Introduction

This is part 4 of a story that documents how to build a gunite pool. Click these links for Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3  of the story.

Day 4 – Spraying the Gunite

During day 4, the pool framework essentially gets built. In our case, the gunite crew of seven men arrived early in the day with some big equipment. I don’t want to explain how it all works, but essentially the dry gunite gets shot into the pool by a high-pressure air delivery system. The gunite gets wet at the discharge point of the spray gun by water coming from the house water hose.

The process is loud because of the massive air compressor that is needed to deliver the materials to the pool. The process is also dusty because of its nature of the mixing hopper and the dry gunite materials. Also, the high velocity dry materials being shot into the pool tend to blow dust into the wind. You can see that in the videos shown below.

The crew are once again highly specialized and talented workers. They make the job look easy as the 13 inch walls and floor get created. There are multiple truck loads of materials that get delivered throughout the day. It is a long day with a lot of work being accomplished. Even with all the complexity and dust, the crew left the site as clean as possible.

A time lapse video is shown below that documents the gunite spraying process.

The two videos shown below include a video of the gunite delivery system, and an aerial video showing the pool creation process.

When it was finished, the gunite begins drying and it was our responsibility to water the gunite at least twice a day for a total of seven days. The exothermic reaction that occurred as the gunite cured was interesting to see because it evaporated the water we applied to the gunite. By periodically watering the gunite, we helped it properly cure.

The slideshow below documents the activities from day 4.

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Upcoming In The Next Article

Day 5 – Earthwork