Cement and sand bottom

[hsdancer]

I'd like to second the opinion about vermiculite/cement. Vermiculite and cement is water permeable (water can drain through). Although we built our pool ourselves, we did hire out the finishing because of the time factor: we had to get the bottom finished and the liner in before winter).

In any case, what we did after the vermiculite/cement, and I assume the same would be possible with sand/cement, is we sanded all the rough spots and trowel marks, we vacuumed the entire bottom, and we cleaned it with damp towels. It sounds like a lot, but it took less than a day. Our pool is an "L" shape -- 44 x 20 rectangle with a 10.5' deep and a 16 x 16 forming the bottom of the "L," which is to say that we had a huge area to clean up. It was worth every minute.

I've heard a lot of complaints about hills and valleys, but I can attest that we have one minor footprint and one little dip -- that's it. Otherwise, our pool is at smooth and as flat as a gunite pool. Another do-it-yourselfer suggested it and said that not doing what we did was his only regret.

Although we did not use get vermiculite from Schundler (couldn't get a distributor in our area), this site has a lot of information. BTW, we mixed our own (1/2 bag of cement to 2 bags vermiculite) rather than getting the premixed stuff (pool crete). It was a lot cheaper.

http://www.schundler.com/swim.htm

[fulkerl]

Thanks for the input, Its just what I wanted to here.. not that I wouldn't thank you for input I didn't want to here ( I know I need to work on my humor. The reason for going with cement and sand is I live in a small town in Washington and didn't think vermiculite was available here, but then I didn't check. My wife will make some calls tomorrow and see.. If any one has a good online source vermiculite/poolkrete
please respond..Again THANKS for all your help..

[hsdancer]

If you check for vermiculite, make sure to get the MEDIUM grade, not fine, not course. We got the wrong type initially and had to pay the restock fee and cart it back to the supplier. Ugh.

THe good news is that even though we live in Maryland, I found a vermiculite supplier in Ohio -- love the internet! Even with the delivery charge, it was less expensive than what we originally got at the local farm store. You might find something similar.

One note: we got a lot more than we needed to make sure we didn't run out. The guidelines on the Schundler web site were exactly what we needed, but we also had a very exact dig. We used the leftover vermiculite for landscaping.

Vermiculite is often available at farm supply stores, through landscape companies or pool construction stores.

By the way, a friend who had a gunnite pool said she really liked the feel of our pool bottom -- it was softer than hers. The difference may not be as much as the difference between a concrete floor and wood, but I hope you get the picture. Jo