nctal,

Did you notice if the rebar was a larger diameter in the floor, or the same diameter as the sides?

It's better to have the larger diameter in the floor on a deep pool.

nctal,

Did you notice if the rebar was a larger diameter in the floor, or the same diameter as the sides?

It's better to have the larger diameter in the floor on a deep pool.

Nothing "outs" a forum troll like the truth. Hopefully it serves as troll repellent, as well ... at least for this thread.

Rather than keep going back-and-forth with someone who claims to know more than he does, I took this trivial forum argument to someone who knows a little more about this pool build and especially the pool company I'm doing business with: Keith Lombardo.

Keith confirmed what I already knew: He WAS the guy at the nozzle and that was his crew shooting my pool. These ARE Lombardo employees and the equipment is indeed his. I'm not going to argue every single point, because it has been proven that poolanalyst is either lying, misleading, or just plain doesn't know what he's talking about. In the Charlotte pool builders thread, he also made some statements recently which are equally inaccurate.

For any of you reading this, or any other thread that Mr. Poolanalyst comments on, take this into account when determining how much merit to place in his statements.

As for my pool build, its continuing as planned and my opinions thus far of Lombardo Swimming Pool Company continues to be very positive.

I would like to set the record straight,My name is Keith Lombardo, owner of Lombardo swimming pools. the pictures of nctal pool are of me as nozzle man along with my crew at this point there has been -o- sub contractors on this job.I don't know who the pool analyst is but he apparently doesn't know me. The concrete pump on the job along with all the trucks, skid loader,are mine, not subs.I take pride in the work we do along with my crews,if anyone still would like to dispute any of these statements feel fee to contact me directly we are in the phone book,Thanks Keith Lombardo. ps,anywone wishing to see the pictured concrete pump or trucks or me, you're welcome to come to my office and see for your self.

>> In the Charlotte pool builders thread, he also made some statements recently which are equally inaccurate.
Can you name one?

I'm not really the one who needs to prove himself.

You repeated your inaccuracies from this thread on that one, and just added a new inaccuracy. Its hard to tell what is true coming from you, although I'm told your rumors and generalizations about many companies were pretty close at the top of the thread. You clearly have some degree of inside information, just not as much as you think on the specifics.

If you have additional direct questions about my pool build, post them here. If not, the other threads are probably a better spot.

Thanks.

I've posted ,hopefully,my final response to poolanalyst on the charlotte,NC concrete/gunite pool builder forum for anyone interested .This is a neat forum if you get past the personal stuff. I,m glad we've done a great job for nctal, not knowing that we were under a microscope until Mon.of this week, and that pictures were being sharred with all of you, unknown to us. in closing I'm proud of my employees. not to many builders could measure up to this kind of scrutiny,were your work is being sharred unknown,any one can be good if they know their under a microscope,which we did'nt. enjoy your pools Keith.

Keith, there have been, in the past, many threads where your input would have been welcome. I expect there will be many more in the future. I hope that if you have the time, you'll join us as a contributing builder.

Hope to see at the NESPA next week in Atlantic City.

Anyone else going?

Scott

poolguynj, thanks for the kind words,I might just do that.

I was employed by Lombardo from 1994 to 2004. I can assure you that Keith Lombardo is on nozzle in the photos. If you don't recognize him it's because, like myself, he HAS put on 50 pounds.
The conduit is fine for NC. It is grey, but not schedule 80.
The pool has surely been built entirely in-house to this point, as would have been the case the entire time that I worked there. Sometimes, however, a homeowner or homebuilder may choose another contractor to complete part of a job. This would be true for any pool builder. Whenever possible, all work was done in-house. The only exceptions were electrical, and the plastering was always subcontracted except for small spas and fountains.
But I have read enough about that, what about the pool?
Everything looks good so far.
They should have cut out for the shear descent while the concrete was still wet, a lot easier.
Keith, when did you start using Pentair equip.?
Intellibrite lights are LED not SAM.
Why in the world would anyone set freeze protection to 25 degrees? What is your homeowners insurance deductable?

