El Duderino,

I like your format. I'm also in Austin, so watching with interest.

Seems like a very interesting pool. I didn't see any details on the pool on the other link.

Can you give us some details?

Who is doing your pool?

Barco, I would rather keep my pool builder's name out of public forums for the time being.

I am also tracking the build on trouble free pool forum. Not sure if you're active over there, but they have a proper forum with Private Messaging (PM), etc.

I have the same user name over there.

For some reason, I can't "submit" a reply with a photo attached? I can preview but the submit button does nothing. Any pointers?

Are you using a site, such as photobucket? Because they will show up if you link them correctly. When I post pics, they show up in the preview screen (that way I know I'm using the correct coding).

It shows up correctly in the preview, but when I hit submit, nothing happens.

For those who haven't followed my personal build diary (in my signature), here are some pics of where we are to date. We just completed 8 days of excavation! After getting through all the rock, they are working on forming and according to plan, we will have steel and plumbing done by the end of the week. Things are really starting to take shape!

I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. I have looked at your blog site, and it's cool how you are working with the natural terrain.

The updates have been a bit slow. The next major phase is Shotcrete (Gunite) on Tuesday. However subtle, the pool is really starting to take shape.

Miles of pipe...literally. There are over 7 miles of pipe in this pool.

Looks awesome!

Do you have any pics from the lower end?

There are over 7 miles of pipe in this pool.

Sorry dude .. but 36,000 feet of pipe is a bit much to digest ... either you're counting all the pipe that gets the water from it's source to your particular house ... or the 7 mile figure is hyperbole ... or you're going to have to elaborate a bit ..

leonard, LOL...pretty funny when you put it into that context. I need to revisit that figure with my PB...I believe that is what he said. I obviously got my wires crossed.

tsunami, I'll see if I have a pic to post from the other side. If not, I'll get one and put it on here.

Here is a pic from the other side of the pool. This is peeking over the forms into the basin. The decking at this level will be even with the top of the forms and is 3 feet down from the level where the dog is standing. That level is 2 feet below the raised beam at the top of the pool with the water sheers. And finally, that level is about 2 feet below the tree area and will have a retaining wall separating them.

Should I be concerned with the light that high on the negative edge wall and in that location? All of the other lights face away from the house. There are 3 in the main pool, one in the spa and one in the basin and I believe they are Xenon type lights. My PB said that these lights produce more of a "glow" than a bright light, so I shouldn't be concerned with it where it is.

Also, anyone in the Austin area want to come take my neighbor's play house out? They want it out (as do we). I asked the forming guys if they would be interested in taking it out and they gave me a price. I haven't shared it with the neighbor yet, but my guess is she will flip out when I tell her :-)

Dude ... what's the status on your build

I REALLY need to update...I just realized how dated my pics are. We were shotcreted 2 weeks ago. They poured the main deck, and are supposed to form the other two decks this week to pour on Saturday.

We have run into a few issues, which I've detailed on my personal blog, that are being resolved.

Right now, we're in a bit of a holding pattern until the decks are formed and poured. Once that is done, they will move forward with the coping and stone decking (we made a change request, so that now all of our decking will be natural stone vs. stained concrete).

Things are moving along, not as quickly as I would like, but I made a conscious decision to slow things down a bit after a few mistakes popped up from rushing to the scheduled shotcrete date.

I'll try to post some updated pics later today.

Thanks for asking :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: pool in process

El Duderino,

Are you still moving forward? That pool didn't slide into the hill country did it? I miss the updates on your blog. Please let us know if you're done with your build.

Thanks for asking. Things have actually been moving at a crawl. The coping is pretty much done and the masons have been (slowly) working on all the stonework. We're not in any rush, but there is always the anxiety that comes with just getting it finished, even if it is freezing outside.

I've been slow to update, but will try to get some updated pics up over the next few days.

Here is the latest pics. Sorry, but it's a bit dreary today in Austin, with lots of fog. The lack of sun in the pics is somewhat compensated for by the moisture in the air and ground, which shows the color of the Leuders Stone.

