Yet another Texas pool build!

[kimkats]

Switches that control the speed of a fan? Never heard of such! Is it only for fans with remotes? We have a pool house that we will finish one day and that might be what we need for a fan in there. I will have to look into that.

That thinset is unreal.

Too bad about the dirt/paint but you are right. It will not last long AND they will probably walk all over it!

Kim

 

[ummgood]

Switches that control the speed of a fan? Never heard of such! Is it only for fans with remotes? We have a pool house that we will finish one day and that might be what we need for a fan in there. I will have to look into that.

That thinset is unreal.

Too bad about the dirt/paint but you are right. It will not last long AND they will probably walk all over it!

Kim

Actually they work with any fan and if you have a fan with remote then you have to take out the remote brain out of the fan. If the fan doesn't have a remote you just need to make sure it is in high speed before you install the switch. We had a fan in our living room on our 22' ceiling. Even with a 6' downrod the chain was insanely long so that is when I discovered the switch. It is nice because if you have a separate switch for your light then you can get rid of the pulls all together for a cleaner look.

This is the switch..
Lutron Diva Fan Control Overview

 

[kimkats]

THANK YOU! That is just want we will need in the pool house! OH yeah!

Kim

 

[ummgood]

THANK YOU! That is just want we will need in the pool house! OH yeah!

Kim

No problem so glad I could help. Your pool must be spoiled to have its own house

 

[kimkats]

ummmmmmgood that pool house was here when we moved in 13 years ago and it still is NOT done! LOL I do something to it every summer. My hubby helped put up the drywall. I mudded, taped, finished coated, painted, etc that WHOLE 750 sq foot inside. You could NOT pay me enough to do drywall for money! All we need to do now is put the flooring down. It is just plywood right now but who really cares! LOL

Kim

 

[CrockerDave]

WOW! I just read through this entire thread...ummgood, I'm sending positive vibes & good thoughts your way!!! I bought my house about a year ago, and the previous owners had a pool built (house was built in 1968, pool was built in 1997). After reading this, I realize how lucky I was to find a nice house w/ a pool already built. I don't know if I could deal with all these shenanigans for months on end...props to you for weathering the storm! I'm looking forward to seeing pics of it all finished! Best of luck :splash:

 

[ummgood]

ummmmmmgood that pool house was here when we moved in 13 years ago and it still is NOT done! LOL I do something to it every summer. My hubby helped put up the drywall. I mudded, taped, finished coated, painted, etc that WHOLE 750 sq foot inside. You could NOT pay me enough to do drywall for money! All we need to do now is put the flooring down. It is just plywood right now but who really cares! LOL

Kim

Maybe your pool house will be done by the time my pool is haha.

WOW! I just read through this entire thread...ummgood, I'm sending positive vibes & good thoughts your way!!! I bought my house about a year ago, and the previous owners had a pool built (house was built in 1968, pool was built in 1997). After reading this, I realize how lucky I was to find a nice house w/ a pool already built. I don't know if I could deal with all these shenanigans for months on end...props to you for weathering the storm! I'm looking forward to seeing pics of it all finished! Best of luck :splash:

Thanks! We looked and looked for a house we liked with a pool. We either loved the house but hated the pool or vice versa. One house we were close on needed a major refurb on the pool so it probably would have been construction anyway. I am getting excited to see it finished too!


Anyway today has been another fun day of pool building. Friday they started the forms. They were supposed to come Saturday or first thing Monday. Well today they came back and showed up around 2p.m. and hit the irrigation line I have been asking them to move for months around 3:30 so they stopped. They said they would move it prior to the deck but they didn't. At least they know where they can get water for my fill line (if you remember that far back to those arguments). They had to shut off all the water and they capped the line. They also added a sprinkler so I could turn on one of the zones to keep my yard wet. Also the hose sprinkler I purchased a couple weeks ago to hand water is MIA. I don't have a clue where it went.

