Hi,

I wonder if anyone has experience with using stone dust for a border around AGP, especially in cold climates?

I had an AGP installed this summer (Cornelius, metal wall, 18' round). It was donated by a relative and sat disassembled in the garage for 9 months until the wife pestered me to get it installed. Pool sellers in my locale are not too keen on installing second hand pools, but one recommended a 'retired' contractor who had worked for them.

He installed the pool on stone dust with protective under-liner ('carpet' as he called it) and leaving a 10-12" stone dust border (at sod depth). Since there was quite a surplus of stone dust, I decided to extend the border out to about 15" all around. I didn't want to disturb the existing border, as at some low spots the track base was slightly elevated above grade; the contractor didn't dig lower than sod on the perimeter as the clay underneath was very firm and he said that going deeper would mean that surrounding surface water would be more likely to drain down under the pool and collect rather than running around it, with more risk of frost heave in the winter. Plus, he had already gone down 9" into the clay at the center for the slope to the main drain.

So, I simply put garden bordering (the 5" rubber round top stuff) in 5-6" further out (drilled holes in the bordering every foot for drainage), covered the full width with landscape fabric, and overlaid with stone dust with a slight slope. This brought the stone dust to 2-3" above the track. Here's a pic:




Looks quite tidy, but I'm wondering now if using stone dust was such a smart move. It does tend to retain water more than say pea gravel would and I'm a bit concerned with the hard frost fast approaching (I live in Quebec) there could be problems with freeze-thaw/expansion-contraction of the stone dust damaging the track and bottom of the wall. I'm thinking maybe to put a strip of closed cell foam (cut up yoga mat) between the stone dust and wall (above the track) as a sort of ice expansion compensator (compression joint). Am I worrying too much?

It looks great and will perform well for many years to come.

Scott

Wow that does look nice!

Thanks for your comments, it's just that I'd read some articles discouraging the use of stone dust for laying/filling pavers in climates that experience repeated freeze/thaw cycles over the winter and early spring, and my thoughts turned to the pool.

Otherwise, yes, I'm glad I used it instead of pea gravel or decorative stone. Sure, as it settles and weathers it does leave some loose grit on the surface, and every now and then it's necessary to smooth over drip trails from the pool coping, but nothing gets trapped in it (leaves etc), the garden ants gave up in frustration, and (with the landscape fabric under) I haven't seen a single weed as yet. The smart move was getting it in before the wife had chance to lay a garden bed and smother it with the ubiquitous cedar wood chips. She's now resigned to putting some flower tubs around it next spring