They say the devil is in the details and there are a whole lot of little details that are being dealt with both by the contractors and by Michelle and me.
Final decisions have to be made for the color of the concrete and the way we want it cut – we’re doing a stamped concrete deck and we can have just about any size and orientation “tile” look cut into it.
More germane to the actual pour is the actual finish for the coping around the pool. The forms that were provided from DesJoyaux were pretty attractive but not very flexible. I saw the resulting corners at another of their installations and did not like how it had to be implemented. We’ve opted for more of a rounder, quasi-bull-nose-that-tapers-at-the-bottom design that also will offer the flexibility to allow the kind of corners I think will complement the pool nicely.
Final position for the Bar-B-Que has to be determined now since that will drive where the gas fitting will be placed in the deck.
Starting with the usual patio shots, you can see the forms for the pool stairs have been added
Below you can see a tiny white piece of the coping form now attached to the pool kitty corner to the ladder to help us visualize what the final edge will look like. Note that the gas line has now been buried. I’m still a bit concerned, the line was pressurized to 15 psi on Sunday and it’s now down to 13.5 psi. The gas line is one of the few lines that we are NOT laying down in a pipe. I need to ask Rich why this is so at our meeting tomorrow.
The deco drain has been laid around the perimeter of the deck and tied in to the drainage pipes leading to the new catch basins. In the top left of the picture the final location of the drain for the downspout that will come off the super gutter has been determined.
A closer view of the stairs. The top two stairs are 16 inches deep. The first is that size because it seems less daunting to have such a big stair when you’re stepping into the pool, the second because we anticipate using it to sit on a lot. Michelle has the idea that this is where people will want to hang out. The final two stairs are utilitarian only and are just a foot deep each.
As I look at the design I have a mild pang of regret that we did not put the stairs in the middle of the pool directly accessible as you walk out from the shaded part of the patio. But Michelle wanted the stairs to be very wide, and the small change of putting the stairs there would have resulted in about 4 more feet needing to be carved out of the hill. Which would likely have required a taller retaining wall, etc, etc. So we ended up compromising and I think the resulting location will work well.
The obligatory overview shot lets you see the deco drains in context. The deck will be gently sloped away from the pool all around to feed these rather than having the dust from the deck swept into the pool every time it rains.
Here we see the design of the patio transitioning to the walkway and again to the ramp up to the shed
elegantly formed and ready for the pour
2012 Home Renovations – Part 16 – Pool deck area ready for pouring, All patio walls removed
2012 Home Renovations – Part 18 – Finally, the deck pour