New Pool w/ Falls & Slide in Baton Rouge, LA

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kimkats said:
Loving the stone work! They are doing a great job with the puzzle!

SO what kind of stones will you be using for the waterfall? Do you have a picture of what you want to it end up looking like?

Kim:cat:
Click to expand...

Yeah, they really are. Truly a work of art!

The plan is to use a mixture of moss rock, Arkansas builders, waterfall ledge rocks, smaller (tennis ball sized) rocks and some larger accent rocks as well. This is the closest picture that represents what we're going for, except the pool entry will not be a large drop as shown here. It will be more of a rolling entry since the rocks will be "spill over" into the pool. Also, each drop will be more of a "pool" area with smaller rocks where the water will spill over to the next drop.



Today they connected the hose spigot valve and added more flat rock on the back wall, Drylok'd the waterfall (2 coats) and started building the front wall around the slide and leading up to the falls, but not before they accidentally fried the 8 staircase lights. The owner told me they were trying to test the lights before starting on the steps, but accidentally used a 120V extension cord, instead of a 12V power supply. Unfortunately, the owner had to eat that cost plus overnight shipping to get them here for tomorrow. I feel really bad for him especially since he told them they needed to hook up the transformer before testing them.

Progress today...

















 
I've been following this thread with interest. I love your plans, pool, slide and stairs -- and all the pictures you post.
I'm also in the Baton Rouge area and about to build a pool. I'm guessing all of this extra labor is out of my budget, but its fun to think about.
If you don't mind sharing, where did you purchase all of your various rocks from? And the slide from?
Thanks!
 
cspool said:
I've been following this thread with interest. I love your plans, pool, slide and stairs -- and all the pictures you post.
I'm also in the Baton Rouge area and about to build a pool. I'm guessing all of this extra labor is out of my budget, but its fun to think about.
If you don't mind sharing, where did you purchase all of your various rocks from? And the slide from?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Thanks...glad to see another local on here! I hope y'all are ok after that surprise bad storm last night. We were all huddled in our hall closet for about 20 minutes...pretty scary! A small tornado passed through 2 streets over from ours. We were fortunate to not have much damage. There's a tree leaning over in our front yard, but that thing leans if I breath too hard by it. Anyway, we purchased the rocks from Jim Stone off of Florida Blvd. That's pretty much where all the builders get their rocks. Go check them out one day. Ask for Tony or Joey, but they're all very helpful and knowledgeable.

The slide is made and sold by Dolphin and it's a 15.5' model in Mediterranean HD Shimmer color. I was very happy with their customer support. I asked a TON of questions and they answered them all promptly. They also worked with me with shipping to get it on a truck with some other slides to help reduce the shipping cost. Very happy so far! I will say that getting it set was a juggling act. We got it pretty close to where I wanted it, but there was so much going on and so many people involved at the time that it was hard to check everything quickly and accurately. My only concern at this point is that it might be just a tad too low to the water (not enough drop), but I'm hoping it will be ok, because that thing ain't going anywhere this century.


kimkats said:
:( on the lights and the PBer...........I wonder if the person that did it will have to help pay or still has a job.

I love your vision for the waterfall!

Kim:cat:
Click to expand...

From talking to the stone co. owner, he's taking the hit (not the workers). But he has assured me he's had to eat way worse accidents than this.

Thanks. The waterfall vision is a bit murky at the moment. I'm really having to place a lot of trust in the guys. The "rolling" exit into the pool is going to be more of a "drop" than I would have liked, but there just isn't enough distance to get a gradual slope. I think it will work out ok though.

Today they continued the front wall and also started working on the top of the falls by setting the outlet pipe and the [very heavy] concrete ledge on top. They also did a big clean up of the trash pile on the other side of my [now very small] yard, which was very welcome and needed. It was getting really large and I was starting to wonder if any critters had taken up residence...none emerged though, thankfully.

I also replaced the hose spigot valve on the back wall...I just preferred this type instead of the one they put.

Pics from the day...

















