And the work begins!! YAY!!!

[NWMNMom]

It has been raining on and off for weeks and we had to wait for the road load frost limits to be lifted before we could start with the construction and deconstruction for the new 18x33 buttressfree AG pool. The limits came off on Monday, the Class 5 arrived on Tuesday, tractors running, the blade leveler tractor - shovels and rakes going steady. The trucks coming in with the Class 5 had to run through a lower wet area of the yard to get to the pool area (which is a bit higher and drier) and one got BURIED almost 2 feet - we had to use both of our tractors with duelies to get him out. Talk about yard ruts - maybe I should just put in more garden ponds there now.

We got the transit last night and started to work on making sure everything is level - boy is THAT some work and rework, Class 5 sets up like concrete. The plate compactor comes in tomorrow (more work for the transit after that) and we hope to get the straps and patio blocks buried level this week. Masons sand is on order for when the blocks are in this week and track is laid out.

We are crossing our fingers that the forecast for 78, sunny and no wind for next Friday (26th) holds out so that the walls and liner can go up and in, filling to start. We have been taking pictures so far through the process so will post them as we actually get something that looks like progress. Thanks to everyone who has helped out this Nervous Nelly so far with our big project!

[hrsdennis]

Hey, I am glad to hear you are getting things going. Had to laugh about the truck getting stuck. Sounds like a real project.

My wife and I, we work together, built a 15 x 30 AGP today, collected our $850.00 and were home by three. Two things are meant by that statement. I expect great things from you and expect many photos. I am also here to help in anyway possible, as long as I have photos to work with.

Best of luck and I hope to celebrate your success with you, Dennis

[Aranon]

I'm there with you. I hope to finish leveling all the supports and get the wall up this weekend. Had to stop a while because my neighbor behind me broke a sprinkler pipe and it flooded my yard and my other neighbors yards too. At least I found out his runoff water comes in our yard. Never knew that. Lots of work to do this week end. Hope to take lots of pics. Hope you take a lot and post them for us to see.
Aranon

Man I never knew there were going to be this many nuts and bolts.:eek:

[hrsdennis]

Aranon, I was thinking of you as I was working today. I had my camera and took lots of photos.

Do you have any photos to post yet? I would love to see how you manage your unusual situation.

Later, Dennis

[Aranon]

Dennis, I'm still waiting for you to hopefully reply to the sand and concrete post. :)

[NWMNMom]

So we started with a nice protected "nook" in our yard -

Pic 1 is back in April
Pic 2 tractors pushing pulling and blading
Pic 3 Have transit and plate compactor, will level
Pic 4 Straight side supports together

We actually have to bury the patio blocks yet (more hard work and level issues) and just decided to put some things together first - We wanted to save some of the "fun" for the other days ; )

[NWMNMom]

Curved side patio blocks are in, level under base plates and backfilled, rail is on - this part was all evening after work today. We still have a small discrepancy between the second straight side upright and the rest - BOTH are about 1/4-1/2" short from the rest. We will try to shimmy them back a bit more before the wall goes up. Tomorrow, we put some landscape fabric down and thats probably it, our lives have been on hold for over a week already - sand comes Wednesday morning. If all goes well, we hope to get walls up on Wednesday or Thursday and we took a vacation day to get liner in on Friday (79 and sunny expected!) - filling will start then! I have a case of bleach on standby. All the best laid plans....hope Mother Nature cooperates!

[NWMNMom]

Yesterday we were able to fix the upright situation and had the sand hauled in - I really thought Masons sand would be finer than this, and it says "Masons Sand - Washed and Screened" on the bill - $30 a yard and there are stones in it. My sons spent HOURS picking stones out, some almost up to walnut sized.

We carted it all into the center of the pool area and got the wall up and duct taped the bolts, etc.. That went pretty well but it got dark so staking, duct taping and supporting was put up so that we could finish after work today - taping in the plastic vapour liner plastic for the cove, spreading the sand, etc so the liner can go in on Friday....Mother Nature became disagreeable and front rolled in a 3:30 am today so we were out there before the sunrise trying to re-support and brace the whole system from a HUGE north wind gust that pushed the entire East side and NE corner out of the track. No damage to anything and no wall crinkles - knock on wood.

I will be a nervous wreck all day today and until tomorrow when we get the liner in and its filling good. I believe when this is done, I will need SEVERAL blenders of Pina Coladas.

