Autocover drain into gravel pit

brimorga · Sep 20, 2021

We're putting in a pool with an autocover. Our ground is really hard and everything seems to require the jackhammer. The pool builders expect the decking guys to deal with drainage. The decking guys appear to not want to trench a proper hole for the autocover drain to my French drain system as that would require them to dig a trench 2' feet deep about 50' long, so they are putting in a 2x2 gravel drain pit right next to the autocover to drain in. They think the autocover box isn't that big and shouldn't collect much water. However, I've been reading on here how a lot of water can get splashed over the damm wall.

Should I be concerned? They are going to start putting in the base and sand and then travertine in the next day or 2 so I need to decided now.

Not a great pic at night but that's the autocover drain with the red tape on it. I will say, our ground is bone dry here. They dug the pool down to 8.5' deep and no water to be seen. The pipe running over the top is tied into my French drain system.

wireform · Sep 20, 2021

I'm not for the pit next to the pool and nowhere for water to run. Yes, you should have a pool cover pump with a hose that you can send any direction you want but in the chance that lots of water gets into that box you will flood the mechanism. In your location where freezing isn't an issue you can put a lite weight sump pump pit and send it in to the French drain pipe. It'll probably never run but for emergency basis, as you'll need to check from time to time that it works.

Rich D · Sep 20, 2021

I assume you will have a finished deck over this pit correct? If the drain fails you really do not want to have to dig up your new deck because of a lazy work crew? If it is not in the contract then they should get paid to dig the trench. I personally would have it piped to the drain system. I would want the piece of mind that the cover pit will always be dry instead of having to keep checking it after heavy Rains. Just because it drains well now does not mean it will drain well in 10 yrs. This of course depends on how confident you are that your French drain system will not fail or back up.

brimorga · Sep 20, 2021

wireform said:
I'm not for the pit next to the pool and nowhere for water to run. Yes, you should have a pool cover pump with a hose that you can send any direction you want but in the chance that lots of water gets into that box you will flood the mechanism. In your location where freezing isn't an issue you can put a lite weight sump pump pit and send it in to the French drain pipe. It'll probably never run but for emergency basis, as you'll need to check from time to time that it works.

Thank you! I didn't consider a sump pump. Not sure if I'll have an outlet in there to plug it into. Guess I'd have to splice into the power for the cover and then figure out how to connect it to the French drain system so I don't have visible hoses running across the property. I'll bring it up as a potential option with the decking crew if they won't dig.

Rich D said:
I assume you will have a finished deck over this pit correct? If the drain fails you really do not want to have to dig up your new deck because of a lazy work crew? If it is not in the contract then they should get paid to dig the trench. I personally would have it piped to the drain system. I would want the piece of mind that the cover pit will always be dry instead of having to keep checking it after heavy Rains. Just because it drains well now does not mean it will drain well in 10 yrs. This of course depends on how confident you are that your French drain system will not fail or back up.

Yep, very expensive finished deck will go over the pit. The contract says "area drains connected to the existing drain if needed." So I guess that is not super clear.

Considering I'm going to have heavy travertine paving stones put over the autocover, I agree it doesn't sound ideal to have to worry and check for water after heavy rains. I'll go back and question them over this.

brimorga · Sep 20, 2021

So I spoke with my pool designer. He said it is typical to use a gravel pit for the autocover drain because pool water is not supposed to run off the property into the storm drain, which is where my deck water will go (as far as I can tell this is ok in my city regulations). However, he said it is usually a 3x3 drain and not a 2x2, so I guess I'm just going to make it bigger and hope I don't need a sump pump in the future.

Rich D · Sep 20, 2021

brimorga said:
However, he said it is usually a 3x3 drain and not a 2x2, so I guess I'm just going to make it bigger and hope I don't need a sump pump in the future.

Or perhaps split the difference with them. How much further would you need to go to get beyond the deck?
You could have them dig a trench approximately a foot below the bottom of the pipe to just beyond the edge of the deck and put a perforated pipe in there and fill that with stone. That would give you much more additional leaching and give you a pipe sticking out beyond the deck you can always come back and install additional leaching or at that point just dig and hook it up to your drainage system.

brimorga · Sep 20, 2021

Rich D said:
Or perhaps split the difference with them. How much further would you need to go to get beyond the deck?
You could have them dig a trench approximately a foot below the bottom of the pipe to just beyond the edge of the deck and put a perforated pipe in there and fill that with stone. That would give you much more additional leaching and give you a pipe sticking out beyond the deck you can always come back and install additional leaching or at that point just dig and hook it up to your drainage system.

Well, I just checked and it looks like they are just digging a massive gravel pit, dude is halfway underground right now. The decking goes far enough away that it would probably be a large effort to put in a perforated pipe. I guess if they are going to build it this big, it should hopefully be ok. Much better than 2x2.