 
The guys showed up today, but had to leave around noon because they didn't have the rocks they needed for the falls, nor did they have the grout coloring they needed. Apparently Quikrete stopped making the color we started with ("Dune"), so now the stone co. owner is scavenging all the Home Depot's to try and find 6 bottles, but no luck so far. This could turn into a real issue. Until we find it, we can't grout much of anything. This is what we need if anyone happens to see any at their local Home Depot or Lowes:



My builder and I were able to get over to the stone yard late this morning and get the waterfall ledge rocks, but then I had to go to a different yard to find some mini moss boulders for the sides. I only found 2 the size I needed...still need 2 more, but I'm hoping the crew shows up tomorrow to continue with the rocks we have now so that I can have input into the layout of the falls. Not having the right stone really aggravated me today, because both my builder and the stone co. owner knew about this early in the week, but didn't make it a priority. I understand they're both very busy right now, but that's why I asked them about those stones early last week. But of course early in the week we didn't need them, so it "wasn't an issue then". Oh well.








My two mini moss builders...just need two more:
 
Gurrrrrrrrrr on the rock not being there and ready!

"Only" need two more? LOL Good rocks are hard to come by when you are doing something like that. Good luck in your search.

I will pop into our Lowes and Home Depot if I am by them. I looked on line and it is not listed :( I found buff but no dune. Have you looked at buff to see if it is close?

Your next step me by to call quikcrete and see if they have any left over somewhere.

Kim:cat:
 

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kimkats said:
Gurrrrrrrrrr on the rock not being there and ready!

"Only" need two more? LOL Good rocks are hard to come by when you are doing something like that. Good luck in your search.

I will pop into our Lowes and Home Depot if I am by them. I looked on line and it is not listed :( I found buff but no dune. Have you looked at buff to see if it is close?

Your next step me by to call quikcrete and see if they have any left over somewhere.

Kim:cat:
Click to expand...

Thanks, you're right...I'll need the luck! As far as the mortar color issue, thankfully cspool pointed out to me that there was a HD right by my house that had 11 in stock. So, this morning I rushed over there. It took me and one of the workers about 15 minutes to find them (they weren't where they should have been). It was a case of 10, which is plenty. So I bought the case and now we're ready to mortar some stones this week. Thanks for offering to check though! And thanks so much cspool for pointing that out to me. He said he checked there and even climbed the shelves (which I did as well today). It definitely helped to know that they had to be there somewhere. Without knowing that, I would have given up a lot sooner for sure.
 
The guys have been busy the past 2 days on the waterfall and planter above the falls. Today they pretty much finished the falls until we run water when we may shift some rocks around. Turns out they used only one of those big boulders I got. The other is sitting of on the side right now...hope to find a place for it...maybe in a bed if there's room after planting. Unfortunately, they've already blown through 6.5 bottles of mortar color with plenty of mortaring left to do. We WILL run out and I've checked all Home Depot's and Lowes in about a 200 mile radius...nothing! Talking to the stone co. owner though, he thinks we'll be able to either mix two colors together or use less of a darker color to get it pretty close.

As shown in two of the photos below, they apparently did not get the memo on my request to make the grout lines very shallow on the back wall. Fortunately, I was able to get home yesterday before they left and asked them about it (I thought they knew) and how hard it would be to dig out some of the more wet grout before they left. I felt bad asking them to destroy the work they just did, but it was now or never. So all 4 of us grabbed a tool and started digging out as much as we could. There is still a little section nearest the pool that was just too dry, but I don't think it will be too noticeably different (except to me of course). The before and after (digging) pictures are below. The plan is to grout the back wall last due to the mortar color shortage.

Also, they ran out of flat rock today and long story short we can't get any in until Friday, so we're on hold until then. Hoping to also get equipment set (or at least started) by Friday...we'll see. An added bonus to the flat rock set back was that they delivered the wrong rocks today (thinking it was flat rock), which turned out to be more waterfall rock. So I took some of those and replaced some of the smoother creek rock with those to give the falls more interest and ripple to the water. Hard to tell from the pictures, but I'm happy with the change.

Pics from the past 2 days...





































Last, but not least...one day this large trash pit will be a distant memory.
 
Love it all! Glad you were able to dig out some of the grout in the back. I really like how it looks like that. Once it is all done no one will notice like you said.

That water fall is going to be fun to see how the water falls and sounds!

