Repairing Concrete Collar on Inground Pool

We have finally gotten to the root of our night mare :evil: The concrete collar that supports our steel walls and "A" arms (that's another story) has a 1/4" crack that goes through the entire footer from the top to the bottom in a 8"section :cry: . This is why the deep end of our pool has settled up from 1/2" to 2" on the deep end . Our PB is stepping up now and wants to fix it correctly. Does anyone have any thoughts on how this should be done so that this does not happen again :?: The deep end of the radius is the only area of the pool affected . This is one project we want to be sure is done right once and for all! Should we use rebar driven into the underlying soil before new collar is poured? HELP :!:

We know the liner will have to be replaced , the leaking light niche and coping are being replaced too. Backfilling with #57 rock this time . New drainage system is going to be put in place to keep excess ground water diverted from pool.
 
The settlement of your pool's footer is due to instability of the soil or material under it. This can't be addressed with rebar.

There are a couple of options, including helical piles or push piers, or injected grouts specifically designed to stabilize loose soils. If the area was over excavated prior to concrete installation, excavating down to virgin soil and building up with structural fill or stone would likely work.

Did you have the soil tested before the build? If it is near water, particularly in a tidal area, there could be a band of unstable soil incapable of supporting your pool without significant remediation.
 
Thanks for your reply :) . This is the question of the year "what caused this".
Of all the "experts" we have had look at our pool ; they have all said independent of each other that the collar cracked in that one corner due to the constant leak of 1 1/2" per day over the last 3 yrs due to the light leaking in this area and the poor drainage around the pool. This area of the pool was not placed on "fill" but rather solid ground . It was backfilled with heavy clay soil which has now all been removed from the pool walls. That being said this area has been drying out in 90 degree heat for the last week .

As of now we are unsure of the resolution to this problem . We appreciate any and all ideas about this situation.
 
I forgot to post an answer in regards to our location. We sit in the middle of a previous cattle farm with no water in sightexcept for a neighbor's pond about 10 acres away that was man made.

If we did need to dig down to virgin soil how far would we need to dig and would #57 rock be a suitable rock?

Thank you for your post.
 
What can occur when you have a leak is that the soil can become so saturated that it can't support the weight of whatever's sitting on it. For example, if you have a bucket of dry dirt, you can't easily push your hand through it, but if you add a bunch of water to the bucket, the dirt turns to mud and it's really easy to push your hand through. The same holds true with the soil under your pool.

As far as remediation, the only way to guarantee there wouldn't be further problems would be metal piers, however allowing the soil to dry and restabilize or replacing all of the wet soil with stone (57s would be fine) would help.
 
Whew :!: :!: And some fix'n they have been doing :-D

As for the well point it was done a few days ago......Had it been done to begin with ,it would have saved us a lot of this headache :x
But then again , had I had known about this site before our pool construction the whole pool process would have been done completely different :hammer:

Educate yourselves new pool owners !!!

Thanks for everyone's help :-D
 
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