Waxahachie, TX Owner Build - A race to beat the baby!

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I have the overflow grate plumbed to 2" pvc in the waterline tile. I keep the water level about 1/2" below the bottom of the overflow grate with the autofill. It is really nice to have an overflow that is always working and maintenance free. Haven't ever had to worry about the water level in our pool, high or low. Set it and forget it.
 
JamieP said:
Thanks Matt. This make sense about not using the skimmer knockout. I hadn't looked that closely to see that it would be below the waterline. It looks like the autofill can is set back far enough from the rebar that I can decide to use it up until the decking is poured. But if I want to drain out the back of the pool (assuming I don't just manually drain as you suggested), then I'll need to do a tile line drain and have the gunite guys leave me a spot for the pipe, correct?
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I don't have a drain because, as you might imagine in a desert, we don't worry too much about having excess water (though I have been known to do my fair share of rain-dances over the years to help fill the pool ;) ). I imagine y'all in the Dallas area get a bit more rain than we do, so I can see the importance of a drain. I would go for the standard water line drain and ask the gunite guys to give you a notch. This way, you can place it wherever it is most convenient and have your plumber come back and run a pipe to wherever you'd like to water to go (honestly sounds like a DIY project to me). This is one of those things you don't want to waste too many CPU brain cycles on worrying about, I really think the standard tile line drain is the simplest and easiest approach....."set it and forget it" as pooldv says.
 
The auto filler is the preferable route to take in my opinion.

In reference to your skimmer knockout comment, if that drain location is below the waterline then the skimmer is not plumbed correctly. The waterline should be mid line in the mouth of the skimmer, the knockout is a little about 1-1/2" above that level.
 
So your question about the skimmer got me thinking - I assume your main drain and skimmers are all independent runs back to the pad. Since your not using the secondary port on the bottom of your skimmers, did you consider attaching them to the pool wall as equalizer ports (see HERE)?

Perhaps a moot point by now since your plumber is gone and gunite is coming on Wednesday. I was just thinking because should water ever drop below the skimmer opening (an abnormal situation for sure), the equalizer port in conjunction with a float valve inside the skimmer, saves your pump from losing prime.
 
bdavis466 said:
The auto filler is the preferable route to take in my opinion.

In reference to your skimmer knockout comment, if that drain location is below the waterline then the skimmer is not plumbed correctly. The waterline should be mid line in the mouth of the skimmer, the knockout is a little about 1-1/2" above that level.
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I'd have to look at the skimmers to be sure. I thought I recalled them being up high, near the top of the rebar, but I didn't know if I was remembering right. I'll look tomorrow.

Can you explain why your preference is for using the autofiller? Does it function better than pooldv's setup, or is it just more hidden, so it would look better? One thing in favor of pooldv's setup seems to be that he used a 2" pipe, whereas I don't think the knockout on the autofiller is that big. But maybe that only make a difference in heavy rains, and at some point, neither might not be able to keep up.

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JoyfulNoise said:
So your question about the skimmer got me thinking - I assume your main drain and skimmers are all independent runs back to the pad. Since your not using the secondary port on the bottom of your skimmers, did you consider attaching them to the pool wall as equalizer ports (see HERE)?

Perhaps a moot point by now since your plumber is gone and gunite is coming on Wednesday. I was just thinking because should water ever drop below the skimmer opening (an abnormal situation for sure), the equalizer port in conjunction with a float valve inside the skimmer, saves your pump from losing prime.
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This is an interesting thought, and I can appreciate the goal as you mentioned it, but understanding the details is a bit over my head at the moment. :) You're right though...with he timing of things, it's probably a moot point anyway.
 
Its hidden so its a stealth overflow. The bigger advantage is its not subject to the surges and waves created by splashing that would normally find their way to a skimmer mounted overflow or a tile/bond beam overflow.

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I do not like equalizer lines. If you have a correctly working auto filler, the water level should never drop below the skimmer anyway.

Most if not all the newer pumps (variable speeds anyway) sense loss of prime and turn off to prevent damage from running dry.
 
bdavis466 said:
Its hidden so its a stealth overflow. The bigger advantage is its not subject to the surges and waves created by splashing that would normally find their way to a skimmer mounted overflow or a tile/bond beam overflow.
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This is helpful too and persuasive. Right now our autofill is plumbed with a pipe leading out to where it will eventually hook up to the repaired sprinkler system. The pipe where it ends is currently sticking straight out of the ground. Would the overflow work even before we get the autofill part completely set up?
 
Yes, the two have nothing to do with each other. The overflow is nothing more than a hole at the height of the maximum level that you wish to have your pool. Its merely a convenience that they are incorporated within the same unit and an advantage with the surge issue mentioned previously.

The pipe that you are referring to is the pressurized supply line that allows water to flow when the float drops with the water level of the pool.
 
Jamie- On your budget, you may want to talk to your subs about cash payments, sometimes they will give a discount if you pay in cash. Just make sure you're getting a lien release on them, but, it's something you may want to consider going owner-builder. We have saved a little bit of money that way so far. I am also using credit cards with cash back rewards on anything I can (short of cash discount), just a couple of ways to make things a little bit easier on the wallet.
 

