New Pool Build Thread in Cypress TX (NW Houston)
- Thread starter mikew2069
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Just read up on your build, I had been so busy with our house that I haven't really had a time to contiously read. I'm glad your build moved along so quickly, you surpassed our build! We had for months scheduled our plaster for June 26 but due to all the rain, apparently all the crews are 1-2 weeks behind ...
Let me know how that cleaner works out for you!
Let me know how that cleaner works out for you!
Thanks! Yea our build has gone super fast. We’ve definitely had a couple of hiccups along the way but the PB has been pretty good at getting things taken care of. It’s been a little annoying that I’m having to call out the mistakes rather than them being on top of it and proactive but it is what it is.
Talking with some of the subs, everyone is super backed up bc of that week of rain. But we were able to swim all weekend. Just waiting on a few punch list items and we’re all good!
The robot hasn’t seen the water yet. It will probably go in next weekend and I’ll be sure to post pics and review it.
Ok, need some help from the experts. We've had water in our pool for about a month now. We noticed that we were losing about an inch ever 2-3 days so we let the PB know and they sent out a leak specialist. They found the leak in the side of the wall where the blue arrow is below. They are sending someone out to patch it right away but we are very concerned.
This wall, as you can see is the wall that is right up against our home's foundation. Over the course of the past month, hundreds if not thousands of gallons have leaked back there. Where has all of this water been going? Is the foundation of our home compromised?
This wall, as you can see is the wall that is right up against our home's foundation. Over the course of the past month, hundreds if not thousands of gallons have leaked back there. Where has all of this water been going? Is the foundation of our home compromised?
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Mike? The WALL has a leak/hole??? Can you see it? Are they sure it is the wall or is it the pipes?
I forget.............is there concrete or such between the pool and house?
I forget.............is there concrete or such between the pool and house?
First let me say that your leak cannot have been that severe. I was reading up on evaporation and many specify a rate of 1/4" per day in the hot summer with wind. So probably half of your missing water went into the air instead of into the ground next to your house.
Here some additional information on foundations:
I am no foundation engineer but building our new house on extremely poor soils I researched a lot about foundation performance to understand what is causing foundation issues. Based on my understanding water itself has no effect on your foundation. The problem is when you have clay soils underneath your foundation (and if you are in Houston you most likely do) that water will expand the soil . Now if the soil around your whole house expands the same amount you usually don't have a lot of issues either, because everything rises at the same time and when the water is gone it will shrink together at the same time. But if you have wet soils on one side and very dry soils on the other side, then the soil can swell on the wet side and not on the dry side and that will start to put stress on your concrete foundation since there is only pressure on one side.
So based on that if you continuously have wet soil on one side and dry soil on the other sides of the house you could develop foundation issues. What I don't know is whether this can already cause issues within 1 month or if it takes longer. The good thing is that with all the rain we had the first couple of weeks it didn't make a big difference. Only the last two weeks you may have had wet soil on one side and drier soil on the other sides. Plus if you have been watering a lot around your hole house including close up to the foundation, then the soil on the other sides is probably not as dried out either.
Now if your house was built on a structural foundation with piers and void boxes (=air gap underneath the flat concrete with piers going 12-20 feet into the ground) then the above doesn't really matter because the soils can expand by around 6" before they even touch the bottom of your foundation. But if your house was built with a slab on grade foundation without any piers, then that pressure is going right against your foundation. Unless your home was a custom home designed by an independent engineer, you most likely do not have a foundation on void boxes as they are very expensive.
If you want to be safe I would suggest you hire a structural engineer who specializes in foundation performance for an opinion. Matt Gray has a lot of knowledge. Here is his website: http://www.mattgraype.com/ Here is a document he wrote with his father who was also a structural engineer specializing on foundations. http://www.texasinspector.com/files/Foundation-Book-for-Buyers.pdf
Read the testimonials on the website and some of the info he posts. Maybe he will give you a brief opinion over the phone but most likely he will want to come out and look at it, measure your floors, etc. Maybe he will tell you to call him again in a couple of months since it would be too early to tell if you have any issues.
Whatever you do, definitely don't get a foundation repair company to evaluate your situation. They have too much incentive to recommend a repair and many times repairs won't improve the situation and it is a risk that it can make the situation even worse. They may tell you that you have an issue whereas Matt Gray may determine that it's no big deal.
Wishing you the best of luck with this!
I forgot to mention that if your slab area is larger then you can even have issues if the watering around the foundation is consistent because the center of your foundation will always be on dry soil (dormant area) whereas the edges will fluctuate with the moisture content of your soil around the house (active area). Michael Gray has a Youtube video explaining how this works:
How Houston Texas Slab Foundations Work - YouTube
How Houston Texas Slab Foundations Work - YouTube
There are two "drains" on the wall that provide the suction for the water features. The leak was coming from the edge of one of those drains. They've already patched it up but now I'm concerned about where all that water went and long term effects on my foundation.
