DIY woes!

[sjkader]

Well we decided to do our own inground pool. We went with a 18x36 with 9 foot deep end. Did our research on which excavating crews the pool companies around here use. We contracted the one most of them use. Sat morning one guy shows up to dig this. First thing he askes "where's your crew?" Ok now im sure the dumb founded look on my face answered that question. so for $1500 you get a excavator and an operator. Oh man you could imagine my surprise.
We lucked out. the operator did take the time to help me out on the layout and taught me how to use the laser level. Of course I take the time to smack my hand with the hammer. Injury #1. So he gets this all dug out. I jump in to get the sides of the bottom right. im in there beating the heck out of these walls. nothing is moving. I learned one thing. about four foot down you hit what is called hard pan. Its a clay/dirt mix. Its as hard as concrete!

well this wont work. The excavator tells me to put up the sides and move it over about two inches and that will cut out on the hand digging. Hey great idea! so Sunday morning the little lady and I are moving out these steels panels. we are almost done when I misjudge a step and trip over one of the panels. Injury #2 (four stitches in right leg). Thats it! the little lady says we are calling in help. we call a local pool company recommended by the excavator and of course they cant come out for three weeks. They give us another name and number to call. We call them and explain the whole story. Nothing like explaining how you crippled yourself. . they come right out.
They are more then willing to pick up where we left off. They will do all the hand work for 65 an hour. the only thing we could say was. "when can you start!"

they start today. Boy am I happy. all the money we were saving is now going to the emergency room. The pool company will do the hand work then we will set up the panels. Then they will give us a quote on the hard botoom. sounds like we will have them do that then we will take over again. should be healed up by then.

All in all it has been fun. I dont recommend anyone try to do the dirt work unless you are sure you know what your doing. we gave it our best but it was not good enough and that one thing has to be perfect.

Ill keep you all up todate on this project (medical bills)

[DogPaddle]

Sounds like you've managed to maintain your sense of humor!! Keep us posted and try not to sever any limbs.

[sjkader]

It took the pool installers only three hours to fix what mess we have created. we expected an all day event. Since we were expecting to pay for 8 hrs anyways the little lady told them to go ahead and put us the panels.
From the sounds of it she has also told them to do the hard bottom. She has been busy ordering all the supplies needed. The crew working on it said it would save us tons if we shopped around and brought our own materials in. They have no problem just charging for thier time. Finally a break in this pool saga!!

[beary]

>>I learned one thing. about four foot down you hit what is called hard pan. Its a clay/dirt mix. Its as hard as concrete! <<

Ahh, you live in central Oklahoma.

[sjkader]

actually I live in South Dakota. Must be imported hard pan

[sjkader]

the saga continues. Just found out that because the grade around the pool needs to be brought up we will be to close to a power line that runs to the house next door. is there anything we can do to get this fixed

[b2001]

Just found out that because the grade around the pool needs to be brought up

I'm not exactly sure what you're saying, but I assume that you're getting too close to an underground buried power service line. I'm thinking those lines should be 36" to 39" deep.

is there anything we can do to get this fixed

Yes, you'll have to pay to get it relocated, or you'll have to redo your pool to avoid it.

I don't recall how far you have to be from these lines, if your pool is 5' from buildings and property lines, I wouldn't think you have a problem, unless your neighbor's service is going through your property.


I don't know the particulars of your situation. Typically, your neighbor's service should not run across your property - does the power company have easements as indicated on your property plat for this? Not sure if you might have leverage or not to get the company move it and you not pay for it.

If you mean by "grade around the pool needs to be brought up" that the entire pool is going to be raised and is too close to a sagging overhead line, or is directly under it - the "solution" mentioned above probably still applies, although cheaper than underground, but I suspect still too expensive. I'd still have an issue with a neighbor's service going over my property.

I hope this helps somewhat - it's difficult to answer without more details.

[sjkader]

it is an overhead wire servicing the house next to ours. It cuts across our property. There is no recorded easments and the power company says they will move it off our property. the problem is that the house that it runs to encroaches our property by two foot and the service comes in from that side. so we have two options. first one is to have it moved to the front of the house and then we have to pay to move the meter to the front. second option is to have the power company leave the meter and run the overhead to the corner of the house then they would encase the line in a plastic tube and run it along the house to the meter.

The electrical inspector said in south dakota the line must be 22 feet above the pool. we were in the clear until the dig was done . our backyard slants so to make the pool level they used the highest end of the yard as thier benchmark. Doing so means we have to bring the grade up on the one side and that puts us to close to the line.

When we first started this project we had to move the pool due to our own buried power line. the pool has to be atleast 10 feet away from a buried line.
the real kicker in this whole thing is that the inspector said it would have been cheaper just to move our line. then we could have had the pool where we wanted it in the first place!

[sjkader]

update on our saga!
Talked to a few people in town and got the name of our local power company rep. Come to find out he is also on planning and zoning board. He comes out and first thing he says is " oh heck will just put a mid span pole here and move the line. no one be the wiser". oh heck yeah. One point for the pool project.
Today the hard bottom gets put in. Then we cut the pool guys loose and take over ourselves.
Started putting up our six foot fence this weekend. No injuries yet on that project. things seem to be turning around. KNOCK ON WOOD

[georgiapoollover]

My husband and I did all this same stuff 3 years ago. I would never do it again. We chose a pool company and put up with all their stuff to get it done without any injury...except to our egos.