 |
|
To enlarge, click on image
|
he
extreme cantilever method of integrating an automatic cover into a
free-form pool is challenging enough with concrete structures. If you
bring a fiberglass vessel into the picture, you’ve substantially
boosted the difficulty level.
Jason
Lott, president of Paradise Pools & Construction in Lindon, Utah,
builds gunite and fiberglass vessels. While he’ll charge 20 to 30
percent extra for gunite, he’ll add 40 percent for a fiberglass pool.
For
one thing, the fiberglass project must be filled as soon as it’s
installed, so crews have to work with a wet pool. The process also
requires extra concrete pours because it’s not like gunite or
shotcrete, where the pool, underdeck and bond beam can be shot
together. Fiberglass installers must create a separate footer that
locks in the pool, supports both levels of deck and provides a place
for mounting the tracks. Of course, this should all be designed by a
professional engineer.
You
have two options for handling the underdeck. On Jay Tucker’s
installations, the footing acts as the bottom shelf. It’s similar to
what he uses on all his fiberglass pools. But it extends back far
enough to accommodate the track and doesn’t cover the pool’s lip.
“We
pour it up right to the edge of that outside perimeter, exposing the
top lip of the pool,” says Tucker, owner of Swim World Pools in
Gallatin, Tenn. That way, the fiberglass lip provides a face for the
underdeck.
Lott
pours an underdeck that is separate from the footing. This lower deck
dowels into the footing in the back. It caps off the lip of the
fiberglass pool.
Finally,
forming the deck is more difficult than in a concrete vessel, because
no weight can rest on the shell. You can’t nail forms into the
fiberglass wall, as you would with shotcrete or gunite.
Lott
utilizes a series of 2-by-4’s to support sheets of plywood just as he
does with his gunite pools. But his crews have to use extra-long
2-by-4’s, and run them across the pool and through the other side of
the deck. Here, the ultimate support comes from the ground across the
pool rather than the shell.
“It’s
almost like you’re building a floor across the pool,” Lott says. The
crew places some plywood pieces on the water side of the pool, so they
have an area to walk while they pour. (Remember, the pool is filled
with water.)
“We probably use one-third more forming material on a fiberglass pool,” than on gunite, Lott says.