Now that we've got THAT cleared up, here's an update and more pictures. I was out of the loop for a week, but that happened to be a week when it snowed here in the Charlotte area (once every three years) - so not much happened while I was gone. This week they're laying the stone coping and stacking the rear wall. For full disclosure, the stone guys are a subcontractor - finally my first.

By the way - I didn't expect anywhere near this much scrutiny, but now that I've had it I do feel all the more better about my pool build.

First, my yard got stoned:

Then it got laid:

And now its getting stacked:

From the looks of all the clay exposed by the rain, they're building my pool on Mars. I expect to see the Mars rover roll by any moment:

Finally, a couple views from the living room. It'll be a helluva view when its done:

They're finishing up the stone work tomorrow and if all goes well, the deck is scheduled for next week.

My camera died, but my cell phone camera picked these two shots up a few minutes ago. I'm not sure how they're concealing the water falls yet, but other than that, the rear wall is almost completely stoned.

Looks real good,especially the stone coping on the raised beam area.

I'm sure they aren't finished with it, poolanalyst.
NCTAL, nice view out the back windows.
What is your decking going to be made of?

Had to make a budget compromise ... I would have loved real stone or something along those lines like the rest of the pool area, but I'm going with stamped concrete with integral color. I'm shooting for 1,200 square feet and am getting a good rate from a family friend in the business. I've seen his work on some multi million dollar homes on Lake Norman, so hopefully it'll do just as well for my humble abode.

The stonework was indeed completed last week and over the weekend it was protected by a blanket to keep some of the heat in case the NC weather dropped too far.

Here was the big unveiling prior to the Super Bowl so guests could check out the stone wall.

On Sunday, I tore out the stairs on my existing builder spec wooden deck and began trying to get that area up to what will be the final grade. Monday we prepped the area that will be the stamped concrete pool deck and finished the final grading of the area. As mentioned previously, I'm having a friend of the family who does this for a living handle the decking. His name is Bobby Nirchi of Architectural Concrete Technologies in Mooresville, NC.

Prepping the deck and installing downspout drainage:

Your pool and house are gorgeous! I can't wait to see the final project! The wall is also stunning. I love the integration of the larger stones in with the smaller ones - very natural and unique. Keep the pics coming. Nikki

NCTAL,
I have seen some very natural looking stamped concrete out there. Also seen some really crappy stuff where the lines are double stamped, and the colors do not match.
Let your guy know he's being watched by thousands.
Wow! It is 15 degrees here this morning. Been cold hear this winter. But it is gonna be 70 this coming Sat. and Sun. Time for me to start thinking finishing up my retaining wall stone faces and my finished landscaping.

Did you mention COLD? For North Carolina, no doubt. I'm originally from Western NY state - Buffalo & Rochester - and it cracks me up that the dusting we got yesterday canceled school. Still, I was amused enough to take some pictures.

Almost enough snow to cover the backyard:

With the weather what it was, no work was done yesterday - still, I managed to gain two new supervisors on my pool project. Neither of which is a Lombardo employee, by the way ;-).

I doubt they'll stick around very long, although the big guy is still hanging on today. He can't see much today, however, since the neighbor's dog ate his eyes.

Well, the snowmen are long gone since its been in the mid-70s the last two days. The deck crew poured and stamped last Friday - so I snapped a couple pictures of the action.

Applying the color directly to the truck - which allowed the color to go completely throughout the mix rather than just at the surface of the deck like many stamped concrete projects.

The colored concrete poured - just over 1,200 sq ft. I think the color is called Sand Buff, but basically its among the lightest tan colors available.

Applying the releasing agent and stamping. I believe the pattern I chose is Roman Granite.

Here's an action shot of the powder. It appears to enhance the color, but its primary role is as a releasing agent for the stamps.

