In Ground Swimming Pool

[Uncle Bob]

Plan Review? What do you require if anything? Code?

Pool construction inspection (not fencing or safty items); other than bonding what do you inspect?

Thanks

 

[mjesse]

Underground and/or overhead electric service cable clearances.

 

[steveray]

Engineered drawings for structure, entrapment protection (suction), pool barrier, electrical......maybe not super specific, but we at least try to make sure that they are aware there are some requirements.....

 

[mtlogcabin]

The drain and filtering system. Public Works will not let them drain directly to the sanitary sewers as the chlorine messes up the bacterial levels in the sewer plant. It is common for the pool deck to drain to the sanitary system.

If it is commercial the stored chlorine amounts can exceed the allowable limits triggering an H occupancy. Happened at our city pool.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Thanks,

I'm wondering if the pool lights and any other electrical system connected to the pool should be installed by a licensed Electrician or can the pool installer do the wiring; since the requirements are in 2009 IRC, Electrical, chapter 42?

Should an electrical permit be required for in pool wiring?

Kinda getting the idea that I haven't inspected a pool in a very long time? Yep

 

[gfretwell]

In my county the pool steel guys generally do the rebar, niche, ladder cup bonding and stub out a #8 or two for the screen cage, deck and any other bonding necessary. The structural inspector and electrical inspector will sign off before they shoot the shell. After that they need an EC to do the rest of the wiring and the electrical inspector does the rest of the inspections.

The plan review wants to see the anti-entrapment methods, detail on steel, bonding plan and sometimes a hydraulic calculation (turnover speed).

Usually the inspector is happy about the potting on the niche if you leave the kit wrapper on the deck. YMMV and it is better to ask than to guess wrong. They may want a rough inspection before they plaster and fill the pool.

 

[north star]

= + =

Uncle Bob,

Here, we [ typically ] have the pool contractor submit their swimming

pool plans; as well as, a Site Plan [ RE: Zoning setback requs. ] and

the EC to submit a diagram of their work to be performed......We also

allow the homeowner to pull their own permits, but they too must

submit a Site Plan and an electrical plan that meets the requirements

of Ch. 41 of the `06 IRC........We inspect the pool reinforcement,

...entrapment avoidance, ...elec. bonding & grounding, ...installation of

receptacles, ...pool equipt., ...location of the pool drain - "not to the

san. sewer", and yes, purple primer on all pvc joints.......We inspect

all of this, when allowed to.

& * &

 

[gfretwell]

The strange thing here (Lee County Florida) is they do not inspect any of the plumbing on a pool but the inspector strongly suggests the system is pressure tested (24 hours at 30PSI) before you back fill. (just as a courtesy).

Except for the initial steel inspection, everything else is done by the electrical inspector. (entrapment, barrier, bonding incidental metal etc) They spend as much time on the barrier as anything else, testing self latching gates, door alarms etc. We were the drown kid capital of the world tho. I hope all the codes are chipping away at that dubious distinction.

I also never heard anything about the drain here in Florida

I do believe it has a lot more to do with them not wanting to treat 15 or 20 thousands of gallons of pool water than the chemicals. A properly balanced swimming pool should test the same as Washington DC city water. At least that is what city water tested on my pool test kit when I lived there. Right in the "ideal" groove.

 

[ICE]

We don't inspect the plumbing either. Like the air line in a factory, it is process piping.

Until a few years ago, draining the pool to the street wasn't allowed because of elevated levels of clostridium found in ocean water near beaches. The organisms live in pool water. For many years we required a 3" p-trap for draining a pool. So if you built a pool, you installed a 3" p-trap. Most are in the front yard where there is easy access to the building sewer. Most are also dry as a bone. Few are capped. I wonder if the homeowners associate that smell with the arrival of the pool.

The p-trap requirement has been replaced with a requirement that a pool can be drained to the street if it sits for seven days and no chlorine is added.

 

[gfretwell]

It is actually pretty rare that anyone drains a pool here. They tend to pop out of the ground.

Most water coming out of a pool is overflow from rain water.

 

[ICE]

It is actually pretty rare that anyone drains a pool here. They tend to pop out of the ground.Most water coming out of a pool is overflow from rain water.

When I lived in Daytona Beach I saw an olympic sized pool raised 3'. It happens here too.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Thanks, ya'll for teaching an old dog some new tricks. Here all they have been inspecting is pool bonding; and I mean ALL. That is going to change soon; so thanks for all the info.

 

[jar546]

In my county the pool steel guys generally do the rebar, niche, ladder cup bonding and stub out a #8 or two for the screen cage, deck and any other bonding necessary. The structural inspector and electrical inspector will sign off before they shoot the shell. After that they need an EC to do the rest of the wiring and the electrical inspector does the rest of the inspections. The plan review wants to see the anti-entrapment methods, detail on steel, bonding plan and sometimes a hydraulic calculation (turnover speed).

Usually the inspector is happy about the potting on the niche if you leave the kit wrapper on the deck. YMMV and it is better to ask than to guess wrong. They may want a rough inspection before they plaster and fill the pool.

Yes, but I still get in the hole with electricians I never met before.

 

[gfretwell]

The drain and filtering system. Public Works will not let them drain directly to the sanitary sewers as the chlorine messes up the bacterial levels in the sewer plant.

I never understood that one. A properly balanced pool will test about the same as chlorinated city water.

I know my tap water in Washington DC tested right in the middle of "ideal" on a 2 bottle pool tester.

 

[north star]

$ + $

"I never understood that one."

I'm not sure about how things are done everywhere, but in this area,the sanitary sewer billing rates are based on the amount of water

useage.....If the pool owner is discharging treated water in to the

san. sewer, then they are wasting money, ...over, and over, and

over again, because that discharged water will have to be

replenished.

I HAVE noticed that people who have in-ground pools tend to not

be concerned with wasting money though !



$ + $

 

[gfretwell]

If they won't let me discharge pool water into the sanitary sewer, I would be wanting a separate meter and rate for filling the pool.

I have a pool and the amount of water I drain out is minimal, just what happens when I am doing filter maintenance and that just dumps out in the grass. It is less than 5 gallons a few times a year. The biggest out flow is from rain overflow and that goes out in the lawn too, just as it would if the pool was not there.

 

[peach]

In DC, they don't want it drained at all - it's all combined sewer (sanitary and storm).. DC Water doesn't want to treat all the additional water (or they just dump ALL overflow into the Anacostia River).

mercifully, we don't do too many (usually public pools/schools); ground and steel (both for the pool AND deck AND equipment .. usually more than one visit); final for barriers/alarms (not applicable for indoor pools, usually).

Since most are filled from fire hydrants, a separate permit/meter is installed by the utility so the water gets paid for anyway.

 

[gfretwell]

It depends on where you live in DC. The older sections have combined sewer/storm drain but areas built up after WWI have separate storm drain systems. I was in PG county but that is still served by WSSC. They have separate storm drains there.

 

[peach]

separate lines on the property sometimes; they all go to Blue Plains. The mains are all tied in.

 

[gfretwell]

Storm drains dump into the local creeks in PG county. The sewer goes to Blue Plains

 

[peach]

PG Co, maybe. not DC. Everything ties into the "sewer system".. which means Blue Plains... and ultimately.. the Anacostia.. NOTE: don't eat fish caught in the Anacostia River.. not yet, anyway.