Drainage around your pool?

[DonW]

Now that the pool is up, the water is clear, and the weather is fine, I think that it's time to think about exterior site drainage. Our pool essentialy sits in a "hole". It is a 18' x 33' sitting in an area that was cleared to 22' x 37'. Being 10 feet from the house, approximately 12 inches had to be dug out of the site to accomodate a level building site. After this morning's 1 3/4 inch of rain, the pool was sitting in a pool of water! Come fall and winter I would imagine some serious frost heaving and woes that I do not want. Can anyone tell me what some of you did to afford drainage around your pool? I was thinking about a french drain around the site, but would have a tough time getting a ditch-witch around 1/2 of the pool, due to the 2 foot easement around it. Alot of the pictures that I see on the internet of swimming pools show the pool elevated from its surroundings. In reality it is the opposite. By clearing the site, your pool sits lower than anything around it. Hence prone to drainage issues.

 

[TizMe]

Fortunately our pool was built in an area where when they dug out the area to make it level there was still a little bit of a downhill grade or fall away from the pool so drainage isnt really and issue for us. I did have to however build a small retaining wall to hinder any future washout because of the grade.

However, have you thought about putting down some stone around the area to build it up and the water would run through the stone and drin into the ground? I am not sure what the area looks like around the pool. Is there anyway you could take some pictures and post them for us to look at and maybe someone will have some better suggetions?

 

[DonW]

I'll take a pic tomorrow to post to give a better idea. My wife is asking me if we're going to have a deck around the pool, (actually was asking me during the install!), and that has to be a consideration also. I did intend to put down some river rock, but putting together the logisistics with a possble french drain and footings/(or block for a floating deck) with a 2 foot easment to work with??? I wish I would have cut a larger area to work with, but leveling that area was big enough without adding to it.

 

[crabboy]

How about some pictures?

 

[DonW]

After flexing the old mental muscle on how to upload pics, I need a nap! This wil give you an idea of what I'm up against. My wife is banging on me about a fence and a deck, and I'm thinking retaining wall and drainage. I don't even have the ladder in yet!

 

[TizMe]

Where the grass edge is what is the deepest point around the pool as well as your width from the edge to the pool ?
If it were me I would get some landscape timbers and do a "retaining wall" round the outside edge where the area was dug out for the pool and then once the timbers are in put some small stone inside the area between there and the pool. It looks to me like water will always accumulate there now because the natural run off was disturbed.

I would do a deck on the side where the garage is and the end where the existing deck is and somehow incorporate the two.

 

[cubbybeave08]

After flexing the old mental muscle on how to upload pics, I need a nap! This wil give you an idea of what I'm up against. My wife is banging on me about a fence and a deck, and I'm thinking retaining wall and drainage. I don't even have the ladder in yet!

don,
what happened to all of the dirt that they excavated out to dig that nice hole your pool sits in. when my pool was put in my builder/installer told me to use all of the extra dirt to back fill around the pool...I see in your pictures that the patio blocks can be seen and the bottom rim that the side wall sits in is visible...i was told that i needed to put at least four inches of dirt over those parts the rim and the blocks. I did that and then some and put all of the fill in in such a way around the pool as to have the water slope away from the pool, then I got 40 bags of tan pond rock, nice and smooth and round and put over the back fill. I have a nice slope away from the pool and out into my yard...we have had some torential downpours here in NW Indiana, and I have not seen any standing water around my pool...I would start with backfilling up to at least the depth of your hole and higher up against the pool so that you have a gentle slope...my local building code called for at least four inches and not more than 8 inches...But that has done the trick for me.

 

[cubbybeave08]

By the way...beautiful pool...I wish they excavated my site as nicely as they did your's...It would been so much easier to work with. Especially when back filling...By the way did all backfilling myself...took two weekends and one wheelbarrow...

 

[kingbubbatruck]

Looks like a little slope there in one of the pics?

How about renting a trencher and running a french drain around the pool, (Covering with gravel) and running a drain off down slope? Maybe some sort of a 'leech field'?