Started on Monday, rebar complete on Thursday. Gunite was scheduled for Saturday(today) (Day 6). But unfortunately the gunite company called yesterday evening and told us they have a plant equipment breakdown and will not be able to spray the pool on Saturday. Keeping my fingers crossed they will repair their equipment and get back on schedule with the gunite spray.

Well it looked like the original gunite crew has been pushing me off for the regulars. So we got on the phone and setup a shotcrete crew that would take the job. Of course the weather is looking bad with this storm going across the nation and spinning tornados. Cousin helping me is a contractor by trade and says they are virtually the same in the end(gunite vs Shotcrete). They use different equipment to install. So it looks like we are switching to shotcrete.

With the bad weather lurking we decided to cover all the pool walls and 10 feet out from the pool to help protect the walls and keep the area around the pool dry.

Todd

Day 9 and I am happy. After the bad weather that went across the nation the last few days. We had covered all the pool walls with visqueen to protect them and again outward from the walls 10 feet to keep the area around the pool from being a muddy mess from the rains we thought we would get but ended up not getting much to amount for anything.

Yesterday the Shotcrete crew showed up and sprayed the pool. Now I can breath alittle easier.

So the spray begins.

Tanning ledge

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All done. Looking like a pool now. Can't wait to swim.

Next in line is the waterline tiles and coping. We are using old St. Louis brick as coping. And a Daltile 6x6 porcelain tile as the waterline tile with a 1x1 accent tile for marking the edges of the tanning ledge, sitting bench and steps.

Wow, looks really nice. Great job! We decided to go with a young up and coming pool company in Texas. I read your post about the pour being bumped for their regulars. I think this is happening to us. Our pool was poured in mid Feb. and we still don't have plaster or tile. Wish I knew enough to subcontract. Keep posting pictures of your progress!

Before I get too ahead of myself I need alittle info. My Pentair 5G color change light will be connected to my Easytouch automation panel. While I don't currently have a remote so I can make changes from inside or where ever I have the remote. Question is do I need to run the light wires to a switch then to the panel or vice versa?? I don't want to have to go the the pool panel every time I want to put the light on or switch colors.

Pool piping started going in yesterday morning with a pressure test shortly after they finish.

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Sorry for the late update. A few days ago we had the Old St. Louis brick coping and waterline tiles installed. Decking scheduled for next Monday and Plaster scheduled for next Friday.

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Been a busy couple of days. Yesterday they formed up all the concrete decking and today they poured and finished the concrete. But not before alittle drama as the concrete was being poured. the pool piping had been pressured up for over a week, well just as were getting ready to pour concrete over it we found a leaking pipe. Excavated and located the leaker. Doesn't even look like it had ever been glued. Made the repair and continued to pour.

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It's looking great! love the tanning ledge. I wish we would have done that!

Sorry for not posting sooner. I'll try to catch everyone up on my status. So the time and dates may not seem right. It's been a busy few weeks around here. This build is actually listed on two web sites so I will just copy and paste what I have on the other site. Here we go.

Pool equipment was installed last week. Something I thought was odd was the installer piped only the returns thru the salt clorinator. He said the salt cell would last longer and I would not have to keep moving the settings once the pool is started. Since the water features will not run all the time there was no need to run everything thru it. Is this ok???

Still waiting on the electrician to connect the electrical stuff.(now done)

Plaster going on . Color is Bahama Breeze which is 9 bags of Diamond Brite Tahoe Blue and 1 bag of Black Onyx to make the color. After the plaster was installed they acid washed and exposed the aggregate.

Finished product. And acid washed to expose the aggregate.

Houston I think we have a problem. After we started adding water to the pool I noticed this wet spot to the side of the light fixture. Should I be worried?? I continued to fill the pool anyway because of instructions I received from the plaster foreman before he left. It was too late to contact him last night once I noticed this. ((Talked to the plaster foreman and he told me the plaster was still curing and it would be ok. Now that pool is full it appears no more leakage into the pool is occurring, no more staining. Plaster foreman is coming with scuba gear to check it out closer.))