After the deck set up over the weekend, they're cutting it into 5'x5' tile pattern, sealing, and applying a no-slip surface to it. The electricians were also here today and should be back tomorrow. Pictures to follow (in between me actually getting work done.)

How is your build going? I have been lurking on the Charlotte pages since we started our own pool build in Sept 08. We finally passed our inspection on Monday - after failing once for not having the right alarms on a couple of doors. Waiting for the irrigation to be completed and the sod to be put down - I am soooo tired of seeing that pretty red NC dirt. Now I am ready for warmer weather - hope your build is going well. Keep posting the pictures.

hope2bsmartshopper,
you must live in Mecklenburg county. My inspector never said a thing about door alarms to us. We live in Cabarrus county.
NCTAL, give us an update... we have had beautiful weather here for the past week. Waiting to see that stamped deck.

OK, here you go. It turned out to be just under 1,300 square feet of deck. I couldn't really get it all into one picture, but I'm liking the look of it. After a little sunshine, it should lighten up a little more as the sealant was pretty fresh in the last few pictures.

Here, the deck is stamped and set up over the weekend. Bobby was cutting the deck into a 5' x 5' grid.

A view back from the stone wall of the completed deck.

View from the wooden deck:

And finally a close up of the same shot, showing the pattern and color:

The electricians finished earlier this week, so we're pretty close to the finish line. I need to pick out a jump rock (visted a couple of stone yards with no luck yet), the remaining ground surrounding the pool needs to get graded, the wood deck is getting a new set of expanded steps, fence quotes, and pebble tec.

A quick pictureless update:

My wooden deck was enhanced by expanding the steps to a wraparound variety, replacing the railings, & adding metal balusters. The rest of the pool dirt was used to rough grade the area around the pool and they are contouring the yard so that water runoff will be effectively managed.

Which brings up an interesting situation - now that I see how much better I like the flow of my back yard after using the fill dirt from just my pool ... I want the same thing for my front & side yards! You sometimes see those handmade signs in people's yards that say "Clean fill wanted" - I guess I'm now one of them. Only I haven't put the sign up in the yard (I'm putting it up on GardenWeb).

I don't want any old dumping, of course - just clean dirt. Last year I was fortunate to find a devoloper that donated 53 triaxles to forming a berm on the rear of my yard to isolate my yard from the country road behind it. Any pool builders or others that have more dirt than they know what to do with - or would rather not pay to dump it ... I'll take it.

NCtal,
Very nice looking deck. That color and texture is about what I would have got if we didn't end up with pavers. Very nice.
i know of plenty of fill dirt being offered for free from a developer off of hwy 73, but I am not sure if you would have to haul it yourself or not. If you want the #, I can drive up there and get it off of the sign. It is only 3 miles from my home. Looked really clean.

Thanks for the info. I'm going to keep my eyes more open for those kinds of things now, too. I live around 20 miles south of 73, though, so hauling costs would certainly outweigh the free fill. I'm not in dire need - but keeping a look out.

Thanks again.

For the past several weeks we've been shoring up some of the fine details to prepare for today ... Pebble tec day!

First, related to my pool is the entire back yard project. I rented a backhoe on my own and set off to level the raised area behind my pool so that I'd still have a large yard to play backyard soccer or football now that the pool took up the area we used to play. I got a good deal on a weekly rental, and its a good thing because its rained for three days straight.

A view from the house. The back area looks ok, but it pitches hard from rear to front - which would make backyard sports a challenge.

Just like a kid, only in a bigger sandbox:

OK, now to the pool-specific stuff.

Pebble tec guys showed up early this morning. I wasn't even out of the shower yet, but they don't need my help. They brought plenty of guys. Its an interesting process to watch.

The receipe mixture is more straight-forward than I would have guessed. If I'd have known how simple it was, I might have had them throw one more bag of Black pearl in per load to darken up the Tahoe Blue just a little. In any case, I'm sure it will still look good. Here's the chef:

Last two Pebble tec pictures from application day.

