Pool equipment set up help

[kdseibel]

Hi - hoping someone had an idea of how to deal with a sinking pad. Our filter is on a plastic pad that has been sinking each season, it must be putting strain on the piping. The pad currently sits on dirt covered with midsize stone. Ideally, I’d like to fit the filter and pump on a larger pad side by side. Our pool guy suggested calling a deck company (?). I don’t even know what to ask for. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

[ajw22]

The best is to pour a concrete pad with some rebar in it. A landscape company should be able to level the ground, put gravel down, and then level out concrete on top of it.

You will have to disassemble your pool equipment and move it to the side to construct the pad.

 

[AQUA~HOLICS]

If the pad has been sinking for a while, first address the unstable ground that the pad is sitting on, proper compaction is needed so the situation doesn’t occur again.
This contractor was found by looking for a “flat work” layer/finisher. He did sidewalks full time and small jobs like in the picture above on the weekends. It’s been a few years since the picture (above) but the cost was around $400 for a 10’ X 4’ slab.

 

[generessler]

Yeah what @AQUA~HOLICS said. If you have unstable soil like wet clay, silt, or organics, the pad will not stop sinking until it hits a different soil layer. Could be an inch or a yard. A new concrete pad will do the same. Someone who knows what they're doing will dig down to stable ground and backfill with well-graded gravel, compacting in shallow lifts. Unfortunately this is likely to require removing all the pool equipment to dig, then replacing it afterward. A more finessed approach would be to dig down just at the four corners, place sonotube columns, and tie these into a reinforced slab at the top. It's barely possible this could be done without cutting plumbing.

 

[superdave5599]

If it were me, I would be real tempted to try a DIY like one of these methods before going to all the work and expense of having a whole new pad poured.

There are companies that do this too (we hired one for our pool deck). I think their system uses the actual foam pushing against the ground and the underside of the deck to lift it, vs. jacking it up then filling the void. I imagine a big difference is they have a nozzle that can securely attach to the hole they drill, so the pressure doesn't just come out all around. (Unfortunately I wasn't there the day they did the work ,but I did watch their informational video.)