You want your water level to be about half way up your skimmer opening for good skimming - can be a little bit more, though. Are your skimmers already installed? If so, your water level is already set, give or take an inch.So our sunshield is supposed to be 8-9" of water. I just went and measured and the raw concrete of the sunshelf is 9" from the lip of the beam. We still have to apply the plaster or whatever it is that goes over the concrete. I don't know how thick the plaster/waterproofing and pebbletec layer is supposed to be. And it looks to me like most pool water levels are usually about 4" down from the bottom of the coping, right? So right now, without accounting for whatever goes over the concrete, we would have 5" of water when the pool is filled to the right level. Am I right on this estimate?
Additionally, the 3 steps are 10", 10" and 11" in height. The 11" one is like doing a box jump at the gym
So I'm not sure what happened but I brought it up to my PB today and he said not to worry about it, that they can add cement to the top of the beam. I said "Four inches of cement?" He said "no, we would add about 2.5" including the travertine thickness and that now makes the water depth between 7-9" depending on how full you run the pool." Do those calculations sound right? how thick is the layer of plaster and pebbletec supposed to be?
And, if they add 1.5" of concrete to the top of the beam, how will that adhere? Will that be stable? From what i can tell at the filter basket cut out, there is currently about 3-4" of cement above teh top of the rebar supporting the beam. And won't the filter hole thing be really low, the hole is already about 10" down from the lip, i'm not sure what the norm is. The step down onto the sunshelf would be 11" he said and the steps would stay the heights they are.
I also have to check if that would work for the travertine because the pool travertine has to line up with the travertine they will lay on top of an existing cement pad for the porch 6 feet away.
Any thoughts I can share when i meet with them to look at the height would be appreciated!
Recent Shotcrete application -- exposed rebar and other questions
- Thread starter Eupelia
- Start date
So this is a question I have, I see the rectangle cutout in the concrete for the skimmer basket but I don't know where the hole will be?
Also, I am very worried because I confirmed today that on the skimmer side the rebar cage fell off of its cinderblock supports onto the sand and so that corner of the pool has about 4 1/2 " of concrete on top of the top of the rebar frame of the beam, the bottom of the skimmer basket edge dropped a couple of inches from where it was supposed to be, that side of the pool bench fell an inch or so and of course now the rebar is potentially flush with the ground.
I have no idea what to do.
So I confirmed with permitting that no plans are required except for plans that show location of skimmer and pipes and electrical. Sooooooo I am at the mercy of my pool builder I guess!
Please post pics of the above places where stuff fell off so we can see what you are working with.
They cannot add to the water depth by putting something on top of the shell where the coping will go. The water depth is determined by the middle of the skimmer opening. Your PB is saying that thinking you don't know any better. You do and need to have him come out to explain the shelf depth with your knowledge of this. If you push the water level too much up the skimmer will not be effective.
They cannot add to the water depth by putting something on top of the shell where the coping will go. The water depth is determined by the middle of the skimmer opening. Your PB is saying that thinking you don't know any better. You do and need to have him come out to explain the shelf depth with your knowledge of this. If you push the water level too much up the skimmer will not be effective.
TampaKathy
Gold Supporter
I had the same question about your skimmer when I saw the cutout. Actually...relooking at it...is that just the paper behind the cutout? They can remove that.So this is a question I have, I see the rectangle cutout in the concrete for the skimmer basket but I don't know where the hole will be?
Also, I am very worried because I confirmed today that on the skimmer side the rebar cage fell off of its cinderblock supports onto the sand and so that corner of the pool has about 4 1/2 " of concrete on top of the top of the rebar frame of the beam, the bottom of the skimmer basket edge dropped a couple of inches from where it was supposed to be, that side of the pool bench fell an inch or so and of course now the rebar is potentially flush with the ground.