Anyway here is a picture my wife took of the water line hit:


And the forms for the deck. They are almost done...

 

[christied48]

I got confused by girlfriend / wife too - had to go back thru the thread.. haha! We said the same thing about these builders losing time and money going back to redo stuff instead of checking the work or wow doing it right the 1st time! We could never do our jobs like this.

My husband had 3 meetings about the weeping wall and they still did it wrong twice. The 3rd time they let him put each rock where he wanted himself.. he just didnt want it to look like a flat wall.

He also told them the pipes were wrong on the waterfall but they insisted the water would flow right. ... and guess who had to come back and dig out rock and redo pipe to make it flow right. Ugh!!

Those of us in the real work world just cant understand such inefficiency but this is how they all do business it seems. Most people dont catch all the errors and the builders just go as fast as possible and then circle back to the ones that complain and need some redos. If they just had someone check each stage before going to the next..!

We had to stop each time and say is it worth it.. this will delay us even more.. but of course we wanted it right so we had months and months of delays caused by redos! We thought it was a war of attrition.. they were banking on us wanting to have it done so bad we would give up on some things.. but we didn't.. even tho it kills ya to wait even more!

Believe me I so know how ya feel.. reading everyone elses problems helped me get thru it! Keep catchin what you can and hang in there. You will be glad you corrected every little thing even if it takes ALOT more time. No good to rush it and then see every error after its done. It WILL be worth it in the end!!

 

[kimkats]

Oh you do have a clue but no evidence where that hose went

Hit the line........that you asked them to move...........uggggggg

Forms in the correct place this time?

Yeah one day your pool and my pool house will be done. BUT the thing here is that my undone pool house is my fault......well more of I really don't care if it gets done so...........I would rather be swimming in my pool LOL

Your pool will get done and we will all cheer with you!

Kim

 

[ummgood]

I got confused by girlfriend / wife too - had to go back thru the thread.. haha! We said the same thing about these builders losing time and money going back to redo stuff instead of checking the work or wow doing it right the 1st time! We could never do our jobs like this.

My husband had 3 meetings about the weeping wall and they still did it wrong twice. The 3rd time they let him put each rock where he wanted himself.. he just didnt want it to look like a flat wall.

He also told them the pipes were wrong on the waterfall but they insisted the water would flow right. ... and guess who had to come back and dig out rock and redo pipe to make it flow right. Ugh!!

Those of us in the real work world just cant understand such inefficiency but this is how they all do business it seems. Most people dont catch all the errors and the builders just go as fast as possible and then circle back to the ones that complain and need some redos. If they just had someone check each stage before going to the next..!

We had to stop each time and say is it worth it.. this will delay us even more.. but of course we wanted it right so we had months and months of delays caused by redos! We thought it was a war of attrition.. they were banking on us wanting to have it done so bad we would give up on some things.. but we didn't.. even tho it kills ya to wait even more!

Believe me I so know how ya feel.. reading everyone elses problems helped me get thru it! Keep catchin what you can and hang in there. You will be glad you corrected every little thing even if it takes ALOT more time. No good to rush it and then see every error after its done. It WILL be worth it in the end!!

I think this is a pretty common problem with pool builders. I couldn't imagine not watching the build because they mess up so much someone has to catch it. I can honestly understand why people do owner builds now. I don't think it could have gone any worse if I did it myself. I think the only part that I might have been uncomfortable doing myself is the actual placement of the pool and the grading. After that portion I think I could have found subs and contracted it all out myself and saved myself a ton of money (or at least spent the same amount of money and gotten a spa or something and some nicer materials).

Oh you do have a clue but no evidence where that hose went

Hit the line........that you asked them to move...........uggggggg

Forms in the correct place this time?

Yeah one day your pool and my pool house will be done. BUT the thing here is that my undone pool house is my fault......well more of I really don't care if it gets done so...........I would rather be swimming in my pool LOL

Your pool will get done and we will all cheer with you!