[matt4x4]

One word of advice, don't wait til it's done!
Mine sat through several storms for over a week staked down and never budged, I had one stake per section going.
This worked well for me (in case you have to continue staking it down), get some stiff wire and bend it in a V, then bend the tips so it hooks over the top of the wall and the rope can be connected in the crook of the V and down to your stake, use rope that doesn't stretch (esp. when wet) - this will make a big difference on holding it in place.

[NWMNMom]

Are you suggesting we break out the coconut rum NOW??? May I PLEAZZZZE???? There are NO pool installers for hundreds of miles around or believe me, the loan would have been bigger, a pool installer out and my marriage and nerves no longer at risk. This is a big job and I am just SO worried about doing it right I dream about leveling patio blocks at night....The first frost Pina Colada goes to the hubby for all his hard work and letting me bully him into"...that ones not right, dig it up and lets try it again..." for the 100th time.

A full pictorial of the pool construction has been taken and will continue until its ready for swimming...thanks for standing by with all the great advice so far to all who have helped.

[NWMNMom]

Vapour liner plastic in all the sand spread out last night by yard light, today we screet all the sand, make sure the coving is right and drop that liner in. So far at 7:15 am, Mother Nature is making up for the horrible windy weather so far and it looks to be beautiful, calm, 79 and sunny today!!!

[hrsdennis]

Get the blender ready. You should be done this afternoon. Congradulations.

Can't wait for more photos.

Have a great wet weekend, Dennis

[NWMNMom]

We got everything squared up again, the sand and cove done, liner in, coping on and started filling pretty late during daylight there is only about 3" water in there. The weather WAS great for this though. We won't get to the point of putting the skimmer and return on until we are about 1/3 full - pump is WAY slow so hubby thought we should have sunlight to warm/stretch liner for filling, that will be in the morning. We used the rest of the evening to finish putting the concrete edgers all around the fill area and tidy up all of that - put ladder together, etc. Pictures have been taken. We were too tired for the blender.

More wind woke me at 3:30 again, must be that Mother Natures alarm clock goes off at that time and she goes to work shooting new fronts through. Stabalizer rails aren't on yet due to the filling issue so I get to be awake and stressed... tomorrow/today is Saturday, plenty of time for the blender today....

[NWMNMom]

So we are at around 2 feet in the pool, all rails are on, electric panel is installed 5' away from pump and facing other direction, skimmer and return installed, upright caps to go and filter system to set up. Then we start on the solar panel and reel setups - there is light at the end of the tunnel but sometimes it seems VERY far away.

Our water had a temporary setback when the well filtering system had a breach yesterday afternoon and rust got in the pool - it was almost brown! We hooked up a small sand filter from an older pool and hung the hoses over the sides - put some Iron Myte for Pools (Metal Out) in and ran that pump all night. The water is nearly clear again and we are watching the well filters (3 of them in a series - 2 rust/sediment and on charcoal) - we give the well a rest at night. We should be full by tomorrow evening - yahoo! The solar blanket goes on as soon as it is full enough for that - that should help with the June Bug invasion from Hell. I have been scooping like crazy!

[NWMNMom]

We did not get the pool filled as we ended up re-installing the skimmer and return (creased gasket issues) - all installed, siliconed on the inside, hoses hooked up to skimmer and return, we installed valves inline from the skimmer to pump and from filter to return (so work can be done to either side without floods - solar panels and diverter ready to be installed when rack system completed -still under construction) - Then we set up alternate pumps and filters (hoses over the sides) to help keep it clean until filled and, did the only thing we could for our sanity - went on vacation for 4 days.

When home we continued to fill as now silicone had a chance to cure and this morning water is currently at 1" up on skimmer opening. This morning my son called me because he noticed a leak at the connection where the hose goes into the pump (few drips per second) - this is not the type of connection that uses a hose clamp - the adaptor on the pump side was threaded and we did use teflon tape on that. I told him to close the valves on both sides until we get home.

Pump/filter (22" Pentair Meteor Sand) is NOT yet running or plugged in. We have not primed it yet or anything. It is just sitting with the multiport valve in the CLOSED position, water put in as directed and 150# sand (gently filled - I was scared to death of damage to laterals from filling - all these posts make it sound like its common?) So after getting the water 1/2 or 2/3 up the skimmer opening and filling pump pot to prime, what position do we put the valve in to start it up? Our old sand filter was just that, no multiport valve, the cartridge filter has no valves either, we manually primed and air bled the lines to get started. Is it supposed to backwash to start or to waste or start up on circlulate or filter or ????

