WOW - Very inspiring! What a huge transformation. Can I ask how long this project took from excavation to today?

Celebrate and Enjoy!

I love it! I am in the process of designing and getting PB bids. I may "steal" some ideas from you.

Great pictures.
Enjoy it!

Ron

poolmissy: Thanks! Our dig began March 28th and startup was June 9th. Our PB said to expect 3-5 months as we had so much going on with retaining walls and artificial rock. So we are very pleased to have our pool in just over 3 months!

ron168: Thanks! Feel free to "steal". I stole a few ideas from this site as well. It is so helpful to see what others have done and to hand your PB a photo and say "Here, do this please." Best of luck with your pool build!

dogpaddle - it's just beautiful! Your waterline tile looks great, btw. Your pool is one of my favorites! Now you can jump in and enjoy :-)

beachdiva: Thanks! And many thanks for your helpful comments while I was having my tile crisis! I ended up going with a tile that was similar to the PB's suggestion but with a little more gold tone to it. I'm REALLY happy with it and sooooo glad I made the decision to change it out.

Gorgeous pool! Great design. We're doing ours now but have no where near that kind of space. Enjoy :)

And because I'm still planning my deck, may I ask what you chose? Looks like concrete..what finish?

Thanks!

vegasmom: After originally contracting for colored stamped concrete in the end we decided to go with plain old natural grey concrete with an acid wash finish. I'm very happy with it. The acid wash took off the top layer of cream and left nice sparkly gold flecks. It's very slip resistant and have noticed that it stays fairly cool on the feet compared to the coping stone. Down the road I may try staining it. Thanks for the compliments and best of luck with your build!

Ah, ok. Acid wash..I'm hearing a lot about it lately but haven't found photos where I can tell. I'm trying to learn the diff. between acid, sandblasting, and salt finish.

My precast coping sample didn't pass the heat test. I'm trying to find a way to cool it down...

Thanks for your reply and the good wishes :)

Beautiful pool!!!!We are just starting our pool. What is your slide made of and would you recommend it? Also did you insurance go up for having a slide. My kids want one sooooo bad! Ok maybe I do too!:)

Thanks!

zumo: Thanks!! Our slide was dug out of the hillside during the pool dig then lined with steel rebar like the rest of the pool and shot with gunite. Then the guys who built our artificial rock waterfall finished the slide with a smooth layer of cement. My husband and I love our slide! It is long (about 18ft.) and fast. Our kids aged 6 and 3 are a little leary of it but I'm sure will come to love it over time. We wanted it BIG so they could grow into it as opposed to a tiny slide they would be tired of after one season.

One thing I like most about the way we disigned it is that it is hidden behind the waterfall so we don't have a big monstrosity of a slide to look at all the time. I did read a thread a little while back in which (I think Brent from Caltropic Pools) described his prefered method of building this type of slide. If you decide to go that route you might want to do a search for that thread. When I read it we were too far along in our build to change... hopefully ours will hold up. As far as insurance goes...don't know ... we have not yet informed our insurance company that we have a pool let alone the slide... I better get on that :) Thanks for the reminder!

zumo: Sorry it wasn't caltropic it was t-square who describes his prefered method of building a gunite slide but says he doesn't recommend them in the first place.

Thread title is: Are cracks normal in a gunite slide?

t-square says: "Unfortunately, the site is not always adequately prepared to accept the weight of a gunite slide and differential settlement between the pool and slide, or from one end of the slide to the other, can occur.
Personally, I do not build gunite slides (or any slides or diving boards) for liability purposes, but if I did, I would build them such that they are structurally separated from the pool with a bond break and expansion joint between the bond beam and the slide.
Aside from the issue of differential settlement, there is also the issue of normal expansion and contraction with hot/cold cycles. Imagine the slide sitting in the sun and then suddenly having cold water rush down it. Just like a car window, this can lead to bad things.
The white in the cracks is probably calcium and other minerals from within the gunite. Salt could also be a factor, I don't know, maybe not."

Your new tile selection turned out great! I've been wondering how it would all turn out in the end. It's terrific! Congratulations.

banana fanna: Thanks!! And thanks so much for giving your .02 during my tile crisis! I'm really happy with the tile we went with in the end. BTW, anyone want the 2x2s that didn't work? I've still got four boxes of the stuff!! ;-) Really nice tile... just didn't work in our pool.

I knew it would be gorgeous!! Glad everything worked out. Wish I could have that slide of your's!! Enjoy.

Your pool is wonderful....I hope you enjoy every minute of it!!! Love the grotto!!

dogpaddle - I meant to tell you I really like your new tile selection. I know how stressful that decision was, but it looks like you found a fabulous solution. It really compliments your beautiful stonework nicely.