Starting the deck

With the spa up and running beautifully, it was time to start on the structure for the deck that surrounds the spa.

Tommy put a piece of plywood between the rafters that will hold the joists, but that was only temporary and did not go all the way to the edges of the basic deck structure, which made it not secure enough for me.

I did a plan that laid out a plan for the structure that included the placement of the concrete piers, rafters and spacing of the joists between the rafters.

I wanted to get the rafters on the west and south side of the spa installed first so I could put plywood sheathing on as a temporary deck. I will now work on the east and north side rafters and joists where I will also begin the placement of the final deck material (which I have not decided on yet).

The plywood deck will allow us to use the spa while I work on the rest of the deck from the opposite direction.

I bought a solar cover that helps keep the water from losing heat while generating heat at the same time.

I've spent some time over by the equipment leveling the area next to it to put a small shed where I will keep the spa supplies.

It has also been a time to re-aquaint myself with the rest of the backyard. I've had some time to trim and weed and generally clean up the "Work area" that got a little ignored over the last few weeks.

I'm definitely taking the time to enjoy the main accomplishment of completing the spa. It turns out to be a great place to make plans for the rest of the yard!

Start me up!

My strategy for starting up the spa was to energize one of the three systems at a time. I would check the waterfall, circulation system and jet pump individually in case there were any problems. There was a lot of pollen and small debris floating on the top of the water, but it was time to flip on the breaker for the waterfall pump and see if it worked.

The waterfall has a suction line from the spa, a line to and up the back wall of the spa to the waterfall manifold built into the wall, and a bypass line back to the spa in order to adjust the water flow out of the waterfall. I opened all of the valves to begin with, and flipped on the breaker with a broom handle. I looked the other way, too. I don’t like that kind of electrical stuff.

No sparks. I went and turned on the waterfall.

Nothing. No wait, there is something. It works! And it didn’t just work, it worked perfectly! I adjusted the bypass until the water fell from the wall in a steady, clear sheet of water that entered the spa water with the sound of, well, a waterfall.

With the waterfall working, I knew I should energize the rest of the equipment to begin the filter circulation and clean the spa water. I flipped the breaker (again with the broom handle) and the system was on! Once the priming mode had passed it immediately began to circulate and heat the water.

As part of the start up mode, all of the systems would automatically turn on for a short period to be checked. On came the blower. Bubbles. Lots of bubbles. Wonderful bubbles!

Lastly came the spa jets. They came on and worked for a while, but then I noticed 3 small steady squirts coming from the wet end of the pump. This can’t be good. I stopped the pump, and the jets didn’t come back on when I tried them later. The pump would turn on, but no water came out of the jets.

This was the first weekend in March. I spent the next few days corresponding with Gene The Spa Guy, trying to figure out what was wrong with the pump, other than the leaks in the wet end housing that I knew I would probably have to get replaced.

I flipped off the breaker to the control unit, closed the valves and disconnected the pump from the plumbing lines. I moved it to where I could work on it. I know nothing about pumps.

I took off the housing to inspect the impeller to see if it had somehow become disconnected and spinning freely. It hadn’t. While I had the housing off I decided to try and fix the leaks with my new favorite product-Plast-aid. After all, it is suppose to work on various plastics, and the housing appeared to be some sort of composite. I could see the crack causing the leak. It was small and it appeared to be in a place that I could reach from the inside as well as the outside. This could save me a lot of trouble and expense if it worked. I prepared the solution and made the patch on both sides of the housing which has held so far.

Still no solution to the pump mystery. I reinstalled the pump, opened the valves, flipped the breaker, pushed the pump button and heard the motor go on, but the water stood still. The problem with the pump didn’t make sense to me. How could it work to start with, then turn on but not be pushing any water?

I had Tommy brush away any debris from the suction covers. I tried aiming a garden hose into the suction line. I tried to remove the suction cap, but I was unsuccessful.

Gene had reminded me that the pump had to be below the water line in the spa to work. I had installed the pump below where I thought the water line would be, way before there was water in the spa. Perhaps it was not below that line. It would not work if it was even slightly above that line, because air would be present in the plumbing. If I could somehow purge the line of the air it would work regardless of if it was actually above the water level.

Tommy and I were trying to work our way through this when I told him the possible problem with the location of the pump above the water line. To which he suggested “Why don’t you just raise the water level in the spa?” It really is amazing I've gotten this far on my own.

