Helllpp Fassssssssttttttt!

[matt4x4]

You can do a couple of other things to build a cove that are relatively cost effective.
1. As Dennis had stated, tape plastic (vapor barrier) about 6" up the wall, letting it hang down and out on the floor. If there are gaps, make sure to push the plastic into them using a putty knife. You can build a sand cove on this plastic, the sand will then fill the space where you pushed the plastic in and it likely won't ever wash out.
2. As your hubby allready suggested, make the cove out of left over styrofoam, it will be a bit tedious to get a good fit for the bends, but once you make 1 or 2 templates, things should progress nicely - nothing wrong with using the styrofoam.

[hoffmans]

Denanbob
Love this thread.
I know it is a pain in the rear, but please keep taking pictures of the progress. I think you are really helping other people more than you realize. I am learning by watching you. The more you post in this thread, the less we will have to beg hrsdennis for help when our time comes! .

Hard work makes life worthwhile.
~Hoffmans

[denanbob]

Thanks Hoffmans! Here are some more pictures........we are actually filling the pool!!!! WOOOOHOOOOOOOOO! Now I hope I don't have to drain it like I've heard several other people have noticed problems as the pool was filling and had to drain it. The liner went in a little too smoothly for my liking. LOL. The liner was the easiest part of it all! We laid it out, picked a starting point, hooked the bead in all the way around and we were done! There are still quite a few wrinkles in the bottom that we couldn't seem to smooth out, but it's ok with me. I will comment (or ask a question) under each picture:

Here is a picture of the styrofoam coving that we built using our leftover styrofoam. It's not 6 inches high (more like 3 inches), but I think it worked out perfectly. It's completely covered in duct tape, so that's why you can't see the foam

Here's a close-up of the homemade cove

Here's a picture of where I was concerned about the liner because it's not sitting flush against the wall at the bottom (near the cove). If I push hard with my foot, I can barely get it to touch the corner so I was thinking the liner was too small and wasn't fitting. As the pool filled about 2 inches, it seems to have flattened out some and now looks ok (although I haven't been in the pool to see it closely). I am keeping an eye on it.

Here's the (almost) finished product! I plan on running the hose about 6 hours today and 6 hours tomorrow and then having the rest of the water brought in by truck. We also just put the limestone gravel in last night and you can see it in this picture.

I'll keep everyone updated! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am started to see a light at the end of the tunnel!

[zephans]

Beautiful thread. Thank you so much for the details and follow-up posts. Pictures are awesome too.

How long has it taken you to construct this pool so far?
Can you break down by rough activity? for example:
__ hrs Digging
__ hrs pool frame construction
__ hrs bottom prep (including __ hrs for custom cove molding)
__ hrs liner preparation
__ hrs filling
-----------
___ hrs total

I'm sure I've forgotten a major step, but this gives a general idea.


I'm still busy reading up on which make/model 24'x12' AG pool to buy (will post my thoughts and questions in separate thread shortly). I'm seriously considering installing myself to save the $1000 quoted by AquaQuip dealer. However I have tight time budget. I probably have 3 days (27hrs) available over 1 weekend plus one day (perhaps in next weekend) to go from mostly level grass lawn to fully installed pool (and hopefully install the solar panels too!). The AquaQuip dealer said a full weekend should be enough to install. I would love independent confirmation of this estimate.

[matt4x4]

That turned out excellent!
Nice cove - certainly big enough due to the base you're using.
Those wrinkles will be gone, the liner will stretch into place nicely - almost a perfect fit.
Congratulations on a great pool and a job well done.

[denanbob]

How long has it taken you to construct this pool so far?
Can you break down by rough activity? for example:
__ hrs Digging
__ hrs pool frame construction
__ hrs bottom prep (including __ hrs for custom cove molding)
__ hrs liner preparation
__ hrs filling
-----------
___ hrs total

I'm sure I've forgotten a major step, but this gives a general idea.

