Steel Wall Out Of Alignment

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dabuddy

dabuddy

0
Jul 20, 2008
97
Grand Rapids, MI
Hey guys, this might be an odd post but I noticed this morning (after a huge pool party yesterday and evening) that my pool wall seems to have been slightly dislodged (see pictures). The pool is only 1 year old. Is it normal for this to happen? Should I be concerned?
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is there a join there or something? I would be inclined to call the pool people out to have a look at it. What are the chances that some of the back fill has settled ? Although you would think after 1 year any settling would have already happened.

Someone who knows more about pool structures though should be along shortly to give their expertise about this.
 
You're right that that's where 2 panels bolt together. In addition to the bolts there should be an "A" brace attached to the top and bottom of the panels embedded in the concrete footing (collar) around the bottom of the panels. However, some PBs don't use the braces nor pour the collar :hammer:

What has apparently happened is that the backfill material has pushed in at that seem - the pool water should have helped to support the wall and the brace should have prevented this. I think you'll have to call the builder and see what he says, with any luck, this is a warranty issue 8)

If you want to know how I'd go about fixing this just ask. :)
 
Are you sure this is a recent occurance and you didnt just notice it? As waste said, for this to ocur the whole way up would require a real screw up on your PBs part normally. When this happens it usually does so during backfilling, but does not extend to the bottomof the wall because the concrete collar prevents this. Walls usually "push" at the top. How large is the push? half an inch? does it decrease as it goes down? Does anything look odd about the coping there now?
 
Thanks guys for your advice. There is an "A" brace attached to the top and bottom of the panels embedded in the concrete footing (collar) around the bottom of the panels. I have some construction pictures I'll dig up and post them. I am pretty sure I have them around this area where the mis-alignment is.

This is a recent occurance for sure because I am out there EVERY day and pay particular attention to every inch of the wall. I look all the time and this is blatently obvious so I noticed it right away this morning. I know people were doing side to side laps and pushing off there (actually everywhere along the sides) during our party. I'd say the push is about 1/2 inch all the way up to the top to the collar (where it is even).

Waste, how would you fix this? :)
 
Warning! This is not good news for a 1 year old pool :evil:

The first thing to do is drain the pool down past the shallow end and cut out a big chunk of the new deck :shock: Dig out the seam and the brace and at least 1/2 way down both panels. Knowing that you have a brace there is good news (what I suspect happened is that the brace broke - the ones we use have a threaded rod welded to the brace for adjustments - the weld probably popped) as long as the brace is still in the collar a new one can be attached to it without having to break up the collar to install a whole new one. Now it's just a matter of getting the walls back straight and securing them (the coping may have to be removed) - brute force is the usual method, beat the panels back straight :eek: The fact that you have a liner in the way complicates things some, but not much - that's why we had to drain the pool, so the liner could be untucked while we pound on the seam - the only good thing about your pool being so new is that the liner can easily be reset :)

All that's left is to backfill the hole, reset the liner and wait for the ground to compact enough to repour that section of deck - unfortunately, it will always show as a patched section of deck :x , there is no way I know of to match up new crete with old, you can age the new crete with acid to make it look older than it is, but getting it to exactly match the existing stuff isn't going to happen (though with modern technology, someone out there might be a concrete aging artist and be able to do it)

It sucks to have to do this to a new pool! It's labor intensive and will never look quite right, but it beats having the pool collapse!

Let us know what the PB says, maybe he knows a couple of tricks I don't and it won't be that bad :)
 

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Chris, sorry to say that if it's gone this much, this quickly - it needs to be addressed ASAP! :( Anything done now will have less impact than doing it later! What needs to be addressed is why this happened in the first place - your PB should be able to provide some insight into this - you don't want this to be a yearly concern!

I'll be here to offer advice and suggestions, but nothing can replace having someone who knows their stuff actually see the problem to figure out what's going on... :oops:

Please ask any questions you have after the PB checks it out!
 
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