Why does that seem so elementary now? I put some more water in the spa, but it still didn’t work yet. “Take the suction side plumbing off of the pump and open the valve until the air is flushed out and the water flows” he said. Well, he was on a role, and the least I could do was humor him, even though I knew there was obviously water in the line because it had leaked. So I did what he said and opened the valve after I'd taken the line off of the motor. Out came this huge burst of air before the water. I did it again, and again air preceded the water, but not as much. I hooked it back up with great anticipation.

What a moment we had together when that motor turned on and pushed beautiful water through the jets. We had a working spa.

After nearly two years I had to stop and think for a moment. Have I forgotten something? Then it softly hit me. It was done.

I found a leak or two

Fast forward past this entry to the good news in the next entry that the spa is done and working great if you don't wish to read sad stories about your friend Ted.

It has been 2 months since I started finding and fixing leaks. I'm not at liberty to say how many leaks I found and fixed. Let's just say there were more than a few, and I've gotten pretty good at finding them and fixing them. I guess I won't have any of you asking me to help you with any new plumbing!

The leaks are still a mystery to me. They were all sort-of seeping type leaks-not enough in many cases to even drip, but just seep around the unions where the pvc pipes were supposed to be glued together. I don't know if it was the glue (yeah right), or perhaps it was a matter of not getting enough leverage to handle the larger plumbing. I had to make multiple connections at times, but there were leaks in other places too. I had meticulously planned out, measured, dry fitted and primed every piece. But let's face it, I did a shitty job.

When I found a leak I would go about fixing it the same way. I identified which size pipe was leaking, usually either a 1 1/2" air line (that's correct-water is in the air line when air isn't-surprised me too) or a 2" water line. I cut a 1/2" wide ring from the next bigger pipe, then cut through it so it would snap over the smaller pipe. I also cut a ring out of the next size bigger pipe to go over the seam between the first ring and the fitting. I lowered the water level so the area of the leak would dry, which sometimes took a day. I sanded the pipe and primed everything, then put NEW glue everywhere. I slid on the first ring as tight as I could against the fitting and tightened a hose clamp around it. The glue doesn't stick to the metal clamp, so I could take it off when the glue dried. I put the second ring over the seam between the first ring and the fitting, glued and clamped it.

I fixed all of the leaks in first level, then raised the water and waited. None of my repairs leaked again, but I would find new leaks when I raised the water level.

I got very tired of bailing the water out of the spa to lower the level, and I didn't like wasting the water, so I developed a plan to save it. I cleaned out 3 big trash cans and 4 muck buckets. I bailed the water into these containers on the edge of the spa when I needed to lower the water level, then dumped them back in the spa when I wanted to raise the level.

I worried that the water already in the spa plus the water in and out of the containers would get nasty over the course of the repairs, but it tested fine and I didn't have to drain out all of the water when I started up the spa.

I continued up the 7 levels of plumbing, past the midway point and on to the two highest levels, fixing leaks with a running commentary on my level of plumbing expertise, or lack there of, until I noticed a definite darkening of the dirt where all of the plumbing to the equipment levels out before it attaches to the pumps. Sure enough, there was a significant leak under the remaining dirt that covered these lines, which I thought did not need to be uncovered because they were straight connections that I could not have possibly screwed up. Wrong again.

I bailed out the water until the level was below the leak, and dug out the mud around the area. I couldn't believe what I found. There was a connection to a 45 degree fitting in the line from the jet pump that did not appear to have any primer or glue on it at all, and therefore had literally just pulled apart. Who would be stupid enough to miss that? I had planned it out so precisely to allow all the pipes to come into the equipment with minimal angles that might restrict water flow. So precisely that I couldn’t get to the problem connection. I had to cut the line and add some pipe, but it didn’t leak again.

My confidence in my plumbing work was completely shattered. I decided that I had to be able to see all of the plumbing in case I found more leaks. I removed all of the pea gravel that I had carefully placed over the dirt that covered the lines to the equipment, then I completely dug out the rest of the lines going to the equipment. That doesn’t sound so bad when I read it back to myself, but it was slow work with only a trowel and no leverage. Of course there weren't any other leaks in those lines.

I brought the water level up past the top two plumbing lines only to witness the first leak that I had originally found and fixed was dripping steadily. It turned out to be leaking in a different place than where I had fixed. This leak was coming from a crack in a molded valley underneath the jet housing. This was not the same type of leak as the others, and I would not be able to fix it the same way. I lowered the water level and waited for the area to dry.

I went online to look for something to fix the leak. I found a product that sounded pretty good-almost too good, to use on my type of leak.

Like so many of the experiences that I have had during this project, this product and the man that invented it, turned out to be a good story.

