Practice English Speaking&Listening with: 4 | Bricklaying walls | Build a pool yourself | English version

4. Build a pool - Bricklaying walls

Fourth video in a series "from design to final result"

Lay out the walls on the concrete floor. Taking into account the dimensions of the concrete blocks + 1 cm for the joint.

Behind the walls, a minimum of 10 cm concrete floor must remain free.

A little swipe. The top of the concrete floor lies higher than the groundwater.

Right angles...

...and plot a perfect rectangle

Slope reinforcement to prevent from collapsing.

Submersible pump on standby to pump rainwater

Now it is finally clear what the outer dimensions are (5.6 x 3.5 meters) ...

... the concrete blocks can be ordered.

After 4 days, the 450 ordered concrete blocks and reinforcing steel were delivered.

This is what you need for a swimming pool of 5,6 x 3,5 x 1,2 meters with a stair and an underwater seat.

Lugged all 450 concrete blocks from the driveway to the backyard.

1/5 of the concrete blocks are terminal blocks.

In order not to be bricklaying in the rain ...

I decided to set up a party tent measuring 4 x 6 meters.

The tent is ready! Now rainwater falls next to the concrete floor, I am dry and mortar does not wash away.

That is quite a nice space.

The concrete blocks, for the first layer, lugged into the tent and put in place.

4 masonry profiles with 8 support battens ready ...

and installed a moment later.

Preparations for bricklaying.

Measured with a line laser whether the floor is level.

And then marking the 6 layers on the masonry profiles

This line laser is an indispensable tool for this work.

Here I bricklayed the first 15 concrete blocks. The first layer of mortar is 2 cm thick. I kept a 1 cm joint between the concrete blocks.

The first layer is bricked, including the bottom step ...

... and the bottom layer of the underwater seat.

Here I bring concrete blocks to the tent for the second layer.

Prepared the second layer of concrete blocks here. I placed reinforcing steel (Murfor) between the first and second layer of concrete blocks.

Since I did everything on my own, the bricklaying was not fast. I did about 10 to 12 concrete blocks a day.

I used 2 bags of masonry mortar per day and I only worked afternoons. That way it remained a fun job for me.

Here I started bricklaying the second layer.

Bricklaying is not recommended below 5 degrees Celsius.

Finished bricking the second layer, except for the stairs.

Here the horizontal reinforcement steel (Murfor) is clearly visible. I did not apply vertical reinforcement because the walls are relatively small and later on I will pour stabalized sand behind the walls for more strength.

Second step was bricked and the third layer of concrete blocks are prepared.

Bricklaying the third layer.

With 3 layers I came to half of the total number of layers.

Although I never bricked in the evening, lighting in the tent was handy to have.

Here the third layer is ready. This is the last layer for the underwater seat. The fourth layer is prepared.

All concrete blocks are stored in the tent.

Checked the masonry height of the fourth layer with the line laser.

In the fourth layer, the wall duct for the underwater lighting has to be bricked.

I did the bricking-in of the wall duct in phases. This was phase 1.

This was phase 2.

Third phase.

Due to the wall ducts, fitting pieces are created in other places that have to be bricked up.

To close the fitting pieces I used paving stones.

As a result, I did not had to grind the concrete blocks to size.

Top view of the closed fitting piece.

Step 4 of the stairs is bricked. The joints will be grouted later on.

Despite strong winds...

... and hailstorms, I was able to continue working, thanks to the tent.

The fourth layer is ready. Now the focus is on reinforcing the walls at the back.

First I applied masonry mortar to the floor behind the walls to better block any possible rising groundwater.

With these bags of cement and ordinary sand I made stabilized sand myself (abbreviated as "stabsand"). I made this by mixing 1 part cement with 5 parts sand, without adding water.

Then I poured the stabsand between a board and the wall and then tamped it down well.

After 2 days I was able to remove the boards and further fill the trench behind it with normal sand.

The wall of stabsand becomes rock hard and forms an extra strong layer.

This makes the pool walls extra strong and even better water resistant.

Together with the concrete blocks, the pool walls became 35 centimeters thick.

I finally applied the stabsand to just below the top of the fifth layer and ...

... the wall of stabsand will also serve as support for the border tiles.

The first part of the pouring of the stabsand, behind the walls, and the filling of the trench with sand is finished. Now let's continue with bricklaying the fifth layer.

The fifth layer is the penultimate layer and the top of it is level with ground level.

In this fifth layer, 2 wall ducts for the water injectors and 1 wall duct for the bottom vacuum will be bricked.

In the middle, between the 2 water injectors, another fitting piece has arised.

The wall duct for the second water injector is almost bricked-in and the wall duct for the bottom vacuum still has to be done.

Here the sun is still shining, but a heavy storm (Ciara) was forcasted.

The party tent was not designed for a storm. So I removed the tarpaulin and ...

... all tools and everything that was loose tidy.

For the first time we got a better spatial view on the swimming pool.

Ready for the storm...

10-02-2020 The storm is over. Fortunately no damage, just a lot of rainwater in the pool.

Here I am playing around with the submersible pump.

I pumped the water away, replaced the tent canvas again and continued with the masonry.

This wall duct is for the underwater lighting.

This one is for water injector number 1.

This one for water injector number 2.

And this wall duct is for the bottom vacuum.

Wall ducts for the 2 water injectors are completely bricked-in. Unfortunately, another storm (Dennis) was forcasted. To tidy up everything again ... pfff, too much work. I took the risk and left everything as is.

16-02-2020 Storm Dennis has started. Here and there I had to do some extra fixes.

Oops, the wind is blowing very hard now! I hoped for the best.

Little disaster. The last gust of wind of Dennis destroyed the tent completely.

Tent canvas torn, frame bent. Everything cleaned up in the pouring rain.

Then on with bricklaying without a tent ...

... in the open air.

The entire fifth layer of concrete blocks has been bricked. Only 1 layer to go.

With the bricklaying of the fifth step, the staircase is finished.

Meanwhile the skimmer has been delivered. It was larger than I expected.

All concrete blocks are ready for the sixth (and last) layer. Likewise the skimmer.

Nice overview, but that sixth layer still has to be done ...

Okay, done. Only the skimmer and fitting piece still has to be done here.

The final phase of bricklaying has entered ...

On Saturday November the 2nd, 2019 I started bricklaying the walls and on March the 20th, 2020 I bricklayed the last layer above the skimmer.

Then this is the final result of all the masonry.

Materials used; 421 concrete blocks of the 450 ordered 97 bags with masonry mortar (25 kg per bag) 20 bags with cement (25 kg per bag) 180 bags with sand (25 kg per bag) 3 cubic meters of sand in 3 bigbags 40 pavers (for the fitting pieces) 4 wall ducts 1 skimmer

So far for the bricklaying of the walls. In the next video I will continue with the technical installation. It would be nice when you "Like" this video and/or subscribe to my channel. When you have a question or comment, please feel free to do so.