Repair/Renovate or Remove?

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Thanks for the reply cwmoody.

cwmoody said:
This was probably overkill, but its not hard to fill 1/2" holes with epoxy.
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Sounds like a good idea keeping the size down for the holes to be easy to fill. My pool has spent a a few weeks with the shallow end completely drained and been through some big rain storms. Nothing moved at the shallow end.
Maybe I should take your cautious route as I drain the pool completely and start by putting a hole or two in the shallow end.

cwmoody said:
Keep in mind the main drain line runs under the pool, probably either over to the skimmer or straight to the back wall and up the wall.
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Not sure where the skimmer pipe runs, or whether there is a main drain pipe still connected. Guess I should brave the spiders in the shed and try to see what blowing out the various pipes does. That will tell me if there is actually a connected pipe.
The idea of randomly hitting a pipe now scares me.

cwmoody said:
Do you know how thick the cement walls are?
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Not sure. Suppose I could measure at the raised wall.

cwmoody said:
If there is still water under the pool, there is a possibility the pool may go down some once the holes are drilled and any water is released into the pool.
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Neighbours have said that a stream flowed behind the houses when they were originally built. Before the construction of the St-Laurence seaway, my neighbour says that the street was often underwater in the spring as the lake rose.
I’m guessing there’s often water under the pool.
I might spend an afternoon digging a the side to see. Might be worth putting a well pipe in.

cwmoody said:
And after the pool is refilled, it could go down even further
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Doubt that. The pool was repaired and used as-is after it floated. And that was years and years ago. Although I have to question the neighbours again as it seems the previous owner put 25k into fixing the pool. The pipes might be in place.
But if it was fixed to that extent, why so much subsidence around the pool. A quite frankly with all the subsidence of soil evident around the pool, the previous use as-is, and the years unused and full of brackish water, I’m pretty certain that it won’t be going down again.

cwmoody said:
I would hate to see you spend countless hours cutting through concrete walls and rebar to try to level the pool for it to go down further upon refilling.
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I’m leaning towards “building inside” rather than cutting down if I’m going to fix it to level. A slightly smaller pool built in/on the existing structure.

cwmoody said:
So before I decided to tackle a huge undertaking like that, I think I would drain the pool, clean it up, paint it if you want, refill it, and swim in it for a while.
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Looks like this is the best first step. See if we’ll at least use it for a while.

cwmoody said:
For what its worth, I envision stacked stone around the side walls where the pool has floated and some sort of waterfall feature over the back wall to make it appear intentional.
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Sounds very close to my plans. If the pool were raised all round, looking a the first picture:
- Steps and deck leading up to pool.
- Deck attached to pool on left side under tree up to where shed is.
- Can build shed 17’ tall and 200sq ft. Floors are rotten because it’s flooded every spring. So build shed on raised piles at same level as deck and bigger.
- Utilitarian wall built behind pool supporting wide coping stones.
- Nice decorative wall on right side of pool supporting wide coping stones.

To go really over the top, make the right side shallow end wall a negative edge. Could look great and would work wonders to clear all the floating debris (you’ll notice all the trees) from the pool.

cwmoody said:
Do you know if the plumbing was redone after the pool floated? I can't imagine a pool floating that much and not breaking the pipes or at least causing leaks.
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As from before. I was flabbergasted to learn that 25k of repairs already went into the thing. Going to have to try and test the piping. Maybe I can get an idea by blowing the pipes before I empty and clean it.

Nice to have dreams. Would be nicer to have the budget to match.

Yet another dilemma. Fence is falling down and needs replaced ASAP.

Priced the composite fencing that I wanted to buy and install. $15k just for the supplies. Need to ratchet my tastes down several notches. Might need access to yard to fully repair or remove pool, guess I should find the cheapest available code acceptable fence and install it myself. Then hit the neighbours up to share costs when the pool is final and a nicer fence is to be put in.
 
Did a bit of digging near the edge of the pool. Went down about 2 feet.
Seems to be gravel and crushed stone against the side of the pool and a foot or so wide. There also seems to be sand between the gravel and stone and the undisturbed soil.
The black pipe is a return line to a jet near the stairs in the shallow end. The pipe is also connected to the one return at the deep end.
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Spider man time! Take a broom and clear out the shed. OH and some hotshot to kill them with. Have some one stand by the pool to see if they can figure out which part in the pool the air is coming out of when you blow air into each pipe.

Kim
 
Well, for anyone that was following this and cares for an update:

Summer was busy and I did nothing with the pool until two weeks ago. With good weather forecast, I rented an electric pump and a gas powered 4000psi pressure washer.

Over two days I pumped out and pressure washed the entire pool. Seemed like an endless task. The initial grime and large chunks of paint came free with a single pass of the washer. Many, many passes later holding the wand very close to the surface, paint was still being removed. A friend that visited said he though we were running a Smurf slaughterhouse. The street outside the house had a blue river running to the street drain.

The joyful surprise of the day was that there is infact a bottom drain with a opening through to the ground and a pipe out to the side. Still have to figure out if the pipe is actually plumbed to the shed with the pump and filter. Getting the pipe plug out of the bottom was a bit of a challenge, but a jury-rigged tool broke it free and once unscrewed a foot or so of clean and clear ground water rushed into the pool.

With time running out on the rental I returned the equipment and left the pool as-is with the bottom drain pipe open.

We've now had a few days of rain and the pool deep-end is almost full.

The question now is, what next to stabilise everything for the winter?

I'm thinking that I want to pump is dry again (so it's not sitting in ground water) to access the bottom drain and install a check valve instead of the plug.

