Installation of our Sun Fiberglass Pool - Spring 2000 - Delaware
 

Because we live in an area where there were no local dealers, we spoke with the folks at Sun Pools about doing a homeowner installation.  Because we chose the flat-bottom Cayman model, we felt this was a do-able project.  It wasn't a project we ever imagined getting ourselves into, but we wanted this pool!


 
We selected a contractor to do the basic sight work.  A word of advice, if you decide to do this yourself, contact your local pool dealers for recommendations of someone experienced in pool excavation and concrete work. 

April 19... after a long rainy spell, the excavation began... Never thought the rain would quit!  Luckily it stopped just in time for the hole to be dug.

What we did:  dug a rectangular hole.

What we should have done:  Gotten a solar cover cut to fit from Sun, laid it on the ground and only excavated what we needed to in order to fit the contour of the pool - a lot less backfill that way!
April 20.... The pool arrived from Homasossa FL with two smaller pools inside - here is the unloading of the two little pools inside. The two smaller pools were going to another dealer in Northern NJ.

If you can time your delivery to the delivery of pools in the area, or going on to another dealer, you can save a bit on the delivery costs.
Next, they backed the truck up the driveway...
At the back of the driveway
And then it was lifted by a crane OVER the deck and into the hole... luckily we had a crane company that was just a couple blocks away. 

We ran into a problem here tho.  Due to the fact that the ground was so wet from all the rain, the crane got stuck in our backyard, and we had to call a tow truck to come and pull it out... an expense we hadn't planned on.

The view from upstairs once the pool was set in the hole.... what a mess the yard was. 
And now the work of backfilling begins.... once the pool is set in the ground, it must be leveled.  Not a hard job, but one that requires either a VERY large level, or a laser level.
That's a lot of space to fill in!!  Fiberglass pools have to be backfilled with sand at the same rate that the water is added on the inside.  Because we were filling from our house spigot, we opted to do the backfill ourselves... (what kind of nuts were we??)
Here you can see the work of adding the sand has begun. 
It took a lot of shoveling and wheelbarrow loads. 
Once sand was in place, and water added, dirt also had to be added around the sand to keep it in place.
Here we have almost half the backfill done.  At least some of the piles of dirt in the yard are now gone.
Seats and steps are supported from underneath by pressure-treated lumber.  Over the last few years, we have found the steps are sinking a bit.  In time, we may have to redo this area.   The steps are a critical area to get filled in - and the hardest to work with.  If I did it over, I would support EACH step with wood braces.
May 1... almost 3/4 filled!!   Almost two weeks of work, and we're only a little more than half-way done.  Total depth of the pool is 52".  We'll be adding a total of about 42" of water.
May 4... I think that I shall never see... a thing as ugly as a shovel!!!  Most of the work this week was done by the wife and kids too... hubby had "school" to attend.. uh huh, sure sounds like a convenient excuse to me!
ALL backfill to this point has been done by HAND!
Once the fill was done up to the filter holes in the sidewalls, the piping had to be hooked up before we could finish the fill work. 

What we didn't do - add jets to the seats or steps.  Would have been a nice addition.

All the fill that we intend to do by hand has now been done.
Next up - hooking up the filter and pump!!
The pump and filter - in progress
FILLED!! Pump and Filter running

NOW - if only the weather will cooperate so the contractor can finish the grading and concrete!!

Once our part of the work was done, the contractor (finally) came back and did the rest of the backfill and grading.  June 23 - concrete in progress.  As you can see, it's taken us almost 2 months to get to this point.  Our contractor kept putting off getting back to us, and we had more rain.
We decided on an Evernew Wilshire vinyl fence by Certainteed... great fence - if we'd only get the rest of the posts delivered to us!!  We ran into problems here as the manufacturer ran out of the fence posts we needed.  This slowed our construction down by yet another couple of weeks.  We opted to get the pre-built gate from them too.
Finally finished!!!   Was it all worth it?  You bet!!

Would we ever get another Sun Pool?  Yessir!!  We love our pool and design.  We have more fun floating on a raft or playing volleyball, and the even depth works great.  The folks at Sun Pools have been great to work with over the last few years, always willing to answer any questions.

Would we do another homeowner installation??  Probably not!  I'd pay extra to get contractors in who knew exactly what they were doing.... However we now know more than we did in 2000....

What I'd do differently - #1 - ADD TILE AT THE WATER LINE!  Sure would make the cleaning easier.  I'd add the jets in some of the seats for a relaxing soak.  And get someone else to do all that digging and backfill!