Patio Prep: Course Stone

   Work continues to progress well with the installation and tamping of the coarse stone that will serve as a base to the patio pavers.  The crew was under a slight restriction today because the road coming to our house was going to be blocked for a few hours in the middle of the day.  A neighbor was getting his new pontoon boat lifted into the lake via crane since the lake association that controls the boat launch wouldn't allow him access.  Silly petty neighborhood politics.  Regardless of the limitations, Eli and his crew worked like crazy to get the rock and coarse sand dumped at the street, then shuttled to the back yard.

    The coarse stone provides a rough idea of where the pavers will be laid.  It overlaps the footprint of the actual pavers and will be covered by a fine compacted sand.  All this stone was dumped, spread, leveled, and compacted using a small plate compactor.

   The implementation of the swim-out steps changed a little from the initial design but the idea is the same.  A 3-4 foot wide paver path will circle around the deep end of the pool and meet up with the steps.  This new design removes a little of the planting bed on the back side of the pool, but not by much.

   Here's a shot of the paver base from the lounging side.  It's designed to be about 10 feet deep from the pool edge, which should give enough room for lounge chairs and walking space.  The back side of this area will have a planting bed as well.  The edge of the coarse stone is a little undefined, but the excavation machines still needed some access to the area from this point. 

   They started to clean out a path to the base of the boulder wall so they can construct it from below.  I'm hoping there won't be any long term negative effects on the oak trees they're winding through, as they can be a little sensitive to soil compaction.  I'll have to keep my eyes on them and give them extra fertilization if they start to look weak.  They survived the initial construction process and it would be a shame to lose them now.

   Boulders will hopefully be here Monday or Tuesday next week and they can start to construct the retaining wall.  Plumbing and utilities will need to be trenched before the wall is completed since the runs will go under the wall.  I'll need to put in some work and clear out the wood pile and raspberry bushes near the house penetrations for the utilities.  We're getting a last burst of summer with temperatures expected to be in the high 80's, so hopefully we'll get some warm weather in the fall to swim a bit.

Patio Prep

 Even with the delay on the boulders for the retaining wall, progress continues in other places.  Tango Pools came back to prep the front area of the pool for installation of the paver patio.  The prep will basically just involve digging down to a certain depth to introduce space for a base rock that will be compressed and provide a stable base for the pavers to sit on.  Before that can be completed, any thing that wants to run anywhere under the pavers need to be installed.  This includes irrigation lines for the planting beds, and low voltage wiring for landscape lighting.  I don't think all the pavers can be installed before the boulder wall is created since heavy machines need to get to the back side of the pool, but maybe the section of the patio near the deep end can be laid.

 

 

   Here's a shot of the excavation on the front of the pool, where the patio pavers will be laid.  There will be a large enough area for a round table and chairs, but there will also be a planting bed in the concave section of the pool.  They left a little pile of native soil where the planting bed will be, but we'll need to amend the very sandy soil with some good bed soil.

They installed two 1" irrigation pipes to the center planting bed.  I would imagine that one of them is slated to act as a conduit for electrical and the other is for actual irrigation.  There's a main trunk that runs somewhere in the area that the irrigation installers will be able to tap into.  As far as I can remember, there's one trunk for the rear yard lawn irrigation and one that runs the side of the yard for bed plantings.  There are still a few heads connected to the rear lawn irrigation that I would like to keep for just watering the grass.  There might need to be additional sprinkler heads installed to spray the grass away from the pool area.  Hopefully all the pool irrigation beds will be tapped into the side bed irrigation trunk.

   The excavator is sitting on the section of the pool patio that was originally slated to drop down in elevation for a little firepit sitting area.  We've since decided to no drop down in elevation, but will keep the same level as the rest of the patio, since it would have been more difficult to make a double bullnosed coping stone.  It would have been a nice feature but not a game breaker.  I think this area still needs to be excavated for the paver stones, and I'm also expecting irrigation and low voltage wires to run in this area.

   Here's another area where more excavation is needed for the paver install.  The swim out steps were shifted towards the skimmer in the original design, but needed to be moved towards the middle due to the location of trees.  Regardless, there's a paver path that wraps around this side of the pool to the swim out steps.  It will reduce the size of the planting bed on the back side of the pool, but that bed wasn't designed for any particular planting arrangement, just some low ground cover.

   Base rock is being delivered and spread tomorrow but I don't think it will look that different since the ground was pretty level to begin with.  Boulders will be delivered Monday and will be a bit of a circus, but progress is moving forward quickly.  I really have to hand it to the workers of Tango Pools.  They're here every morning at 7:30 and begin working at 8 and pull a full day.  I don't think we've had such great people installing at the house.

Coping and Tile Completed. Lines Connected and Buried.

   The mortar for all the tile has been completed and the pool has received its first acid wash and will remain in this state until the very end when it gets plaster.  Meanwhile, all the drain and return lines were connected with flexible PVC pipes and buried close to the location of the pad.  Conduit was also connected to the stubs that run through the pool shell and run towards the pool pad direction.  Some ground work is needed to prep the area for the paver patio and boulder retaining wall, which should be happening soon.  A delivery of boulders was slated for the end of the week, but apparently boulders are in short demand in my area and need to be trucked in from another location, so that delivery was pushed until Monday next week.

 

   Here's a look at the deep end of the pool, with two drain lines and a gray conduit for the LED lighting.  The drain line coming in from the right is from the deep end skimmer and the other coming out of the ground is from the bottom drain.  Both run clockwise around the pool towards the shallow end and sunshelf since that's the direction of the pad.  They worked quickly to install these pipes and buried them so I had to take these pictures mid day.

 

    I believe these are the flexible PVC pipe being used for both drain lines.  The return lines are 1.5" diameter and the drain lines are 2" Spa-Flex rated at 60 PSI. I didn't get a close look at the return lines before they were buried but closer examination of the pictures I took show that the plumbing fittings for the returns are 1.5".

   Here's the deep end skimmer box with the plumbing run attached.  I've gone down the rabbit hole of difference between 90 degree sweeps vs. non-sweep and found mixed information.  Some people swear by the the sweeps since it allows for a reduced restriction for water flow.  Others say that 90 degree non-sweeps are fine.  This is a non-sweep fitting, but I'll try to make sure to get sweep fittings in the hard plumbing around the equipment.

   This is one of the returns near the sun shelf.  It doesn't circulate water on the shelf itself, but blows towards the steps.  The sunshelf has a bubbler that is used for water circulation.  If you look closely, you can see that this 90 degree fitting is labeled 1.5".  All the returns are marked on the coping stone, but it's a little confusing because the labels are reused between the two sides of the pool.  I would like each supply and drain line individually plumbed in the system with their own shutoff valves, so I'll have to make sure to tell Eli when the time comes.

   These 9 pallets of pavers showed up towards the end of the day and constitute the entirety of the patio.  The eight on the right are the primary stones and the one of the left is for the border.

The border stone label is shown in the picture.  Holland 4x8" in Elite Coffee color.  We chose to go with a darker brown since our rear garage door and all exterior doors are a similar color and will tie into the pool.

  These are the stones for the main field of the patio.  You can see the different sizes between the bottom and middle layer.  I think there's a pattern for laying these down, but the overall effect is that of no pattern.  They're large pavers and will hopefully stay level through all our seasons.

 

   This is the polymeric sweeping sand that will be used in the joints of the stone once it's all laid out.  The sand is very fine and has some binders in it that solidify when it's first watered.  It locks the pavers down and closes any cracks that plants could try to grow into.

   Here's a final shot of the pool from the shallow end at the end of the day.  All the pipes are buried and the ground around the pool is firm and level.  Eli said that the guys will be returning to start prepping the ground for paver work.  A certain depth needs to be established so that base rock can be leveled on which the pavers will rest.  I imagine this will also involve prepping the site for the boulder walls since they can't do any kind of final ground prep for the patio until the boulder walls are in since all the prep would get destroyed by the machines.  I'll also need to make sure that sprinkler line stubs to the back and middle planting areas, and low voltage wiring for lighting is installed before the final prep for the pavers is completed.  These things won't be hooked up right away, but need to be run to areas under the pavers.

Phase 2: Coping and Tile Installation Part 2

    Another day with perfect weather for working on the mortar joints and tile for the pool.  Progress is moving along quickly with all the coping stones seeing their joints recut and mortared.  The water line tile also saw prep work around the perimeter of the pool with some tile already being attached.  Eli estimates just one more day to finish off the water line and step border tiles, then it will be on to the retaining wall construction.

   The coping stones were all mortared down to the bonding beam and the gaps were recut to create even spacing.  The joints were then mortared to complete the coping stone surround.

   Here's a shot of the finished coping stones, before any water line tile prep was installed.  The top of the coping stones will set the level of everything else in the back yard; paver patio, retaining wall, and yard slope.

   They mortared the gap under the skimmer box to set the height according to the coping stone.  The paver patio will be laid on this big block of concrete surrounding the skimmer box, and will go right up to the skimmer box access port.

   A single ceramic tile was laid across the skimmer box opening in the pool to create a bridge for the coping stones.  The "nice" side of the tile is placed down and the coping stones are mortared to the bonding side of the tile.  Eventually, there will be a flapper door across the skimmer opening to help trap the floating debris.

   The electrician came and got a peek at the sub panel in the under-deck storage space that will be used to connect the pool equipment.  His main task for the day was to attach the copper bonding wire to the lengths of rebar that still remained long.  These rebar are electrically connected to the rest of the rebar cage so the entire pool is grounded together.

   A long length of copper wire was left, that will be tied to the rest of the electrical system to create a common ground.  This way, if there's any current leak from the lights in the pool, it will all ground out together.

   The prep for the water line tile involves driving in these wooden shims to establish level, and padding out the surface of the pool to bring up the depth of the thin waterline tile.  The tiles are only 1/4" thick so when combined with the surface prep and thinset, will bring the thickness up around 1/2", which is about the thickness of the rest of the surface plaster. 

   This update spans 2 days of work, before the rain came in for the weekend and ended the work day.  They did manage to squeeze in all the water line tile installation around the pool edge.  Additional furring strips were installed to create a ledge on which the tiles could sit.  On Monday, they'll return to grout the tile gaps and lay the small border tiles on all the horizontal edges around the pool.  This will be on the sunshelf and every step.

   Here's a shot of the pool at the end of the third day.  All coping has been set and grouted, and all tile has been set.  Work will resume the next week and should see the completion of the tile installation.

   The next steps will be a delicate balance of hard landscaping installation in the form of the boulder wall, and trenching for water returns and pool electrical.  Since the boulder trains can't make it up the driveway without destroying it, Eli says we'll need to lay sand down in the street and drop the rocks there.  They'll be shuttled up to the house by the wheeled Bobcat, then moved to the back yard with the tracked Bobcat.  I'm not sure if the mini excavator is up to the task of setting the stones, but we'll work in a counter clockwise direction towards where the pool pad will be installed.

Phase 2: Coping and tile installation part 1.

   Eli and Tango Pools have been finishing up other pool projects while our concrete shell has been curing.  I've diligently adhered to the concrete watering procedure and we're well past the safe period for curing.  Frequent rains have slowed the progress on completion of other pools since you can't plaster or mortar in the rain, but I've purchased a small pool cover pump to keep the water from building up in our pool and becoming a mosquito nursery.  The pump will be a good investment since we'll need one to keep the snow melt on the pool cover in check during the winter time.  With the other projects out of the way, now it's our time to push to completion.  Eli says we have about 4 weeks to completion, which will take us into the middle of September.  If the weather holds out, maybe we'll be able to take a few dips in to pool before we have to close it for the winter.

   A few pallets of coping stone were delivered to the back yard a couple of week back, but sat wrapped and remained uneventful.  The pool crew arrived yesterday with a tracked mini-dozer for the back yard, a wheeled mini-dozer for the front yard, a mini excavator, and a trailer full of various equipment.  These machines will live on the property for the duration of the build and will fill various roles to aid in completion of the project.  The wheeled mini-dozer will shuttle boulders up and down the driveway since we can't get the train of boulders to the house without tearing up all the asphalt.  The boulders for the retaining wall will need to be dumped in the street and carried to the back yard.  The tracked mini-dozer has been used to level the patio space around the pool and backfill the pool shell.  The mini-excavator will be used to set the boulder wall and trench for plumbing and utilities.

   All these actions will be taken in the future and now it's time for setting the coping stones and waterline tile.

   All the concrete forms were removed and some of the bonding beam rebar was cut to a short stub to later be connected to the grounding loop.  The stone were broken out of the pallet and laid on the bonding beam to set the spacing and ensure enough stones were purchased.

The on concave sections, the pool edge of the coping stones were set tight.  The stones will be cut with a gas powered stone cutting saw so that an even mortar joint can be achieved between the stones.

Here's a convex section of the pool, where the stone will be cut with more material being removed from the back.  Pool shell penetrations for lights and water returns were marked with purple paint since the pool shell was mostly backfilled to make it easier to work around.  These sections will be excavated later to connect plumbing and electrical runs.

There will be around a half inch of plaster installed on the concrete pool shell so the lip of the coping stone will only have around a 3/4 inch overlap.  The coping stones will be mortared to the bonding beam of the concrete shell and set level.  The top of the coping stone was the important measured elevation reference that referenced off the house.  It took into account a gentle slope away from the house to allow for water drainage, and also sets the height of the surrounding patio.  The patio will slope down away from the coping stone elevation.          

Most, but not all, of the bonding rebar was cut to a stub.  Recall that these are conductively connected to the rebar in the pool, and will all be wired together to ground before backfill and patio stone installation.

   The forms were also removed from the concrete fill around the skimmer boxes.  The top of the coping stones sit above the level of the concrete box so the pavers will be installed and cut around the skimmer box opening.

   Here's a shot from the deep end of the pool.  You can see that there's still some of the bonding beam available after the coping stone is installed.  This will provide a nice lip for the pavers to sit on and provide a flush surface since they're nearly the same thickness.

   Updates should be coming more quickly since the work should progress nicely.  I'm expecting most if not all of the coping stone to be set on the second day of work, but haven't seen any deliveries of water line tile yet.  Once those two items are installed, I think trenching for plumbing and utilities should be next since all that needs to be installed under the paver stones.  The water return lines will even need to be installed before the boulder wall since the equipment pad will be on the lower elevation of the wall.  After the plumbing runs are installed, I think the boulder wall will be constructed and the ground will need to be prepped and leveled for the paver stone installations, after which will be the final planting bed grading.  When all the dirty work is completed, the plaster and equipment will be installed.

Pool Surfaces and Materials

   Just a little update on the materials we'll be using in and around the pool.  We've landed on a more natural color scheme for the coping stone and patio pavers as shown in the picture below.  The pavers are Oaks Nueva in Champagne color.  I'm not sure who makes the small brown bricks, but they'll be used as a border brick on the edges of the patio.  The coping stone is on the right and pretty closely matches the patio pavers.  The water line tiles are a slate or bluestone gray and that small disk is a sample of the PebbleTec Tahoe blue.