Another idea - put the channel drain next to the spa. You did not show an overview picture but sloping it to the spa, the worst that can happen is a overflow of dirt into the spa which can be cleaned up. Not sure if you are trying to have a place to walk or if it is a dead space which it may not matter being next to the spa. Also, it may be easier to put it lower than the coping to ensure no runoff into the spa.
New Pool Project Oklahoma City - Dig Underway!
- Thread starter AndrewTK
- Start date
The problem with that is the spa is the same level as the rest of the pool, and they built it about 1” higher than our current patio. We are kind of limited by the height of the current patio as well as the height of the pool, so it will have to slope away from the pool/spa to try and match up with the current patio. Here is an overview picture of the project to show the spacing between the house/pool, the distance between the house and the spa is ~6’.
On my deck, I just have 4inch drains spaced around the decking. I have one that is between the house and the pool (similar to yours) and I do not think the slope is that bad. My cement decking varies from 0.5 to2 inches below the foundation top. My spa & pool is level with a slight slope away from the spa & pool to the various drains. I personally would have the drain away from the house and deal with the slope.
In my picture. The expansion board from corner of house to the pool water is about 6ft to provide you some reference. The slope is there but maybe hard to see in the picture.
In my picture. The expansion board from corner of house to the pool water is about 6ft to provide you some reference. The slope is there but maybe hard to see in the picture.
I went back and looked at the situation this morning, there are 2 main issues that I am seeing now: 1: the height of the pool appears to be ~2” higher than our current patio, at the narrowest point the pool is only 5’ from the patio so there will be a noticeable slant to the decking to make up for this. The second issue appears to stem from how the builder graded our lot after construction, they graded it so our yard was essentially up to the bottom brick, but they then poured our back patio at a higher level. Unfortunately if we try and move the deck drain away from the house then they would wind up completely covering all of the weep holes with concrete (and the pitch of the decking would become steeper as the distance would be shorter to drop the ~2” required. I added 2 pictures below to show the area, the second shows where our equipment pad will be and you can see the original grade along with the brick line, the first is the drain as its installed now. Our current thought is if we keep the drain where it is we could seal along the house at the top to try and prevent water from running over the drain while still leaving an air gap below for the weep holes to work(The back side of the drain would serve as the air gap in this scenario).
BigPapaSmurf
Well-known member
I would not be comfortable with that channel drain right next to my house. Like Herman mentioned, your weep holes are right next to that channel drain and any back-ups will allow water into your house. I would push that drain away from the house, just a bit, and pitch the slope away from from the house.
I also share that concern, but it looks like the weep holes would be completely blocked by the pool deck if we pour it against the house to slope it away. Not sure how to overcome that issue
I see the issue of the pool coping being higher then the top of the foundation. That is an issue and maybe should have been noticed by the PB when he was digging the pool but lets not dwell on the past. Ok 1 more idea. Can you put a solid cover over the any part of the channel drain? So where your weep holes are for your brick, place a solid cover on 1 foot each side (total 24 inches) That way you have still the flow of the drain but the inlet to the drain is not directly next to the weep hole. Still not ideal but possibly a solution to prevent back up to the weep hole.
I am with @BigPapaSmurf . Move the drain 6 inches to a foot from the house and have them grade the cement down to it from the top of the foundation (if possible). Then the slope from the pool coping to the drain will have a larger run to have a nice slope but still can walk on it.
Also, if you do not have gutters on your roof above this section, I would put them on and divert all that roof area water to a downspout to the side of the house and not let it roll onto this deck.
I am with @BigPapaSmurf . Move the drain 6 inches to a foot from the house and have them grade the cement down to it from the top of the foundation (if possible). Then the slope from the pool coping to the drain will have a larger run to have a nice slope but still can walk on it.
Also, if you do not have gutters on your roof above this section, I would put them on and divert all that roof area water to a downspout to the side of the house and not let it roll onto this deck.
We are going to talk to the pool builder on Monday, I think our best plan right now is to dig down and install a French drain along the foundation, then move the deck drain out at least one foot and put concrete on the side by the house sloping away. I am thinking that we have them put a form in place along the house that we can remove after the pour and then fill that gap with pea gravel. This would prevent the weep holes from being covered by the decking and would allow any excess water that comes past the deck drains to filter down to the French drain underneath. Thoughts?
We started digging down to lay a foundation of gravel and we discovered that we can’t actually see the foundation stem wall, it looks like they bricked all the way down oddly. We have uncovered 4 additional rows of brick under the previous grade next to the house and we are down to where the concrete is for the piers they poured when they built. Not sure why they bricked down that far but it appears that other houses in the neighborhood are the same way, no visible foundation wall below the brick line.
Concrete was poured today, they got off to a bit of a slow start because the hadn’t reconfigured the drain yet, took them about an hour to get that sorted out and start pouring. For the most part things went smoothly after that, though the second truck of concrete apparently had a bit too much water added to it. Everything looked good when they left and we have watered it down every hour or so today (95 degrees outside today). I went out to water it one last time tonight and discovered that a crack had already formed that spans about 5 feet from edge to edge of the deck, right in the middle near our spa. Going to talk to them tomorrow about that, I know that concrete will likely crack but I wasn’t expecting to see it within 12 hours of the pour. Pictures of the progress and the crack, any thoughts on having a crack form that quickly? They were planning to cut the control joints tomorrow.
sneakykitty
Gold Supporter
- May 20, 2020
- 29
- Pool Size
- 8500
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
I'm loving the progress pics, can't wait to see it finished. I'm also in OKC, do you mind messaging me which pool builder you used?
BigPapaSmurf
Well-known member
Looks good, I don’t think that crack is anything to worry about, like you said concrete does crack. Are you doing anything else to the concrete? Spray deck, tile, etc.
BTW - What is that red stain? Blood, iron in your water, red mud?
BTW - What is that red stain? Blood, iron in your water, red mud?
That is a footprint from our yard, everything around this area is red clay. We might do a spray deck on top of the poured concrete, going to talk to the builder to get an idea on cost
Builder dropped our equipment off today in preparation for plaster next week and we just discovered that they ordered the wrong pump for us. We specified the Pentair Intelliflo VS (part 011028) and they ordered the Intelliflo i1 (011059) which seems like an oddball pump for areas with size restrictions (its a 1 hp pump vs the 3hp that we wanted). Hopefully that doesn’t cause any further delays on the project, it looks like the one they ordered doesn’t flow as much volume (as expected since its smaller) and I’m not sure it would be enough for a 30,000+ gallon pool.
30k pool isn't small and the pump they're giving you will not be as efficient. Lower hp ≈ higher rpm vs higher hp then you can run the rpm low and save $$
- Jul 3, 2013
- 9,027
- Pool Size
- 15000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool SJ-40
You do not want the Intelliflo i1 (011059) pump, it is for CA installs that will not allow 3hp pumps...
They have hooked up the Intelliflo i1 for the time being but have ordered the correct pump. We are scheduled for plaster on Thursday or Friday, so hopefully all goes as planned and we will be filling the pool by this weekend
10 days later and we are finally expecting plaster, unfortunately our builder told us 4-5 times that the crew would be there the next day and they never showed up, seems as though they were having a hard time locating our plaster even though they had 8 weeks to order it. They assured us that the plaster arrived on Thursday so hopefully tomorrow afternoon we are filling finally.
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