Poles Everywhere

The fence installers are installing the fence polls all around the pool. So much for our beautiful unobstructed view of the pool from our house. Safety is #1 priority with 3 little ones.

Pool Deck Pavers Almost Done

Here's the progress of the pool deck pavers which are almost complete along with the final part of the wall. We had to order another 150 SF of umbriano which arrived this morning.

On deck is the fence.

Expansion Joints

The Crew puts in the foam for the expansion joint around the pool. The joint is a half inch space between the pavers and the coping to account for expansion during the winter which could lead to broken tiles.

Patio before all the paver cuts are made

Begining the last phase of the wall

Get the Pavers Ready

The Unilock pavers that have been sitting in my driveway for months got put to use today. The wall crew switched gears and compacted the final rough grade before jumping on the pavers. These are the Umbriano that require a little different install (No Poly sand). The PB also finished tile today around the spa. If all works our we will be swimming by Aug 1  :).

The only kink today was the wait for electrician for the deck bonding which is a grounding wire 4-6 inches below grade 18 inches from water line. It's throwing off the paving somewhat as the crew can't build the deck right up to the pool. That's getting installed Thurs morning with an inspection hopefully end of day.

Entry way to Pool
I think the crew is excited to get a break from building that wall

Final Tile Placed in Spa

My Daughter has Little Fun with the Paver Sand

A little Tile, Coping and Wall Gets Us Closer

We've had a ton of progress since our last post. The wall crew from Renovo's Landscaping has been absolutely amazing cranking out 10-12 hour days the past week to finishing up the main segment of the wall.

Additionall, the PB completed the coping and the tile over the past two days. We went with a Sapphire blue tile and Acadamy Grey Coping. During this time, the rough backfill was done along with the gas setup.

View from Side Yard with new wall

Notice the gas and electric lines which need to be 18 inches underground. The gas then has to go down and additional 12 inches. We had our landscapers dig out the gas hole which took almost a day.

Wall, Coping and Tile

Spa

View from the Entry Steps

Height of Subpanel

Just noticed that the height of my pool subpanel is going to only be about 12 inches above ground once final grade is established. Anyone know what the standard height of a sub panel is? How high is yours from the ground.

Before I ask (or demand) my PB to move it, wanted to get some feedback. What I think happened is the electrician made an honest mistake not realizing the grade was going to be higher. Not sure how he would think that considering the equipment is proped higher but trying to give the benefit of the doubt.

I have two concerns. With saftey in mind, snow will cover the panel in the winter. Wouldn't mositure get in and cause potential long term problems. My second concern is convenience. I would have to sit on the ground to make changes in the panel. Thanks

Electric done - Wall continues

Electrical was 90% completed yesterday and we are awaiting a visit from the inspector before everything is backfilled. Gas is scheduled for Monday.


One note about gas. Our pool builder definitely takes a "throw it over the wall" approach for the gas component in terms of giving guidance. We have definitely had to be very proactive in figuring out where to dig the ditch, when to set up the call, etc. If I wasn't on top of the project, the gas install could have fallen through the cracks another few days.


POOL EQUIPMENT IS ON LEFT SIDE OF POOL

CLOSEUP OF EQUIPMENT WITH EASYTOUCH ELECTRIC

Filter, heater and polaris pump. Also had the crew use a Jandy spilt on the return going to the pool and put a cap on one side for a future waterfall. That's the pipe that is sticking straight out.

WALL IN PROGRESS PHOTO

The stone wall will go up to about 2 feet and meet the closer steps. There will then be another 2 foot wall on the right of the steps that separates the patio from the pool deck/walkway. Access to the pool deck will be from the far stairs.

For fencing, a black ornamental will go down the middle (between far wall and pool) and to completely sepearte the house from the pool area. When our kids get older, we will proably switch up the fence configuration.

Here Comes the Equipment and Wall

Both our pool builder and landscaper/wall builder were at our house today starting two separate projects.

EQUIPMENT
The crew built a little area for the equipment pad at the corner of our yard. It's back from the wall a bit so our ornamental fence posts can go in next week.

Wall Builders
The crew began carving our the exact area where the stone wall will go. You can see some of the stone we are using in the right of the photo. That was delivered around 7 this morning. Below the stone wall is our pool deck. Above it is the patio.

Steps
We are using 4 foot granite steppers to bring guests from the lowest level (0 feet) to the pool deck area (2 feet)

Fence Debate

Here's my current deal. One part of the yard is about to have a retaining wall build where a step up fence is about to get built.

My town has a 5 foot regulation and this exact area where the step up would occur is not 5 Feet. For example, the child could be on wall and the height of the wall would only be 3.5 feet at this very point.

Anyone have any ideas on how to get this to code?

I am debating on not putting in a wall in this area and just grading it so the fence goes up the grade maintaining a consistant five feet. Would rather not break up the wall though. The view you are seeing below is more of a cross view as the fence intersects with the wall. The wall is being built Mon/Tues of next week.

New Timber Retaining Wall and Backfill

With the holidays, the past two weeks have been a bit slow with little things dones every few days. next week is big as pipes and electric is scheduled to go in along with a new stone wall. Here are a few photos from the past week or so.

Side note, backfilling is expensive when you factor in a Cat and the stone. Recommend negotiating this stuff as much as possible upfront as many pool builders don't include backfill/compacting in their project.

Building the Timber Wall.
The crew actually had to take apart to put in another set of deadmen higher on the wall.

The Backfilling Begins with Stone
Backfills the pool to what's called pipe grade so the pipes can be put in during the next step.

The Crew Compacts the backfill

Gunite Complete

The crew was hard at work and made huge progress since this morning. Believe gunite is complete.

Gunite Gang Begins

The Gunite crew got to the house bright and early (6:45am) to begin the process. Grabbed these quick pics before heading to work. Can't wait to see what it looks like later.

Preplumbing the Spa

The crew was over this morning to do the last thing before gunite......plumb the spa. You'll also notice that the wood forming around the back of the pool. This will be used to shoot the gunite against.
Gunite is scheduled for Fri so pretty excited for that milestone.

Steel Almost Complete - Bonding Time

All the steel with the exception of the stairs is complete. The electrician also came by today to electrically bond the pool. That means you don't supposedly get cooked in the event of lightening or other electrical issues.

You'll see the copper bonding in the right photo

Kids Like the New SIgn

In case anyone was wondering who is building our pool.....

Double S

I call the past two days the double S days. Skimmers came on Weds and Steel began on Thursday.

The skimmers arrive...

In comes the steel

Pool Dug in 48 Hours

Wow, what 48 hours can do to your yard. On Sunday, the pool was drawn out on our lawn. By Tuesday mid afternoon, all rough site work was complete and pool shape was dug. We actually had to pull back some of our yard because of an easement issue and also do some grading since once side of the yard was four feet higher than the other side. We split the difference and are setting the pool grade at 2 feet elevation.

Sunday

Monday - Digging Begins

Tuesday Morning - Digging the Pool Hole

Tuesday Afternoon - Rough grading and rough pool dig complete

Pool Drawn Out

Our pool builder sprayed out the pool yesterday in prep for the build to start on Monday. I traced it over so you can see it better.

Will be shifting it back a bit. Here are a couple of designs

 

Our Unilock has arrived!

The truck came today to drop off 600SF of Brussels block and 1100 SF of Umbriano.

Designs for Pool

Here are a couple of real basic designs for our pool build in Natick Ma.