IG DIY project, help from others who did this?

[CToon]

Hi Dave,

Let me prefrace this with I didnt actually build my pool myself . I hired a !#$!@! company to build it for me . I was naive about the whole process and what I actually bought was a crew that came in, excavated , installed the sidewalls , plumbing and liner and left.

THings I had to do on my own or subcontracted to have done

permits
concrete
electrical wiring
landscaping
fencing - I had a fence company do this, by the end I needed to , I HAD IT

Basically everything that was needed to turn it from a vinyl covered hole into something we call a pool

My recommendation is unless you do this type of work for a living and are completely comfortable with all the tasks, HIRE a reputable company with references

just a side note : the company was taken to court by other buyers and I supplied all of my documentation to the lawyers for the buyers who won. company is no longer around

[adillenal]

Dave,
We did the same DIY project last summer. We purchased a Hydra IG vinyl liner pool kit from www.nationalpoolwholesalers.com along with all of the other equipment. (25x44) Took us all summer doing it ourselves. Part of that problem was that we hit rock at 4 feet and chipping, chiseling, etc the deep end to get the right shape took a LONG time. I was also terrified that the liner would not fit due to having to hang string lines etc to get the angles and depth and so on. 16 year old son did all of that figuring which was scary also. The excavator let us borrow his laser to use also which was a lifesaver. Frankly, I never did figure out how to use that thing and I have a college education.

Now that it is over and we are enjoying our pool tremendously, I am glad we did the DIY part. We got way more pool and decking than we could have afforded if we had hired a pool company to do it. We hired an excavator and an electrician. Other than that we had one extra adult and a couple of odd teenagers every once in awhile.(besides our own). The deep end had to have concrete applied over all of the jagged rock edges kind of like icing a cake so we would have a smooth surface to put the sand concete mixture over. If we had not run into rock we would have been finished MUCH sooner but I think it would certainly have taken us longer than 14 days though. We were also lucky that there is a shop very close to our home that rebuilds old equipment and he loaned us for free (since we are neighbors I guess) a bobcat and 2 frontend loaders. Had to give the bobcat back since he sold it and the new owner was coming to get it.

Also looking back, we were lucky that we found an excavator out here in the country that had actually dug a hole for another DIY'er building an IG vinyl liner pool exactly 2 weeks earlier. We visited the other DIY'er also for tips.

[mmcguire]

I am in the process of doing it now. I just passed my pre-gunite inspection from the county. It has went well so far. It is some work and you must be organized, but so far I would recommend it if you are a DIY type person.