{{!gwi}}

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Here is a link that might be useful: my pool build

OMG

It looks fantastic! Love the deck!

nutbunch,

Thank you so much! We're excited. The lack of responses I get to this thread worries me sometimes :-)

Hopefully, it's just an inactive time of year and not specific to our pool thread!

I'm with nutbunch Dude ... the deck looks awesome (so does the pool). We had the deck on our covered patio done in select flagstone ... it was amazing watching the stone masons ply their trade, the work they do is an art form.

Definitely amazing craftsmanship that goes into the masonry.

We chose Leuders Stone, which is somewhat hard to come by, so we are very happy seeing the end result.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

It's beautiful!

Thanks. I've learned a lot from watching everyone else's builds on here. I'm very thankful for all the information I've learned from this forum, so hopefully someone can get an idea or question answered from our experience.

They are working hard today (Saturday), so I'm hoping they'll get the grout done. I think it will look much better once they grout and seal.

I'll post updated pic once they are done with the decks.

I can't update pics at the moment (firewall), but wanted to let everyone know that I have quite a few updated pics on my blog.

I will get pics updated later this evening.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Pool Build

Hi there,

Boy are you going to hate me. I absolutely LOVE the design of your pool and SPA BUT that shiny glass you have on the spa is better to be torn up. Here is why. It looks like you need to step over a bit of water from the lower pool to get into the spa. When that glass gets wet, you will SLIP and kill yourself. Trust me on this -- I have 2 friends who have surrounded themselves with tile and glass around their spa. They have both had accidents falling and both are discussing replacing the surfaces with natural stone (like your coping). I would highly recommend making the change no matter how spectacular it looks! Katherine

sdkath - I have to respectfully disagree with you. My next door neigbor has a glass spa (seat and all) and I don't find it slippery at all. Other tiles seem to get slippery, but for some reason the glass I've seen doesn't. It is often used in bathrooms and showers for this reason.

BTW, El Duderino, I think your design choices are great! Glad to see you're getting so close to completion.

Hey Dude!!
The pool is looking great and I love the flagstone. I have a flagstone overlay pattern around the pool deck and then real flagstone (laid it myself) around the retaining wall patio deck at the lake.
I saw that the Big L was being re-released the other day and thought of your pool blog...did a little research on the Big L and now understand why it is your favorite movie :)

Thanks for the kind words!

Katherine, I was very concerned about the glass myself. When I voiced this to my PB, they showed me many pools/spas they've done with glass (including their own), and I was surprised that they weren't more slippery. I don't know if it's all the grout or what, but they don't seem to have the issue you speak of. There are a lot of glass tile pools out there, and they don't seem to be unusually slippery either. I will make sure we're extra careful, but I don't think we're going to jackhammer the glass tile up just yet :-)

First time I looked at your pix/blog, yours is a fabulous pool design for the site. It reminds me a bit of "birdbaths'" pool. I love the glass tiles you chose. We get to work around lots of high end projects and I've never heard of anyone with problems with glass tiles or slipping on the small ones. The grout lines are a natural break. I've seen it in baths as well as pools. Very nice color selection, enjoy. Can't wait to see finished project..........Barb

Our POOL is done! For updated pics, my Blog is current (http://theaustindude.blogspot.com/)

There are still lots of other things to finish up, including the cabana, bathroom, landscaping, etc.

However, we got plastered yesterday and we're full of water. I "cheated" getting water into the pool, so it only took about 15 hours to fill up. Let's just say doing my own irrigation work has it's advantages.

While we're far from done, there is a great sense of closure to finally have water. Our build has had a few challenges along the way, but we are very happy the way things are turning out. Can't wait to get the yard back together and get some warmer weather!

I will update pics here, but as I've stated before, I'm unable to do that during the day.

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Finished Pool

Awesome, that is some serious grade you had to deal with. Which part of town are you in?

Pix with the Negative edge please.. Looking Great!

