Despite the random power outage, the gunite crew finished shooting the pool today, complete with sun shelf, stairs, and swim out stairs. All the equipment is gone from the property, but there remains a sand pile next to the driveway and some additional material in the back yard. To prevent the gunite from curing too quickly, instructions are to water the pool three times a day for three days, then 2 times a day, then 1 time a day for no more than 10 days. Online instructions say to water it for at least 2 weeks and you can't over water it, so depending on the weather, I'll probably keep hitting it for 2 weeks. I think we're going to be waiting at least 3-4 weeks for the pool to harden before we see any more progress so updates will slow down a bit.
Here's a look at the finished gunite shell from the deep end. The bottom of the walls are slightly curved into the bottom. There's a nice bevel that leads into the skimmer boxes, which sit flush with the top of the concrete. The top of the wall has a fairly crisp corner on which the coping stone will sit. You can see the difference in color between what was shot the first day and what was completed on the second, but I think that's more from the moisture content. I don't believe the watered the first day shooting today so I lightly watered it.
Here's what the finished sun shelf looks like. As indicated by the initial design, there are three steps up and a fourth for the sun shelf. Keep in mind that there's still a coping stone that will sit up on the edge of the pool, and you don't want the step out of the sun shelf to be too great. The depth of the water will be about half way up the skimmer box, which makes it around 4-6 inches deep on the shelf. I think it's enough to sit with or without furniture in that area. I think the two lower pipes in the wall are for LED lights and the middle, higher one is for the water return, but I'll have to look back in pictures to confirm as any markings on the pipes have been obscured.
Another shot of the sun shelf and steps. The bottom step feels a little bit higher than the top two, but I think it's intentional. I think the steps will have the Pebbletech plaster applied to the top, with edging and faces getting tile. I think the greater height of the lowest step, which is a very minor difference, will be made up with the plaster coat on the bottom of the pool. Each wall penetration is beveled around the pipe, probably to either allow for more plaster around the fittings, or to allow for clearance for the fittings themselves. All of this will be smoothed out by the plaster coat. The sun shelf will be a really nice place to sit and relax if you don't want to go fully in the pool.
Here's a look at the swim out stairs. The water level will be about half way up on the wall above the top step so both steps will be submerged. This will allow someone to swim and easily sit on the bottom step, then hang out, or get out without having to climb a ladder. I think a secondary egress point is required in a pool design and this satisfies the need very well. It's not specifically in the deepest part of the pool, but it's pretty close and off to the side of the longest swim path in the pool. Great place to take a rest while swimming laps for exercise. The bottom step doesn't quite completely fill out the convex curve of the pool, but it's really close.
Here's what the swim out steps look like from above. I believe these steps will also get a tile border, and you can see why that's important. From above, and especially when these steps will be submerged, the two steps would blend together without a tile border. The step sits between the two skimmer boxes, so I'm hoping that any floating debris will be picked up by one of those two instead of whirlpooling in this area. The pool deck here will only be a 4 foot path with planting beds to the boulder retaining wall. That path won't connect to the main pool deck area going counter clockwise around the pool so you'll have to walk clockwise around the pool to get to the main deck. I'm hoping that won't be too much of an annoyance and I guess if you really want to, you can walk on the pool coping stone.
The skimmer boxes are completely embedded in concrete and mostly covered. There's a square top and lid that will sit on this and interface with the surrounding patio pavers so all the concrete here will be hidden under the pool decking. There was some short pieces of rebar sitting in the area that I believe were installed when they shot the gunite around the skimmer box, but I didn't get to see the process. I'm not sure if there's a standard or optimal angle for the gunite around the skimmer opening but as far as I understand it, the skimmer simply makes a low pressure suction to pull in debris that's floating by the orifice. We do have oak trees around the pool and in the fall, they drop acorns, which I don't believe float, so we'll need to clear out the bottom of the pool. I don't think the main drain can fit an acorn, nor do I think I would want to keep emptying the pump basket to remove them. The pump basket will need to be emptied once or twice a week anyways so it looks like a weekend/Wednesday type of situation for cleaning out skimmer and pump baskets.
Last picture is a pool side shot of the skimmer opening. I've read that optimal water level is 1/3 to half way up the opening and with the coping stone that sits on top, the water level will probably be around 5 or 6 inches from the top of the coping stone. Normally, the plaster layer is around 1/2 inch thick and it looks like the gunite leaves just about that much space to the actual skimmer orifice so water should flow smoothly. The coping stones are about 8 inches wide, so I'm guessing there's a longer coping stone that can bridge the gap across the skimmer opening because it would seem dangerous to have a seam in the stone over an unsupported space.
That's it for today. I think I'll be able to put together a post about pool finishing materials while the pool shell hardens, but I'll otherwise be out of topics to discuss until the finishing time comes.
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