New pool on sloped yard need to backfill the right way

[butchmotors]

Hello everyone im new here. Last year i had a buddy excavate an area of my sloped yard to put a pool in. I installed the pool and enjoyed it last summer. This year i want to finish it up and build a deck around it. I had him dig the area slightly lower than the low part of the yard as i wanted the top of the pool even with a 3 seasons room and a deck that i plan to build. One side of the pool is roughly 22 inches lower than the yard. I had him dig the hole extra big so i could move it around while building bacause i wasnt exactly sure where i wanted it. Now i need to backfill the pool and not too sure how to do it properly. We have clay soil and it is allmost solid clay down there. Any help would be appreciated. Im worries if i backfill with soil the pool will rot out. It is all metal. Any suggestions? I tried to attach some images but every pic i rries it said "the uploaded file is too large for the server to ect"

 

[a4xcrypto]

I would love an answer to this as well. I was thinking myself of installing some type of vapor barrier prior to backfilling the side of the pool that is partially underground and then backfilling but then I was thinking what happens to water trapped between the barrier and the side of the pool. My pool instructions just say to use a good clean fill that doesn't have big rocks or sticks but that isn't the most helpful advice.

Also wondering if I should make some sort of French drain to drain any water away from the areas that are underground, really have no idea what to do here.

Good luck will be following your topic

 

[johnnysnok]

I'll try to give you my 2 cents and what I did, not sure if it was right or wrong?
Our yard also had about a 5' slope.
We put a retaining wall up and raised the ground to accommodate the pool to our existing deck.
The ground under the deck was just dirt and when it rained or I had a hose cleaning the deck water and dirt would just run down the hill and come to rest against the pool wall.
About 4 years ago a got on my knees under the dig and dug out all of the runoff dirt. About 3' away from the pool wall and still under the deck I dug a 1' deep trench from one end of the deck to the other end which was longer than the pool which is 24'.
I had 2' wide bamboo barrier (which is real heavy gauge black rolled plastic) I put it in the trench and backfilled the front and back of the plastic in the trench and packed it down as tight as I could.
I now have about 1' of black plastic sticking out of the ground under the deck. When ever it rains and water and dirt wash down the hill it hits this 26' long dam and runs to each side or settled against the dam and it no longer reaches the side of my pool wall.
I know this is a lot to explain and I'm not a good writer!
Maybe I can try to get a picture or 2?
There is a link to my sloping yard in my signature. ............Hope this may help or give you some new ideas?

 

[johnnysnok]

Got some pics of the bamboo barrier I used ads a dam under my deck.

 

[butchmotors]

Got some pics of the bamboo barrier I used ads a dam under my deck.

Nice. Thank you . This doesn't look like a bad idea. Also not to much of a hastle for me as i havnt built my deck yet

 

[butchmotors]

What fill is best alongside the pool? I think im going to add some fill to taper the ground alongside the pool to the back if the yard. Then i can drop the drain tile in there and cover with somthing. Im guessing stone or sand is not the right way to go because when liner replacment time rolls around the sand can push in the sides of the pool. Any suggestions?

 

[thefloatqueen]

Following!

 

[2kCougar]

the back of my pool is level with the ground and the land behind it continues to slope upward. We put in a french drain around the back 1/2 of the pool and backfilled with our existing soil. We have sandy soil. I have a radiant pool, so it's designed to be buried.

 

[Rbees]

Hello,

I'm also looking for some advice
We bought a 16x26 oval steel pool.. we COULD NOT dig down to lowest level because it would encroach into our driveway, we graded our driveway into our back yard and then built a retaining wall.. the fill is rock and hard clay, we then covered with 2 inches of sand. When we set up the pool we had to dig in the buttress free bases, the ground under the sand was so hard we had to chop with an ax. The retaining wall is 6x8x9 cedar logs, we used this because of longevity.. the retaining wall on the tallest side is about 16 inches, we are also laying about 4-6 inches of stone on the ground beside retaining wall to reinforce, Is this sufficient? This is the end product for pool base, I am in Canada where we get about 6 ft snow a year.. please help ty the other side is level with my driveway

 

[kellyfair]

Hello,

I'm also looking for some advice
We bought a 16x26 oval steel pool.. we COULD NOT dig down to lowest level because it would encroach into our driveway, we graded our driveway into our back yard and then built a retaining wall.. the fill is rock and hard clay, we then covered with 2 inches of sand. When we set up the pool we had to dig in the buttress free bases, the ground under the sand was so hard we had to chop with an ax. The retaining wall is 6x8x9 cedar logs, we used this because of longevity.. the retaining wall on the tallest side is about 16 inches, we are also laying about 4-6 inches of stone on the ground beside retaining wall to reinforce, Is this sufficient? This is the end product for pool base, I am in Canada where we get about 6 ft snow a year.. please help ty the other side is level with my driveway

Hello! You tamped the fill, then the sand, correct? Packed it down super hard? Because the water is heavy with a capital H and if there is any settling, it could throw the pool out of level.

 

[Rbees]

Hello! You tamped the fill, then the sand, correct? Packed it down super hard? Because the water is heavy with a capital H and if there is any settling, it could throw the pool out of level.

We tamped by driving a tractor over it back and forth.. hard Rock clay and then once we put the sand down we tamped the sand with a gas tamper.. then we would rake then tamp again then rake and tamp and fill and tamp.. over and over again.. its sitting with the frame up.. we are letting it level then we will add more rocks underneath before we add the foam and liner