Terrace is NY State bluestone, 2” quarry cut/thermal finish and purchased directly. Joints are non-shrink grout.
Terrace base is 1 ½” setting bed, 5” reinforced concrete slab (4000#) on 8” compacted stone.
Fountain and seating wall are buff Indiana (Oolitic) limestone, 2″ thick panels, 4″ thick x 13″ deep coping, running bond panel layout over reinforced concrete (cavity wall with custom stainless steel angle ties). Copings butt jointed to avoid mitered corners. Plant concrete for 4 yard slab – backyard mix for remaining 8 yards including superplasticizer. All stone backcoated with 2 coats Thoroseal. Concrete backup walls sealed with Sika sealer. Joints are white sand/white cement, lean mix, tooled concave. Leveling controls and electrical service built into backside of wall (not shown). In-ground pit with water service 50″ deep for year-round service to Woodford standing hydrant.
Pool is 94” diameter x 16” deep black fiberglas liner, with 2” drain and 2” stilling line for electronic leveling. Water supply is ¾” pvc to 1″ solenoid valve controlled electronically terminating at copper spout (backflow preventer on supply).
Pump is Oase Nautilus.
Pool is framed by breezeway – fountain jet on center.
Terrace is octagonal with inset octagonal pool/fountain
Seating wall (19″ above terrace)
Pool / fountain (frothy nozzle set fairly low)
Electronic leveling control:
Stone rail saw (bought for limestone work/sold) is MK 212 1.5 HP, water cooled diamond blade.
Stone masonry by Charles Downs.
I did the design, purchased all materials, field layout, excavation, all concrete (12 yards +) including formed 5″ and 6 1/2″ reinforced walls to 1/8″ +/- tolerance, utilities, hookup, pool installation and terminations and I assisted the mason.
Jeff
Edited 12/7/2009 11:40 pm ET by Jeff_Clarke
Replies
Jeff,
Very nice! Thanks for sharing.
Chuck S
Old and in the way.
live, work, build, ...better with wood
Nice Jeff!
I really like the layout of the octagonal, especially the decision to use single slabs for the perimeter pieces.
I love stone patios, I have around 3600 sqft split up in varying locations on my lot.
The 4" edge of the limestone is a treat to look at. It really conveys the mass and strength of the fountain, I enjoy the proportions.
Are you going to leave the hydrant as is? Why so close to the seating area?
Thanks for your comments. The standing hydrant will be painted dark green (only brown primer right now) or blue-gray green to match the furniture.
The hydrant is close to the wall because we had to pick a termination point for the water service which is a 50" +/- deep pit behind the wall. The standing hydrant which is 'live' 365 days a year depends on being close to the pit because when you shut it off the vertical piping drains into the pit each time to prevent freezing. The pit also has a custom made blowout fitting (glued-PVC-to-ball-valve-shutoff-terminating in a compressor fitting) - just used it to blow out the water supply line to the pool which, if it froze could burst between the pool liner and the limestone - pretty much a disaster. Also, we're in a terminal moraine, which means that digging any distance at a 50" depth is a risky business - the water supply out from the house is snaked between subgrade boulders.
The pump and light cords pass through the fiberglas pool liner just below the water line using cable glands, and then enter the back of a waterproof pvc junction box cast into the concrete. At the back corner of the pool wall there is a Zurn bronze access box so that it can be winterized by unwiring the pump and light, pulling the cable through (with pull cord for spring re-installation) and removing both. Everything is on a GFI breaker. Then the pool is drained and the stilling line blown out with a shop vac. Winterizing took less than an hour.
The perimeter terrace pieces are 1 1/2"-2" thick, about 24" wide and around 9' long - probably close to 300 lbs each making them particularly tough to set with 1/2" - 3/4" joints. The corner pieces of the fountain are close to the same weight - best for 3 people to set.
The center octagonal bluestone piece is 48" x 48" - with these sizes to fit the design you can imagine why I worked directly with the quarry.
The fiberglas basins only come in a few sizes so the actual finished size of the pool enclosure was based entirely on the diameter of the basin - you can see that the 135 degree inside coping angle *just* covers the pool diameter.