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20 September, 2016

Pool Project - A Week at a Pop - 09/07/2016 - 09/14/2016

With this week, the project reaches about mid-September. And, it's become easier to see that progress is being made. Just like in a remodeling project, everything under the drywall is hidden from view, everything under the ground line or under a layer of concrete is pretty much hidden from view - even though it comprises about a hundred and seventy-five yards of rock, gravel, steel, and concrete. Very little of that will ever be visible to the naked eye.

Steel Frameworks Being Assembled
Some of the steel is in this shape, which will help define the columns and bracing around the pool







Steel in Position on the Backside
Here's some of those same bits of steel, each connected to a 'bed spring' of steel buried under a foot or so of rock and concrete. All this is on top of about four-and-a-half feet of rock.






Working in Close Quarters
Some of it necessitated working in close quarters. The guys have gone to great lengths to preserve as much of the Ereca palms as they could. I don't think we've lost any, although there were a couple of them that had to be relocated, but they're still doing fine, just somewhere else in the yard.

Remember, each five-gallon bucket full of wet concrete weighs around one-hundred-ten pounds. They passed these back and forth to help fill the excavation on the back side. Not to mention the tons of rock that they've already moved there.



Getting Column Forms Ready
Once all that is done, then the guys had to jockey heavy wooden forms into place in order for them to cast the columns. Nothing is ever easy. Remember, too, that this is September, one of the hottest months of the year, with commensurately high humidity levels. Truly abominable working conditions at times.




Deck Lumber Piled Up
I think I forgot to include this (or similar) photo earlier. It's all the treated lumber from our wooden deck. It's pretty much been spoken for, but I've held off distributing it, as I've said the constructioneers have first call for whatever their needs are for forms, etc.




In Position and Ready for Pour
Here's one of the forms ready for a pour of concrete. At this stage, the concrete will only go up to almost the top edge of the pool. After that at some time, additional steel will be tied to the stubs and then more forms, will run it up to around nine or ten feet.





Fastening Forms to the Structure
Of course each form has to be secured to something so that it doesn't move out of position during the pour. Endher is fastening the form and additional bracing to fulfill that purpose.






Positioning Rocks For Pump House
At the Pump house side of things, It's one of the last areas to be worked. Here, lots of rock is still being placed. The water looks overwhelming, but that's only because the guys dug down to firm rock/marl, in order to place three to five feet of rock. Because of that, the water pools in those low places until the rocks diplace it. The water is being channeled to go down the ditch through the patio to the canal.


First Pour On Top of Rocks
Once sufficient rock is in place then they start getting things ready to prepare a footing for the pump house. Here you can see the rock bed is pretty much done and a first bit of concrete is in place next to the pool, also helping to stabilize some of the piping for the pool.




Beginning the Pour
Here, they're beginning to set the forms and begin the pour for the footing of the pump house. Roughly the same shape as the first one, but about twice the floor space. Plus, all the valving and the pumps themselves will be elevated up off the floor, since us old fart folks just can't bend over as easily as we used to.




Bracing Columns Ready For Next Phase
I mentioned the stubs of the columns. Here is a good view of those. The lower part that you see here is fulfilling two purposes, one, the bracing to help secure the pool from any future shifting, and two, to become part of the column for the roof.





Removing Diamond-Brite Cap
Part of the project involved reworking the Diamond-Brite coating on the pool, and restoring the chain around the perimeter. Here, the cap of Diamond-Brite is being removed.






Cutting New Skimmer Opening
This last photo for the week shows the plumbers cutting a new opening for the skimmer. You can also see the footing coming along for the pump house.

10 comments:

Wilma said...

It is amazing that the pool itself is holding together so well. I know you are anxious to start using it again.

JRinSC said...

Wow, Dave, what a major project! What kind of roof do you have in mind?

Winjama said...

Hi Wilma, That's exactly why they quit raising the pool with the jacks. They were afraid it was going to develop a major crack, so better to stop and deal with that.
Well, of course we had to pick the hottest time of year to do this. Cold showers feel good, but nothing compared to being in the pool for a few hours and becoming slightly hypothermic as a result. Possible even on the hottest days.
We should have the pool back in a month or so. We're keeping our fingers crossed. Cheers

Winjama said...

Hi Julian,
Yeah, it is kinda big at that. Scary if I stop to think about it.
The roof. We've gone over that time and again. Our friends, David and Elizabeth, when they did their pool and enclosure (same contractor and our inspiration for the enclosure portion of this project), they put on a zinc roof. We didn't want that right now. We wanted something similar to our awning that we had up, so it would still let sunlight and rain through. But, we wanted the option, if global warming gets much worse, to be able to switch from an awning-type roof to a zinc roof.
We're still not exactly sure of the shape of the roof, but we have high hopes that inspiration will strike any moment. Cheers,

Wilma said...

Speaking of a roof - we made panels for our pergola using Coolaroo fabric. It doesn't block the rain out, but it sure does keep the sun from heating up the west side of the cabana. I got the fabric in a bulk roll that is 12 feet wide and 60 feet long. We made panels of wood framing that were 8x8ft and braced in the middle and just stapled the fabric on. It is VERY tough. Over the last 3 years 2 panels have blown off. One flew over the top of the cabana and landed in the front yard. The fabric was unscathed. It comes in lots of colors, we chose a light sand color. You can find it on Amazon. Keystone makes a similar product that is also very good, but just hair less sturdy.

Winjama said...

Hi Wilma, It's funny that you should mention Coolaroo fabric. We were just this morning looking up roll-up shades of that fabric for our veranda.
I think for the roof, that we're going with the same type of shade cloth we've used for the awning on the pool for years. It's always held up well - in fact, we're having the contractor use the old awning fabric for the side wall panels, as much as possible. Even though the stuff is eight-plus years old, there's just no sign of deterioration. We'll use the new stuff on the roof, just in case.
I think we might be going with Keystone for the roll-up shades. Cheers,

Winjama said...

Hi Wilma, It's funny that you should mention Coolaroo fabric. We were just this morning looking up roll-up shades of that fabric for our veranda.
I think for the roof, that we're going with the same type of shade cloth we've used for the awning on the pool for years. It's always held up well - in fact, we're having the contractor use the old awning fabric for the side wall panels, as much as possible. Even though the stuff is eight-plus years old, there's just no sign of deterioration. We'll use the new stuff on the roof, just in case.
I think we might be going with Keystone for the roll-up shades. Cheers,

Wilma said...

I've used Keystone too for rollup shades on the veranda and it is holding up well after 4 years. It is actually a little easier to rollup than the Coolaroo is. I found some great deals for both products on Amazon.

Winjama said...

Hi Wilma, that's good news. I'm going to be shopping for just that very thing on amazin today. Cheers,

Winjama said...

Hi Wilma, that's good news. I'm going to be shopping for just that very thing on amazin today. Cheers,