Starting a new pool build in austin (like everyone else..)

[Nikilyn]

I love the way you can stand up a level and look down on the pool. Glad you survived the week of TX freezing weather, rolling blackouts which weren't so rolling. That was a difficult week for us, too. We never lost power but our tankless water heater froze up. Two days later a plumber came and we now know it was installed without insulation in an outside garage wall. Thankfully our equipment pad only had the filter pump hooked up. Many lost their pool heaters over here, including our pool designer. Even the experts were hit!

I can't wait to see how everything's coming along.

My nephew lives outside of Dallas and his tankless water heater froze because it was installed OUTSIDE .

 

[Sparks22]

My nephew lives outside of Dallas and his tankless water heater froze because it was installed OUTSIDE .

Same here in Austin. Afterwards there was literally a guy driving through our neighborhood selling tankless water heaters out of the back of his pickup truck because most houses in our neighborhood had busted exterior tankless water heaters.

 

[march2012]

One lady got ripped off on her original tankless install. She paid $7000 for an initial tankless install in december, instead of the more typical 3K, only for it to be destroyed in feb. Many people are getting terrible bids on replacements. The heaters themselves are about $1800, but the bids for an exact replacement are coming in at $4K.

We have many tankless heaters installed outside in our neighborhood which is weird to me since if you are replacing a gas heater that is already in place the venting and lines are already there. I guess the gas line and vent might need to be sized up which could be more expensive than doing it on the exterior.

We are scheduled to get plaster next week. They wanted to do it this past week, but we were out of town for spring break. Swim season starts in late april, so the timing is perfect.

 

[march2012]

So my PB plastered yesterday with rain the forecast. They finished around 5pm yesterday but it is quartz so I think they are planning to acid wash today so they didnt start filling the pool. Unfortunately it rained this morning around 3am and also hailed - of course. The hail was around m&m size (though in the south part of the city people reported golf ball sized hail).

Any thoughts about damage to the plaster?

in my last pool, the plaster team left a puddle of water on the beach and that stain could never be removed. Of course it was shallow and always visible.

Is 12 hours of curing enough to prevent staining from the rain and hail damage?

 

[march2012]

They acid washed today it didnt look like there was any staining so the pool is filling right now

This is the PB almost done with plaster yesterday


This is the pool before acid washing with rainwater from last night.


This is after acid washing and the pool is filling


I use a flume to measure the water so I should get a pretty accurate measure of the pool volume. About 5000 gallons so far.

 

[Sparks22]

They acid washed today it didnt look like there was any staining so the pool is filling right now

This is the PB almost done with plaster yesterday
View attachment 317464

This is the pool before acid washing with rainwater from last night.
View attachment 317465

This is after acid washing and the pool is filling
View attachment 317467

I use a flume to measure the water so I should get a pretty accurate measure of the pool volume. About 5000 gallons so far.

View attachment 317463

Glad to hear it worked out!

 

[march2012]

I was waking up every few hours last night to check on the fill. Of course I slept too long on the last alarm and the pool overflowed. The flume recorded about 16500 gallons, but because of the overflow I have no idea how much volume the pool is.

I set my last alarm at 3:30am for about an hour (estimated about 6 inches/hour). At that time there was roughly about 3-4 inches of plaster still dry. I snoozed the 4:30 alarm and failed to get up. By 5:15 when I woke up the pool was overflowing. This sucks because I was so close to getting the actual volume in the pool. I decided to use 4:30 as the cutoff and based on that the flume calculated about 15,600 gallons which is right on the estimated size in my signature of 15,500 gallons.

Im still bummed I dont have an exact number.


Im getting ready to start the pump and add acid to adjust the pH and do my first brushing.

Any other things I should be thinking of?

The last few items are cleaning up the yard, installing railing on the deck and fencing.

 

[Newdude]

Im still bummed I dont have an exact number

If it helps any, it will almost never be that #. Without auto fill/overflow, many people are +\- 1.5 inches at any given moment, which would be 862 gallons for you.

 

[HermanTX]

Im still bummed I dont have an exact number.

You are much closer than many people so congrats on doing what you did. With evaporation and other factors, you never will be on exact volume so be happy you have gotten it within a small range.
Also, you have the volume when you were 3-4 inches below the water tile. Therefore one day, you may need to drain down to that level and then your measure from that point up to full if you want to get more precise.
Great looking pool

 

[Nikilyn]

Pool is beautiful. What color plaster is it?

 

[march2012]

Pool is beautiful. What color plaster is it?

Midnight blue diamondbrite quartz. It was the same thing we had in our last pool, but this installer did a better job. It is a little rough and the kids wanted regular plaster, but the wife wanted the diamondbrite.

