yea, i've lived in north texas my whole life and grew up on the east side of dallas where the good ole black dirt causes most of those poor homeowners issues. here where i currently live, we have more of a clay based soil so the movement isn't quite as dramatic as other areas of the metroplex. he didn't add any peers to the decking because we just don't see the movement here as other areas have. thanks for the compliments and agree with pools, don't want them to be rushed to finish up but certainly tired of looking at all that crap back there. garageworks, as far as the tile was concerned we relied heavily on what the PB had used before with the interior that we are using and then went to look at specific pools. again, i highly recommend that but good luck with that process, it definenly can be stressful....here is what my yard used to look like in the back..........

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garageworksguy redwood will work but over time it will rot out. I still prefer to pour the deck and saw cut joints into the deck later. it makes the joint smaller and I can control the depth better.

There are also plastic expansion joints. I see them in use a lot here.

Additionally, some masons here preset 12" sonnet tubes 6' apart and about 2' to 2-1/2' deep to help control movement.

Scott

"Posted by poolguynj (My Page) on Wed, Dec 23, 09 at 16:08

There are also plastic expansion joints. I see them in use a lot here.
Additionally, some masons here preset 12" sonnet tubes 6' apart and about 2' to 2-1/2' deep to help control movement.

Scott"

Yep I think these are "10-12" and about 30" or so long. I think they are also puting gravel on the bottom of the pool in the deep end, but not a 100% sure on that, I think they will determine that once the dig is complete. My bog concerns were movenment and rebar size and placement.

"it actually turned out that it was level with the existing patio so there was no drop off."

That's good news!

ajones,

I may be mistaken, but looking at the pictures of your tanning ledge, it looks like the flagstone is flush with the gunite. I would think that they would overhang the flagstone about a half inch or more to give the plaster something to butt up to, keeping the front edge of the flagstone exposed.

The 4th pic from the bottom of the pool from the 12/22 posting shows some overhang but I cant tell if it's as much as it could be. Only needs to be an inch to inch and half.

Maybe the user can confirm that overhang is there?

Scott

The first picture from the 12/19 post is the one I was reffering to. Maybe it's just an illusion. Like Scott said, the pic from 12/22 looks like there may be some overhang there.

all, thanks for the questions and inquiries. the wife and i were hanging out there tonight having some beverages since it was 75 degrees today and i did notice an overhang. after getting back online and seeing the questions, i went out and took some pictures. i think this is what you were asking about......BTW, the temp has dropped approx 25 degrees in 2 hours.....

also tsunami, it was good news there was not drop off.....the actual step of aggregate looks much better than anticipated!

Looks good! The flagstone looks even better underwater.

Thanks tsunami, that's what we are really hoping for....i know this isn't a weather forum but from 76 degrees yesterday to this today....

Very nice pool! Hope to start ours in Granbury in Feb..

thanks gws58, appreciate the compliment! nothing happened this week due to the holidays but looking forward to next week in hopes they can get things cleaned up a bit along with the interior and then begin to fill it up! love the granbury area, who is building your pool down there? post pics if you can!

ajones, We just moved to Granbury from the Brownwood area. I'm doing the pool myself and using the other companies subs and concrete guy.. Should save a little..

absolutely should. plenty of DIY's on the forum here along with knowledgable pool builders. plenty of excellent feedback when questions come up. good luck with your build!

well, they made it out this week (monday) and cleaned up around the pool and i have to say, i'm VERY glad to get rid of the clutter, trash, stuff, etc etc.....it looks much nicer. really need to get some grass down pretty quick so all of the top soil doesn't wash away in case we get heavy rains anytime soon. pebble tech folks came out to clean the interior of the pool friday and the irrigation guy came out to see what he needed to do to redesign our sprinkler system and we also asked him about some landscaping ideas. looks like pebblesheen on wednesday. looking forward to that process.

This is soooo nice. I love the way your yard sits up high. Hope the Pebble Sheen gets on quick and you can start filling it. Blessings.

well, to our surprise this morning, the pebble tec/sheen folks showed up this morning to apply our blue granite PS interior. what a great surprise that is right? and what an awesome to process to watch in person. tomorrow acid wash and begin to fill it up. irrigation guy was moved to tomorrow afternoon and wednesday. here are some pics from today.

