Our L.A. (Lower Arkansas) pool install.

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mac.dblues

mac.dblues

0
Jul 29, 2013
349
Arkadelphia, AR
Last year we bought a used 16 foot Intex Easy Set pool from a friend. After two days of patching, patching, and more patching. We enjoyed this little pool enough we decided to buy a slightly larger Intex Ultra Frame 20' X 52".

Last years pool and installation semi-failure...

My wife cleared the area while I was at work and my dad eyeball leveled the area with his tractor.



We covered the ground with rolled roofing and laid out the pool. We have a roofing plant in town and if you know the right person, you can get several rolls at no charge.



If I remember correctly, my wife found 8 holes in the liner and 8 holes in the ring.





Finally got it holding water and air and all was well with our world. We skimmed for leaves daily and tested and vacuumed every weekend.



We live in the middle of the woods so the view wasn't so great.



As you can see we didn't get the ground level enough so we ended up with one side of the pool about 4" below the ring and at the deep corner the side was straight up and down.



We over inflated the ring on one of our 100+ degree days which pulled a patch loose and my wife came out to find a third of the water gone and steadly draining.

 
ha! Welp, as my dad tought me when I was a kid. Level is level and everything else is BS. One thing for sure, so far he has been exactly right.
Especially true when dealing with a pool or any other large container to hold water.

Good luck with your new pool!
 
First step this spring was working to improve the view. As you can see with the leaves off the trees and underbrush, the view improves.







Underbrush cleared back and low limbs trimmed from trees to reveal our pasture.





Not the best picture, but our horses grazing with dad's cows. This is the view we were looking for.

 
We knew we were going to upgrade so we just drained the little pool and let it lay all winter. We swept all the leaves and muck out and folded up the pool to take to its new home. Then swept the leaves and rolled up the rolled roofing.



I took over ground leveling duties this year.







My "General Contractor" lol.



Broke out a laser level and realized one end really needed to come down a lot. So out came the plow. All and all, we were within about 3 inches all the way around.

 
Next step... leveling and squaring up landscape timbers for the frame to set up the pool in. The timbers below are 22 feet apart inside. We went with an octagon shape to reduce the amount of fill sand needed to create a level surface. This has been the most time consuming and body abusing part. Digging and leveling in red clay is a pain!



The four short sides, squared up with the house, leveled and spiked to the ground. (The diagonal timbers are just laid out to give us an idea of where we were headed.) This was an ALL afternoon project! I drilled two 1/4" holes and drove 12" bridge spikes through each of the bottom timbers and into the ground to keep them fairly stationary.



Lower row of landscape timbers installed and ready for the upper row. The diagonal sides went down so much quicker than the squared up sides.



We then cut the upper row of timbers to fit and used 3/8 X 4 1/2" lag bolts (predrilled and counter sunk) to tie the upper and lower rows of timbers together. The result is a rock solid frame.





 
Divin Dave said:
ha! Welp, as my dad tought me when I was a kid. Level is level and everything else is BS. One thing for sure, so far he has been exactly right.
Especially true when dealing with a pool or any other large container to hold water.

Good luck with your new pool!
Click to expand...

I like your dad! :mrgreen: My daddy always told me, Baby, if you want it done right, DIY! I agree whole heartedly with him!

Hey Mac... the pool site is looking great! And I love you GC shoes! :mrgreen: Keep the pics coming!!!
 
It's why I didn't let someone install my pool. My mistakes are my own and easier to live with. :lol:
 

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Didn't sleep well last night... I just knew the pool fairy would come over night and finish the pad, but no such luck. Sand fairy is supposed to show up around 3:30 or 4:00 today. Gotta get the bottom leveled and smooth before the deluge of rain comes in this weekend.

Casey, you think you love the shoes? He wears them every where... EVEN SCHOOL!!!

Lacey, I read through your build thread last night. I'm now incredibly thankful for tractors and wide open spaces. I just thought ours was going in a tight spot!
 
There is a guy at our gym who wears them and as soon as I saw them I remember seeing this guy wear them. :lol: I want a pair but just to wear around the house! :mrgreen:
 
mac.dblues said:
Lacey, I read through your build thread last night. I'm now incredibly thankful for tractors and wide open spaces. I just thought ours was going in a tight spot!
Click to expand...

Lol... Yup we've used every available inch of space.... :) Thank you for visiting my thread... :)

- - - Updated - - -

Divin Dave said:
Lacey is quite determined, and ingenious to boot!
Click to expand...

Aww shucks :) Thanks Dave... :) Blushing here....lol...
 
Casey said:
There is a guy at our gym who wears them and as soon as I saw them I remember seeing this guy wear them. :lol: I want a pair but just to wear around the house! :mrgreen:
Click to expand...

We picked up each of us a pair at BassPro over Valentines's Weekend.

We bought the shoes for the days we spend on the Caddo River. We have friends who live on the River. Some of our summer days are spent on the gravel bar near their house. We park at their place and ride four wheelers and side by sides down to the best gravel bar around! The Caddo is a popular river for tubing in our area. It's a nice lazy float and the water temp is 80F or below on the hottest summer days because it comes out of the bottom of Degray lake. You see all shapes and types floating by in varying states of intoxication. It can get quite entertaining.

Here is a nice view of our other favorite summer swimming hole.



 
mac.dblues said:
We picked up each of us a pair at BassPro over Valentines's Weekend.

We bought the shoes for the days we spend on the Caddo River. We have friends who live on the River. Some of our summer days are spent on the gravel bar near their house. We park at their place and ride four wheelers and side by sides down to the best gravel bar around! The Caddo is a popular river for tubing in our area. It's a nice lazy float and the water temp is 80F or below on the hottest summer days because it comes out of the bottom of Degray lake. You see all shapes and types floating by in varying states of intoxication. It can get quite entertaining.

Here is a nice view of our other favorite summer swimming hole.



Click to expand...

That's awesome! I may or may not be intoxicated in my pool this summer! :mrgreen:
 
Woo Hoo! Sand Fairy came while I was at work!!!



Our "general contractor" must've felt sorry for his momma, because he came outside and went straight to work spreading the sand out.



Got most of the sand "leveled" out in about 3 hours. My wife and son had made huge progress before I got there. They made the job too easy for me. Now to get it watered and tamped in so we can roll out the roofing material and order another couple of yards of sand and do it all over again.



 
Keep the pics coming! The site looks great!!!! It's the most important step! :goodjob:
 

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