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Owner/builder Pool Build starting - Jax, FL - Pics inside

14 years ago

Hi all,

After spending hours on this wonderful forum and lots and lots of research, we are finally getting started on our pool. I am a GC so I am taking this little project on myself, should be a fun one. We scraped and removed the sod yesterday & had forms, rebar & startup materials delivered today. I will be posting photos as progress takes place for all to see. We are laying out & setting well points tomorrow or Friday and digging on Monday. We should be finished by the end of July, but we'll see :). Here are the specs and below are photos of the pool design and my backyard today.

675sf w/ 112' perimeter Lagoon Style Pool

Tremron Stonehurst paver deck & coping in Sierra

Rico Rock waterfall & boulders

Magic Technologies Midnight Blue plaster for pool & Aqua Pearl Beach for sunshelf

6" waterline tile still TBD

2 or 3 bubbler jets on sunshelf w/ umbrella sleeve

Pentair Easytouch w/ IC40 Automated salt system

Pentair Intelliflo pump

Pentair Intellibrite lights

Pentair Clean & Clear 200sf filter

Instead of an attached spa, we are building a built in deck for a real Vita spa into the pool deck

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Thanks for looking! We are very excited!

Julie

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Comments (15)

kgolby
14 years ago
Hey Julie!

Your pool design looks great & I look forward to seeing progress pics. I live in Jax too & our pool was completed just under a month ago. Where in Jax are you located? We're in St John's county - Julington Creek.

Kara
jubillee
Original Author
14 years ago
Kara,

Thanks for the compliment :-). I live in St Johns County, Julington Creek area also. Who did your pool, if you don't mind me asking? I am saving around $30k by doing it myself. We bid it out to 4 pool companies to check our numbers and they were all charging almost double the cost. We are really excited! The pool was formed up today and we are digging Monday. I'll be posting some pictures of the forms this weekend. I hope to be swimming by August!

Keep in touch!
Julie
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I had to chuckle to myself as I read these posts. My hubby and I have built 3 homes in the past 25 years. The first two took about 2 1/2 years each to complete. We did everything ourselves. When I say complete, I have to confess that we had plywood floors when we moved into them. The building process is much more time consuming than most people can guess. Therefore, the question from a lot of friends is "when, are you moving in?" OR "how are you coming along with the house." When we got to the second build, DH had heard enough of that question so he started telling everyone that "we are right on schedule". The look on their faces are priceless. The same person will never repeat that question. On Memorial Day we took a few days off. An neighbor asked DH the usual question and DH told him " Joe, we got ahead of schedule and had to take a few days off!!. Try that approach. It does add a bit of humor. A neighbor across the road from us said that he and his girlfriend were watching us lay brick and laughing to themselves because we are so slow. But he said that after they thought about it a while they said that they would not be able to lay brick if a gun were pointed to their heads. We have been building this 3rd home for 3 1/2 years. We have inside trim to do and some landscaping to finish. We are in our 60's now and this will be the last home because the physical labor is getting to be a bit much. I can say that when its all done you will be far ahead of most people and you will never have to wonder just what is in the walls, etc. Take your time and try not to let it get the best of you. Keep your eye on the goal. You will never regret having a home that you built and that is paid for.
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Arizona Owner/Builder experience
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Comments (59)
Well, we made it to the first swim! :) The pool finished filling late last night, so we let the kids have a quick swim before we start dumping the chemicals in. We are definitely going to be living in the pool this summer! We still have a few of issues to work out: 1.The finish is not as smooth as the pools we went to look at. This is a huge deal for me, since that is the reason we ended up choosing it. The interior products' company rep. will come out this week and take a look. Hopefully he will help us find a solution. I think that the guys who polished it quit the job too soon, I mean it WAS Friday. We'll see what happens there. 2. We have pipe plugs in the skimmers, which I thought were there to prevent stuff from falling in during construction. We were trying to pull them out and noticed they are siliconed in. What? I can't figure out what happened there. Can anyone enlighten me? We never could get them out. 3. The bubblers in the 10" kiddie area suck. I think we need a different fitting. One of them causes a little mountain of water, but the other barely stirs up the surface. We wanted little fountains. I am hoping to find out how to accomplish this. The current fitting is flush with the bottom of the step. Anyway, here are some pics. I can't wait to see the color once we get the chemicals in the water. I think it will be nice and blue. Any help with the above issues would be marvelous! Thanks for your help!!
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Another Garden Web Owner Built Pool
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You did an amazing job - I think most pool builders could learn a thing or two from what you have accomplished here. As someone who has plumbed hundreds of pools with similar configurations I just want to provide you with a little bit of insight into your underground plumbing chase. While it is clear that you took a ton of care to have a clean raceway to run the lines it, you made a few key errors that anyone looking to reproduce your results should avoid. In the areas where you have needed to raise one pipe over another you used double 45's to create a saddle. While this is the right choice from a system efficiency and friction loss standpoint, having underground 45's like that can be a problem. You will not be able to sufficiently compact under the saddle and as a result the top pipe will sink over time as the ground settles. Even a tiny movement of the pipe with rigid lines can cause a failure - and the 45 saddle is a weak point for a failure. As much as having back to back 90 fittings is bad, they are able to take the compression of ground movement better than an unsupported 45. Again, amazing job...just want to lend some experience. One more thing worth mentioning is that when you have a pipe penetration through the shell it can be a good idea to 90 down immediately. If the rigid pipe comes straight out, again it has to endure the force of the ground settling around it. By turning the pipe down with a 90 you do increase the friction losses in he system but relieve this leverage point which is a known failure point in swimming pool design. I hope this info is helpful!
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So, Chris and I have been working hard and have finally come up with my final pool rendering. The pavers and coping aren't exactly the colors we are looking at, but everything else is pretty much exactly what we are looking at. This revision might look a lot like the last rendering I posted, but it is different. We added people into the rendering so we could get a better perspective of space, we reduced the patio size and slightly reduced the spa size. We also added a paver boarder around the patio. We are looking at approximately 1300 sq feet of patio, approx 600 sq ft of pool and a 48 sq ft spa. We are going to restart the bidding process with 3 builders and we hope to have construction started in the next 2-3 weeks!
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jubillee
Original Author
14 years ago
Here is today's progress. We formed up the layout and had the rock for the base delivered. I think the pool grew a little so we are probably pushing 700sf now. Dig and starting steel on Monday.

