Fiberglass Pool Hollow Shelf

[Clarissa4224]

Hi. We had a pool installed seems like forever ago but it’s been a little over a year now. We went with Leisure Pools the Eclipse 30’ model. We’ve had our fair share of issues and it’s finally looking like we can see the light at the end of this very long and winding tunnel. Right now we have coping/concrete issues with where the concrete meets the pool. LP said they’ll come out and fix talking about it being a very common issue. The other issue we have (the more pressing issue) our back step or ledge of our pool is completely hollow. When our 4 year jumps on it it vibrates like no other and when our 9 yo nephew jumps into the pool on that ledge it makes a crazy loud sound like it’s about to completely fall off. We had that issue with the main step with the pool and had a crack that had to be filed all the way down to the outer layer of the fiberglass. Once they fixed it they decided to come re-backfill that whole shelf/area. Now we haven’t found a crack yet on the other hollow side but LP said it’s more than normal to have an entire shelf be hollow or empty below it. Is that true? We just want an unbiased opinion.
Please help! Thanks!!

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome neighbor! I'm not so sure it's "normal" for the shelf to be totally hollow or empty, but I can't say that I'm surprised. If your builder used sand like ours did, it probably settled quite a bit by now. It's all one of those "hindsight is 20-20" kind of things. I sure wish we would've insisted on gravel due ot our shifting soils, but that was in my pre-TFP days. We have two simlar benches that go along the entire side of our pool, and some spots (and steps) seem to have more of a void than others, although our hollow spots do not seem to be as drastic as yours with the noises. That would be concerning. By now I'm assuming LP is fully paid and perhaps seems less than intersted in investing too much time beyond what they think is reasonable follow-up work, but I would try to keep the dialog going. The backfill issue could be one of those things that comes back to a warranty claim if it does in-fact crack later. FB is quite durable, but you never know.

Nice to have you with us!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Was the fill around the fiberglass sand or gravel?

 

[Clarissa4224]

Thank you for the response. Thankfully we have not pa

Welcome neighbor! I'm not so sure it's "normal" for the shelf to be totally hollow or empty, but I can't say that I'm surprised. If your builder used sand like ours did, it probably settled quite a bit by now. It's all one of those "hindsight is 20-20" kind of things. I sure wish we would've insisted on gravel due ot our shifting soils, but that was in my pre-TFP days. We have two simlar benches that go along the entire side of our pool, and some spots (and steps) seem to have more of a void than others, although our hollow spots do not seem to be as drastic as yours with the noises. That would be concerning. By now I'm assuming LP is fully paid and perhaps seems less than intersted in investing too much time beyond what they think is reasonable follow-up work, but I would try to keep the dialog going. The backfill issue could be one of those things that comes back to a warranty claim if it does in-fact crack later. FB is quite durable, but you never know.

Nice to have you with us!

Welcome neighbor! I'm not so sure it's "normal" for the shelf to be totally hollow or empty, but I can't say that I'm surprised. If your builder used sand like ours did, it probably settled quite a bit by now. It's all one of those "hindsight is 20-20" kind of things. I sure wish we would've insisted on gravel due ot our shifting soils, but that was in my pre-TFP days. We have two simlar benches that go along the entire side of our pool, and some spots (and steps) seem to have more of a void than others, although our hollow spots do not seem to be as drastic as yours with the noises. That would be concerning. By now I'm assuming LP is fully paid and perhaps seems less than intersted in investing too much time beyond what they think is reasonable follow-up work, but I would try to keep the dialog going. The backfill issue could be one of those things that comes back to a warranty claim if it does in-fact crack later. FB is quite durable, but you never know.

Nice to have you with us!

Hello!! Thank you for the response. LP has not been fully paid, thankfully!! It's only about 3k that is owed but I'm more than sure that's why they are still responding to us. Two reps came out today, got in on the shelf... stomped around a little and said "sounds like a fiberglass pool to me". Sand was not used... We have one of LPs employee's (the one that did the backfill) on our doorbell camera recordings first stating that we got a damaged pool (other issue we had with them) and also that the wrong sized rock was used. He also said that LP usually uses a small rock to backfill but that a larger rock was left at our property to backfill and that was used. He claims that is the reason why it sounds hollow but that it actually is not hollow at all.

So the separation between the concrete and pool isn't an issue... shown on one of the pictures.

 

[Clarissa4224]

Was the fill around the fiberglass sand or gravel?

Gravel. We were told that the wrong size gravel was used though.

 

[CarolineM]

My FG pool is just over a year old. Last year we noticed the tanning ledge was hollow sounding and had low spots. Ours was filled with a slurry of gravel, water and grout mixture. PB had some guys come out and pump in more slurry. That then left a higher spot in the middle where they pumped in the slurry and on either side of the middle was lower and hollow.

