottom of the pool they will inspect and pass / fail you for the next step). We had to reschedule plaster from the 17th to the 24th because our rock guy needs to redo some of the rock areas that delaminated. I was unable to be at home so the best I could do was a shot from one of our cameras.

pool.jpg

I should be getting my 7" grinder tomorrow and I can start cutting some of the pavers around the edge and the pool features, long way to go but getting there.

Thank you,
Dustin
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply