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.