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kgolby
14 years ago
Which neighorhood are you in? I don't recognize the pond behind your house. I'm in Sawmill Pointe. We went w/ Clift & Co. They were great and built an absolutely beautiful pool.

Isn't it exciting when it finally starts? Hope the rain doesn't slow you down like it did us. Look forward to seeing more pictures.
Rack Etear
14 years ago
Jacksonville looks nothing like the rest of Florida.
jubillee
Original Author
14 years ago
Kara,
We don't actually live in JC Plantation. We live off San Jose on Warren Cir. It's the road that runs behind Broudy's liquor store. I've done business with Clift & Co. as a home builder and they do great work and are one of the more cost competitive PBs, so good choice there, Eric is a great guy & very knowledgable. We are digging tomorrow,so very excited :-)
Julie
jubillee
Original Author
14 years ago
Well, after a very exhausting 4 days, we managed to dig, steel, pass inspection and shotcrete all on schedule and in the rain. It has been a little stressful dealing with the rain, worried about cave-ins and mushy concrete, but all has worked out and on time. Here are the pics from the week.

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brentr_gw
14 years ago
Hi Guys, I am new to this also. We live on the North side of Jax and our pool starts tomorrow 07-13-09. It is going to be a very small pool, 10' x 20', 3.5ft to 4.5ft deep, pebble finish, small water fall 18" high, dolphin statute, pavers about 1100sq ft, fully screened in attached to our screened in room, salt water. I am wanting to have the pool heated but I am not sure what make and model heat pump to go with? I would appreciate your thoughts on this. PB tells us that we will be swimming the first week in August so we would need to decide on a heat pump soon. Thanks in advance
jubillee
Original Author
14 years ago
brentr,
Congrats on the new pool! I am not doing a heat pump immediately and therefore have not really researched them much. I am sure if you do a search on here for "heat pump" you will probably get lots of info. Keep us posted on your build.
Julie
kgolby
14 years ago
We went w/ the AquaCal H120. It's been so warm that we didn't need to use it once the pool was filled. The AquaCal always gets rave reviews so I think you would be safe going w/ this brand.
brentr_gw
14 years ago
jubillee,
this is a dumb question, but how do you post pics to this website. I would like to show pics of the pool installation.
Thanks in advance
jubillee
Original Author
14 years ago
brentr,
If you go to the gallery section of this forum, there are detailed directions on how to post photos. I use www.tinypic.com for mine. It seems the easiest for me.
jubillee
Original Author
14 years ago
Well I have not updated in a few days because I have been too busy to have a chance. The latest for today; the pool will be plastered and completed tomorrow, making it a three week project. The landscaping and gutters for the house were completed today. The marcite was delivered from supplier today and will be installed tomorrow. We start filling the pool tomorrow after marcite and will be swimming over the weekend. I will post some pictures tonight of the progress as of today and then I will start a new post tomorrow or Friday with the completed pictures of the pool. It just depends on how long the water fill up takes. It has been very time consuming and hard work doing it myself, but totally worth it in the end, especially to have it completed in 3 weeks. Can't wait for the weekend! :-)
jparkfire
14 years ago
I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures.
brentr_gw
14 years ago
Jubilee, we have started our thread, "New pool build in Jacksonville, FL" The PB says that we will have all the pavers installed tomorrow. Screen person will start on Thursday and PB says that he will have water in the pool on Friday. Honestly it is a lot in the next 3 days. lol.

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