Thanks! We live in NW Austin...serious grade indeed, and all rock!

I think even our pool builders underestimated the grade by a few feet, hence the retaining wall on other side of the basin. The original plan was to just grade the soil up that point and down to the fence, but it was way too steep and quickly washed out necessitating the natural stone retaining wall. I don't think I have any pics of that. It's not the most beautiful thing in the world, but we felt good that it actually used the stone from our excavation, so we didn't need to bring in new material and didn't need to be hauled off and dumped in a landfill somewhere. Hopefully, the HOA will have the same sentiment upon final inspection!

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Build

Very cool!! Congrats. As a fellow Austinite, I've followed your build closely. Who was your pool builder?

BTW, I really enjoy your blog. Love the music references :-)

Congratulations and Happy Swimming! The pics you took on your blog look great! So glad to see you are happy with your finished product. We are south of you in New Braunfels wistfully waiting for ours to warm up. It's sitting @ 66 now... but hey, drinks by the pool work until then...

We're at 71 degrees right now, a few degrees warmer than Barton Springs!! Of course, when the weather isn't super warm that doesnt' really matter.

Today we got our equipment turned on. The water scuppers exceeded my expectations.

Pictures on the blog.

Thanks everyone for all the support.

Exit2, I have yet to disclose my pool builder. I've been holding out until we're completed before I give my endorsement or dismissal. Right now, I wouldn't learn towards the latter, but I would have some advice I would offer before signing with my current PB.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pool Build

Your pool is so beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

Dude,

My lovely bride and I were in Austin this weekend ... marrying off our son out at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Looks like your build is coming together in perfect time for your family to begin enjoying.

It really looks great .... now comes the good part.

Leonard,

Having watched your build throughout, I really appreciate that.

It was indeed a beautiful weekend in Austin! My wife and oldest son were the first to swim on Friday night. I didn't have the courage until yesterday. Amazing what digging a sprinkler trench will do!

71 degree water wasn't too bad.

For those familiar with DiamondBrite finishes, how long until we can put the sweep in? It seems like something moving along the bottom stirring up all the debris would be a good thing. Find it hard to believe a pressure side cleaner could do too much damage to that plaster!

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Build

"Posted by poolguynj (My Page)
Pix with the Negative edge please.. Looking Great!"

I would also be intersted in seeing some pictures of the negative edge. Do you have any from the other side?

We've had water now for a week. So far so good. I'm anxious to get the Polaris in there and start cleaning things up. The oaks are all dropping their leaves right now for Spring, so it's a mess for sure.

Brushing is going okay, just seems to move the dirt around and doesn't really seem to do much for exposing the aggregate on the diamondbrite. In fact, the DB looks worse than it did a week ago.

If anyone has any encouraging words about the aggregate exposing itself more evenly, I would love to hear it. Rain over the last few days has kept the brushing to a minimum, but doesn't seem to have much effect one way or the other.

Trying to get the plumber out here to finish the gas hookup so we can use the spa on this COLD (for Austin in March) weekend! Apparently, they don't work in the rain.

http://theaustindude.blogspot.com/

Here is a link that might be useful: The Pool

Dude,

Watch the pH! Keep it at about 7.2 to 7.4 for best results. Expect to use several gallons of muriatic acid during the first month. It'll take about 6 to 12 months to completely cure and all the while, it will continue to raise the pH, rapidly at first and slowing as time passes.

1st week is 2X brushing daily with skimmers off for an hour after brushing then 1x per day for the next 3 weeks. No pool sweeps for 3 weeks lest you get track marks when the sweep tries to climb and loses traction. No swimming either. Let the DB harden!

No chlorine or algaecide until after the 1st week, then start adding chlorine. No algaecide or stabilizer for the 1st month.

Watch the pressure in the filter. It will rise as it catches the dust you sweep off.

You don't want to have to do an in-water acid bath. That would mean more brushing again and no using the pool until the bath has achieve the desired exposure and has been neutralized and rebalanced.