It was a partially cloudy day here in Charlotte. This pic looks less vibrant than the last because the clouds were out in full force.

Your pool is looking good. Love the stone. I have the same shape but don't think mine is as long. Love the color of the stamped concrete. Your almost done.

Love how it's coming together. Bet you can't wait till summer!

You've got that right. I'll be jumping in pretty soon, whether the water's cold or not.

Here are pictures from Pebble tec day 2, when they came back to acid wash it. Also a couple pictures of it filling up. I'm told (and have seen on here examples) of the Tahoe Blue darkening and blueing up significantly once I start filtering the water and balancing the chemicals. Right now there is some green to the water color, but I'm not concerned based on other threads on this forum and seeing first-hand completed Tahoe Blue Pebble tec pools.

wow, gorgeous and so exciting. I'm going through this at the same time and just filled up the pool last week. I'm a little nervous about the final color.

Looks real nice...
That water does look green, doesn't it? Post some "after" pics too.
I still think your stamped patio came out perfect, (at least from the photos), and really like the color/texture.
Even those couple pieces of coping that were so horrible looking, magically fixed themselves!
It looks as though you backfilled the beam all the way to the top.?
That dirt berm you have back there would be a great place to make a rock garden / evergreen hedge. The raised beam would almost frame it from the patio perspective.

I'm surprised the hose doesn't have a rag on the end to disburse the stream and to protect against an iron stain.

Are you swimming? We have been in a couple of times - the kids are braver than we are......are you loving your new pool?

Yes - pool is finished with just some minor morter touch-ups due. I'm a lot behind in my pictures, but we just got back from vacation and have the camera loaded up with pictures to download from all sorts of things.

We've been in the pool a couple of times already with the heat pump helping to make it more comfortable. I had a crew of volunteers helping me to sod about 2,000 square feet of grass around the pool area - and we enjoyed taking breaks by jumping in the pool that day. My first official plunge, though, was at the end of March. It was a little cold outside & in the pool, but once it was full of water and able to be jumped in (close to balanced and water in the 70's) we jumped in.

Pics will follow of updates soon.

just for my curiosity--are you on a well out there or city water? How long did it take to fill that monster...
georgeous pool and setting--and aren't you so glad now that you did make the pool larger...
from what I could see reading the thread--your pool is pretty much centered against the back length of your house...and then there is nice balance of patio before/after your pool itself...
pretty much fills the three windows in your living area...nice balance I think--and certainly once you get some landscaping in behind it to throw it into relief...

seems like you followed the rule of 3rds pretty well...

Thanks. I'm on county water and it took a full 3 days to fill with two hoses running most of the time. FWIW, my water bill went from an average of $35/month to $335 for the month I filled it.

As for landscaping, I'm tempted to try and grow a couple of palm trees back there, but not sure how they'd fair in Charlotte. Those will wait a while either way. My budget is still recovering from the pool, patio, fence, sod, and vacation expenses that I've blown through in the last several months. Detailed landscaping may have to wait a little while.

looking forward to the pics, nctal. I remember I filled my pool at the same time you did and I haven't gone in yet! Today, it finally felt warm enough, about 78.

How many gallons is your pool? Mine took 2-3 days to fill 35,000 gallons.....I haven't seen my water bill yet; preparing for sticker shock.

Hey NCTAL,
Your pool looks great. FYI there is a company in Hillsborough that specializes in cold hardy palms. They work all over and I'm sure Charlotte would be no problem...we got some trees (not palms) from them last year and they were great to work with. Here is a link to the website...
http://www.cooper-paynetreefarms.com/Cold-Hardy-Palms.html
Judy

We are in Mecklenburg County and filled our pool December 23rd of 2008. It took about 3 days - our pool might be a bit smaller than NCTALs. Our water bill went up $275. I was surprised - I was expecting much more......that was the only thing it seems that was LESS than expected!

