Restore an Old Inground Pool and Patio

Well as I write we have starting filling the Pool and our grandson Taylor and neighbours' son Romeo are already in and playing. 
This project has been a long time coming.

This is what the pool looked like last year when we came back to Texas after nearly 15 years of Renters. 

I was in total shock.

This was the only project we were going to do when we got back as we had a contractor for the house remodel. 

Well if you have been following the blog from the beginning you will remember that we fired the contractor and took on the whole project by ourselves. 

So the pool has pretty much been on hold for nearly a year.

We did however have the old pool cap and patio removed and had a new concrete cap poured and we all know how that turned out...a complete disaster thanks to Clarence the concrete contractor...

You can check out the project on the concrete in week 4 and 5 since I really don't want to go back to it since it really was money down the drain..

http://theoutpost-jackied.blogspot.com/2011/06/week-4-of-remodel-home-and-dont-divorce.html

http://theoutpost-jackied.blogspot.com/2011/07/week-5-of-remodel-home-and-dont-divorce.html

After the whole concrete fiasco back in June 2011 nothing was done again until March 2012 although we did have from time to time a few critters in and out of the pool.

Squirrels

Frogs

And then my all time favorite...Rocky the Raccoon

So on the 10th of March George and our Neighbour Jess started to empty all the nasty water out of the pool. 
George hired a sump pump to get the job done as quick as possible.

 He power washed the sides as the pool is emptied

Getting close to having all the water out

There was no way I could have done this...I would have landed on my face...lol

This is a close up of the debris at the bottom of the pool...yuck

The smell was awful as you can see by Jess's reaction

But they ploughed on and filled up bags with the swamp waste 

I truly was half expecting to find someone or something dead at the bottom of that pool.

I can only guess that you get use to the aweful smell after a while.

Another blast with the power washer

Then it was onto removing the old tile

At some point one of our Renters used House paint to paint the pool so George had to sandblast the walls to remove it...They probably thought they were doing us a favor but can we say stupid..

A few days later George ground down all the excess concrete that was left on the side and rim of pool..that took another two days.

Now time to fix another of Clarence the concrete guys boo boos

We wanted a drain put in but Clarence told us he would make sure that rain water would not pool on the patio....WRONG...it did

George hired a concrete cutter and him and Jess start the process of cutting out a drain..

George and Jess worked so hard to remove this concrete

This concrete section weighed a ton but George and Jess made it look so easy

George filled in any chips that he had made during the grinding process and smoothed the surface with new pool plaster

Then Painted the top rim with pool paint

Then it was my turn to step up to the plate and install the tiles in the blazing sun

It took two days to install the tiles, then we had to grout.

Now under normal circumstances I would have done the grouting by myself but this time we were using an epoxy waterproof grout and it was going to take the two of us.

One to grout and the other to clean immediately behind the other.

As usual I was on the cleaning duty...go figure

The grout came in small pail with two compounds that you had to mix together.

George getting grout on his face instead of the pool wall.

George grouting

Jackie cleaning

George installed a sump pump at the end of the drain ditch

George and Jess laying out the pipes for the drain pump

It was now time to cover up that crappy looking concrete with wood decking

George and Jess started by laying out the frame

George and I staining the first set of boards..

I got smart and put a hat on...

George pushing the board inplace and me screwing it in..

We continued to lay boards.

George also continued to do framing

We gave up staining before we put the boards down so it was up to me to me to get the brush in hand and get busy after they were screwed in place

George put up flood lights so I could continue as it was late at night

 Nearly done for the night...

George installed a new switch fo the pool light and outside sockets.

Even though we were covering the concrete we still went ahead and sealed it.

 More boards down

 After we got all the boards installed around the pool, George made this gadget in order to draw a line around the edge of the pool.

 He then took a Jigsaw and cut it out to even out the edge of the boards

 Then took a router and made the edge of the pool deck smooth and rounded

 Onto installing the light with a new gasket and bulb

 We had some rain since the major clean out that Jess and George had done so he cleaned it out again and gave it another power wash while I stained the rest of the decking

 Stain complete around the pool

 Time to hand paint the top rim below the deck and below the tiles

 Then George moved in with the roller

 Nearly done

George giving it a second coat

Good god will we ever be done

We now had to lay the rest of the deck under the pergola at the back door

 I had to seal the concrete

 Then we put down the board straps

 This was a two day job

Last load of wood...yipee

We are nearly there

George holding the last board to complete the deck

 and it is in...

Now I still have to stain the other half  of the deck but since my grandson is visiting, George went ahead and started filling up the pool.

It took two days and as you can see Taylor and Romeo were already in it before it was completly full

George bought Taylor a remote control boat..

well if you ask me, he atually bought it for himself to play with 

Taylor found out you have to clean the pool in order to play in it...lol 

 Getting to enjoy after cleaning

It is finally done...Hooray

 The Palm Trees remind me of my time in Hawaii..

What I have Learned

This was a long project...No doubt about it

If Jess our Neighbour had not helped I don't think I would have got past the cleaning out of the pool...PHEW

That I was lacking in faith when my husband suggested covering the concrete in wood decking...

I love having a Pool in this Texas Heat

So..A great big Mahalo (THANK YOU) to Jesse our neighbour for all of her help and hard work on this project

and

To my Husband, sorry for not having enough faith in your idea from the begining..

You Rock

Athough the final design of the deck was my idea...just saying

Until next time

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Jackie D