Re: Vinyl pool remodel in San Diego
OK, picking back up...the coping work was finished up week 3 on Tuesday 12/20 - 16 days in. Work was done on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. It ended up taking the full estimate plus 2 days - but we did add some complicated bits with the work around the waterfall and there was a lot of work cutting all of the bricks down. The bricks were intended for replacing coping on an existing in ground gunite pool so the length they came in was much longer than we needed. Cutting down 320+ bricks took a long time.
Meanwhile, the PB finished most of the prep work...the perlite needed to be built up in a few places requiring several coats. Most of this was done by Friday, day 12. What was left was some final work on the skimmer and under the waterfall. I had a lot of pictures of this but don't have a single one now
During this time, we had a small scare where we thought the wall nearest the sump and well was going to crumble. Right about at the bottom of the V on that side of the pool a hole opened up - I could reach in up to my elbow, it almost seemed like amole had been back there.
When the coping was finished I called the PB to find out where we were schedule wise, hoping we could get the liner dropped on Thursday or Friday before Christmas (days 18 or 19). He let me know that he ad to rush order the liner to get it in this week but it wouldn't arrive until Thursday, they would finish the prep on Friday but would not be able to drop the liner until Monday the 26th. We had plans to go out of town that day so that really worried us that we wouldn't be here for the liner drop - mainly because I was curious to see it and also because I am pretty hands on supervising to see how things get done and that they meet my expectations etc. Anyway, they did come out on Friday and did some more wall work - they filled the hole with several bags of gravel and then a thick layer of perlite, which was further built up on Monday.
I was able to change our plans to leave late on Monday afternoon so I could see the liner drop. That day they estimated it would be three to four hours of prep and they would drop the liner. It ended up being closer to six hours. They finished the perlite work below the waterfall and around the skimmer and the hole/cave-in in the bottom of the wall. They put up the foam and did a fine comb cleaning of the entire pool. Then they re-trowled the entire floor which was unexpected and the results were fantastic - swimming with goggles and looking at the pool at night with the light on the I don't see any anomalies, lumps, voids, etc. like we had before. Some of that may be masked by the pattern too but so far it looks great.
Once they were finally ready I was actually asked if I wanted to help roll out the liner - which of course I accepted! First they laid out the liner rolled up along one of the short ends and after lining up the two corners and put them in the track and added track bead in those spots. Then while I and the owner unrolled the liner, the other two guys pulled it across the pool. and got the two far corners lined up and clipped in. I think the owner and I walked down as this was done and kept the liner up off the edge of the pool as long as possible. My help was done at that point and I started taking pictures - all but one was lost :grrrr: They got to lining everything up and clicking in the bead, and then setting what looked like paint rollers (they were actually some kind of homemade thing) on pool poles across the diagonals of the pool to hold the liner in place. When the pool was being filled they also used these to help set or stretch the liner into place. It was very cool to watch as the water filled the bottom of the pool and the liner dropped into place and stretched the last few inches into the corners, edges etc.
total bone head mistake!! So I've lost all of the build progress pics since the ones above. 
So we did a polar bear plunge - I couldn't get anyone else to join us, big surprise. But it was great; we jumped in together, she swam right to the edge and jumped out, I did a few laps and then got out. It was cold but I loved it! 