Kim

I hope it gets done soon. If you think I am frustrated my wife is REALLY frustrated. I think at this point she would be happy if someone actually came and worked for more than 2 hours.

I honestly don't know if the forms are in the right place right now. I plan on measuring tonight. Plus I gotta spend some love time with my sprinkler system because I noticed it didn't come on in the middle of the middle of the night like it should have. That or the fence didn't look wet so maybe that zone is off? I don't know.

 

[christied48]

It does seem common from what I found on this forum..much more expensive jobs had same problems. If I didn't find this forum, I would have thought it was just ours and just that helped my husband not go completely off on them.

Even on the expensive fence the crew just nailed in boards they split.. why the **** do you just go on and nail that in? You know you split it! They bank on noone noticing but of course they just had to come back and replace them because my husband checked every one. Luckily he was on nitework but he sure didnt get much sleep for many months trying to catch everything. Just like building the house.. gotta check every day and still we caught some things too late. Its crazy! I hope yours starts getting better!

 

[ummgood]

So update on the pool...

I will try to get more pictures tonight.

Wednesday the tile sub came out and redid my tile and raised bond beam. It now looks great! There are 3 cracked stones that need to be replaced unfortunately but I guess that is expected.

Thursday my girlfriend called and said that the wall would be delivered (they only ordered 1 pallet and ended up needing 6 how do you get the estimate that far off?) that day and they would start the wall on Friday (today). Turns out the workers showed up on Thursday and started on the wall. There are several problems so my girlfriend is meeting the crew today to discuss.

1. The far wall isn't being done right. It should be a geo grid wall which means they put down a course or two of wall and then they compact the dirt, lay down a grid, and then pin it to the wall. The grid holds the wall upright under the weight of the dirt so it will never fall. They are on their third course without even adding dirt or compacting.
2. The same wall doesn't hit the pool in the right spot. The wall should go past the step in the deep end because that wall supports my far end deck which will have a railing around it due to being 4 to 5' out of the ground. The railing should go into the coping of the pool past the step so kids can't get on the coping on the other side of the railing from the step. The wall right now is hitting about 2/3rds into the step. So it would be easy to get on the coping past the railing.
3. The wall on the other side of the pool to hold dirt has the finished side facing the wrong direction. The nice side of the wall will be buried in dirt.

I told my girlfriend that I wanted them to get it done wrong as fast as possible so they could come back and tear it up and start over again. I joked and said I am calm now because I know everything will have to be done twice. I think he is really upset with the subs and how they work. My concrete is a sand topcast finish that is pretty expensive and now he is wondering if the sub can even do that right because he doesn't want it messed up.

 

[SuzfromTexas]

So update on the pool...

Wednesday the tile sub came out and redid my tile and raised bond beam. It now looks great! There are 3 cracked stones that need to be replaced unfortunately but I guess that is expected.

I told my girlfriend that I wanted them to get it done wrong as fast as possible so they could come back and tear it up and start over again. I joked and said I am calm now because I know everything will have to be done twice. I think he is really upset with the subs and how they work. My concrete is a sand topcast finish that is pretty expensive and now he is wondering if the sub can even do that right because he doesn't want it messed up.

I am dumbfounded by all the mistakes going on with your pool. Most of us understand there are going to be some. Even my pool builder warned me when we first met. He said, "One of the cats we have to juggle will always fall. We just try to make sure it doesn't bleed!" Though I don't like the visual on that metaphor, it got my attention. You poor guys have had bleeders all over the place. It's sad to think that something looks great to you when there are still 3 cracked stones needing to be replaced.

I laughed out loud over your comment to your girlfriend! "... get it done wrong as fast as possible so they could come back and tear it up and start over again." That's so disturbing, comical, sad, frustrating, and true. But all you can do is what you're doing - remain calm because you know that's how it's going to be. Still..... it's SO WRONG!!!

