Florida Block-Pool Build

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timjs

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Nov 6, 2018
75
Jacksonville
Hello all,
I'm new here. (well, apparently I registered years ago and never posted)
I have owned my home since 2013, and its had the 1980s pool in the backyard (swamp-style) this whole time.
It's a poly walled vinyl liner pool. It's completely beyond repair in every way possible. I'll be demoing this pool, and building a CMU block, vinyl liner pool within the existing excavation.

I'm in the planning stages, please read the following and voice any comments or concerns?

• The existing pool is 3.5ft deep, to about 7 or 8ft on the deep end. Its an ovalized rectangle in shape, max interior dimensions are about 17ft by 27ft.
I'd like to use as much of the existing excavation as possible, so my current idea on final dimensions are 28ft (21 blocks) long, 17.3ft (13 blocks) wide, and 5ft deep (8 courses tall).

• I may leave the existing hopper mostly intact, as I intend to use it for ground water control. This is why I am not sloping the floor of this pool, and plan to go 5ft all the way across.
Ground water in my yard is a HUGE problem. For the dry season, the hopper always has a few feet of water in the bottom. In the wet season, like NOW, the pool fills up to about 2ft below grade. This is actual ground water level.. after a week of rain the pool will actually fill into the skimmer and the yard holds water all over, it's bad.
So having a "built in" well point directly under the pool will be very important.

• Sand/cement mixture for the pool base

• Concrete footing, I'm leaning towards 12"x12" reinforced concrete.

• Blocks will be either dry stacked or mortared, haven't decided. Bottom course just mortared, not wet set into the footing which I don't see being necessary. Vertical bar in every core, horizontal rebar every other course. Maybe a bond beam up top, haven't decided.

I'll attach a couple photos of the current disaster.

Thoughts? -Tim20220722_183030.jpg20220722_183101.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hiya Tim..... I just want to share an older owner build pool in case any of it is helpful to you? We'd love for you to keep us updated to your progress in this thread :)

An unusual pool build

On this cold, dreary day in NC, I hope you find this pool build interesting. My goal was to build a pool with the skills I was capable of.....that eliminated plaster and gunite. Also, I really like some characteristics of a vinyl pool so I ended up with this hybrid. I did virtually all this...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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YippeeSkippy said:
Hiya Tim..... I just want to share an older owner build pool in case any of it is helpful to you? We'd love for you to keep us updated to your progress in this thread :)

An unusual pool build

On this cold, dreary day in NC, I hope you find this pool build interesting. My goal was to build a pool with the skills I was capable of.....that eliminated plaster and gunite. Also, I really like some characteristics of a vinyl pool so I ended up with this hybrid. I did virtually all this...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
Click to expand...
Hi, thanks for the reply!
Actually, this whole thing is HIGHLY inspired by the likes of duraleigh, Pipe Rat, and others. Incredible builds.
I'm pretty sure I've found every thread on this website related to "cinder", "block", and "cmu". I'll absolutely document the progress. I just need this time (waiting for the wet season to end) to make a solid plan.
 
Newdude said:
OK you got me. I'm a sucker for these. :)

Best wishes and ask away at any time.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I'm excited to build this pool. It's been a long time coming. One very big push is homeowners insurance, the damaged pool is a liability and insurance is already hard to get here.

For anyone with block pool experience, what would your recommendation be for the wall footing?
I won't be doing a monolithic footing/flooring pour, because that's a lot of work for DIY. I can pour my own footings but the floor will be done afterwards using cement/sand mixture.
This entire build will be DIY, no contractors needed.
 
My footing was 8"x12" with vertical rebar inserted down into the footing about every 8 feet. The wall blocks were dry stacked over the vertical rebar and then pea gravel concrete was used to fill the walls. Three rows of horizontal rebar as you are planning.

Overkill? Almost certainly!

But after about 18 years, I have yet to see even a hairline crack
 
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duraleigh said:
My footing was 8"x12" with vertical rebar inserted down into the footing about every 8 feet. The wall blocks were dry stacked over the vertical rebar and then pea gravel concrete was used to fill the walls. Three rows of horizontal rebar as you are planning.

Overkill? Almost certainly!

But after about 18 years, I ha
Click to expand...
I was hoping you would stop by! I didnt even consider using CMU blocks to build a pool until I saw your thread a while back. Then I realized it really is the more cost effective way to do this if you have the right skill stack. I need to figure out what kind of liner track I need that will work with CMU walls.
Remind me, did you fill every core column with the concrete? Or just the cores with the vertical rebar every 8 ft?
kimkats said:
In for this one!!!
Click to expand...
I'll do my best to entertain! Lots of photos. I WISH I could start the demo process now. Waiting for ground water to recede is such a bummer.
 
The liner track is fastened with adhesive and masonry screws. It is shaped like the capitol letter "F" with both horizontal lines being of equal length. The bead on the liner simply inserts in between the horizontal lines of the track. It never leaked enough water to detect it.



