Steve's pool build status - Work started 2/19/2007!

[divnkd101]

Steve,
Looks great. Nice selction of earth tones for waterline, etc. Great idea to add a natural stone step to help you get into the spa. Curious, did they round the flagstone edges on the coping? I had the choice of rounding or not rounding. I chose to round and really like the turnout. No sharp edges while you are in the pool. Keep the pics coming.

[skamp]

Steve,
Looks great. Nice selction of earth tones for waterline, etc. Great idea to add a natural stone step to help you get into the spa. Curious, did they round the flagstone edges on the coping? I had the choice of rounding or not rounding. I chose to round and really like the turnout. No sharp edges while you are in the pool. Keep the pics coming.

Yea I had the choice as well. They are doing a chipped edge which is not too rough. I think that look was better for our pool. I figured I could always grind down the edge to make it rounded if it turned out to be too rough but chipping the edge would be harder so that is why I went that way. Thanks!

Steve

[huskyrider]

I know it is soft and harder to clean for deposits. What are the other downsides? Thanks!

Steve

There are no downsides other than what you mentioned.

I, like yourself, like the look of flagstone better. It's all about the naturalness of the grout joints -vs- the squareness of them on the the 6x6 tile. On my pool it's like yours, natural flagstone of matching color. I always emphasize to buyers that it's much easier to clean the kiln fired ceramic pool tiles than the flagstone due to the porousness of the stone.
I'd encourage you to keep a sharp eye on mineral build up and as soon as you see some hit it with a small shot of pure acid and the splash some water on it quickly afterwords. Once these deposits have set their hold in the sandstone you'll never get them to completely come off.
IMO, the flagstone looks better but the pool tile is much easier to clean.

See Ya,
Kelly

[skamp]

There are no downsides other than what you mentioned.

I, like yourself, like the look of flagstone better. It's all about the naturalness of the grout joints -vs- the squareness of them on the the 6x6 tile. On my pool it's like yours, natural flagstone of matching color. I always emphasize to buyers that it's much easier to clean the kiln fired ceramic pool tiles than the flagstone due to the porousness of the stone.
I'd encourage you to keep a sharp eye on mineral build up and as soon as you see some hit it with a small shot of pure acid and the splash some water on it quickly afterwords. Once these deposits have set their hold in the sandstone you'll never get them to completely come off.
IMO, the flagstone looks better but the pool tile is much easier to clean.

See Ya,
Kelly

Ok, cool. That is what I was told. I will keep an eye on the deposits and take care of them before they get bad. Thanks!

Steve

[skamp]

Days 11 & 14 - 3/2 & 3/5

On Friday they finished the rock work and started the patio cover (different company). Overall the rock work far exceeded my expectations. It looks awesome. There are two small problems with the rock work. First they installed a few rocks on top of the spa even though we did not want them. They said they will fix it and replace it with flagstone. Second, the chip work on some of the flagstone edge does not look very nice. It looks like teeth instead of the normal random chipped look. They said they will fix that as well. They got a late start on the patio cover due to the support beams not showing up until 12:30. They started at 7:30 and put on the 6x6 posts and basically sat around until the beams showed up.

On Monday they did all the electrical. They ran 100 AMP's to my control panel and I have 2 1" breaker slots and 3 relays left for low voltage lighting. The almost completed the patio cover as well.

I was told they may start working on the decking today. If that is the case we really only have decking and the Pebble Tec left. That is insane! I will post pictures later today.

House before patio cover



Framing the cover



Getting close



Rock work done (right side)



Rock work done (left side)




Steve

[huskyrider]

What a sweet turn time your on!!!

I'm curious, what color PebbleTec are you going with?

See ya,
Kelly

[skamp]

What a sweet turn time your on!!!

I'm curious, what color PebbleTec are you going with?

See ya,
Kelly

Tahoe Blue. I wanted something in the middle of the light to dark range. I think it should look really nice with all the rock. Thanks!

Steve

[mkamp1515]

You will love the Tahoe Blue. That is what we have and we could not be happier. Enjoy.

[skamp]

You will love the Tahoe Blue. That is what we have and we could not be happier. Enjoy.

Yea, a few people I know have it and it is a nice color. I am hoping it will be installed within the next week or so!

Steve

[skamp]

Days 18, 19 & 22 - 3/9, 3/10 and 3/13

During this time they formed and poured my decking. They did the pouring last night and it starting raining. These poor guys were out there until 8:00 PM under plastic finishing up. The low parts of the decking around the perimieter and in other places is where the flagstone inlays will go.

Forming the decking - You can also see the patio cover is completed.



Entry into the side of the pool



Spreading the pea gravel



Floating the concrete



Finishing up and getting all the expansion joints in



I did not take any pictures of them exposing the pea gravel after the concrete set up but it was cool to watch the decking come to life. Today they are doing the pool cleanup and tomorrow the pebble tec goes in! Looks like the pool will be getting filled this weekend.

Steve