Pool Liner and Water

I had worked on installing the automatic cover the week before and realized that the cover doesn't do very well when there is no water in the pool.  However, I knew that without it I would be taking a huge risk by leaving the pool uncovered for as much as a day or two.  That was not an option, therefore I installed it the best I could without really being able to close or open it all the way.  The reason for this is, the automatic cover floats on the water.  So without water, it just hangs from the tracks on the sides of the pool which cause's more friction when trying to move the cover.  The cover has a built in safety feature that when it feels a heaver than normal strain on the motor, it stops.  I was able to close the cover without any issue, but when it came time to open it back up, I had to start and stop it several times before it would open all the way.

After a couple of days away from home, I decided on Monday, July 21st I was gonna bite the bullet and try to finish the pool.  I had to call the water delivery guy first to make sure I could get water that day.  And when I was told he could bring it that afternoon, I suddenly felt the pressure of being ready. Just a small detail of getting the vinyl liner into place before the water truck got there...no big deal.  And in the end, it wasn't.  I was able to unwrap the liner and get it locked into the track along the edge of the pool all by myself.  I even had about 18" of water from the garden hose in the bottom of it and had the main drains cut out and installed before the water arrived.

As you will see from the pictures, the girls were patiently waiting....as if I didn't have enough pressure to get it done.  As far as, even while filling the pool from the truck, you couldn't keep those girls away from the water.  It goes without saying, they were excited.

So by about 3pm, we had a pool full of water (although freezing cold), and two very happy little girls which has made this whole journey worth the effort.

Pool deck and misc. concrete poured

Over the past 2 days, thanks to the hard work by some of my fire department brothers, we poured the pool deck, a small retaining wall and a sidewalk leading to the pool.  This could not have been accomplished without your help Alex, Todd, Ray, Jimmie and Biggs.  You guys were awesome.

Pool backfill and concrete forming

Before I could backfill the pool I had to install the bonding wire. This bare copper wire has to connect anything metallic within 5' of the pool as well as any mechanical pool components.  This prevents any single metallic object from becoming charged and giving a little shock whenever touched. Not something you want when your wet from being in the pool. 

The bonding had to be inspected before I could backfill. So once we passed inspection I got to work backfilling. Overall it took 44 tons of pea gravel to backfill the over-dig areas of the pool. I shouldn't have any issues with settling with that much pea gravel in the hole. 

Next I began forming up the deck area preparing for concrete. My concrete guy came over and figured out a plan. He decided that we should pour a portion of the concrete in the morning, strip those forms once the concrete sets up, and then pour the rest in the afternoon. This is mostly due to a small retaining wall that has a sidewalk up against it, making it difficult to form and pour both at the same time. Therefore he left it up to me to form up the curved retaining wall and steps. I worked on it until almost midnight, but I finished and am pretty happy with the results. 

Next post should be pouring all of the concrete so stay tuned...

Issues with the pool coping forms

Since the last post I was able to install the wall caps which will receive the tracks for the automatic cover, as well as provide the track for the vinyl liner to snap into. It's a nice setup where the tracks for the automatic cover are just below the concrete coping. Once these were installed I then installed the box which will sit below the level of the concrete decking and has a lid which sits flush with concrete. With this I decided to test fit the styrofoam concrete forms which will form up the coping, called a cantilever coping because it hangs over the edge of the pool slightly. When I put the form in place I knew right away that it was going to be too tall, causing the decking concrete to to be almost an inch taller than the level of the flush fitting lid of the cover box. UNACCEPTABLE....to make a long story short I was able to work it out with the pool company where I will return the styrofoam forms and I can actually go pick up some aluminum reusable forms made by the cover manufacturer up in Westfield, Indiana that are sure to fit. And once I'm done using them, I can return them for almost a full refund. 

After installing the automatic cover pieces, I was limited on what I could do next. Therefore I wired up all of the pool equipment including the pump and saltwater chlorine generator which both run through a timer. I installed all of the circuit breakers several of which are GFCI breakers to protect against being shocked if components come into contact with water. All of the wiring is nicely tucked away in liquid-tight flexible pvc conduit. The only thing left to do with the electrical is to hook up the supply wire from my sub-panel to the main panel in my basement. The wire is in place, I just need to install the 100 amp breaker and connect to it. 

I also moved some gravel into an area that will get concrete that needed to be raised up about 18". And then I started digging out where the sidewalk that connects the driveway to pool will go. All of this in preparation for concrete on July 14rh. I'll be busy this week so stay tuned.