The remodel begins!

[Blowout]

Things to do:

Demo pool
remove all existing aggregate deck and patio area

Replaster with Colorscape
New tile
5cm bullnose travertine coping
Travertine pavers, French pattern 1,200 sqft - Kale blend
Add travertine pathway on side of house leading to pool, includes new pad
New plumbing to pad - 2" return lines to replace 1 1/2". Add one more return in shallow end. Might run separate 2" lines from skimmer and pool drain.
Add auto fill
New lights
New Waterways 525 cartridge filter
New heater 400 BTU - TBD
SWG - TBD
Auto control - SunTouch
NG firebowl on patio

Before:

Our lovely green pool

Hose shows where the new travertine path will go. Most likely go 32" wide instead of the 24" wide where the hose is.

Pad in foreground

 

[Blowout]

During:

The work begins with the pool demo...2 days to get to this.
I just hope they know what they are doing... looks like the pool was destroyed in a war...

The flagstone patio stays BTW...

Comparitively speaking, the green didn't look all that bad...

 

[Patrick_B]

Gorgeous backyard! I love the setting an feel to the place. Bet the re-do will be fabulous. I'll be checking back, thanks for sharing.

 

[Glock]

Profiling. Looking forward to more pics.

 

[Suziqzer]

Looks like a beautiful backyard to entertain in! Good luck on your remodel!

 

[carlscan26]

Its going to look worse before it gets better but it's looking fine so far

 

[Blowout]

Thanks for the complements and encouragement. We've been waiting along time to figure out what we want before pulling the trigger on this one. This forum has alot of good information that makes me more assured were going in the right direction.

Talked to the PB today and they said the plumbers were next...told them it would probably be easier if they took up the deck first. Aggregate comes out tomorrow. More pics to follow.

 

[Blowout]

Demo continues with aggregate removal

Looks like we took a direct hit...

Found the bonding wire... need to run this to a new bonding grid under the pavers when they go in.

 

[Glock]

Geez, I hope they can work magic soon. lol. Looks more like a full removal.

 

[Blowout]

Geez, I hope they can work magic soon. lol. Looks more like a full removal.

So do I... they didn't show up again today to finish the tear out as they said they would.... last week they only spent one day on the job site. At this rate it could take all summer... The biggest PITA is planning for them to show up when they say they will and no one comes.

 

[Blowout]

Old plumbing meets new....

2 returns on a 2" line into SPA vs the previous single return on a 1 1/2" line...

Spa and pool look fabulous at this point....

Ended up with right angle 90's and not sweating the sweeps... autofill installed on the previous manual fill line...

Long way to the pad....

Found out that the drain only had/has a 1 1/2" line going to the skimmer. Now there is a separate 2" from the skimmer to the pad and a 2" line from the 1 1/2" drain line to the pad. In order to change the drain line to a total 2", the pool would have had to been sliced into. Not worth it...
New skimmer

All new 2" returns now instead of the 1 1/2"... far side is routed around the deep end of the pool now removing 2 90's and its a shorter run. All the plumbing is completed except for the pad equipment.

2" gas line in for the firepit bowl... been spending time under the house rerouting gas lines. Looks like we will need another line from the meter for the firepit/BBQ so it doesn't flame out when the Spa goes on.... and will need to upgrade the heater to a 1 1/2" line if we go 400k since it's 75' from the meter.

Not looking any better yet...

PB is averaging 1 1/2 days a week on the job... been too busy at work to press them so far.
Wife has started sharpening her axe and knives...

 

[Glock]

lol. It's coming together albeit slowly. Sounds like you have a good plan. Can't wait to see the outcome!

 

[Blowout]

Received a wakeup call at 8:20 this morning from the PB saying the tile and coping came in and they are installing today and Monday. Travertine pavers are to start to go in next week as well. The wife's war cries were recognized it seems...

 

[Glock]

Wives have a way of doing that.

 

[Blowout]

PB crew indicates the wall needs to be raised 2 1/4" to level the coping with the existing flagstone. Original grip type coping was level with flagstone patio. I know because I checked it with a level in the past. We are going with 5cm or 2" travertine which is the same height. Also showed the PB and discussed at length in the past when they were quoting the job for the 3rd time.... how their memory wavers ...

Now they say it will be $2500 to raise the wall 2 1/4". And they already drove in rebar spikes before they even quoted me... The PB has also been unresponsive to return any calls. Asked them for a quote for the gas line for the BBQ (emails and face to face) and it is already finished...never got a quote. Still don't know how much. Same for the second 2" line to the skimmer...never quoted and finished the work. Now he's saying he told me $500. I recall him saying something like $250...

I meet with the PB Monday morning to have a heart to heart. :grrrr:

 

[Patrick_B]

Just checking in. Good luck with the communication. Hope it works out. Man that is unprofessional to treat a customer that way!

 

[Blowout]

Well it seems like memory fades when the job gets started and you don't have it in writing. Glad I have other things written down and signed. Bottom line the coping needed to be raised to get the deck level with the existing flagstone patio and still have some slope away from the pool... $2500 more. As a result the the skimmer is now lower than it should be. The PB said the waterline will not be centered with the tile, but didn't make any effort to say he would correct the issue.

Now that the workers are gone, I was able to see what he meant. I have a email into him he needs to fixed the issue.

In this pic you can see how high they raised the wall. Now much to it really...just drill holes and drive 3-4" pieces of rebar into the existing wall about 18" apart. Then they interweave long pieces of rebar in and out the pegs sticking out. They didn't even tie the rebar to the pegs. Takes them about 3 hrs to drill and drive the rebar pegs in.

Here is with most of the coping on....they ran out and need to get a few more. We are going to have the coping cross over the dam as well.

 

[Blowout]

Things are picking up now. Received a delivery yesterday of 11 palletes of travertine pavers.

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After measuring some more and getting some input from others, the skimmer will work at the present height. Seems better to have it too low than too high to minimize the chance of vortexing. When the water is centered on the tile, there is still over an inch to the upper edge of the inlet.
Tile up now, but the wife wanted a different color grout than what they had. They will follow up and grout next week when they get the new color.

All the ditches got backfilled and then I got reminded by the wife I needed to run electrical to her fountain. While doing this, we ran electrical to the firepit so we have the option for an autolighter. Now the ditches are all backfilled.

Lawn is trashed... next project

The gas line is visable in these pics.

Spillway finished. They had the coping uneven and some chipped tile so they came back and corrected it without any issue.

Baserock showed up today along with the guy that lays the travertine pavers. Went over the design layout in detail. I'm glad I modeled up the layout on the computer so he has a written plan to go by. I think they usually fly by the seat of their pants on these jobs from what I could tell. He begins laying the pavers next week!!

 

[Glock]

Wow, shaping up really nice! Can't wait to see the final pics!

 

[dattia]

You started with something beautiful... I think you will end with something fabulous! I also can't wait to see the end result. Congratulations!