Resurrecting the dead

[scavdog]

Hey there. We are in the process of rehabbing our pool. The shell was laid in 1971 and has really good bones. About 11 years ago I contracted with a pool guy who raked me over the coals along with a handful of home owners. You can see more here... Contractor exposed by 5 Investigates appears in bankruptcy court

Anyhow, it's been years since this thing has been filled and now that things are settled with the attorney general, we have finally contracted with a reputable company and are in the final phases of the rehab. I am hoping to gain some insight and last minute advice as we get close to the finish line and, of course, get up to speed on maintenance practices.

The original poly lines were laid into the pour and the nylon fittings were way gone. As a result we plumbed externally and added a second skimmer. We were able to salvage the main drain and upgrade it to a channel style.

The equipment specs I decided to go with:

Pentair Intelliflo 1.5 hp with I/O relay board.
Pentair FNS Plus 48 DE filter - I have a flush tank that I am on the fence about using and could use feedback.
Pentair IC-40 (to be controlled by the pump).
4 Pentair microbrite colors (to be controlled by the pump.

Pool Finish:
PMM Freestone - The contractor is trying to talk me out of a blue-based plaster and go with a lighter plaster with glass and pebble aggregate to get the look I want. Are these light blues that much more susceptible to scaling? That is how he seemed to be billing it to me... (I am definitely going to want feedback here).


Below are some pics that were given to me from the original buildout in 76 as well as some in-between photos prior to the scumbag contractor. The final picture is how he left it. New pics to come

Glad to be here!

Cheers!

Joe

 

[Dirk]

Welcome to TFP! Good luck with your project. Ha, ha, at first glance at your very interesting pics, my first thought was: "How did he manage to remove those giant skyscrapers from across the river?!"

I don't know much about light-colored pools, but someone will be along soon that will...

 

[SoDel]

Beautiful setting! For the plaster, from what I’ve seen, white plaster with colored pebbles gives a more uniform looking finish than dyed plaster. All plaster is going to have some variations in hue across a surface but the dyed plaster jobs seem to have more noticeable ones. The darker the dye, the more noticeable it seems to be. Given the expense involved, it may make sense for you to see if you can go take a look at pools your plaster co. has done in each finish and see which you prefer. I wouldn’t worry as much about scaling because you can manage the water chemistry to avoid that. I’m not aware of any great differences in the likelihood of scaling between the two.

 

[scavdog]

@SoDel , we were originally going to go with PMM's Saint Thomas (blue). However the contractor knows my deal with my past headaches and said he'd do the below with glass at no extra charge. The sample on the right is an actual pic I took in full sunlight. Truthfully, I am jaded from the last dude, no matter how honest my current contractor seems to be. With that said, I think the blue glass might "pop" nicely and give a similar effect to what we were going for with the St Thomas.




Joe