So they came today to walk through their plan and I said we are at a 5" water level with half inch of plaster. PB said that the the cutout for the skimmer is there, but it has not been installed yet so they will be able to adjust it. They are adding about 1.5 - 2" of grout or whatever goes under coping onto the top of the beam and putting the coping on top of that to add the height, and the water line tile will be on the face of it. Can the basket be at a height where the water level is 3" down from the bottom of the lip of the travertine when what is below the travetine is 1.75" of "mud" followed by the shotcrete cement wall? In other words, how high on the actual shotcrete wall can the water level go and the basket be located without compromising integrity because, while normally we'd have a water level 3" down the waterline tile that is laid on teh shotcrete, now it's being laid 4" on shotcrete and 2" on the mud they are adding. The only way to get 8" of water is if the skimmer basket will be at the very highest possible so that the water will be 3" down from the bottom lip of the travertine. As an example of how much mud he is going to add, he used the square wood piece shown in this pic. The stair heights would not change: still 11, 10 and 10. Here are some pics on the clearance of the jets and light.
So now the water will be 1" below the shotcrete wall height and suddenly the strength of the top of that wall matters way more.
I'll add pics shortly, just uploading them!
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TampaKathy
Gold Supporter
Did you ask him how that's going to impact the slope of the deck? Looking at one of your first pictures, it doesn't look like there's much space between the edge of the pool and the wooden posts...is a channel drain going in front of the posts?
Then here are pics of where the cage fell from its little riser support in the corner. I marked the original height at the wall which is what I'm taking as a clue for how close it got to the dirt. It's pretty much on top of the dirt except maybe 1/2" clearance if I had to estimate. So a concrete guy came to me for some stairs we are building and he said it would be a while before all the rebar is gone. But the decomposition process could damage it where you see it visibly earlier. I'm just pretty certain that no one is going to agree to demo that unless I hire someone to scan that floor for depth and rebar location. Does anyone know what kind of professional does that so I can see about hiring one?
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Yes, they got a laser level and showed me that sitting on that block of wood it's still even with the poolhouse deck and so they said the two will be able to angle down to meet at the drain at a reasonable height, no ridiculous slant (which I was worried about).
Well, I dug down deep enough to show the contractor that the wall was about 2" in some parts and so he fixed it!
What do y'all think? I'm super happy he did a real addition and dug the entire wall up rather than just the three little areas that were the major issue.
What do y'all think? I'm super happy he did a real addition and dug the entire wall up rather than just the three little areas that were the major issue.
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And this is the post-shoot photo of the above rebar.
Thank you all so much for your help and suggestions, you helped me to stick to my guns and take on the wrath of the builder (no construction guys likes a girl questioning their stuff). He was upset at first because I stopped some workers who had come in to install coping and he probably assumed I was just being picky because at surface level it looked like a small dent. So he said I could pay for his engineer to assess and he would follow his recommendations. But once I sent him the video of the area after I dug it up he said "I don't even need the engineer to see that, it definitely needs repair. We'll get it fixed next week." And he was true to his word. He had his engineer weigh in on the proper method and even though it was a major hassle, he did it. What a champ!
Thank you all so much for your help and suggestions, you helped me to stick to my guns and take on the wrath of the builder (no construction guys likes a girl questioning their stuff). He was upset at first because I stopped some workers who had come in to install coping and he probably assumed I was just being picky because at surface level it looked like a small dent. So he said I could pay for his engineer to assess and he would follow his recommendations. But once I sent him the video of the area after I dug it up he said "I don't even need the engineer to see that, it definitely needs repair. We'll get it fixed next week." And he was true to his word. He had his engineer weigh in on the proper method and even though it was a major hassle, he did it. What a champ!
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- Jul 21, 2013
- 52,889
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Looks like he did a good job of epoxying rebar to connect the two pours together.
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I am VERY proud of you for doing what needed to be done to get it fixed and fixed right!!! 
I commend the PB....there's not many left that step up and fix mistakes. Throw him a bone in some way to show your appreciation.....