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Day 91 - I took 1/2 day off of work to go to Irwin Stone
to pick up Bluestone to make sure they had the material to proceed with
the re-construction. We were certainly weary on how this would turn
out. They did come back the next day and did all the demo work and had
a couple tiles sitting on the top of the hot tub, so it was looking
promising.
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Day 91 - Further demo work would have to be done since all 4 buttons would have to be cut since they were already glued in. |
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Day 91 - Another view of the demo work. Thursday and Friday went by and the pool company was a no-show, so we weren't getting any plaster next week in our pool. Lana had texted Mike several times asking when they were coming back with no responses. She then told Mike that I would proceed with it with no comments back. She sent a text again and finally got the regular "k" text message back. |
Day 93 - I decided to do the work on the coping. I've never done any outside coping but have done plenty of tile work inside. I had smashed my finger the night before so I was working at 50%. |
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Day 93 - This was an extremely difficult task trying
to fit the tile around the circular cement that was just poured. It
would certainly be a challenge.
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Day 93 - After a few tiles have already been installed |
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Day 93 - After a full 10 hour day, I successfully cut
all the Bluestone and mortared it in and it turned out pretty well for
an amateur job. One day I say to complete the entire coping for the
hot tub. Tomorrow I'll complete the grout and tile below the coping
that was never placed in.
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Day 94 - Sunday morning and my finger was throbbing. Continued to work on it and my finger nail was close to being removed. It was a real bad smash. I've still to-date only have a 1/2 finger nail growing back. This is a picture of the tile already grouted and tile placed under the coping on the left side of the hot tub. |
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Day 94 - I was proud of what I had completed given the
restraints. I had completed the entire coping area in 2 full days. It
took them 12 days to do the original work and that was part of the problem
- never having enough material or equipment to complete the coping on
the hot tub and resultantly achieving an undersirable result.
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Day 94 - Another view at it |
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Day 94 - This will be an acceptable coping job to look at. The one interesting thing. I had problems with 1 of the buttons and had lost it. We asked Mike to replace one button and to-date he can't find a replacement. I found one in an Australian pool store. It arrived and was a perfect match. It cost $54 for a normal $15 part due to shipping. Mike had provided a different button that didn't match the other 3 and told us we were out of luck. At the same time, after it was completed, he had talked to Lana on the phone and asked whether I had used a binder in the mortar when I made the mortar. I find it really interesting that he would ask after the fact instead of telling me before the fact. It was always like a competition with this pool builder which is very irritating. I would think it would be in his best interest in getting everything to our liking. Oh, to the contrary in both of our opinions. |
Day 98 - Three of the four buttons are attaced on the
tub and all the tile was grouted by the Pool Company.
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Day 98 - Chub had come over this morning to clean everything up prior to today's plaster work. |
Day 98 - As clean as it ever looked. You'll notice I
had placed stones at intervals at the outside edge of the wall. These
were placed here primarily for areas where the bottom wall was close
to the same level as the top of the concrete. They weren't in the ground
deep enough. When they poured the gunnite, Mike assured me they could
go up an extra inch. That didn't happen so there were spots where the
walls could cause problems. We placed stones to support the bottom wall
row. Next spring, we'll probably replace these white stone with cut
celtik walls to eliminate the big contrast.
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Day 98 - One last look at the clean hot tub.
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Day 98 - An overall view of the pool construction to-date |
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Day 98 - The crew arrives. This truck has a mixer at
the back with a pump. They mix all the mortar with bags of sand and
mortar and water. It's pumped into the pool where the other crew smooths
the plaster.
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Day 98 - Preparation work, placing all the pool parts in the pool prior to plastering the pool. |
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Day 98 - A crew of 3 mixing the concrete
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Day 98 - They began by spraying the entire hot tub. |
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Day 98 - The spray looks quite thin, but after they
smooth it out, it appears there is plenty to do the job.
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Day 98 - They enter the hot tub with these spiked shoes
and begin trowling the mixture.
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Day 98 - Now they get into the pool and start doing
the walls initially.
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Day 98 - Soon after a little spraying everyone gets
into the act of troweling. They begin with spiked shoes.
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Day 98 - Quickly the pool is covered with the first
coat of plaster.
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Day 98 - They are very quick to get the entire pool
smoothed. It was pretty impressive to watch the procedure.
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Day 98 - One guy left in the pool and everyone else
done for the day. They took about 3 hours to complete the entire pool
with a crew of about 10.
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Day 98 - Once the pool is completed, they need to run water on the plaster until the pool is completely filled. You'll notice how many leaves are already in the pool after a couple hours. Just not the right time for a pool to get plastered. |
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Day 98 - The pool water has arrived and they're filling
up the hot tub first.
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Day 98 - The pool water guy showed up on a whim since
he lived down the street and asked if the pool needed water yet. Mike
was supposed to have called him but didn't. He started delivering water.
Who knows how long it would have taken. It's just amazing sometimes
to experience the inability to do simple tasks.
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Day 98 - Hot tub full and pool about 1/4 full.
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Day 98 - There is an awful lot of water needed to fill
this pool up.
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Day 98 - The pool is almost completely filled.
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Day 98 - Lana is already raking leaves up.
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Day 98 - Another issue. Since we have an electric pool
cleaner, they never hooked up the extra pool piping. They ran it below,
but never plugged it, so when the pool was filled above that line, the
pond pump house had flooded over our existing pond pump. We discovered
this about an hour after the pool was filled, so the pump was already
submerged and not running. We lost a $600 pond pump over the fact that
someone didn't plug each end of the pipe - UGH!!!
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Day 98 - He backed this rig right into our driveway.
Not an easy task.
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