Not long and you will be swimming in the spa.... Looking great>>>

Way Cool! Should have nice weather the rest of the week to get you finished up. Will they be coming back and buffing the PS as well as the acid wash?

thanks brentr and garageworksguy for the kind words. the buffing and acid wash both occur tomorrow and then the fill begins. that's very exciting!!!! good weather bodes well for all that's in this process!

ok folks, came home yesterday evening and they had acid washed and buffed the PS and the water hose was in the pool filling. exciting times!!!!!!! started filling at 5 pm, i added another hose from the front of the house at approximately 5:30 so we had two hosed going full blast all night and at 12:00 PM today, this is the result......WOO HOO!!!!!!!!! so roughly 19 hours to fill a pool of approximately 17K gallons. not to bad i don't think.

Awesome! Looks great, so who is going to make the Polar bear swim to make it official?
Does Fort Worth give you a lower rate on the water for filling a pool. I thought I read somewhere that some cities do.

Now all the work begins for you with sod, landscaping and cleaning up the rest of the mess.

Congrats!

For some reason I can't see any of the new pictures. Will log out and try to log back in.

thanks garageworksguy, we may have to draw straws to see who does the polar bear swim and hopefully one of the kids will win......:) what the city of ft worth does is they take a reading on the water meter every 3 months and then average that usage out for your bill for the next 3 months. they don't really give you a break per say but i have to fax them information as to when we started to fill the pool and when it was completed along with the estimated gallons and they will remove that from the "average" for those 3 months. hope that makes sense....

hope you get to see the pics ftwpoolgirl, i can see them fine.....:(

Beautiful. Now I can see them.

I have another question. since i have filled the pool and spa and keeping in mind that nothing has been turned on at this point, the water line in the pool drops below the tile in the SPA. is this normal????? i'm sure when the pump is on and circulating this will not be the case but didn't know if this would continue when the pump is not running.

First, I think you may have meant the water in the spa drops. If there is no check valve at the equipment pad, the water in a raised spa, assuming the valve to the spa returns is cracked open will drop to the pool's level. The more open it is, the faster the spa level will drop.

If there is a check valve, it may not be seated flush.

Why isn't the equipment running?

Scott

thanks for the response scott. what you mention above is exactly what i meant. i will have the PB check on that to see if the valve is seated. i didn't think to ask him about that this afternoon when i spoke to him and he may have already notice it when they came out to turn on the equipment. they were out about 11:30 this morning, added acid and some chlorine and turned everything on. the pool had a considerable green tint to it earlier but tonight, it's much more blue.....he told me that the system is in service mode and it will run for 72 hours before they turn it off......ready to get in the spa!!!

Wait a month for the finish to cure hard enough to ensure no marks happen. Check Trouble Free Pools site if you need help with chemistry and care. You'll find several of us there too.

Scott

thanks as always scott for the advice! i've visited trouble free pools on a number of occassions and seems like to a great place to get additional knowledge as well. i keep hearing and reading that a proper test kit is extremely important to pool ownership so i need to get on that right away!

ajones get the TF-100. It does all the tests you need for testing. If you have salt you can get the additional test strips. I also bought a magnetic stirrer from apollo and it makes testing a breeze......

hello all, just a quick update. pool is up and running. the PB had to do some work on the scuppers to make they flow right and in the process, they had to cut the flagstone over them and dust got into the pool. that was nasty so plenty of time last weekend was spent brushing the pool down towards the main drain with terrible results. the PB ended up vacuuming it twice and for the most part has everything looking great. they added salt last Wednesday, 6 days after the original start up which with everything that i've read here and on TFP, that seemed a bit early.....but, the water looks really really good. the freeze guard is on and everything continues to run non stop....i'm sure my electric bill will be crazy next month.......:( waiting on the sun to peek through so i can take some more pictures of the water and how the interior looks. we are VERY please with the blue granite PS.

Your pool looks wonderful! It must be so satisfying to reach the end of this process and be truly happy with the results. Let's hope we get some 85 degree days in March!

They added the salt way too early. You need to wait at least 1 month before you add salt to the pool. The plaster is still curing during the first month. I think this was a mistake.

Good luck,

David

I agree with fighting irish, our PB waited 30 days before he added the SWG. In fact he did not want to have it delivered till close to 30days for fear that I would hook it up myself. Everything I have read says not to add salt till the plaster cures. I hope all goes well. BTW you pool looks GREAT. Congrats.....

Our raised deck will be stacked flagstone like yours. What color is yours? Is it Colorado flagstone? We went with Oklahoma flagstone.

Yay you have water. Looks good. Bet you are glad to have your yard back to looking almost normal :)

thank all for the kind words.

ftwpoolgirl, we when with OK flagstone as that's the easiest to get here and we also already had an existing OK flagstone patio.

we have pool school on thursday, is there anything specific i need to ask him in regards to the salt being added so soon?

not sure i want to ask this but feel i need to at this point, with adding the salt so soon what do i need to do at this point besides stay on top of the PH?

