January 23, 2001 - Construction Begins
I get up early and watch the news. Rain is on its way. "Hopefully it won't show up until tonight".
| The excavators show up about 7:00 a.m. They remove the fence panels and get ready to move the spa. Using four people, myself included, we try to move the spa to the new location. The thing is too damn heavy. Next we try and use parachute rope and the bobcat to hold up one end. We get the spa moved about 3 feet before the rope breaks. Finally the foreman, Greg, shows up. Now with 5 people we move the spa in stages to the temporary location along side of the house. |
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Sierra Pacific shows up to temporarily hold brace the patio cover so the entire patio could be removed. Seeing the extent of the construction, Sierra Pacific decides to wire the cover to the house from above the allow the posts to be removed. They have to make a run to Home Depot to get the needed materials.
Talking to Greg, he quotes that it is currently taking 5 weeks to finish the pools. Don is still saying 6 to 8 weeks.
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Next the excavators hook up the air punch to the front of the bobcat and start to beak up the spa pad. It turns out the spa pad was built to withstand an atomic blast! This ten-foot pad has 12-inch footings going 18 inches deep. The center is reinforced with rebar and wires. The whole crew was laughing at the amount of cement and rebar in the pad. The funny part was the footings were not reinforced with rebar. Underneath the spa pad was several inches of gravel and stone. |
| After the pad was broken up, they moved to the area of the patio that was not covered. The rest of the patio and sidewalks also contained rebar and wire. The excavation crew started to remove the broken concrete. Greg also pulls the spa electrical out of the conduit. |
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The solar crew returns to suspend the patio cover. Using eye hooks and reinforced cable, Sierra Pacific wires the patio cover to the house. The excavation crew finishes removing the already broken up concrete and has to wait until the overhang is wired up. |
| After the patio cover is reinforced and the posts have been moved to a
temporary location along side of the house, the excavation continues. Using the
air punch, they break up the rest of the patio and sidewalk.
After the concrete has been removed, they start to lay out the pool. During the layout, Don leaves to go to a meeting. Greg will handle the sign off. The pool is laid out and I approve the design. |
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At this point the weather, while overcast, is still cooperating. The excavators and Greg decide to start digging the pool. Greg leaves after I sign the design approval and the excavation starts. The bobcat makes quick work of digging the hole. Truckload after truckload of dirt is removed. Just as they finish the shallow end and have the deep end down to about 4 feet, the rain starts. They continue to dig. They finish the pool hole in the rain and it looks good. They clean up and go home. Day one is a success and we are happy with the results.
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January 24, 2001 - Day Two
The ground is muddy and saturated with water. Someone shows up and sets up a pump in the pool hole to remove the excess water.
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January 25, 2001 - Day Three Rain threatens again today. The plumbers show up about 9:00 a.m. and unload
their bobcat. I talked to one of the plumbers on the phone from work and he asks
if we are going to use the electrical conduit for the pool wiring. I respond yes
and he asks about the wire. I tell him the wire was pulled out. I also tell him
that I mentioned using the wire as a pull wire for the pool wire. He agrees that
it would have been easier but that the excavators wouldn't have thought of it. I
told him that I mentioned it to Greg the foreman not the excavators. The plumber
comments that I shouldn't tell the foreman how to do things because he will just
do the opposite. The plumbers use the bobcat with a backhoe attachment to dig
trenches throughout the yard. They hook up all of the pipes and pressurize the
system. |
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| I arrive home for lunch and the plumbers are already gone. I call Susan the scheduler to find out when they will be filling in the trenches. I want to add my own water, electrical, and drainage pipe in the trenches. She says the deck crew will fill in the trenches and I can put whatever pipe I want to in the trenches after the first inspection. | |
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The gunite crew shows up to "flash" the pool. Flashing consists of spraying a thin layer of gunite on the walls and floor to keep it from caving in. Just as the gunite crew finishes and is cleaning up, the rain starts to fall. The wind kicks up and the rain is coming down hard. Sierra Pacific shows up to strap the overhang down to make sure it isn't damaged in the wind.
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January 26, 2001 - Day Four The sun is shining today. There is still a possibility of rain in late morning and afternoon. No action around the pool until around 12 noon. The steel crew pulls up in a single pickup truck loaded with rebar. A crew of two, they unload the truck and climb down into the pool. They bend all of the steel by hand and form the walls and floor of the pool. After four hours of work, the hole is looking more like a pool.
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January 27, 2001 - Day Five
It's Saturday, and nobody works on Saturday…. except me. Using a pick and shovel I replace some of the drainage pipe that was destroyed when they removed the patio.
January 28, 2001 - Day Six
Typical Sunday… no work is done. Not to mention it is Superbowl Sunday and everyone would rather party!
January 29, 2001 - Day Seven
Rain again. What a downpour. Even though it stops shortly after sunrise, the trenches are all full of water. The electrician is pushed back until tomorrow. This past weekend when I was looking at the trenches, I noticed the trench for the spa electrical is on the wrong side of the spa. To help prevent problems hooking up the spa, I leave a message for the electrician in the permit packet telling him that the electrical needs to be moved to the other side of the spa. I also give Susan the scheduler a call and let her know we may need to have the plumbers out to re-dig the trench to the spa.
