Excavating and receiving my 12'x24' this weekend. I'm Ready!... I hope

[zephans]

Sorry, I have photos but I need to open an account on Flickr, SmugMug (costs money after 14days), or look up other hosting service. I may just host on my Windows Live Space tomorrow . Bed time.

[matt4x4]

Sounds like you're doing well with the progress.
For posting pics, go to www.photobucket.com - free and relatively unlimited.
The biggest screw up in any home built pool project WILL be the timeline for building the pool - I thought my pool would get set up in one weekend, weather got in the way and postponed the job for over a week, in total, I probably spent 3 days at it including levelling and compacting screenings and sand as well as the entire pool build right up to filling.
Electrical and proper plumbing was one more day, finishing the entire area around the pool for no maintenance - 3 years!

[NWMNMom]

Oh I remember well! Yep, we had those kind of setbacks too but alloted enough time (you can see how long it took!) so that we could do some each day without getting too ticked off at setbacks. We even took a vacation in there at the end and when we came back we were refreshed and ready to go at it full force again.

If the pool is going to be in that location forever, then I think Dennis mentioned the tar option for backfilling protection. Who is going to see it if it never gets pulled out except to put a new one in many years down the road? The other option is to dig out further and build a retaining wall which a lot of people do.

BTW, I use Photobucket too. Easy to use, free.

[zephans]

Day 3.5 UPDATE: We are 100% LEVEL!

6/20 7PM-10PM finished off leveling (3hrs)
Hour tally:
~4hrs sod cutting (including rental pickup and dropoff)
~2hrs sod rolling and stacking near pool site
~10hrs excavator + pickup roughing out the hole
~13hrs hand leveling
--------------
~30hrs total excavation
Most work completed within 4 day period!

I have verified all locations around edges and middle are within 1/4" using laser level and tripod.

HAND-LEVELING TECHNIQUE: During leveling I'd confirm level and depth (with laser) for two rows about 10' apart, then lay 2"x2" straight boards in the level rows. Then drag a 10' long 2"x6" board that I made notches in to accomodate the 2"x2" boards. See picture of me digging for a visual example of how this works. High spots raise the leveling board, low spots show a gap.
TIP: Grab some extra dirt and throw it into the low spots, then drag back over with board. Compact the filler you just added. (I wasn't more than about 1" off for my worst fill-in spots. I'm not worried at all about the foundation.)

LESSON #1: Plan how to dig with heavy machinary so you spend less time with shovel and wheelbarrel.
I wish I'd thought it through more before I did the excavating. I worked back to front, but missed some spots and didn't get as close to level as I could have. Experience gained at the expense of sore arms/back and hours of extra manual labor.

We were careful not to disturb below level and we did surprisingly good at getting within ~6" of level with the excavator in many spots.


Hardest part was shaving 1" off an entire section (6'x6') of hardpan that I had leveled but was 1" too high. What a pain.

Best part was doing excavating with the kids helping with the controls. Pictures and priceless memory.


LESSON #2: spade shovel + mattox/pick axe + laser level + 3 level boards + big level are your friends.
I thought square shovel would be helpful. Spade shovel was much better even when shaving 1/2" of loose dirt or hard pan.

Here's some pictures taken during excavation (sorry for the reverse chronological order... it's almost 1AM and I must get some sleep):


leveling technique demonstrated above

"ruffed" in hole

Dump site after quick-and-dirty grading


"a little off the top" rolling sod for re-use

Site before the dig

[NWMNMom]

Wow, that does look like hard work. You are going to appreciate your pool more than you know once it is done. We used a lot of our farm equipment to move and level - doing it by hand deserves kudos, I don't think I could have done that! How wide is the area you are digging out? Make sure you have enough around the sides cleared as well (appx 2' all around)

[zephans]

Well, I lost another 4 hours to digging out edges because I only dug out 14'x26 (extra 12" all around). I didn't pre-measure where the towers would align compared to my existing deck posts. Turns out the towers line up perfectly which means I had to stay farther away from the deck than I originally planned. Ugh.

Good news is there have been only minor showers and not too hot for construction. Bad news is we are just starting construction. (I'll open new thread for construction as excavation is officially done.)