Penguin Pools often comes across rock or bad fill in many newer subdivisions.  Builders take fill from one site and put it on another site until they don’t have any more sites to hid the fill.  Rock and buried construction trash makes building an inground pool very challenging.  When building a vinyl liner pool, the walls have to sit on virgin ground so there is no worry about settling.  When you hit soil or earth that doesn’t hold its form / collapses, you need to find away to create virgin soil.

In the Milwaukee, WI area we hit clay or rock 90% of the time.  Rock is most common in the Waukesha, Merton, Hartland, Sussex areas; however we have had poor conditions in Waterford, Menomonee Falls and Brookfield areas.

The way Penguin Pools of Milwaukee & Minneapolis builds vinyl liner pools on rock is fairly simple.

1.  Dig your pool like normal to spec.  The earth will fall and crumble making your dig shelf and ramps useless . . . Like the above picture.
2.  Order Traffic Bond (usually 1/4″ with fines) and fill in the hole you just dug.  This is the same material that gets compacted under your concrete flat work.
4.  Once you pool dig is level along the entire dig shelf, leave it sit until it is completely dry.  It is usually fine to work with the next day, but may take up to 24 hours.

5.  Now you can re-dig your pool to specs and the walls will hold.  The compacted TB dries like concrete and you now have virgin ground to build on.  Your vinyl liner inground swimming pool will not settle or have issues due to poor soil.  Just be aware that hand forming will be difficult due to the strength of the compacted TB.

***  Just an FYI, this requires a lot of TB 10 – 15 full dump trucks (quads).  Don’t worry, this can then be used as backfill if you so choose.

Here is another slideshow of a pool we did in 2004.

Many pool builders will just use a patch to cover a wound.  Using vermiculite to patch voids is an easy and cheap way to rectify the problem, however it isn’t the correct way to do it.  You need to create the correct earth to build on so your pool will not have issues 5, 10, 30 years down the road.  This costs more, but it is the correct way to do it and will prevent you from having to pre-maturely get a vinyl liner replacement on your swimming pool.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Penguin Pools of Milwaukee or Minneapolis.

Depending on the severity of your swimming pool and how many water and light features you have, will determine the size and cost of your automation system.  The more water features (fountains, waterfalls, spas, cascades, wet decks …) you have the larger the system you need with more relays.  While automating your entire swimming pool can be costly, there are ways to benefit from an automation system without getting ridiculous.

Penguin Pools generally puts a Pentair EasyTouch 4P automation system on each new build to help customers reduce utility costs.  By putting in an automation system you can control key components like when you want your pump and light to turn on / off , what temperature to set your pool at (provided you have a heater), or controlling your salt water system.  Manual timers work well to control your pump, that is until they fail and never turn the pump on (algae growth) or off (wasted energy).
By only running your pump enough to turn your water over 2-3 times day, you can save money rather than running your pump 24 hours a day . . . which people do.

When building a new inground swimming pool, Penguin Pools will actually charge more to run the electrical without an automation system (additional $400).  The Automation acts as an electrical sub-panel by the pool, if you don’t have the automation control panel then the electrician must create his own.  That equates to more wiring and hardware that the automation panel already provides, plus you get all the features of it.  The cost of the automation system installed is only $900, but you are saving $400 compared to not having it installed.
With the automation system installed, the electrician will bring a single 20 amp circuit to the panel and run everything off of that.  The EasyTouch, and all other automation systems, has knockouts for the breakers making the installation very easy.  The pump, heater (electric, gas, or solar), salt generator, lights (pool or outdoor), auto cleaners, water features . . .  get hooked up directly to the automation system.

When plumbing your equipment and pool, make sure you plan ahead to include everything you want automated.  By placing valves in the plumbing, you can control what water features get water and which don’t.  WHY?  Maybe you don’t want your spa, pool, waterfall, and fountains to run at the same time . . . maybe they are on different pumps.  The automation system can simplify the process of turning each feature on and off for you.
Adding valves that can accompany actuators, the automation system will actually open and close valves to turn on and off what features you want.  Penguin Pools always valves each water feature separately and will also design the pumps needed for each feature.

Basically it comes down to cost, convenience and ease of use.  Using an automation system on any pool will make life easier for you, your builder & electrician.  The minimal cost in the automation system is well worth the money, especially since you are spending a pretty penny to get the pool done.

If you really want to add convenience you can add a wireless remote control to operate your pool.  Now you can show off to your guests while sipping a drink next to you pool and never have to get up.  Little things like automation systems really jazzes up a pool, even if you don’t have separate water features.  Most pool owners like to have a pool they are proud of and not a plain water hole that looks naked.