New Pool Build - Northern California

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Re: New Pool Build - Bay Area California

Hi Suz. Thanks for the comments and ideas - we certainly do have a unique house. When we started the whole process were thinking of building a craftsman home...now we have a modern home.

The glass block idea is a great concept. We originally didn't want any block, but our master bath shower wall is curved and needed some light. It is hard to get a curved window in a wet environment. Right now I am not sure if that would work around the pool, but something to keep in mind.

Our main focus is getting this build back on track and getting the city to approve where we are so we can gunite...
 
Re: New Pool Build - Bay Area California

After several days of back and forth, me contacting a soils engineer to get him ready, and getting 2 structural engineers, and several different city inspectors we finally have approval. It basically took the structural engineer to confirm that the steel structure was designed for the type of soil encountered - nothing more...

Kind of a waste of a week.

Of course now it is about to rain again. Spring rain so far has delayed us a little. No complaints as we really need the rain here in dry California. We have had a couple of nice storms the last few weeks which at least keeps the fire danger around the state lower for a little longer.

On to gunite - whenever we can get the gunite company out here.
 
Re: New Pool Build - Bay Area California

Alright, while we are waiting for a gunite appointment time I thought it would be time to go over the decking options and retaining walls. We are finalizing finishes and details with the

Below is a drawing of the latest design. We are going to build a pergola over the top rectangular area. The curved walls and the walls under the pergola will be about 24" tall finished concrete in a green color to match our house. The straight 18" high wall at our play area will be a darker gray like our coping.

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Our coping is air finish square nose coping in "Silversmoke" medium gray. We are going with salt finished concrete decking with 2% gray color, slightly lighter than the coping. Our waterline tile is a Bedrosians tile in a blue tint. Below is a photo from another pool using the same waterline tile.

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Re: New Pool Build - Bay Area California

All right, SantaCruz!!!! Where were you guys when I was designing my pool, huh?!!!! That looks awesome! Wow oh Wow! (sorry, I got a little over the top, but it is so great looking!) With your home and now the pool design and hardscaping/landscaping plans, I see this going in a magazine! I can't make any suggestions for improvement. Maybe the wizards on here will catch something.....

Have you mentioned how long ya'll have been in your house? Did you draw out the above design on your own? I can't wait for everything to really rock and roll!!! Thanks for including us! Suz.
 
Re: New Pool Build - Bay Area California

Today is gunite day, and we are getting the rain I asked the Texas crowd to send our way! Looks like just some drizzle and mist, so it might even help the curing!

If I get the chance I will try to get a couple of photos - they were busy cleaning and setting up for spraying when I left for work.
 
Re: New Pool Build - Bay Area California

Gunite is done. Time to start watering

Everything looks awesome, except that the umbrella socket got put in the wrong spot - and was then taken out by the builder it looks like. I will need to get that worked out...

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Re: New Pool Build - Bay Area California

Fantastic!!! Aren't ya'll excited?! I love this last photo. Those huge windows in your house really show up here - you can see straight through to the other side. I want a tour of your house!!!

Such a fun build! Let the rains keep coming to cure that gunite. Happy watering! Suz.
 
Re: New Pool Build - Bay Area California

We have some more progress. Today we had our retaining walls poured. After several days of preparation, digging, plumbing, electrical, structural engineering for our shade structure including installing four steel posts we are now on to our next phase.

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Re: New Pool Build - Bay Area California

We are inching along here - I was just updating my drawing to show some changes I wanted to the equipment pad. Originally we had a 4ft x 8ft equipment pad in the drawing in case we ever wanted to add a gas heater. I have since decided to ditch that idea and stick with solar. Therefore, we now only need a 4ft x 4ft pad.

Below is an image showing the pad plan.

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We are planning a fence on the pool side, as shown, to block the view of the equipment. Our seating area looks straight down at the equipment area. We are dropping the pad down 24" below our existing retaining wall, and the fence above it will start out about 18" above that. So it should block everything. Plus, if we put a couple of plants in front of the fence it should disappear.

I would like to know if anyone sees any problems with this rough layout. I have seen a few other threads were equipment and electrical panels ended up looking pretty bad.

Thanks!
 
Re: New Pool Build - Bay Area California

Pretty colors there!

How is your electric bill in that house? Does it keep cool with concrete for walls?

what a time of it you had with that first inspector! Glad that is behind you!

Kim
 
Re: New Pool Build - Bay Area California

Pretty colors there!

How is your electric bill in that house? Does it keep cool with concrete for walls?

what a time of it you had with that first inspector! Glad that is behind you!

Kim
 
Re: New Pool Build - Bay Area California

Our electric bill is about $130 per month for just electric we use on average about 545 kWh per month...

Our next city inspection is soon - hopefully things go better.

We are 1 mile from the coast so it is pretty comfortable most days. The dark green stucco color does get hot, and on our warmer days (think 80's) we get a bit hot upstairs. We are thinking of adding a ductless minisplit for the upstairs as it is our living kitchen space and it is all open, just for the days we want to cool off. But that is why we have the new pool going in. When it is hot, jump in the pool!!
 
Alright - we just passed our city inspection for the electrical trenching.

The concrete decking will start tomorrow - so now we are going to see even more progress. No more dirt, sand, and gravel piles soon!!!

We also figured out that the coping we ordered is not the same finish we requested. I was so involved in watching it go in and didn't look at all the pieces. Our original order was for an air finish coping to match our planned salt finish decking. We ended up with smooth finished coping as shown in the photos above. I was able to negotiate with the builder to make it good to us, as we are not opposed to keeping the smooth finish. It does look good - and we don't want to delay things anymore. So problem solved. Also, since the original hole for the umbrella holder was placed in the wrong spot we were able to get an extra one added at no cost to the right spot, and we will put one in the wrong hole since the hole is already there...
 
Quick question if anyone knows?

Should the equipment pad be perfectly level - or can it slope a little to drain runoff/cleaning water????

I am tucking my pad down in the ground as far as possible...so will need to make sure water doesn't build up on it. There is a sloped grade where we are putting it - so the bottom corner is just about at the old grade - the concrete contractor wants to grade it a little towards the bottom corner.
 

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