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Hey you are going along so fast! I am convinced that the owner builds actually go more smoothly than the pools built by pool builders. I think you need to be home a lot so your work would have to allow for that.

I give you props for home schooling your kids. My wife was home schooled. Our oldest goes to a school that is 1/2 home school and 1/2 taught by teachers in a class. The school makes the curriculum and sends instructions to my wife for what she has to do when my daughter is at home. It takes a special type of person to do the home schooling. It is pretty hard on my wife so we decided to put our two younger kids in a full time Christian school. When my oldest is done with 8th grade we are going to revisit what we are going to do for her high school.

Oh the topic of overflows my pool has knock outs in the skimmer too. The PB knocked out one at the far end of the pool and hooked up (I think 1") PVC to it and ran it out the side of my pool. It works well but you have to make sure that there is a place for the water to go. Mine was easy because that side of the pool is 4' out of the ground so they just ran the pipe down and had it come out at the bottom of my retaining wall on that side. My skimmer knock out keeps the water level right at the mid point of my tile.
 
We do 1/2 time homeschooling, 1/2 time school as well with our 4 kids. Being down in south Austin, I'm guessing you do Veritas.

Its crazy. I've got similarities with both Jamie and ummgood (I bet others too).
Jamie: big Catholic family in Texas doing owner build, does homeschooling, and with a bun in the oven
ummgood: software engineer in Austin does university model homeschooling

oh yeah. And apparently were slightly crazy about pools and getting them for our kids.
 
And5555 said:
Maybe not crazy. ;) I just feel crazy when I want to talk about pools with people outside of the Internet that have zero interest in the subject.
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I think the reason for part of that is there are quite a few people I know that grew up with pools where no one knew how to properly maintain it. Then they have this idea that pools are impossible maintenance nightmares. I haven't gotten to summer yet but I am easily handling the maintenance right now. It isn't that bad... It is almost therapeutic for me.
 
Thanks guys. Things are going pretty smoothly, and it's nice knowing exactly when everyone is going to show up, and have it be around my schedule. Homeschooling definitely helps with an endeavor like this because of being home all the time and the schedule we keep, but it also means that kids get distracted easily when exciting things are happening just outside the back window. Nevertheless, that is a small hurdle to overcome and can even be made benefit us if we use it properly. It's good to "let go" sometimes and let life happen, and that's a blessing of homeschooling too.

It has been great learning of the similarities my family has with others on this forum, while also meeting new people who have different interesting life experiences. Everyone is so helpful and kind, and the moderators do a great job of keeping it that way.

Today has been going well. The system is pressurized and holding. The gunite guy came out to inspect before the job tomorrow and was very complimentary of what he saw. My electrician is coming out for pre bond in a little while, and I scheduled with the concrete decking guy to come out on Thursday and survey the job to get more a more accurate idea of pricing. I was a little anxious this morning over the pressure testing, but it's been a good exercise in abandonment and thankfully, all is well.

***
Ok, so I just checked the pressure again and I've lost half of a point over about 3.5-4 hours. The day is warming up, but I don't know if that should make any difference, and if it did, it would seem like the pressure would need to increase not decrease. Does it seem like I have a leak? I do have my bubbler line Jandy valve closed, but I don't know if that would let any small amount of water through to reduce pressure. Gauge has gone from 22 to 21.5.

Half an hour later it's at 21. Not sure how I'd find such a small leak if there is one.

***
20.5 now. Seems like something must be going on. Do I need to expose all the pipes and try to look for a wet spot? I emailed the plumber, so we'll see what he says. It sure would be nice if he took care of it.
 
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I homeschooled my two children until my daughter was going into her junior year of HS and my son was a freshman. They then went to a very small classical education private school (daughter's graduating class was 12 kids). At that point we moved my son to a more structured private school. He needed more rigidity and accountability in his assignments. He didn't do well in the loose structure of the classical school.

Jamie you are doing amazing! Kudos to you girlfriend!!
 
Jamie I have been letting Matt and Brian take the lead so I say PM both of them and alert them to this.

Saying that..........I think there IS something going on. I have watched MANY builds and when the pipes are put under pressure they stay at XX psi so......... :(

Kim
 
Thank you for your encouragement, ladies. It's a little frustrating, to be sure, so I hope we can get it sorted out.

The plumber just called me and thinks the issue is air leaking out of the Jandy valve that is closing the bubblers. I don't have the necessary caps to close the bubblers and pressurize their line too, so as to remove the Jandy valve from the equation. He is willing to come out tomorrow to check the underground pipes, but I would need to postpone gunite which I am certainly willing to do if its necessary to be safe.

The plumber suggests raising the psi to 30 and leaving it overnight. His standard of a leak is if pressure drops to zero overnight, but that doesn't make sense to me. A small leak just won't drop pressure that fast, but it's still a leak. Setting to 30 psi will make any leak manifest itself more, I assume, since the pressure is higher, so maybe we should do that and see what happens. I know the psi won't go down to 0, but if there is a leak, it might make things wetter in the area to see where it is. But, is 30 psi a safe pressure to set things to?

Can the Jandy valve really be the culprit like the plumber says? Ideally I'd not have to have it closed. I don't know if they are meant to hold pressure, or if some air/water can escape through them to cause the pressure to come down slowly. I'm at 20 psi now.
 

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