Perhaps the most controversial thing I did was place this track 3" underwater so the liner NEVER gets UV to deteriorate it. The liner lasted 15 years and finally just got cut and patched (darn kids! ;)) too many times but, without exposure to UV, it never got brittle.

New liner was placed last year in exactly the same track.
 
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duraleigh said:
The liner track is fastened with adhesive and masonry screws. It is shaped like the capitol letter "F" with both horizontal lines being of equal length. The bead on the liner simply inserts in between the horizontal lines of the track. It never leaked enough water to detect it.



Perhaps the most controversial thing I did was place this track 3" underwater so the liner NEVER gets UV to deteriorate it. The liner lasted 15 years and finally just got cut and patched (darn kids! ;)) too many times but, without exposure to UV, it never got brittle.

New liner was placed last year in exactly the same track.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that info. I remember your underwater liner bead design, it worked a treat for you no doubt.

As I'm in that planning phase, I'm looking at potential ways to incorporate a mechanized pool cover of some kind. One that will keep rain and debris out of the pool, not one that just dumps everything into the water when it is opened.

We have a lot of trees (see photo) and my neighbors on both sides of me spend several hours a week cleaning their pools out when they could be swimming.
I figure if I'm going to have a cover, which is basically a necessity, I should design it into the construction as it's being built, not tack it on as an afterthought later.
While googling I see some really cool domed enclosures with segments that slide into one another, how neat is that? That would serve to shed all rain and debris off onto the deck where it would stay out of the water. Knowing myself, I'll design something overly complicated with chains, pulleys, and 300 hinges. Cant wait.
 

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I was afraid to "fit" 90 degree corners plus the cleaning of those corners is problematic. I actually made a steel form with a 2' radius for my corners. The liner then fit without an issue
 
duraleigh said:
I was afraid to "fit" 90 degree corners plus the cleaning of those corners is problematic. I actually made a steel form with a 2' radius for my corners. The liner then fit without an issue
Click to expand...
I took another look through your build thread, fantastic idea on the steel forms. I take it you still have hard 90s where the walls meet the floor though, right? Also around the steps for that matter?
I'm not very familiar with vinyl pools so I'm trying to design in a way that I can have minimal fuss fitting a liner when the time comes. I'm just not educated on how well liners fit into tight corners.
 
The poolcrete installation was brought up the side wall to form a 6" radius cove. That worked well, too.

Hard 90's where the steps met the pool floor.

Since I covered the steps with the pool liner, it was a big PITA getting them right. They fit ok but not great. The new liner (6 months ago) was done by a professional builder and his measurements were close to perfect.......much better than mine.
 
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duraleigh said:
The poolcrete installation was brought up the side wall to form a 6" radius cove. That worked well, too.

Hard 90's where the steps met the pool floor.

Since I covered the steps with the pool liner, it was a big PITA getting them right. They fit ok but not great. The new liner (6 months ago) was done by a professional builder and his measurements were close to perfect.......much better than mine.
Click to expand...
Gotcha. I'm expecting a bit of compromise on fitment, just want to minimize issues.

I do have another thing to ponder/plan around though.. see a pool cover is 100% required and my initial intentions are to incorporate tracks for an auto cover into the design. (between the block, and the coping) I don't want the deck mounted track, I think it's unsightly. My only issue is the track is obviously straight, but radiused corners to accommodate a liner would be... curved. I'm sure there's a simple solution staring me in the face though.
 
I decided that a 6" radius is a good compromise in order to have an auto cover and also have a better fitting liner.
@duraleigh Do you have any recommendations as far as steps go? I'll be building them out of concrete filled blocks, similar to yours but I want full width steps that span the pool and the top step will be a tanning ledge. Are there any best practices? Any provisions for some type of liner bead lock or something like that? I'm worried the liner will want to slide off the steps or float, specifically the top step under maybe 6" of water.
 
They won't float.......don't worry. Mine stayed in place with little movement. They do make some step hold downs that you could see online (I think) or perhaps talk to a vinyl pool installer for his input
 
The weather has been relatively dry, and the ground water level is now 4 ft deep. I'm tempted to start DIGGIN! I'm going to be patient though because it's still August and I'm no fool. We haven't seen the last of the heavy rains just yet.

I did however change plans a bit. I want some extra length, so I'm drawing up 16x32ft. Also, instead of a constant 5ft depth, I think it's better to go from 6 courses (about 4ft deep) down to 10 courses ( over 6.5ft deep).
This would require a stepped footer which I've never done before, BUT, I'm sure I can handle it.
Also considering 6" wide CMUs instead of the standard 8" blocks only because they are significantly less expensive.
 
6" cmu's would be nice to work with. I'm a little surprised they are cheaper.

I had 2 step downs. I suggest you "overlap" the footer by about 12-18 inches where you step down and bend some rebar to make that extra strong. Overkill, I am sure, but pretty inexpensive.
 
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