Keep an eye on the plaster. I know you have an aggregate finish and it will be more difficult to see but you need to watch out for etching as well as pitting on the floor especially and the walls can even be affected by this. The problem here is if you have a warranty issue from this point on. It is easy for the plaster manufacturer to get out of it by saying that salt was added prematurely. If you were to have an issue it would fall back on the builder at this point.

Good luck with the new pool. I do think it looks very nice. And you will have many years of enjoyment with it. Thank you for posting all of your progress.

David

David, THANK YOU for the very quick response! now i'm pissed off and nervous all at the same time. should i bring this up during pool school on thursday or just keep an eye on what you mention above? i do trust my PB as he has been using PT and PS products since they were introduced and i'm comfortable in saying that his has been his process with other pools with this type of interior and he's stated on numerous occassions that he's had NO issues with PT or PS.....thoughts on how i should approach this or even if i should at this point?

Our pool got water on 12/31 and we still haven't had our salt added yet. I know the morning the pebble tec crew was there I asked him if there were any special considerations given we would have salt and he just said that you wait 30 days before you add it.

Your pool looks great! I am sure you are like me and can't wait for warm weather to actaully get to use it!

thanks amy for the kind words!!! Can't wait on warmer weather so we can swim!

i did look on the PT/PS website and it says to monitor the PH levels closely for 30 days and not to add cholorine. i guess since adding salt creates chlorine that would be the same thing?

PB's on this site, do I need to talk to my PB about draining my pool and starting over or is that even possible? Any feedback would be appreciated
any input would be great!

You can start to slowly introduce chlorine after a couple weeks. Stick with Chlorox.add enough to get to .5 ppm for the 3rd week, 1-2 ppm for the 4th week. By then the cell will be on.

No algaecide till the 4th week.

Any MA used to reduce the pH should be diluted 5 parts water to 1 part MA and distributed around the perimeter, starting at the deep end. Try to stay at least a foot away from the wall with the pour. Make sure the filter is running for at least 4 hours after adding.

See www.troublefreepools.com for a great understanding of pool chemistry. Great site, very complimentary to this site. Quite a number of us are there too.

Scott

Looks great! neat build, and a lot of quality in the phases was taken by the looks of the photos.
Being a builder, I notice things more than the average joe.... with that said I would make them switch out the black main drains (the ring is in their for good though) with dark grey. Maybe it doesnt bug you, but we try and make all fittings visually vanish. The only time Ive seen a plaster crew do this is when they dont have the right color.

poolguynj and other PB's thanks again for the quick follow ups and feedback on my questions and concerns. currently the PB still has his maintenance guy coming over daily to check the chemicals, brushing etc. and adding chemicals as needed. PB said that he would do that for about a month before turning it over completely to us for maintenance.

natural one, thanks for your comments on the pool build. the PB was actually there for all of the stages and on site a quite often so we felt that he was on top of everything from beginning to end. as fari as the drains, personally it doesn't bother me and kinda like the contrast but that just me. what actually bothered me more was the color of the pool cleaner, it's white with a white hose and when i asked about it our PB said that to get the black one, it would be about 300 bucks more. uh, i decided the white one didn't look bad after all!

also, we had a landscaper come out last week and give us a bid for some landscaping behind the pool. it was over 6800 for landscaping that i was not even going to be able to see since the back beam is raised.....i nearly swallowed my gum when he told us the price. so we are thinking now that we will reduce the size of the bed directly behind the pool, but add perhaps some windmill palms on each end to give it some character and instead, add some beds on each end of the pool so at least we can visually enjoy some of our expenses! the sun came out today so hopefully i can post some pictures this afternoon. Thanks again everyone!!!!

here are some pictures from today:

today around noon central time:

this evening around 5 pm:

Get that sweep out! It can leave wheel tracks. Your finish is too soft still.

Might turn off the fountain. It will mess with the chems too by raiding the alk level.

Scott

This forum is so helpful. I actually read the posts and truly can't say thanks enough to all those who take the time to answer questions and post their progress pics. I would have never thought about taking the sweep out. Good to know!!

Hey Garageguy, nice pool!

Can you tell me what you're using on the tanning ledge for a jet? Is that just a narrow orifice return fitting. And how deep is the water there?

John

mypoolnovice, not sure if meant to post on this message or garageworks guy but i will answer as if it was meant for me. the jet does appear to be a narrow return fitting but honestly i'm not 100% sure on that. the water depth on the tanning ledge is 6". hope that helps!