Kim:cat:
 
Not much progress since Tuesday, but the flat rocks did come in Friday, and I was able to pick them up for the guys so they could get started this morning, which they did. They were only able to work half a day, but they managed to get a good bit done on the steps and also started fixing the coping in the deep end. We came up with a plan for how to conserve mortar color, which consisted of me mixing 4 different colors of [still available] Quikrete colors. It's not a perfect match, but it's pretty close and I made enough for another 6-1/2 bottles. So between those and the 3 remaining original bottles, I'm hoping we can finish the job using the 3 original bottles in the most noticeable locations first. They should be back tomorrow working all day they said. I think 2 more solid days will knock it out. Fingers crossed.

Oh, and the pumps won't be arriving until the week of June 6th. So, I've been trying to get hold of my PB (he's out of town until Tuesday), so we can come up with a plan for doing what we can to keep things moving, since this pump delay is going to push us back I'm guessing about 2 or 3 weeks from our anticipated completion date, which was 5/31. Very frustrating, but we just have to wait and deal with it I suppose.

Pics from today...



The one on the right is the original color. The left is what I mixed up.















 
Good match with the color! I bet NO one will notice! All they are going to see is the slide while they run to it to slide down weeeee into the pool!

That flat rock is SO pretty and well done! I will say it again--------ARTISTS to the max! WOW!

Kim:cat:
 
What a busy Memorial Day weekend for stone work! The guys worked all day Sunday and Monday and have finished the stone work, with the exception of one or two very small things that cannot be done right now anyway. They even brought out a 2nd crew to work all day yesterday. The biggest issue we had the past two days was...MORTAR COLOR...big surprise! They went through the 6-1/2 mixed bottles quicker than expected on the left side of the step railing. So I ran to Home Depot to pick up some other colors (because they ran out of the Aspen I was using to mix the first 6-1/2). After mixing the new colors, I was able to achieve a perfect match. The problem: the color was so thin it didn't even change the color of the mortar at all. So, plan D...stone co. owner (Ricardo) and I went to HD to pick up some pre-mixed colored mortar in 3 different shades...none were even close. Plan E: Use as much regular mortar as possible on right side of railing and as little correct color as possible on the outside of the rail, the steps, and coping (fix), then see how much we have left for the back wall. Plan E worked. At the end of today, we had 1/3 of a bottle left of the original Dune color, which I want to keep for touch ups later. This color issue has been frustrating, but I'm glad we were able to figure it out eventually.

The coping fix in the deep end turned out really well also. Cutting and hammering out that Shotcrete was the hardest part for sure. It looks so much better now.

I think they're coming today to clean up some of the scrap stone and such. Then maybe acid wash later in the week.

Question...Does anyone think it would look better to have a single row of stones around the edge of the planters in the decking just sitting on top of the concrete...to help keep mulch and such contained? If so, do you think they should be mortared in or would just having them sit there be ok? I ask because obviously we're low on mortar color. I have 1/3 of a bottle left...not sure if it would be enough.

2 days worth of pictures and a lot of progress, so there are a ton...





Me and Ricardo trying to figure out how to make the color stretch as far as possible.






Me asking one of the guys if they could just move the right railing over a few inches. Not a big deal right? It took a second for him to realize I was just messing with him. :wink:




Tricky cut. Cutting a flat rock in half long ways to make it thinner. How does these guys still have all their fingers and toes?



Drain pipe...good catch guys!!






Home Quikrete color lab (2nd pass).





Cool panoramic






This just caught my eye (colorful)







The landing for the slide came out really nice I think.







Panaromic showing both full crews trying to knock out the back wall before the end of the day.




This is the jack hammering that took forever to complete...very stubborn Shotcrete! Guess that means it was a good batch!





BEFORE



AFTER


 
:shock: It is DONE! NICE! :sun: The coping fix is MUCH better for sure!

I would NOT put stones on the deck side of the planters. It is low enough the dirt and stuff should stay in. Just do NOT fill it up over the edge. IF you do see it is a problem you will need to mortar them on as you do NOT want someone kicking them into the pool WHEN they kick them.

What will you be putting in the wells by the slide? I forget LOL

You are SO bad to make that poor man think you wanted that rail! :pth: I bet that is what he wanted to do to you LOL

Kim:cat:
 
Agree with Kim all around on the planter stones. I'd like the look of some ornamental grasses spilling out onto the decking as edging.
 

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