The product is called Plast-aid, and it works by molecularly bonding to many types of plastic products, especially pvc. It’s a 2 part product that begins as a liquid when mixed, then shortly becomes a gel, and finally ends up as hard as a rock!

It got into the crack as a liquid then built on itself when it hardened for strength. No leak.

I decided to try and fix a couple other very slow seepages that showed up after I had filled the water way past their level, but Plast-aid was suppose to work even when water is present. These leaks were in the air lines in the middle level, so I had the idea to start the blower to clear the lines of water to insure a successful repair. I prepared the Plast-aid solution and began to fix the leak. The solution entered and covered the leak, but the blower that cleared the line of water also blew the patch right out of the leak! I turned off the blower and luckily I could still work the patch, so I fixed the leak before the water could displace the patch.

It now appeared that all of the leaks were indeed fixed. I could now focus on energizing the equipment and seeing if this thing would really work. But first I disconnected all of the equipment to put Teflon on all of the threads and Vaseline on all of the O-rings in the compression fittings, so I could make sure they didn’t leak when I opened the valves.

They leaked. But I fixed ‘em.

The time had come to add some electricity.

Testing for leaks

After the final inspection I thought I was ready to go. The first step before I energize the system is to do a static test of the lines and equipment connections. That means to close all of the valves to the equipment and fill the spa with water and wait to see if the water level stays the same or goes down. If it stays the same over the course of a day, I'm good to go. If it doesn't-there is a leak somewhere that needs to be fixed before continuing the start up process.

You may recall that sometime in the summer I had a cracked jet housing on the outside of the spa. I knew at the time that the air line which is on top was cracked, so I fixed it. But when the spa began to lose water after the water level went above the top jet line, I checked the water pipe on that housing and it has a slow leak.

After a visual inspection, it appears that the leak may come from a crack in the crease at the "T" on the bottom of the housing. It's hard to believe that the housing could crack where it appears to be leaking. The good news is that my glue job was so good that the crease became the weak point. I'm concerned that this weak point could break again, but I'm confident that the solutions that Gene has suggested will be successful.

I could open the valves and test the connections to the equipment while I have water in the spa, or wait until I fix the leak and do it then.

I held off for a couple of days to see if the water level continued to drop past the leaking top jet level.

It did. I obviously have another leak.
At this point I was very discouraged. I was so meticulous about all of the glue joints. How could there be another leak? What if the leak wasn't in the plumbing? Could the spa itself be leaking after all of the time, trouble and expense I went to so it didn't? I was meticulous about that too. Then what would I do?

If there was another leak in the plumbing without even using it yet, what would happen when the plumbing is under pressure? What happens if (when) there is an earthquake?

I decided to remove all of the dirt surrounding the spa so I could observe the plumbing and the spa walls when I refilled the spa and tested it again.

I suppose I shouldn’t have filled in the dirt in the first place, but I was anxious to get rid of the dirt. I'm not going to refill the dirt around the spa when the leaks are fixed. I'm going to build the deck over the trenches so I can service any future problems.
The second leak has turned out to be on the lowest level (of course). It is an area that I had to make three simultaneous connections while in a difficult position where I didn't have very good leverage. The connection from the housing to the body going through the spa is crooked and leaks very slowly. I actually suspected that connection when I had a hard time threading the jet housing because of the angle.
It amazes me that a small leak like it appears to be can drip enough to drop the water level after a few days, but so far there does not seem to be any other leaks. The walls are dry and the other connections seem solid.
I’m letting the water drop below the bottom row so the area to be fixed will be dry. Then I plan on filling the spa above each level, observing the water level and checking for any other leaks. Then I can continue to test the system. I can hardly wait to see what that will bring!

I've also unfortunately learned an additional lesson: My right wrist seems to have had enough digging, and has painfully swollen to where I should not use it for a while. But I need to finish clearing out the remaining dirt from the plumbing before I can fix the leaks and refill the spa. I'll just have to see how it goes. Perhaps I can go with my left!

Electrical

No, your squinting eyes do not deceive you. This first picture is of the completed-that's correct, completed Inspection Record from the L.A. County Building Department. Yes, that means its done-at least as far as the County is concerned. The Final Inspection was done today, December 28th, 2010, but there isn't any water in the spa and I haven't flipped on the breakers or tested the equipment. But I'm certain that you understand that this was a big day for me!

Lets back up a little bit and then I'll explain where I am and where I go from here toward the first big soak.

I've been working on the electrical layout and wiring for a number of weekends, with the valuable help via email from my cousin, Mike Thomas in Boise (Thanks Mike!).