PB sent out more guys to pump in more slurry, this time from the side. Well, that left the other side lower and hallow. In Nov the guys came back and pumped in slurry on the other side. The water had been lowered and we were told not to walk on it to just close the pool for the winter.

When the water got warm enough this year I got in and walked around, once again we have hollow areas.

At this point we don't know what to do. Every time they come to fix it they have to remove our pavers, dig down under the concrete coping to pump stuff in. Our pool gets full of dirt and the pavers are never put back properly. We had to pay for our hardscape company to redo the paver sections as they were much lower than the rest of the pavers.

My fear is not having it fixed properly is that the Fiberglass will crack.

 

[Clarissa4224]

I feel your pain! The step to enter our pool had a crack and they ended up backfilling it when they came out to repair the crack (the first time) after backfilling it seems like they might have packed it too much and it caused the crack to open back up and then another crack happened just an inch or so away from that crack on that same step. It's frustrating for sure. They came to repair that and it seems like we are good to go on that end but I'm worried about the other side doing the same thing and having to go through all of that again. I'd rather backfill now and not have issues with cracks (assuming that was the cause adn LP didn't intentionally sell us a damaged pool)

 

[JoyfulNoise]

My guess would that your gravel fill has settled and left some hollow areas under the ledge. It may be that the surrounding soil is shifting under the weight of the pool (remember that water weighs 8.4lbs per gallon so 84,000 lbs per 10,000 gallons of pool water). The clay soils found in Texas are often expansive, meaning that they expand & contract with moisture. So it could take many seasons for the pool to fully settle into place. Meanwhile, all the fill is going to move around with the soil that it’s in. It’s too bad that the ledge has gotten hollow but, short of digging up that area and trying to inject slurry (and hope it stays in place), I don’t see any simple fix to the feel of that ledge. Cracks are your biggest enemy so stay on top of those problem areas and hold the PB to their warranty if any develop.

 

[Clarissa4224]

Thank you for your response. LP has come out and repaired one crack twice and another once to the entry step of our pool. Hopefully we don't have any others. Sounds like a hollow sound isn't uncommon with FG pools. Just didn't want another area of the pool to crack and have repaired FG at every turn of our pool.

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

My fiberglass pool has a shelf in deep end as well. It does have a hollow feel when you step on it but I can't say it is particularly loud. More of a feel.

Though that shelf sits below a foot or so of water so it might be muffled.

 

[J Dog Picard]

I have been looking at all the FG manufactures and LP seems to have the technology and good warranty. Hopefully they will follow through with the warranty work. I am finding out after researching FG pools it seems to be a lot of installation issues and contractors not back filling it correctly. I really like the idea of having lower maintenance cost keeping the water clean. Not sure what to do at this point. Still waiting for my first concrete pool estimate.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I have been looking at all the FG manufactures and LP seems to have the technology and good warranty. Hopefully they will follow through with the warranty work. I am finding out after researching FG pools it seems to be a lot of installation issues and contractors not back filling it correctly. I really like the idea of having lower maintenance cost keeping the water clean. Not sure what to do at this point. Still waiting for my first concrete pool estimate.

The idea that fiberglass is somehow “easier to maintain” or “uses less chemicals” is nothing more than marketing department fantasy language. There is no “easier to maintain” pool .... all pools need maintenance and all pool surfaces can have their pro’s and con’s. So don’t let fictitious marketing hype drive the decision making process. Pick the pool you want to build and the one you can afford to build. No matter what pool surface you get, you can expect lots of maintenance work to keep it looking good.

 

[J Dog Picard]

Yea that’s the problem with the research it’s all from the pool manufacturers pushing there product and biased opinions. Thanks for the reply. Looking at salt water with variable speed pump seems to be the lower cost in maintaining the water. I know the equipment cost more up front and I’m still deciding. Also I have heard salt water being a corrosive eats up concrete pools plaster ???

 

[mknauss]

Also I have heard salt water being a corrosive eats up concrete pools plaster ???

No. Not maintaining proper water chemistry impacts all types of pool surfaces and equipment.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Yea that’s the problem with the research it’s all from the pool manufacturers pushing there product and biased opinions. Thanks for the reply. Looking at salt water with variable speed pump seems to be the lower cost in maintaining the water. I know the equipment cost more up front and I’m still deciding. Also I have heard salt water being a corrosive eats up concrete pools plaster ???

I have a 6 year old gunite salt-water pool with a Pebbletec plaster finish and natural flagstone coping that looks the same as the day it was installed .... I’ll let you know when it all dissolves into a pile of dust and mud....