[hrsdennis]

Hey Mom, sounds like you are coming along nicely. Just follow the start up intructions on the side of your sand filter. You want to backwash, rinse and then filter. Pretty simple.

Still waiting on pics:)

Dennis

[NWMNMom]

Thanks Dennis. got it going - a few leaks here and there in fittings and one seemed as if it should have a gasket (didn't) so we found one from our old pool, used it, perfect fit and wa-la! no leak. Ran the vac, cleaned the bottom up, poured in MORE bleach, a bit of PH Down - we were at 8.5 (diluted then distributed) CYA powder in a sock (about 1/3 of recommended dose)- was at zero but we had a few trichlor pucks in a floater while filling.

We started working on the solar reel set up behind the pool, a bit more work on the solar panel racks, cleaned up all the various crap lying around, pulled out the solar blanket, put it on and called it a night. The vacation really helped - when it all seems overwhelming, take a step back, BREATH and relax. You get a new and fresh perspective and its all not such a neverending chore. The light at the end of the tunnel gets brighter all the time!

Picture just taken last night attached.

[NWMNMom]

Solar reel is nearly done, panel layout ready to mount (a few fittings needed from Lowes) AND, after having started up the pump/filter last night before putting solar cover on I gave it a peek this afternoon when we got home. WOW, perfectly crystal clear water. Getting it all cycling through the big skimmer and filter made that much difference in getting rid of the excess crap the hand skimmer/dipper couldn't get out and cleared up the cloudy water. The weather turned cool so now is a good time to get all this maintc stuff out of the way and prepare for warmer days.

I checked some of the numbers with a drops kit we picked up at Lowes:

TC - 0
FC- 5.0
CYA - the reagent didn't work in that one as bottle had leaked out, another test gave me a 20, another secondary test with a strip gave me a "normal-low) which I guess means not at a good level but something is there. I am not adding anymore though as I know it takes time for it to dissolve and show up so I'll just wait.
PH- 7.5 (this was 8.5 yesterday)
I did not test for Alk or anything else

[NWMNMom]

Swimming has commenced! Panels are mounted, plumbed with diverter, the solar reel is mounted - solar blanket attached, pump timer attached, poolside shower is mounted and operating and we are left with only minor items to tweak and some fixes.

Out of the solar panels we have one from before, the rest are new. The old one has a small leak (wasn't properly drained - expanded/cracked) There is currently glue on that - they don't always require plugging if the leak. One old leak from before was touched up just in case. Some of the fittings had drips but tightening took care of that too. The panels should be operating today and we are expected to actually get sun today as well so the water can warm up (73 degrees now)

We need to backfill a bit more for better runoff and add rock around it for asthetics.

Our 13yr old son did swim yesterday and gave the big thumbs up - (too cold for us - brr) He was kind enough to vac the bottom while in the pool - with snorkel and fins no less - lol.

Once again, a HUGE thank you to the kind folks on this board who helped us along the way, provided great ideas (DIY solar reel), and cleared up my never ending confusion about fill (we actually had to bring in an entirely new yard to replace the low, wet area we had) and the 411 on patio blocks.... Now, we maintain.....

[denanbob]

Congrats! I'm jealous!!!!!! We are just in the beginning stages of assembling our used 15x30x52 oval pool. I'd love some more info on the DIY solar reel. Does that mean you got it at DIY (I thought those went out of business but maybe just around here they did) or you made one yourself?

[NWMNMom]

We made it ourselves because I didn't want one that mounted to my rails, we don't have a deck on it and I didn't want one that I had to remove and put somewhere else if not mounted- My husband welded 20' of steel pipe to ss bearings attached to steel pipes mounted into the ground/concrete which stand 5.5' high, all of it is about 2.5-3' back from the end of the pool - he put a nice sturdy handle/crank on it to manhandle the big solar blanket off the pool - he manufactured strap loops from seat belting riveted on the blanket and flexible glue - straps are screwed into the steel rod. Its a big thing but does a nice job - that solar blanket is HEAVY. The only thing I would have done differently is gone a bit higher up so the blanket doesn't drag and hang up under the top rail/caps - we fold the sides in a bit to get around this but higher up and it would have solved that I think - too late now, concrete is hard. Could be that other reels have this problem too...don't know, we manually removed/folded our old blanket on the 18' round pool.

[denanbob]

Thanks for that explanation. I'm going to show it to my husband (who isn't happy with me right now for questioning everything he's doing with this installation, but he's doing it WRONG). LOL! Anyway, thanks so much for the information! Do you have a picture of your DIY reel to share?