Reed & Sherry break ground.
Stuff from the shed before their excavator destroyed it. It all fit in the garage!
The excavator and first dump truck arrive.
Excavation begins at the west end (shallow) and moves east. Shed is still standing.
Digging continues eastward.
With the shed removed, Makenna and Courtney get to take control the excavator with Ryan our pool contractor.
Trenching to take natural gas to the backyard for the kitchen and pool heater.
The dig is complete, Bring on the plumbing.
Into the hole. Checking grades, forming the edges. Carving space for plumbing into the earth walls.
With the plumbing complete, rebar is laid on the ground with 12" spacing
Rebar is then lifted off the ground supported by concrete blocks.The rebar needs to be inside the concrete.
Additional rebar is instlled to being it to six inch spacing. Rebar is used to give concrete extra tensil strength.
What? Pour concrete in the winter? Are you crazy? We'll concrete can be safely poured with temperates below freezing so long as you take proper precautions. Prior to the big day, a plastic tent was placed over the pool area and a heater was installed to make sure the ground was not frozen when the shotcrete was applied. What is shotcrete? It is a special formulation concrete with extra cement, sand, very small pebbles and some tiny synthetic fibrous materials to help it all stick together. It is applied under high pressure and it so think that it stays in place where ever you shoot it. You start by "spraying the walls" and finish by spraying the floor. You simply build each wall by spraying the shotcrete from the bottom up and it nicely piles onto of itself. The stairs are siumilarly formed by spraying a buuch o shorcrete in place and then sculpting it into stairs.
Peeling back the tent to open up the hole.
The concrete pumper. Strong rubber tubing carries it to the pool.
The air compressor. Provides force to shoot the concrete through the hose.
The thick shotcrete coming down the chute from the cement truck
J.B. Parsons provided the shot-crete, just like concrete for our home.
The small pebbles in the shot-crete can fly. Protection is required.
They do the bottom half of each wall first, Then go around again for the top, and a third time for deeper pools. The floor is last.
One guy shapes the walls and the floor. Vertical is important for the wall.
The stairs are formed one at a time from the top to the bottom. One guy worked the stairs.
Just about done, this slope is the last part to be completed. The pipes sticking up are the drain pipes. The pipes will be cut and the drains finished.
The edge of a pool has what is called coping, which extends past the edge
Coping stones being laid on the pool edge. Concrete is a cheaper alternative.
Coping around the pool is complete. Rough plumbing for the poolhouse is in place.
A drain is laid for collect runoff water and direct it a site away from the pool.
