I have a double header update since things are moving pretty quickly with the prep for gunite. They finished digging out the perimeter and rough depth of the pool and moved in some gravel for the base. Some forms are needed at the top lip of the pool on which the pool coping stone will sit. I'm not sure how all this will tie into the earthen berms on the back side of the pool since that is supposed to be the top level, but I'm guessing all will be revealed when they start to install the metal.
Here's the final shape of the pool. We had to move the swim out shelf in the deep end a bit more towards the middle of the pool because of the lack of distance for a path and approximation of the trees. I would have like to have kept the swim out shelf in the deepest part, but I'm not willing to lose the white oaks we have on the perimeter. The swim out shelf is that bump out on the left of the picture above. I'm guessing the shelf itself, like the sun shelf, will be completely created out of the gunite and metal framework, rather than retaining some of the earth.
Here's the view of the pool from the shallow end, and what will eventually be the main part of the pool deck. The distance from the rod to one of the rods on the far end of the pool should be around 40 feet, which will be a pretty good distance for straight line swimming exercise. If you look closely, each metal rebar rod has a small piece of orange string tied to it, indicating final grade height. The string on the yard side of the pool is just a coping stone height off the grass, which gives a good indication on how much of an elevation drop there is on the lake side of the pool.
Big pile of gravel brought up from the front of the house for the base of the pool. As mention before, the ground on the side of the house going to the front is completely torn up and now this pile of stone is sitting in the grass, but it will all be okay. This area will be torn up anyways when the pool paver decking is installed. I will have to rehabilitate the rest of the grass when it's all installed, but those are worries and work for another day.
End of the next day. The beginning of the framing is installed. There will be a flexible 1x4 that will join all these stakes together to act as a form for the concrete. Much of the gravel has been leveled in the pool, but a good amount remains. I was under the impression that the plumbing should be installed before
the gravel base, but it's probably not too much work to install the main
drain. The only other plumbing item that will be installed on the bottom of the pool will be a small bubbler in the sunshelf. Skimmer boxes and return lines also need to be plumbed before rebar installation, and I'm not sure if they're just going to trench those items in to their locations in the pool to the pump/heater location (which is still in flux).
Viewing the shallow end and sunshelf from the lake side of the pool. This area will mostly just be a low planted bed when completed. You can see the string height on the rebar stake, but also the form stakes themselves are much higher on this side of the pool vs the yard side. I'm thinking that when the form is completed, it will be much higher on this side of the pool, which will then have to be back-filled against. I think there will be a skimmer and at least one return on this wall somewhere, so I'm wondering if the height of the pool shell will allow the plumbing rough in without having to bury the pipes.
Another shot of the pool from the shallow end with the gravel base installed and pool form stakes in. Thinking about it now, when the pool shell is shot and hardened, I'm thinking that some of the earthen berm will be pulled towards the pool to backfill. Some of the excavated soil was moved and spread in the front of the house so I'm thinking that's not recoverable, else they would have just kept the pile in the back. For the completion of the project, additional gravel fill will be needed to level the base for the paver pool deck, which will make up a good amount of fill bulk, so it's a pretty tricky calculation to determine how much excavated soil to remove from the dig site for future use.
That's it for now. I'm not sure if more form work, plumbing, or metal work will come next, but I'm sure it will come quickly.
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