There's no concrete between the pool and house other than the gunite shell.
Thanks man, that is quite a wealth of information I need to digest.... We were gone out of town for a week and when we returned, we lost 3" of water. At 1/4" of evaporation per day, we should have only lost 1.5-2" max. Not sure how many gallons there are in an inch of water but if my pool has approximately 19k gallons of water and we'll say my average depth is 4.5', my calculation says that's approximately 350 gallons per inch.
If I've lost 350 gallons in that leak every week for the past 4 weeks, that's a lot of darn water that has escaped somewhere very close to my foundation.
Also, our neighborhood was built up in the flood plane so I know there is a lot of sand under and around us. I'm sure there's clay there too.
I'm curious since I live in Cypress, too. PM me if you'd rather, but in what area of Cypress are you? Was your house damaged by Harvey?
In the 10 foot by 50 foot area behind the average home next to the foundation an inch of rain would be approximately 300 gallons. Your house has that much water there everytime a hard rain happens. Doesn’t seem worthy of my concern personally
This is actually easier to calculate. Just take your pool surface area in square feet and then multiply it by the inches of water you are losing divided by 12. That will get you cubic feet and those you can convert to gallons.
Usually foundation issues grow over time, so I think that if this gets resolved quickly you will most likely not have any issues.
We live in a new subdivision off of Kluge Rd. It's right by little Cypress Creek. This land was in the 100yr plane but they built it up and our slab sits a couple feet over the 500yr now.
This stat definitely makes me feel a little better. Thank you, that makes pretty good sense. I have been watering every day on every side of the house for the past couple of weeks to help the new sod root in so hopefully that will help even out the moisture on the other sides of the foundation.
So using your calculation, I'm multiplying 17x35=595 which is the surface area. I took out the spa and the first step of stairs. Multiply that by 4 (guessing there was an inch going in the leak every week for 4 weeks) = 2380. Divide that by 12 and you get 198 gallons.
I don't exactly follow this thought process but if I've only lost 198 gallons back there, then I'm much less worried about this.
Wow, Mike! If I had air in my bike tires, I could peddle over to your neighborhood! Are you zoned for Hamilton Elementary? I'm retired now but taught there for 15 of my 28 years teaching! I love our area!!
Yes my oldest daughter went to Hamilton from K-5 and will start Hamilton Middle next year. My youngest is going into 4th. I moved to the area in the late 90s but I was finishing HS and headed to college but my little sisters also attended Hamilton Elementary and Middle.
- - - Updated - - -
Finally had salt added to our pool yesterday and the PB provided their final service so I'm all on my own - yay! I read the pool school article on setting the SWG percentage. It basically says to trial and error, check and see. But what's a good starting point? My pump is currently set to run 10 hours a day at 3000rpm and we have the SWG set at 38%. Sound like a good start?
You will need to step up your FC testing to see what works. Use that as a guide. FC too high? Lower the % or pump run time. FC too low? Increase % or pump run time. Tweak and test until you find the purrfect spot for SUMMER! Remember you will still have to "learn" the other seasons so keep good notes so you can repeat it next year.
Kim
Kim
I think that's a good place to start. And remember that starting point for the spring when your pool is warm enough to turn the cell percentage back up. Now, for the summer, Kim is correct, and you will probably need to raise it. But, you're running your pumps longer than I am, you have fewer gallons, so you could be close. I don't see the size of your SWG in your signature, so I can't give you a better answer.
Since we are relatively close neighbors with the same weather, I'm giving you the details of what I'm currently running.
*** I have a 2hp 2-speed pump, Jandy Aquapure 1400 swgs, and 23-24K gallons --- for comparison to your pool.
Total pump run time: 8 hours
** High speed total: 1 hour
** Low speed total: 7 hours
Cell %: 60% when we had two weeks of rain
70% during the recent triple or near triple digits with mostly clear blue skies
Note: Due to the higher temps, lower humidity, and intense sun, I've had a good bit of evaporation
Earlier this year:
This year (2018), I turned on my cell on March 17th when temperatures were holding fairly steady in the upper 60's to low 70's. I began with 40% and moved up to 60% in about a week. I was running my pumps 4 hours a day.
March 26th, I moved my pumps to the summer 8 hour/day schedule.
I kept the cell in the 60-65 range until July 15th. Now it's holding well at the 70% mentioned above.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Suz
Oops, just when I thought I had everything covered. Its updated now. I have the IC40.
Thanks for providing your numbers. Woke up this morning and FC was almost 0 so I bumped the SWG up to 70%. Hopefully that does the trick but I'll continue to play with it.