We're all pulling for you and your family. Something really great has to come from all of this, right?!!!!
Suz.

 

[sbpse]

Sorry for the troubles Looking forward to seeing the pics though.

 

[Agent99]

I just went through the whole thread. Very sorry for your troubles but unfortunately, it seems to be the norm. Even with my 'piddly' 20k resurfacing job, I had to get them to redo several things and even DO things they were supposed to do and toss in the fact that not one worker spoke a lick of English (all Spanish) so it was hard to communicate things except to the boss over email or a phone call and even his English left much to be desired. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. The old adage of if you want it done right, ya gotta do it yourself is true!

Persevere as you are doing and keep your nose to the grindstone as you are doing! I promise it'll be worth it in the end and the end will come!!

 

[kimkats]

The wall grid...........I thought that was wall building 101!!! Oh well at least the second time seems to be mostly good---4 cracked rocks out of how many? Well still better than it was.

Wall in the wrong spot????? BUT of course! sigh

Who has to "eat" the cost of the 5 pallets they needed to do the job right?

I bet he IS worried about them doing your deck right. Just think of the cost to remove and redo THAT! OUCH!

Kim

 

[Jannylee53]

I also experienced many concerns during our build. I tried to stay positive. It's truly hard sometimes to know what's right or wrong. In my mind the pool builder or his super should be concerned enough to not allow shoddy work. From what I understand though when everyone is busy, they sometimes have to use contractors that they would not normally use. Just because of time.



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[Fordracing19]

Our builder came highly recommended by at least 4 good friends. One is a code inspector. I would never use them again or recommend them.

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[ummgood]

We're all pulling for you and your family. Something really great has to come from all of this, right?!!!!
Suz.

Thanks Suz!

We think we'll love the pool when it is finished. We just have no clue when that will ever be.

Sorry for the troubles Looking forward to seeing the pics though.

Thanks

I just went through the whole thread. Very sorry for your troubles but unfortunately, it seems to be the norm. Even with my 'piddly' 20k resurfacing job, I had to get them to redo several things and even DO things they were supposed to do and toss in the fact that not one worker spoke a lick of English (all Spanish) so it was hard to communicate things except to the boss over email or a phone call and even his English left much to be desired. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. The old adage of if you want it done right, ya gotta do it yourself is true!

Persevere as you are doing and keep your nose to the grindstone as you are doing! I promise it'll be worth it in the end and the end will come!!

We know it will be worth it. It is just difficult.

The wall grid...........I thought that was wall building 101!!! Oh well at least the second time seems to be mostly good---4 cracked rocks out of how many? Well still better than it was.

Wall in the wrong spot????? BUT of course! sigh

Who has to "eat" the cost of the 5 pallets they needed to do the job right?

I bet he IS worried about them doing your deck right. Just think of the cost to remove and redo THAT! OUCH!

Kim

I know he is worried. At this point I might recommend that they do all Belgard up to the house instead of the complicated concrete. Not sure if they will go for that or not.

I also experienced many concerns during our build. I tried to stay positive. It's truly hard sometimes to know what's right or wrong. In my mind the pool builder or his super should be concerned enough to not allow shoddy work. From what I understand though when everyone is busy, they sometimes have to use contractors that they would not normally use. Just because of time.

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I think the problem is all the subs are way too busy and cannot manage all the jobs they have. Taking on too much business that you aren't prepared to handle can sink a business faster than not having enough business in my opinion.

Our builder came highly recommended by at least 4 good friends. One is a code inspector. I would never use them again or recommend them.

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That is interesting after all those referrals. I think most PB's don't get good recommendations from people so it is rare you have so many. I think part of it is just how tough construction is in general. I do understand that and am trying to have grace on them but in my wife's eyes it has gone too far.

 

[Fordracing19]

And to top it off either the plumber or stone guys stole my Stihl chainsaw and weedeater.

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