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.
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