Karen’s Perspective: 
Today was for me the first day of the 2014 Pool season and talk about being thrown into the deep end of the pool and bring expected to swim. Al and the others started last Thursday digging the first pool of the season, and spent the weekend leveling the steel walls. Today, we poured footings. For those who don’t know what footings are we have to go back to the steel walls. 
For our pools picture varied length steel wall panels, 4 feet high, that look like a capital letter “I” only these I’s are missing the top and bottom appendages that face inside the pool. These walls are bolted together and braced at the seams with adjustable braces that are bolted near the top of the wall seam; they angle back and are temporarily pinned to the ground with rebar. These braces are the main supports to the walls which are standing flimsily upright on a 4 inch edge, shaping the vinyl liner portion of the pool. Different braces jut straight out from the wall top about 2 feet and “V” down to the wall base; these braces support our coping collar and the pool deck.
Because we build hybrid pools there are gaps in the steel walls where the shallow end step, sun shelf, and deep end seat areas be shot and shaped with shotcrete later, so sheets of thin wood bridge these gaps and are supported from inside the pool.
Now we return to what the footing is. IT’S CONCRETE, wheeled and dumped all around the pool, in the gap formed between the yard and the back of the steel walls. The object is to cover the 4 inch lip that forms the base of the walls and the braces with enough concrete that ensure the walls will never move. Al’s theory is more concrete is better than less, so we wheeled and dumped, wheeled and dumped, wheeled and dumped until he was satisfied. Then we shoveled to make sure the areas where mud made it hard to dump got more than their share of concrete too. Thankfully, the concrete truck was able to reach the step and sunshelf areas with its chute. Here trenches were dug to form a concrete base to support the 12 inch thick shotcrete walls.
What a way to start the season! After not doing anything really physical for basically four months, Al threw me in to the deep end and I swam the best I could. My theory is slow but steady, and trust me my ego is not bruised knowing I was lapped several times by the guys.
