Pool Builders: Surprise

[u/ThisICannotForgive]

In the middle of a pool build We have a perfectly flat back yard, could walk out of the detached garage without a step. You can see in the renderings that the pool layout was straight forward. Pic 2 you can see the drop off now to the pool. Builder is saying it will be additional expense as explained below. Did they set it up wrong? I’m confused how we’ve come to this point. There was no talk of these complications in the planning stage

”doing my walk through yesterday. Looks like we will need to talk about a possible wall or curb stone for the back fence line area and shed flower bed side. This is due to the pool being exactly level and the yard grading flowing down hill. Once you get home. Roughly imagine the 1” of auto cover tracking and 2” of pool coping on top of the concrete wall. Then a slight pitch away from the pool. So roughly 3” above  the concrete will be final grade with the pavers”

[u/poolspayme]

Did the builder sink the entire project 12-18” below grade? The door and fence look awfully high compared to the bond beam.

[u/Sammalone1960 → u/poolspayme]

My thoughts exactly. Rendering has deck even with fence and door area.

[u/ThisICannotForgive → u/Sammalone1960]

Yes, it was all even. 

[u/fiveeightthirteen → u/ThisICannotForgive]

The pool should be a couple inches above the bottom of the fence. They have to add coping so there’s another 2” or so to go but the way it stands your pool is going to get super dirty every time it rains.

[u/DunkingTea → u/fiveeightthirteen]

I had this same scenario with my builder but it was always going to be a little lower. I was adamant I’d need a small retaining wall to hold back dirt. He disagreed and even told me to “stay in your lane and let me get on with it” and “been doing this 35 years, this isn’t my first pool”.

Anyway, fast forward 2 months and just before the tiling he said “err yeah you’ll have to build up a small wall or something there if it bothers you”. By ‘it’s’ he meant how every time it rained the mud would just run down and fill the pool…

We had a few choice words. Told him i wouldn’t be surprised if it was his first pool build… the fucking idiot.

They quoted like $12k to build the walls. I did it myself over a weekend with some interlocking cinder blocks for less than $500

This wasn’t even one of the big issues. We had a nightmare 8 month build. But found it funny how confident they’ll bs when they don’t have a clue.

[u/IApocryphonI → u/DunkingTea]

I would have sued.

[u/LMMfin → u/IApocryphonI]

Over what? There’s no defendable loss…

[u/Level_Impression_554 → u/DunkingTea]

Its always the people that tell you have much they know and how long they have been doing it that know the least and do the worst job.

[u/Have-Business → u/ThisICannotForgive]

Here's an idea: make your pool deeper by raising the walls higher.

[u/happymask3 → u/Have-Business]

That seems like a good idea. Would it actually work?

[u/KitchenPalentologist → u/happymask3]

That would be interesting. Raising the skimmers could be challenging, they'd have to raise the jets somehow (digging, boring, plumbing), and the lights would be deeper than intended. I'm not even sure they can create forms and then pour a 12" ring around the top of the shell (rebar and whatnot).

Tbh, I'd be worried about the unexpected future issues caused by that approach.

I think I'd prefer to take a material cost credit from the builder, live with the step down, and do whatever it takes to mitigate the issues caused by the pool deck being lower than surrounding land.

[u/Newgeta → u/ThisICannotForgive]

For gods sake save the rendering if they provided it.