To Bury or Not to Bury an Above Ground Pool!

[jlsr]

Thanks posting this thread! it is so helpful to read how others have done their pool and how its holding up. I have read with great interest all I can find on this subject so that we can make am informed decision before next summer. We are contemplating a buried AGP next year and plan to do it ourselves. Hubby has worked in construction many years and has excavation equipment available to do the work. And he is a perfectionist !

We're still undecided though due to the fact that we have large shade trees around our yard and don't want to harm the roots. If we decide not to bury we do have an open area we can do a larger AGP. The little 14 X 48 'practice pool' we got this year will have to do for now. I do appreciate this site a lot and have learned SO much from all the great posters here.

Cherie, we're in N TX too! But way on the other side of the metroplex.

Thanks again for all the good info and the pics of the inground AGPs. Hopefully we'll have one in our yard next year !

 

[Cherie]

Thanks posting this thread! it is so helpful to read how others have done their pool and how its holding up. I have read with great interest all I can find on this subject so that we can make am informed decision before next summer. We are contemplating a buried AGP next year and plan to do it ourselves. Hubby has worked in construction many years and has excavation equipment available to do the work. And he is a perfectionist !

We're still undecided though due to the fact that we have large shade trees around our yard and don't want to harm the roots. If we decide not to bury we do have an open area we can do a larger AGP. The little 14 X 48 'practice pool' we got this year will have to do for now. I do appreciate this site a lot and have learned SO much from all the great posters here.

Cherie, we're in N TX too! But way on the other side of the metroplex.

Thanks again for all the good info and the pics of the inground AGPs. Hopefully we'll have one in our yard next year !

jslr, if you do decide to bury, look into using the slurry - which is actually in the Doughboy instructions. Since we put our pool in, two other neigbors have bought the same pool. One only buried theirs a little, but another buried his all the way (or almost all the way), had slurry poured, then did a beautiful cement deck all around it. You'd never know it was a buried Doughboy. But the slurry is a safety measure in case you ever need to drain your pool. From what I know now, from the experts on this site, the ground around our pool is stable enough now that we could safely drain, but not leave drained for very long. We didn't use the slurry, but wish we had.

We also decided to move the maple tree farther from our pool (lost it this year though - not sure why ) because of the root risk. Other than the yellow-jackets and hornets under the deck, we still LOVE our pool and deck and hope to install a slide this year.

I'm just so thankful for this site. I was nervous when we decided to do another pool, because I would be completely in charge of it. Only one month after our fill, I found this site - and taking care of our pool is so easy, our Shih Tzu could do it! I'm trying now to talk my sister into the BBB method, as well as her daughter, on both of their Doughboys (They didn't bury theirs).

Best of luck in your decision. Do a search on here for the other folks who buried. I can't recall their names on here, but another couple we met through here came over to view our pool and chose the same set-up, including the 7' deep end. So there are several folks on here who have buried their Doughboys.

 

[jlsr]

Thanks so much for the advice ! I'm Sold on the agp buried ! Now to convince hubby. I've got 9 mos to do that. His main concern is that there may be tree roots up fairly close to the ground surface due to th fact that we're up on a rock hill. He says its dirt down 3-4 feet then ROCK.

Love looking at the pics of y'alls pools ! Great inspiration. We are also completely sold on the BBB method ..... Been doing it since day one on our practice pool and it is crystal clear ! I'll post a pic of the area we want to bury the pool in so you'll have an idea of how the tree roots may interfere. If I can figure out how to do that.

 

[jlsr]

And a pic of the practice pool ... From well water, thankfully no metals just super high TA.

 

[Cherie]

:-D Ahhhhh, beautiful, clear water. I feel like jumping right into my screen! Hubby and I loaded nearly 2,000 pavers onto a truck today (too tired to unload them at our house) and have to unload them tomorrow morning. I may have to come in afterward and dive into your pool (through my monitor).

Just be sure to start a thread for us when you start on your AGP bury. I bought more popcorn and Dr. Pepper last night - so I'm stocked up already :-D

 

[Glock]

Happy to hear the AGP is still holding up. I am about to do this same thing. The in ground steel wall, concrete floor starts at 24k in my area so economically its not the better option for me.

 

[Cherie]

Happy to hear the AGP is still holding up. I am about to do this same thing. The in ground steel wall, concrete floor starts at 24k in my area so economically its not the better option for me.

Ours is the Autumn Breeze too, Glock. But it's 16x32. Don't forget to go for a little extra and do the 7' deep end - you won't regret it.

 

[Glock]

Oh absolutely. I regretted not getting it with my old pool. Hoping I get a call tomorrow with an install date. Doughboy seems very confident their pools will do perfectly fine in ground. I would love to see pics of one removed after about 15 years.

 

[Cherie]

I seem to recall someone on here doing that, but not 100% sure. I'll see if I can find the post, assuming it exists. One thing I read though, AFTER we put ours in, is that you should put "tar (?)" on the sides before burying it, to keep it from rusting - though Doughboy claims it won't rust.

 

[Glock]

I am going to hold them to that. lol I bet they would say the tar caused it if I had a warranty issue.

 

[Cherie]

Oh absolutely. I regretted not getting it with my old pool. Hoping I get a call tomorrow with an install date. Doughboy seems very confident their pools will do perfectly fine in ground. I would love to see pics of one removed after about 15 years.