Here's where the fun began. Plaster was installed two weeks ago today. We actually had a vacation planned so once the plaster was finished and they started filling we packed our camper and the next morning set out for Memorial Day weekend trip. We are on a water well and not city water. So I really didn't want to run my well pump constantly until the pool was filled. But with the plaster we were told to NOT stop the water. Which we didn't. Had to have assistance from neighbors and relatives to get the pool filled. It took a day and a half on my well pump to fill this 16K pool. Now remember the pool equipment was in place but no electricity as of yet so once the pool was full I could not get it up and running.

Picture above is showing green water because the equipment electrical didn't get connected until the following Wednesday. Once we had power and the pump was running I did as directed and starting adding our startup chemicals. What they failed to tell me was since I was using well water that I needed to treat the water for metals before adding shock or chlorine. So with the pool chemicals balanced it left the pool with a transparent green tint. We were worried it would stain the plaster. You can see the difference in this picture. Green in deeper water and better in the shallows on the tanning ledge.

Then we got this!!! Two different rain storms about 3 days apart. The first storm dropped 8" of water in our rain gauge and the second rain storm dropped 12+ inches. We had water in places I had never seen water before. On a good note the concrete was all sloped in the correct ways with no pooling of water on the pool deck, under the carport or in the future pool house. Needless to say if the rain had come a few days earlier the rain could have filled the pool.

Back to the metals problem. Pool store had us starting a metals out treatment. So we added the chemical and waited. No change in pool water color as in pictures above. So we started the second treatment. Just before the second one we were asked to clean the filters. Look at what they looked like after just a few days of circulating. They were full of Iron particles. Now the water was perfectly clear if you caught a sample and looked at it. Both pool water and our well water.

A few more days of circulation and still no change to the water color. So back to the pool store for more metal out. Now we were getting worried our plaster was already stained and might not be able to save it. All this time our other chemicals and test results showed that everything was at acceptable levels. Just the transparent green color in the pool. So off to work I went(I had been on vacation for two weeks now).

Next day back to the pool store again for two more bottles of metal out. Cleaned the filters once again. This time they were pretty white. But I cleaned them anyway. Got it back circulating and added the two bottles of metal out. Went to work that night and when I got off the next morning it was dark so I could not tell if any change had happened. Woke up around 10:30am and my wife told me to go look at the pool. I had expected it to still be green.

And this one. Boy you don't know how relieved we were to find out our plaster wasn't stained. And look at the color. WOW. Even better than we imagined. If you didn't catch it earlier this is Diamond Brite. Bahama Breeze is the color. It's a custom mix of 9 bags of Tahoe Blue and 1 bag of Black Onyx. Love it.

We still have so much work to do. But we are swimming at this point. Our brick guys are back today infact working on the brick accents from the pool to the deck edges and the fire pit we are also building. They look great so far. I'll post some pictures when they are done.

Phase two is fence and pool house. And get the yard back straight and rid of the extra dirt. Currently getting a budget set for that work so I can get the $$$ to complete the whole project now in stead of alittle here and there until it was done. We would rather do it all now and be done with it.

This post was edited by dewalt17 on Fri, Jun 6, 14 at 14:36

Brick work in the deck.

Start of the fire pit.

Finished product of deck and fire pit. Both will tie in with work being done on the future pool house in the back ground.

So very nice!!! Enjoy your swimming, and thanks for sharing your pool with us. BTW, we've had old Chicago brick on our home for 21 years. I still adore it. Your old St Louis bricks are great.

Thanks again for sharing your experience.

Sorry but it has been such a long time for some updates. So I will attempt to update in order using another forum I also posted in. Much has changed in the back yard since the pool was installed

Pool is all finished and enjoying it. But back to work and now we are working on the pool house. As you can see by the pictures we are adding a covered patio onto the front of it. 10x22 addition to the front, rewired inside, added a bathroom and kitchen area, insulated and sheet rock hung.

awesome. Do you have any pics of your pool in bright sunshine? Am also heading towards "bahama breeze" or steel blue (2 x onyx, 8 x tahoe blue)

I'm in the Baton Rouge area. Would you be able to provide me with general pricing that the pool cost you? And possibly subs? Thanks!!