Ok, at this point I cannot honestly recommend installing yourself. It REALLY was a lot more involved than we had anticipated. However, know that we had to dig 40" down to get level ground. In one of my pictures you can see the outline of the railroad ties that we used to hold the earth back because that's how much we had to dig out to get level ground. We rented a bobcat to do this and it took probably 4-6 hours I guess. The longest part of the install was installing the patio blocks and trying to get all of that level. We had a HECK of a time with this. This took us one WHOLE day (I know that's not typical because I've heard people construct a pool from start to finish in 4 hours). So you're probably asking the wrong person the above questions because it took us soooooo much longer than we thought. The pool wall went in pretty quick, the liner went in SUPER quick. The styrofoam took awhile to cut to fit and then duct tape. This took us probably 4 hours alone. I will tell you right now $1000 would have been worth it for us to have someone else do this for us. However, nobody would dig 40" included in that price. The excavation, leveling, and the patio blocks were the absolute worst part. Building the actual pool was not hard at all.

However, I can tell you that we will NEVER do this again. )

I'm sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear. I'm sure someone else can tell you that they breezed right through it and it all went up without a hitch in 6-8 hours. That just wasn't the case for us. Best of luck with whatever you decide. )

[denanbob]

That turned out excellent!
Nice cove - certainly big enough due to the base you're using.
Those wrinkles will be gone, the liner will stretch into place nicely - almost a perfect fit.
Congratulations on a great pool and a job well done.

Thanks so much Matt!! This is so nice to hear. What a journey this has been. LOL! All we have left to do is the electric and the landscaping/deck. I will take a picture of our pool from the other side so you can see our existing deck and the plan to connect them. The one set of railroad ties is dangerously close to the pool though, so we have to come up with something fast to block that. The kids already stand up on the railroad tie and lean against the pool to look in. YIKES. I'm thinking of buying a couple pieces of the pool fence (that hooks on top of the pool) just in that area until our deck is finished. We planned on doing the deck next spring, but we only have a deck ladder and when I went to buy an A-frame ladder, they were $175!!! So we decided to at least do enough of the deck to put the ladder on. It may only be a walkway deck at this point, but we'll finish it next year.

[matt4x4]

__ hrs Digging
__ hrs pool frame construction
__ hrs bottom prep (including __ hrs for custom cove molding)
__ hrs liner preparation
__ hrs filling

I will try to answer these for what it took on my pool (a little larger than above at 30 feet diameter)
First off, I was quoted 2600.00 - 3000.00 to install the pool by several builders, that's what turned me off hiring someone.

Digging - had a neigbour w. front end loader move a large clay pile I had on another part of my property into the spot for the pool since I needed to raise my grade about 1 foot for a future deck to meet up level from where it will start. This was done sept the year prior so it could settle over the winter.
First thing in the spring, I ran the electrical, this was a pretty long job because unfortunately, my electrical panel is at the complete opposite side of my house from the pool, I had to run through 70 feet of the house, 60 through the garage (down 2 walls), and another 100 to get to the pool (yeah, it's just a little removed from the house), from plug one, I ran it another 60 feet to get a second outlet directly opposite. Used a ditching machine for the outdoor runs, worked extremely well.
Another neighbour (bobcat service) levelled the spot and brought in screenings and sand for about $200 at time of build.
Screenings were for walls to sit on and the sand for inside the pool - I had my pool dipped to the middle by 8" deeper.
Leveling took about 2 hours with bobcat, another 3 with a rake and transum getting the screenings level and compacted using a rented gaspowered vibratory compactor.
Wall went up in about 4 hours with frame - 400 lb roll of steel - not easy to move. frame on my pool was super simple, not many screws at all - if it was a different pool, I would guess 3 times that time due to the size.
Leveling sand and building cove from sand was another 4 hours. Raking wasn't the easiest since I tried to keep things relatively uniform.
Liner prep - maybe 2 hours to get it perfect - once again, not too easy because of immense size.
Filling - 6 hours, only because it took 5x4000 gallon trucks, each trip being a one hour return trip.
All other associated work like plumbing/lighting was another half day
So far, worth every cent, we've had it 3 years now, not a problem yet, got some solar panels last year and a custom roller for the solar blanket

[denanbob]

Matt - I'm glad you posted a more positive (and probably more realistic) estimate of what is involved. It just seems like nothing could go right with ours. For example......we started digging down for one of our patio blocks and ran into a HUGE tree root. That was a big project in and of itself just to get that out of there so we could resume setting that block. Just different things like that that always seemed to be popping up. Have we ever seen a picture of your pool? I don't think I have, so if you have one available, I'd love to see it!

[hrsdennis]

Very nice. It turned out great, now it's time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

I think Matts photos are on this site somewhere. Maybe he could post that link here as this thread seems to be drawing some attention.

I am so happy to see water in the pool. Dennis