 

[Sollace]

Your pump should be kept running, use your test kit to keep track of the calcium and PH. . . And brush. Top to bottom, pushing towards the main drain. The brushing removes the plaster dust. That's about it, sounds easy, but it's really a lot of work! Our pool was completed early February and it's the first thing we do each morning - Net surface debris and brush around the stairs, bench, and waterline tile.

 

[ajw22]

The brushing removes the plaster dust.

Brushing keeps the plaster dust in suspension in the water so that it can be filtered out and that it does not settle on the pool surface and harden.

 

[march2012]

So the diamondbrite (just like last time) barely created any dust. The water has essentially been clear from the beginning. According to the diamondbrite instructions I can add chlorine on the third day. They also say brush twice a day for the first 3 days, then once a day for the first 2 weeks. I like my PB and dont want to throw them under a bus, but they havent responded to my questions about how to maintain the pool.

I also dont know how soon after plaster we can swim. I have seen same day all the way to 2 weeks.

• FIRST DAY: Add sequestering agent upon initial fill per manufacturer’s instructions. Adjust pH to 7.2 – 7.6 and total alkalinity to 80 -120 PPM. Maintain calcium hardness at a minimum of 125 PPM for the first three days, then adjust to 200-400 PPM thereafter. Dissolve chemicals completely in water and disperse throughout pool.
• SECOND DAY: Record pH, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, and temperature levels. Adjust pH to 7.4 — 7.6 and total alkalinity to 80—120 PPM. Dissolve all chemicals completely in water before adding to the pool, and allow sufficient time for each chemical to be fully dispersed before adding other chemicals. DO NOT ADD CHLORINE. Brush the entire surface twice daily for the first three (3) days.
• THIRD DAY:Repeat steps from Second Day. Adjust chemistry to the following levels:
  • Free Chlorine: 1.0 — 3.0 PPM
  • pH: 7.4—7.6
  • Total Alkalinity: 80—120 PPM
  • Calcium Hardness: 200—400 PPM
  • Stabilizer: 30—60 PPM

Adjust circulating pump timer to normal operating hours. Brush the pool walls and floor daily for the first two (2) weeks. Do not vacuum pool with wheeled vacuum for 14 days. Putting a wheel cleaner in the pool prematurely can cause wheel marks/ tracks to show up on the pool finish. Do not install an automatic pool cleaner for 28 days. No salt should be added for 28 days. Please make sure the water pH and alkalinity is balanced prior to the use of salt chlorine generators.

 

[ajw22]

You can swim in the pool now.

Pool water chemistry just needs to be within normal ranges to swim.

Recommended Levels

 

[march2012]

The back side of the pool overlooks a steep slope. You can see part of the deck on the bottom left of the picture in my most recent post. It is around 6 ft off the ground. We are putting a railing on that, but not planning to put a railing on the backside of the pool.

We plan to have the railing end at the pool coping. Should this be sufficient?

 

[TexasRain]

The back side of the pool overlooks a steep slope. You can see part of the deck on the bottom left of the picture in my most recent post. It is around 6 ft off the ground. We are putting a railing on that, but not planning to put a railing on the backside of the pool.

We plan to have the railing end at the pool coping. Should this be sufficient?

I don't know, but it would make me nervous! maybe put a large cactus plant on the coping where the fence ends so no ones tries to sneak over to the edge!

 

[Newdude]

I don't know, but it would make me nervous!

Riiiiiiight ??? If there was a sophisticated adult in me, he would think it was stunning. But there isn't. And the 12 year old in me instead sees a balance beam.

(But a stunningly BEAUTIFUL balance beam)

 

[march2012]

You can see from my pictures that we have a deck at the level of the house. We want to build a deck/patio below the existing deck that would be at the level of the pool.

The price of lumber has a wood deck costing about the same as a concrete patio. The problem is the pool plumbing would run under the concrete. Part of the plumbing is already underneath the concrete patio that the builder installed.

Is it a really bad idea to put the rest of the plumbing under a concrete patio?

the wood deck would be under an existing deck so would be somewhat protected from the sun and rain though water does come through the slats.

 

[bmoreswim]

No, it's not a big deal to have plumbing under concrete. Many folks have all their plumbing under their pool deck and it rises out of the ground at the pad by the house. If the piping is properly accounted for (protected) during the concrete installation, it should have a very low likelihood of failing below the decking. My plumbing is 100% below concrete or in the pool gunite walls. Do make sure to have the plumbing surface outside of any poured concrete, in grass/mulch/stone, next to the pad.

To me, bigger considerations would be aesthetics and maintenance of either surface (and cost which you said is similar).