Hello - Greetings! I am new to this forum - seems incredible!
We are getting ready to do a 16x32 IG steel wall, 8ft deep, DIY upstate NY. Most of what I'm seeing and researching seems fairly straight forward (at least for "advanced" level DIY type people).
One area that seems to come up often as not going like it should have, and is not easily fixable, is the base.
I have been asking around locally and most pros are either already booked, not interested in doing one small portion of your project, or simply do not want to be involved with some homeowner gone wild on a DIY project (all rightfully so).
There seems to be many different opinions of base material, all of which seem to work.
Assuming you have to, or want to take the risk of doing the base yourself....
Our pool kit supplier is trying to sell us a couple grand worth of poolkrete ($35 a bag), which some pros actually do not seem to like.
1) If you have to mix on site, and/or buy it in bags , and do it DIY, what would be considered the choice that is a balance between a product hat would be considered an industry standard, yet fairly easy to work with by a DIY crew?
2) If your going bags, is there any bagged product, that's easy to get (ie if you run short etc, think local box stores), that's not $35 a bag? For example, one mix that I read a pro mixes himself seems to be the same ingredient's as common bagged S type mortar ($9 a bag).
3) If needed, can you do the base in sections, which would introduce "cold joints", or is that absolutely not a good idea? It seems like most DIY-ers get overwhelmed in the base and in rushing to get it done probably wind up doing a worse job than of they would maybe just step back and take a break (weather permitting)?
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to any input.
We are getting ready to do a 16x32 IG steel wall, 8ft deep, DIY upstate NY. Most of what I'm seeing and researching seems fairly straight forward (at least for "advanced" level DIY type people).
One area that seems to come up often as not going like it should have, and is not easily fixable, is the base.
I have been asking around locally and most pros are either already booked, not interested in doing one small portion of your project, or simply do not want to be involved with some homeowner gone wild on a DIY project (all rightfully so).
There seems to be many different opinions of base material, all of which seem to work.
Assuming you have to, or want to take the risk of doing the base yourself....
Our pool kit supplier is trying to sell us a couple grand worth of poolkrete ($35 a bag), which some pros actually do not seem to like.
1) If you have to mix on site, and/or buy it in bags , and do it DIY, what would be considered the choice that is a balance between a product hat would be considered an industry standard, yet fairly easy to work with by a DIY crew?
2) If your going bags, is there any bagged product, that's easy to get (ie if you run short etc, think local box stores), that's not $35 a bag? For example, one mix that I read a pro mixes himself seems to be the same ingredient's as common bagged S type mortar ($9 a bag).
3) If needed, can you do the base in sections, which would introduce "cold joints", or is that absolutely not a good idea? It seems like most DIY-ers get overwhelmed in the base and in rushing to get it done probably wind up doing a worse job than of they would maybe just step back and take a break (weather permitting)?
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to any input.
You are undertaking a big job but you should get a lot of help here.
