Update - Plumbing is wrapping up near College Station, TX

[DUCK01]

After a year and a half of debating, planning, and spending money on other more critical projects, we're finally rolling on a new pool build. We talked to four builders from College Station to Houston and landed on one that we really like.

Freeform Gunite
89 LF
3'6"-6'0" with raised tanning ledge
20 LF raised wall (16" tall) with 5 scuppers
Removable table and 3 bar stools (suggested removable for ease of cleaning and flexibility of space)

Structural Steel - #3 grade 40 8" OC for exterior walls and floor and #3 8" OC for interior steps and benches.
12" thick bond beam and 9" thick floor and walls
Gunite to be a 7 sack mix with minimum strength of 3,000psi
Hydraulic cement around all penetrations and hydrostatic release valve
Lifetime warranty on repair of concrete pool structure covering defects, leaking, or cracks

Pentair 2.5 Whisperflow filter pump for 2 pool skimmers w/ 2" Sch 40 PVC piping, 5 returns in pool made with 1.5" Sch 40 piping (will ask for skimmers to be plumbed independently and will upgrade to a VS pump, per TPF advice)
Pentair 420/520 cartridge filter
Pentair 1.0 HP booster pump with designated cleaner in pool (have asked to swap with a Dolphin robot)
Pentair chlorine sanitization unit (I know, I know, but I'm not a fan of the feel of SWCG water)
2 Pentair color LED pool lights
Startup of pool with chemicals included

NPT Aqua White Mini Pebble Puerto Rico Blend & Abalone
Cantilevered concrete decking/coping combo
BMX200 Blue 1" x 1" tile for waterline and wall face/sides
Brushed concrete decking

The renderings are a little different than the final product - We opted to raise the wall to give us a little more height for visual effect. We may also remove the division between the bar stool area and the sun deck and just make it a smooth curve with a bench that ties into the second step. That's a TBD once we mark everything out. The pool decking will tie in to existing flatwork, which is why we're going with simple brushed concrete. The pool will be located just off of our covered patio. We have already removed the pear tree on the right side of the picture and the little flower pot island is gone, as well. I also have someone coming to haul off the mobile office trailer next weekend (it was here when we purchased the property). That area will be a future MIL quarters/pool/bar house, but it's not in the budget for this project. The pool will be situated so that the wall blocks the open barn stall in the background, with that curvature flowing between the two small oak trees. It'll be spaced off enough to not worry about future growth, but nestle in enough to naturally flow with the existing space.

 

[Texas Splash]

Looks like you've done some homework. I like that lifetime warranty thing on the concrete. Hopefully you never need to use it. As for the SWG, certainly your call. Which Pentair sanitation product are you looking at? A regular inline? Chlorination is the only thing that sticks-out on this list of items. Looks solid overall.

 

[DUCK01]

Soggy Dig Day is here! They started around 7:00am and had everything laid out by 8:00. We're dodging showers here and there, but nothing major is in the forecast. The builder brought a huge tarp just in case.

Before the muddy chaos.

First load removed, old pear tree stump is ready to come out.

Our yard slopes quite a bit - the pictures are deceiving. The top of the form board will be the finished deck height on the pool. We had to raise the level to keep it flush with existing flatwork.

Follow the tracks and notice that the stump is now "relocated." The T650 Bobcat made it look easy. If the rain will ever stop, I'll chop it up and throw it in the burn pile.

The deck will tie into existing flatwork (where I'm standing to take the picture, below) and will be flush with the front edge of the pool. We're doing minimal decking along the back edge and will have the dirt work slope away fairly abruptly to give a poor man's infinity edge feel. There will also be a 10' long, 16" high wall on the back edge kind of in front of where the trailer is sitting.
I had to head into work for a few hours, but my wife is at home. I'll post more pictures once the excavation is complete.

 

[Texas Splash]

Yeah, the TX rains have made a mess of things for sure,

 

[DUCK01]

 

[Texas Splash]

Just a gloomy mess in our area.

 

[DUCK01]

It looks like we survived a pretty good downpour Saturday night with no major damage. I see one small cave in below where the wall will be, but doesn't seem to be too bad. The forecast looks pretty good for the upcoming week. PB said that he's going to have steel done by mid week and plumbing roughed out late this week or early next week. I know he's juggling a lot because he's weeks behind due to all of the rain. Thankfully, he said he has no issue getting gunite, so as soon as the plumbing is roughed in, he's going to get us sprayed. Maybe then I can finally stop obsessing over the weather radar/forecast.

 

[DUCK01]

Gunite day is here! They knocked out plumbing rough in and rebar yesterday. The gunite trucks are rolling today. One week from dig to spray. Our builder is getting it! Pics to follow shortly.

 

[DUCK01]

6am to 3pm. Done. This time last week, we were looking at a dirty hole.

I’m exhausted just from watching the guys work. There’s some cleanup to be done, but it can wait until the morning. It’s beer:30.

 

[BigPapaSmurf]

Nice

 

[DUCK01]

No decent pictures for this update because there's not much exciting to see, but the plumbing is 90% done. The piping is run, capped, and pressurized - has been holding 20psi all week. I noticed two misses by the plumber and the PB is already aware and working on getting them fixed. The plumbers ran a return to one of the light stub outs and have a return set up as a light. They also didn't run the auto filler, but luckily there is an existing line that is already buried that is going to be converted for the filler. The previous homeowner had water run to the mobile office trailer that used to sit beside the shed. It's now gone (that was an adventure in and of itself) and the old 3/4" pvc line serves no purpose. By design and a little bit of luck, it runs between the equipment pad and the pool, so it'll be an easy fix.

There has been a little bit of a delay because, after seeing what was excavated for the plumbing, I've asked the PB to bring in select fill or sand to back fill the trenches instead of the clay that they dug out. Using what was removed would likely cause a lot of problems down the line - voids, broken pipes, etc. Plus, I'd hate to have to dig back through that with a shovel to fix any leaks or issues in the future.



The equipment is on its way, so I'm expecting the plumbing and back fill to wrap up next week. After that, it's tile, plaster, and decking. Here's to hoping that we're swimming by the end of July! Oh, and I received my Taylor test kit earlier this week. I'm looking forward to testing our tap water and playing around with it this weekend.