The French Drain has been installed around the pool base and has been tied in (as far as I know) to that of the driveway retaining wall. It’s at this point that you realize exactly how much trust you have to have in your contractor and in the subcontractors. There is not a lot you can do about the subs unless you REALLY don’t like who’s on site or unless you want to very much micromanage the project. Our commitment to this project was predicated on a number of factors but high among those was our confidence that the two primaries on this project – Rich from DC Enclosures and Scott from DesJoyaux pools – were trustworthy and competent. We have visited sites and spoken with people who have worked with both companies and with Rich and Scott in particular.
If you are going to do this on the cheap, or you think you need to keep an eye on things because you are worried about cut corners, the only way you are going to do that is to either work from home and endure MANY interruptions or take time off work and oversee the project. S
Anyway, today back filling began, you can see that there is no longer a gap around the pool
Okay, maybe a small gap where they haven’t quite finished laying down and tamping the layers of dirt around the outside of the pool. Note in the picture below that the East wall is now gone from the current screened patio.
The air conditioner has found a new home, out of sight and hopefully out of hearing too…
From ground level you can see that the filter unit is still the most prominent feature of the pool wall. Those black hoses to the right of the filter unit are the Fastlane hydraulic hoses.
Driving the bobcat up and down the driveway is providing some de facto tamping which will help prevent later settling. Note the conspicuous absence of the air conditioner. It used to be between those two upright brown pillars.
Below is the retaining wall from our neighbor’s side. We will be tinting this a brown color of his choosing to try to make it aesthetically pleasing. Of course the change from “rotting pressure treated wood” to “solid retaining wall” is enough to have him very pleased with the work as it is. Note the holes in the wall that provide additional protection against hydraulic build up should the French drain become blocked or prove inadequate to the task.
That large pile of dirt is now starting to shrink as more and more of it is hauled back for back filling and, next, to build the driveway back up.
Inside the house, our small, maxed out 20-spot electric panel has been replaced with a larger 30 spot unit. Even though we have verified that the feed from the street can handle a 200 amp load, the feed from the meter to our existing unit is only rated at 150 amps so we elected to not upgrade to the greater capacity at this time. Even though our electricity needs are greater in many ways than were those of people in the 70’s (Computers, large screen TVs, room lighting) most of those items are so efficient these days that the actual consumption has increased only minimally.
2012 Home Renovations – Part 12 – Retaining walls revealed
2012 Home Renovations – Part 14 -Backfill of pool retaining wall complete