The pool looks really nice.
IMO, palms should stay where palms grow. HAve you seen the cold hary palms after this last wnter. A lot of them had to have every single frond pruned back, because they did not survive the colder nites. Some of these that I see, were even covered. Some of the palms may look good for about 3 months out of the year. For the rest of the time, they are cold damaged, or trying to recover from cold damage.
IMO, a professionally landscaped evergreen garden blows away any palm landscape that I have seen around here, and they stay healthy all year round.

I would agree with ncrealestateguy. Palms just wouldn't look right in a cold climate, IMO. Evergreens and deciduous (?) trees that are indigenous to the area would be more in keeping with the space.

I have many 50 ft palms around my pool but I am in southern California.

Nctal,

I was hoping to get a few pictures of your gorgeous pool! We are in the process of a build, just picked our PT Tahoe Blue but a little weary that it just wont be deep blue enough but love the natural stones better than midnight blue. Wondering if you went with the addition of black marble to your Tahoe PT and what you think. Any feedback would be appreciated!!

h2ofallz@aol.com

nctal,

still following your pool build...any completed pics you can share? I am interested in knowing if you love your tahoe blue PT??

I do like the Tahoe Blue, although my initial impressions of it being just a little bit too light still hold true. Here's a couple of shots of the water. Its a brilliant, complex, multi-dimentional color. The look of the actual pebbles on the shelf and the rest of the interior are great. I'm happy with it, but everything else being equal it would have been nice to have a shade deeper blue. Still, its not the windex blue I wanted to avoid, and Tahoe Blue is still very natural looking.

Please disregard the whiteness of the guy about to jump. This was my first official plunge into the pool on March 31st. I have since gone on vacation and have gotten at least a reasonable tan.

As you can see in the background, there is quite a major backyard project going on. The fence is in, the separately fenced in dog run area (adjacent to the pool) has been sodded, but there is still much to be done.

We've been swimming a number of times now. I'll add some more wide-angle pictures as progress warrants.

By the way - if you have specific questions and I haven't responded or posted in a while, feel free to drop me an email at tlarmondra@yahoo.com. There are times when I'm not on here for extended periods, so that's an alternate way to get a hold of me.

The project is just really stunning, looks fantastic.

I really appreciate your reply about the Pebble Tec, I have been over and over again between Midnight Blue and Tahoe so your reply really helped. The PT guy here in South Florida has no problem adding black stones to darken but my PB said you get what you get so he would stick to known color and no mixing, So that leaves me more confused...either way, they are both better than the blue Diamond Brite IMO!

Again, your pool looks beautiful!

NCTAL,
Nice looking sod!
Looks like you found a place to get topsoil.
What make of fence did you buy? How much if you do not mind me asking. I still have to get a fence, before big brother gets angry.

Thanks.

My fence was put in my Mike Bigham with BHT Fence in Charlotte. I opted for the design you can see without any additional horizontal crossrails. There was some debate about what 'officially' was up to pool safety codes in Union County, so out an abundance of caution I went with the one that was for sure up to code. Code believed to mean that there is 48' between crossrails. Either way, I liked the less obstructive view of fewer crossrails.

The fence manufacturer is APG Meridian and is called Swedge Lock. It has no screws and no welds and is made in America. I guess there's been a big increase in Chinese aluminum and steel with other manufacturers and its likely to be inferior to the American made stuff.

I put the fence fully surrounding my pool, then added the adjacent dog run area (that we sodded in the pictures). All told it came out to 240 linear feet of fence, three self-closing gates and one double gate so I can mow the dog run. All told around $5500.

I'm not sure if big brother cared that much in my corner of Union County - but I felt better having it fenced in for the dog and any other random animal wandering through the back yard. So far, only a few small frogs and your standard assortment of bugs have made it into the pool.

Here is a link that might be useful: Swedge Lock website