Hey Glock, don't forget the slurry backfill. Also, our pre-teen son loves your avatar and handle! He's totally into the powerful airsoft - and has the bruises to prove it

 

[Cherie]

Thanks posting this thread! it is so helpful to read how others have done their pool and how its holding up. I have read with great interest all I can find on this subject so that we can make am informed decision before next summer. We are contemplating a buried AGP next year and plan to do it ourselves. Hubby has worked in construction many years and has excavation equipment available to do the work. And he is a perfectionist !

We're still undecided though due to the fact that we have large shade trees around our yard and don't want to harm the roots. If we decide not to bury we do have an open area we can do a larger AGP. The little 14 X 48 'practice pool' we got this year will have to do for now. I do appreciate this site a lot and have learned SO much from all the great posters here.

Cherie, we're in N TX too! But way on the other side of the metroplex.

Thanks again for all the good info and the pics of the inground AGPs. Hopefully we'll have one in our yard next year !

Hey jlsr, I forgot to respond on the tree root issue, other than to say that we had our Maple tree moved. After advice from someone on the site about how extensive their roots are, I did more research on Maples and decided to go with a transplant. I would read up on the type trees you have (those that will come within a certain footage of the pool) and then decide whether to bury. Those are big trees (not something we see here in Wylie!) and are very close. We had big trees right at our inground gunite at our old house, with never a problem, except that we were constantly having to clean the leaves out of the pool. We eventually had the trees taken out (dumb move), because there were so many more old big trees around us (neighbors) that kept the back yard shaded and lots of leaves in our pool.

 

[Glock]

Oh absolutely. I regretted not getting it with my old pool. Hoping I get a call tomorrow with an install date. Doughboy seems very confident their pools will do perfectly fine in ground. I would love to see pics of one removed after about 15 years.

Hey Glock, don't forget the flurry backfill. Also, our pre-teen son loves your avatar and handle! He's totally into the powerful airsoft - and has the bruises to prove it

Thanks. I do love my airsoft Colt pistol and AR-15 but I am a Federal Firearms Licensee too (I own my own gun business. Internet based sales only) so I get top play with the big toys too.

As for the slurry, Mine is only going to be 2 feet in the ground. In hard black clay so i am not sure if they will backfill with slurry or not. It says in the install agreement they provide pavers, sand, and concrete so we shall see.

 

[Cherie]

should-i-coat-the-outside-of-my-pool-for-backfill-t15786.html

Here's the link on someone suggesting tar on the outside before backfilling. The other info y'all have probably already found, mentions the slurry (very good suggestion and required by Doughboy). Also mentioned is that the newer AGP's have a better protective coating on them, and that tar is no longer beneficial. We didn't use tar, didn't use slurry and are in our 5th swim season now with absolutely no problems with our pool. We also have a large deck completely surrounding our pool, which probably helps a bit from the ground drying out too much around it. I water it throught the deck when I see the large cracks starting in the yard (we live on an acre).

When I get a minute, I'll try to find the other AGP buries and post the links on here too, so we can have as much at our fingertips as possible. Here's another Autumn Breeze 16x32 pool bury:

32-x16-doughboy-with-partial-bury-under-construction-t23278.html

 

[Glock]

I could just Line-X it like my truck bed. Nothing wrong with a rustproof AND bulletproof pool eh?

 

[jlsr]

Thanks so much for all the good info ! Glock, I'm looking forward to seeing pics of your process !

Been doing som research on live oak tree roots. Sounds like we should be ok as long as the tree trunk is at least 15' away from where we dig.haven't had a chance to measure the area but we may have to go with a narrower oval than we would like.

Hubby says he would do the slurry, if we do agp in ground ... He's still on the fence.

Hope y'all had a chance to enjoy your pools this weekend in all this heat ! I did.

 

[Cherie]

"Hope y'all had a chance to enjoy your pools this weekend in all this heat ! I did."

Oh jlsr, that wasn't nice! Hubby and I drove 120 mi (rt) to Arlington to load some pavers onto a 24' Penske, then another 96 mi (one way) to Commerce to load more pavers, then back home 45 mi to Wylie. Took us from 8:00a.m. - 6:00p.m. Saturday. Then we toiled from 8:00a.m. - 5:00p.m. on Sunday to get them all unloaded from the Penske (thanking the Good Lord for that Penske a/c!!). We aged 20 years, but are sure glad we got all those pavers for dirt cheap! We're now hoping to interview some nice people to volunteer to come install the pavers...for free! But we were too tired to even put on swim suits and go hop in the pool!

Incidentally, it was almost 2,000 pavers and no, they weren't on pallets - had to be done by hand!

 

[Cherie]

I could just Line-X it like my truck bed. Nothing wrong with a rustproof AND bulletproof pool eh?

Glock, now if you lived in the heart of Pleasant Grove, you'd sure need that bulletproofed pool!

 

[jlsr]

2000 pavers by hand ?? Oh my that's a LOT of work... And it was hot Sat !! I can sure see why you would be tired after that ! It makes me tired just thinking about it. But it will be worth it in the end ;-)

 

[Cherie]

I know it's been years but I'm just wondering how your pool is holding up?! I buried mine in 2008 and so far so good. NO regrets!

Hey E, I went nosing around to see if you built a deck around your pool or put landscaping. Couldn't find anything. Did you do a deck?