It turns out that electrical work is much more that understanding electricity-its hard tedious work in small places with sharp wires, the wrong tools and no leverage.

I started with the easy stuff first-drilling holes in the studs inside of the garage in order to run 3/4" and 1/2" conduit from a sub panel by the equipment to the main panel. I rented a cool tool called a right angle drill so I could drill the holes in the studs. Then I bought a special drill bit that goes through wood like nobodies business. This is a serious machine that will throw you around if you don't have two hands on it and good footing-which of course I never had-getting into odd positions around, behind and underneath the various obstacles in the garage.

Next I pulled the conduit through the holes in the studs and drilled the holes in the wall to access the sub panel and J-box for the waterfall switch. Tommy helped me pull the wire through the conduit. I didn't plan on wiring the sub panel or making the final hook up to the main, so the wires just stayed as I pulled them until the electrician made those connections some time later.

I had never thought about how the elements of the equipment should be connected. It took some time to wrap my brain around the big picture, but eventually it made sense. But I can be my own worst enemy when it comes to designing a plan. I like to figure out how everything is best laid out in the most efficient way. I can't just lay it out so it works correctly-I didn't want anything redundant, especially conduit and wires. It is a good idea, especially in a small space, but it made it more difficult when you're dealing with really stiff wires (#6 awg) and flexible (yeah right) waterproof conduit. I developed a whole new appreciation for electricians!

I had to customize a waterproof specialty J-box for the spa light relay, which meant drilling through the heavy gauge steel box to accommodate two watertight fittings. I didn't have a drill bit big enough so I had to drill small holes in a circular pattern to knock out and file smooth.

I removed two pumps from the concrete slab because I had to wire the waterfall pump and rewired the spa pump.

I don't seem to be very skilled at stripping and bending wire. I pre-wired any items I could, but I still had a fair amount of trouble making proper connections. I did, of course, but it was interesting. I do not easily get into or out of some of the positions I had to be in to work in the space where all of the electrical connections are located.

It amazed me how often I could get in the wrong position to accomplish a particular task, and how I never seemed to have the proper tool within reach. I do not know how many trips from the equipment location to the garage and back I made, but I actually wore a path in the grass!

I broke out a hole in the stucco near the breezeway for a switch to turn the waterfall on and off, and Mike walked me through the wiring (Thanks again, Mike).

After I had done all that I felt comfortable doing, I called Mark The Electrician to wire the sub panel and make the final hook up to the main. I actually thought that we might be swimming on Christmas. But then it started to rain. And rain. And rain. And rain. I hate the rain.

When it finally stopped raining I had a spa filled nearly one third with water, water I could not use just yet. So 150 buckets later (Thats right, I counted them) the spa was empty and I could finish gluing in the jets-the last thing before I could call for the final inspection.

I have some clean up and other fixtures to glue in and then I'll be ready to begin filling the spa. That will be the next really big test. I'll find out if there are any leaks in the plumbing I did over a year ago. Any leaks in the equipment connections I will be able to address as the spa fills, but the pipes from the equipment to the spa are mostly under an awful lot of dirt. I sure hope they're fine, or someone may want to call the number on the bottom of the Emergency Lifesaving Techniques sign!

Ding dong the grout is done

The images in this entry do not reflect the finished grout job, but they represent significant steps toward that accomplishment. The corner of the steps were particularly difficult because 3 surfaces come together at a point that could be sharp and dangerous if it they aren't done carefully.

I took down the E-Z-Up canopy that has been up for over a year. It was starting to fall apart and wasn't keeping the rain out anyway. It is a different look that we like.

The grout around the skimmer had to be carefully notched to accommodate the frame that fits over the false front.

Then of course there are the tools of the trade. From left to right-One 18 pound tub of grout (I used 5 and a half tubs); glass of ice water; nasty rubber gloves; plastic tub for cleaning the tools; bigger plastic tub for rinsing the grout sponges (shown inside the tub); hard rubber grout float; and a margin trowel. The cool-looking Vans inside on the step were my work shoes inside the spa!

The grout has to cure before I can put in the spa jets, but I've got electrical to do while I'm waiting. I have some clean up to do and then I'll post a video of the completed grout stage. I was just excited that I finished. I distinctly recall looking at all of the grout to do about a month ago and thinking I might never get it done!

Grouting

Unless you’re really bored and have the time (or interest) to read the following sob story, skip down to the asterisk.

Back in mid September I had my first real failure in the project. I knew that the inside of the spa would require something other than the standard sanded grout because it would be submerged in 104 degree water. Sanded grout would not be waterproof and would require sealing and re-sealing after some time.