Then, see if the cover in the shed is actually serviceable, fill the pool to just under the level of the skimmer, add lots of chlorine, cover it up and leave it for the winter. Good idea?

Then, next year buy second hand filter and pump and see if the pool can run. Use it for that year.

Later repaint. Then with money saved up, talk with concrete contractors for some upgrade and improvement ideas.

Will add some photos of the cleaning process and final results ASAP.
 
OK, I will take a shot at it. Other than replastering, I could see myself DIYing something like this if I felt good about the shell. After cleaning and hydrostatic valving, I would: Rip off all of the coping and tile and the stuff on the outside of the shell. Dump all but the wood around the outside of the pool as filler. Shoot a laser level around the inside of the pool from the lowest point so you have a line all the way around that is level. Rent a cement saw from HD. Cut around the entire pool on the inside on that line. If it doesn't get you all the way through, drill some holes along the line so that you can recreate the line on the outside. Finish cutting off the shell so it is level. I would just throw the excess around the pool as I would use it as filler as well. Bust out the skimmers and use the cement saw to cut in two new skimmers. Bust out and epoxy up all of the old returns and drains. I wouldn't even worry about a bottom drain, just get a Polaris and run it off one return and leave it in the pool 24/7. Drill in and epoxy in the new returns, lines, skimmers, using 2" PVC and route them to your new pump station. Locate one of the returns in the middle-ish for the Polaris. Make sure all returns and supply lines have valves on them. For the deck I would go out however far on each side that you want to extend the deck and trench to hardened area, do footer and then use cinder to build a wall around the pool that is level to the new pool wall. Get a coping you like. Cement and grout it around the pool as well as around the perimeter cinder wall. Tile & grout the skim line. Find some landscape brick that you like for the deck. Pack fill sand in the middle in lifts over a period of weeks until it is just under the thickness of your bricks. Brick in the deck area and smooth with polymeric sand. Contract our the plastering and you are swimming!
 
kimkats said:
Eric! WOW! How many layers of paint do you think it had??

Kim
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Let's see,
At least two different shades of blue, a green or two, and another shade I'd have to go out to check if there was any left.

The pressure washer wasn't enough. When it comes time to repaint properly (if not replastering or some alternative) I'll need to have a go with my grinder and wire-brush attachement.

Despite the buckets of paint chips I removed and the quantity pumped away (and stuck in the street, I'm so glad no one called town security on me while a pressure washed the asphault to drive the ooze to the storm drain. There's bound to be a bylaw against what I did.) there are still large loose bits that have been loosened and can be chipped free.
 

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Some neat ideas Keith.
But, I don't like the idea of cutting the pool. The exterior structure is metal panels with bracing. Cutting level would involve cutting the bracing as well.
Really need to find someone in the cement business who knows what structural possibilities there are.

On the "speak to an expert" front, the "expert technician" at the Club Piscine store in St-Constant didn't even know what a hydrostatic valve was. Also found that they aren't listed in the Hayward parts catalogue. But when I showed him an entry online with a part number, we found it in the 2015 price list.

According to this "expert" they just put threaded plugs in the bottom of bottom drains.

Guess I'm buying the valve online (and for much cheaper).
 
The start:


Coping before:


Coping after:


Cleaning the pool (I'm 6' tall, the pool is indeed quite big):


"Finished" (translation, it's been two days, it's getting late, I'm sore, there's still the street to clean, and I can't believe the neighbours haven't made a noise complaint about the continuously running gas engine yet):


Miraculous find at the bottom:

(You can see two shades of blue, a white, and a green paint in that photo)

Had to jury rig a tool to twist out the plug, but when it came out the pool filled very quickly by a foot or so.
The deep end is currently half full with water and of course the pool is collecting leaves as the trees begin to lose foliage.

 
EricDu said:
Some neat ideas Keith.
But, I don't like the idea of cutting the pool. The exterior structure is metal panels with bracing. Cutting level would involve cutting the bracing as well.
Really need to find someone in the cement business who knows what structural possibilities there are.
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Interesting thread! For what it's worth, we are wrapping up a renovation on our pool, and the masons who did the coping adjusted our out-of-level coping (was off over 2 inches from the low to the high point across the top of the beam) by first pouring a layer of some sort of mud/mortar/whatever-it-was to get things close to level, and then after that set they came back and laid the coping down. So basically instead of cutting down the high points, they built up the low points. The downside was that we had to then replace the waterline tile (which we would have salvaged otherwise), but it also needed to be leveled. That might be your best option.

There are a lot of detailed pictures (and videos) of the renovation day-by-day in my build thread (see my sig), but here is a picture that shows that height-adjustment layer after it was applied:

 
chinatti,

If only it was two inched out of level. :p

High point in the far back right of the deep end is ~23 inches higher than the lowest point closest left of the shallow end. Can't fix that with a little spackle. ;)

One of the ideas that I'm mulling moving forward with is the idea of building a water feature at the deep end back wall (think that suggestion was in this thread). Then, I would have the water level tiles go level around the pool, even up the slopes or build steps into the coping on either side, and a waterfall along the back.

I really like the way your pool is finished in the back. Level the front two or three sides of the shallow end like in your picture and put flat coping, and something like you stepped backwall up mysides finishing in a raised wall at the back and water flowing over the top.

Short term goal is figuring out how to leave it for the winter. Plug is out, a hydrostatic valve is on order.

Will probably install the valve when it arrives, fill the pool, and see if the cover in the old shed is serviceable. Maybe just try swim in it as-is next summer.
 

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