Need advice with Tanning Ledge crisis...

[Strawfoot]

Greetings,

We are in the midst of having a pool built right now. The gunnite has already been shot and cured, and today they have started tile, coping, and rock work. Unfortunately, we have discovered a huge mistake (for us.)

We contracted to have our tanning ledge set at 9 inches, in fact all inspected drawings and plans state such. But for some reason our pool company set the ledge at six inches. I thought it was wrong, but wasn't sure until they set in the tile and I measured it.

The company has admitted the mistake, and has offered to jackhammer up just the tanning ledge area, and reshoot the gunnite at a lower level. It is a fairly large tanning ledge, but they say it won't hurt the integrity of the pool as they have plenty of area to work with before they get to rebar. They also forgot to set in the hole for our tanning ledge umbrella, which could also get reaccomplished.

Questions...

Has anyone else had this experience? Does this repair sound feasible? Will the gunnite company warranty the new work? Most importantly, just how big of a difference will having a six inch tanning ledge depth mean? We have a child who will play there predominantly, and we also heard that tanning ledges were very popular. But we wanted one that at least had a little depth to it.

We've got to move on this pretty quickly. ANY help would be appreciated!!!


Mike
Arlington, TX

[birddog]

Hi Mike,

If it were me, I'd forget about tearing up the ledge and ask them to make it up elsewhere with some extra deck.

I'm curious....who built your pool?

[captainstanley]

We had a similar issues with our bench seat in the deep end. We wanted it curved to fit the form of the pool. The company that shot the gunite seat as a straight line. We requested that they fix the problem which they did by removing the seat and reshooting it. It did not hurt the integrity of the seat or pool. So my advise would be make them fix it to the specs you requested.

[dep78737]

Only accept it as-is if you will be happy long term, which is a personal decision. You don't want have regrets every time you use pool just for an easy way out now. Ask the PB if you can visit some pools with a ledge and see what depth feels right. Ours is 1' below the coping, making it about 8" deep depending on water level. Works for us. Any deeper and you will probably want a step down to the ledge. Glad the PB is working with you.

[Simmons99]

Mine is 9" deep (measured it after it was shot) - which I was told is 6" of water. So with it 6" deep - it will be 3" of water?

[towney]

I ended up with 6.5-7" of depth, I was expecting 9" but was told by the PB that 6" was the norm and his Suntan shelf was 6". He also told me that you might have to have a step down (per code) if deeper. As previously posted if you can not live with this have them change it now and don't worry about the gunite. It still will be strucually sound. You might want to measure from the gunite to the coping line and post back, take an 1'' to 1.5" off for the waterline.
Here is a picture of our finished Tan Shelf.

[beary]

Boy, I could have wrote this post three weeks ago. We wanted 9 inches of water and it ended up to be between 4 to 6. This was a few days before the plaster.

I told the builder we would be unhappy and suggest using a concrete saw to cut lines one-half inches apart and knock out the gunite. He settle me down and explained that 4 to 6 inches of water is the standard depth and that is what he has put in all his pools with no complaints. Anything deeper makes the step too high and starts to defeat the purpose of a suntan deck. What do I know, I don't suntan, I swim.

After much thought, I decided to leave it alone. We just opened the pool and as it turns out the suntan ledge is my daughters and wifes favorite part. They both think it water depth is perfect. Now I kind fill silly for the fuss.

All that being said, even after plastering, you can still jackhammer a fix if you have too. But I think you will be satisfied.

I will say, the most frustrating part of building the pool was the contractor building the pool he thought I needed instead of the one I ask for. There other small details he ignored that he changed I am still angry about. The depth of the sundeck was one of the few where it worked out OK.

Beary

[docwalker]

We contracted to have our tanning ledge set at 9 inches, in fact all inspected drawings and plans state such. But for some reason our pool company set the ledge at six inches. I thought it was wrong, but wasn't sure until they set in the tile and I measured it.
...Has anyone else had this experience? Does this repair sound feasible? Will the gunnite company warranty the new work? Most importantly, just how big of a difference will having a six inch tanning ledge depth mean? We have a child who will play there predominantly, and we also heard that tanning ledges were very popular. But we wanted one that at least had a little depth to it.

Mike, the answers to your questions depend on what you want to get out of your tanning shelf. My wife wanted a shelf in which she could lie flat while sunbathing so we installed one that ended up being 6" underwater. Although we're extremely happy with our pool layout, if we were to build another, we would either make the tanning shelf 3" underwater (so your head is above water), or make it a beach entrance with a continuous slope where you could pick your depth.

[huskyrider]

6" of water depth is the industry standard, and the depth I shoot all of my sunshelves (tanning ledges) at. If you feel that you want it deeper have your builder handle it. This won't affect the structural soundness of your pool one bit at all. At either depth elevation you can drill a hole for an umbrella anchor without any fear.

See Ya,
Kelly

[Poolboyz]

I would leave it as is.......The difference appears minimal and they can drill a sleeve for you later...