After a substantial amount of research I learned that what I required was epoxy grout, which was expensive and had a reputation as being difficult to work with, but would hold up under water and not need to be sealed.

I bought what I thought was about half the epoxy grout I would need for the spa for $125. Like most epoxies, it is two parts that actually needs to be mixed with a third part, standard sanded grout, which creates one batch. According to the instructions, it was important to mix all of each part together because it was measured precisely.

The first problem was that the batch that would cover half of the spa would be workable for 30 to 60 minutes, which I could not do alone. So I bought small plastic containers and meticulously measured out the exact proportions that divided the batch in quarters, figuring that I could do that much by myself in the time allowed.

I bought a new grout float, margin trowel and heavy duty rubber gloves, waited for a clear weekend day and psyched up to start this final step toward the end of this journey.

Fast forward, although it seemed like eternity, about 6 hours and picture me lying on the couch exhausted and angry, because things had not exactly gone my way. Then anger grew into panic. I realized I had to get up and go back into the spa and remove all of the epoxy grout that I had just finished. I knew it wasn’t right and I was never going to use that crap again-let alone finish the spa if I had to do it with that stuff!

I had only done the rear seat and part of the waterfall wall, which is about 25% of what I thought the grout would cover. At that rate the grout was going to cost me over $900.

I had spent most of the time trying to get the grout to stay in the vertical joints, but it would just seep out onto the tile. It became apparent to me that the grout was not going to stay in the vertical joints, so I decided to remove as much as I could by pushing the grout down into the joints and removing the rest. Time was not on my side at this point and I also needed to get the grout off of the face of the tile or it would be ruined. I called Betsy to help, and between us we removed all of the grout from the tile. Everything else that touched the grout was ruined. The trowel, the float, the bucket, the gloves, the sponges and the scrub pads were all history.

Enter the couch epiphany. In addition to the cost and nastiness, the grout would never stay in the vertical joints-I already found that out, and there were a lot of them in my spa! I knew what I had to do before it was too late. I got up and took a screwdriver back into the spa and removed all of the grout. I was thankful to get back to where I was at the beginning of the day without ruining any tile. If I had to remove any tile because the grout could not be removed from the front of the tile it would have taken the waterproofing with it, and I would have been in deep you-know-what!

But I’m a lucky guy. As it turns out, I didn’t like the color of the epoxy grout anyway, I hadn’t ruined anything, I learned a great (albeit expensive) lesson and things were about to get much better. Thank you, Gene!

Gene Trumbull wrote the book on building a spa. No really. He literally wrote the book on building your own spa that I have used to guide me through the entire process. And he found a product to use instead of epoxy grout.

It is a urethane grout called QuartzLock2 made by StarQuartz that is waterproof, premixed, easy to use, and most importantly, stays in the vertical joints. Hallelujah!

There was just one problem. The marketing information declared that it was not for use in a spa. But Gene had used it successfully and I wanted to believe that it would work. I made contact with the manufacturer’s rep, Jorge, and found out that because the product did not have sufficient time in the field in a submerged hot water application, they could not warrant the product or recommend it’s use in a spa application.

I would have considered the product anyway, because the alternative was using a sanded grout and sealing it, which I knew would fail eventually. After all, the spa is waterproof without the grout. It’s just for looks.

But I’m a lucky guy.

Jorge made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. If I would agree to give his company feedback regarding the installation and use of this product in a submerged heated application, he would provide me with grout for the spa.

*For those of you that have just joined us, I’m in the process of grouting the spa with a new urethane product instead of an epoxy grout that proved too difficult for me to use.

I started with a small section on the back of the waterfall, just to get a feeling for the product and the application process. It was pretty warm and I did a little bigger area than I should have. By the time I cleaned the tools and got back to the job the grout took a little longer to clean up than it would have if I had gotten to it quicker. I knew it would wipe off much easier when I didn’t do as large of an area. I took a little grout out when I had to scrub the tile a little bit, but it turned out fine and I would bring it up flush with the tile when I continued. The grout is premixed and worked well in the vertical joints.

I had help from Tommy when I started up again and finished the entire back of the waterfall at one time. I finished the rest of the exterior, including the top of the back wall before I moved to the front of the waterfall wall and down to all of the horizontal surfaces. My strategy was to do the horizontal surfaces like the seats, steps and floor first, because there would be some excess wiped off of the vertical surfaces that would collect in the horizontal surface grout lines unless they were already done and I could just wipe them off of the tile.

I’m now over half way done with the grouting but waiting for dry weather to finish up.