What a learning experience this was … how to build a pool on a mountain. Lots of trial and error, blood, sweat and tears. Actually, we’re not completely finished as there are some elements that are yet to come, but the pool is finished and we were able to get a lot of use out of it. This process is complicated and there was very little information out there to help us, so hopefully this post along with the video will give you some information we didn’t have. Please go read my first blog on this here to get the preliminary information.
Let’s begin …
After building the retaining wall and getting the area fairly flat, we brought in some clean fill dirt as the base as well as some crushed stone for around the edge. We used the stone around the edge so we wouldn’t have to deal with weeds, and if you need to walk around the back of the pool we didn’t want dirt or mud.
Next we built the buttresses. The pool came in a million pieces and everything needed to be assembled, including the buttresses. They are the angled parts that hold up the walls of the pool. There were a lot of these to build so Jim built a jig to make it easier and to keep everything square (he’s very good at efficiency). You don’t want to mess this part up – everything needs to be precise in order to keep the walls strong and square.
Figuring where the buttresses went was one of the hardest parts. It involved a lot of math and we still got it wrong the first time. Each buttress sits on a cement paver on the outside, and the inside of the buttress sinks into the ground so that eventually gets buried – but the everything needs to be flat and level. This is tedious! We sank all the pavers first then went back to build the walls, but I recommend doing one side at a time. We had to move a whole bunch of pavers because they were in the wrong place. This was like building Lego’s. The wall panels slide onto the buttresses and everything gets screwed together. You need to make sure all the panels are level and the corners square. Don’t skimp on the details, otherwise if you have an unlevel pool you will have lots of problems later.
Here’s a closer look at what the process looked like to build the walls. By the way, these wall panels are 3″ thick foam which is amazing for insulating your pool, thus warm water. 🙂
Now we had to tie all the walls together and put on the ground plates. All of this keeps the pool square and keeps the walls from separating.
Once the walls were built, we left out a small section so we could get in and out easier and we also needed to be able to bring equipment in which you’ll see in a minute. Our pool has stadium stairs (goes all the way across the pool) and a tanning ledge so that was the next part to build. The directions for this were terrible so trial and error here. After each step was built we needed to bring in stone to fill in the area.
Once all the steps and tanning ledge was filled with stone, we could fill in with concrete.
We added a layer of clean fill dirt over all the strapping on the ground and then 2″ of masonry sand. The sand is what the liner will sit on, so before the liner goes in it needs to be tamped down and smoothed as much as possible.
Around this time we hired an electrician to install the power. There are lots of rules surrounding how to do this so be sure to look up what your area requires. We put a grounding wire around the entire pool before starting the deck so we had access to all sides of the pool. The blue box is the salt water system.
The manufacturer of this pool (Hercules) recommends that each metal joint be taped with duct tape to make a smooth transition for the pool liner. All the black you see below is duct tape.
In the meantime, we started building the deck. You can see the pilings for the support posts in the picture above. There was some complicated math to make sure the deck would be sitting exactly at the top of the pool so it was a clean edge.
Here is the deck structure. We needed to make sure the deck went over the retaining wall, but a little above the grass and even with the top of the pool. Whew … that was not fun, but it did work out. Take your time to do all the figuring ahead of time. We also used joist tape across the top of all the joists as we have a salt water pool and wanted to protect the wood as much as possible. We also put a weed barrier under the deck to prevent weeds from coming up.
Check out that view! This is why we needed a pool here. 🙂 We used a composite decking that is 35% cooler than other composite decks … and it really is! It is also recommended for docks so it withstands salt water really well. It’s called MoistureShield Vision and the color we got is Mochaccino.
This is the view from down the mountain. We needed to make sure all the plumbing was in before installing the liner. Jim did a lot of the plumbing and the company we hired to put the liner in did the final attachments. When building a pool, you need to consider where the plumbing and electrical will go ahead of time. The panel that has the opening for your skimmer needs to be placed appropriately.
Before installing the liner, a layer of foam needed to be adhered to the stairs and tanning ledge. This gives a nice cushion and also softens the edges of the stairs. I don’t have a photo of that but do not skip this step.
It was finally time for installing the liner, which means you get to fill it with water! We hired a great company to do this as we didn’t want to mess this part up and the stairs and tanning ledge added a layer of complication we didn’t want to deal with. Also, we were getting pretty tired at this point and wanted to get it finished. We had a water truck bring the water and he needed to fill the truck 3 times!
Last to do was install a railing. We did not want anything that would block the view so we opted to go with cable railing. This also happened to be the cheapest route. We got a higher railing – 42″ – so when you are sitting on the lounge chairs you don’t have a rail in your view. We also needed to run the railing down the pool on the mountain side where the tanning ledge is so little kids couldn’t fall off the side.
This is before the railings but gives you a good perspective of what it looks like from the ground level.
We do use a solar cover when the evenings are cool. The pool was mostly at 86 degrees which is wonderful! This area is in the sun from 10am thru the rest of the day.
Next is adding a water feature and some planters to the right side which we plan to do in the spring. We also need to landscape the hill to the left of the pool, finish landscaping around the pool area, and we plan to build our own solar heaters. Was this all worth it? When my grandchildren come over 3 times a week to go swimming, the answer is a resounding YES!