New Fiberlgass install. Pool is bowed in and poured coping is warped. I hate it.

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M

MidWestIsBest

Member
Mar 25, 2025
6
Michigan
PB setup forms and had the pool filled and backfilled in the morning. It looked great. I got down low and looked the distances early in the AM before leaving them to it and heading off to work. It looks great, very straight, square and level. I came home in the afternoon and immediately noticed the warp along both long dimesnions. I called him and he answered the phone with, "Don't you love it?!". I said the texture and color are great but it's massievly warped. He said "wait until the forms come off, its the best we could do. Its fine". It's a few days later and I just hate it and think it looks terrible. I'm also worried about the longevity of the pool and what underlying strain may be on the plumbing. Also, is this even acceptable by RiverPools installation requirements. I couldnt find specs on wall variation, only leveling tolerances...

They already broke an LED housing somehow and took 3 days to sort out the leak. This was after partially backfilling more.. The walls were straight and somehow during the pour, or before the backfill shifted and the walls are flexed in. The middle coping measures 19" at its widest point. The far corner is 16". I told him 3" variation is ridiculous and unacceptable. The center of the pool, wall to wall is somewhere around 4" narrower because the walls are bulging in. I know it's fiberglass but on a brand new install I feel like this is garbage to he expected to accept this. We're meeting tomorrow to look at it together. Not sure how to handle this but it just absolutely tarnished the whole build for me and I'm really bummed.

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Hi, welcome to Tfp! I'm sorry you are having issues with your pool build. Hopefully when he comes out and sees what you see y'all can reach an agreement on what should be done. We have several members with fiberglass pools that may be able to offer some opinion on what should be done.
@Texas Splash
 
@MidWestIsBest Welcome to TFP!!!!

@mknauss @Casey @YippeeSkippy all have FG pools too, maybe they will weigh in...
@ajw22 and @JamesW will have opinions to help.

Might call the manufacturer and ask for specifications...if for warranty purposes alone. If not in spec, they may not warranty.

We have had this thread of a troubled fiberglass pool install where they needed to get the manufacturer involved...

Fiberglass Pool Install

The equipment installation guide said to use a 90 degree radius pipe. What do the members think/feel about this?
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

Another that was fixed.

Oh no, the wall is bowed in! Repair and waterfall install {w/PICS}

In the summer of 2013 we had a 12x23' fiberglass pool installed, and had a patio and pool shed installed that summer also. We had planned to install a waterfall wall along the back side by the back fence in the spring of 2014, but put it off until this year. In April 2015 i went out to open the...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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PoolStored said:
@mknauss @Casey @YippeeSkippy all have FG pools too.
@ajw22 and JamesW will have opinions to help.

Might call the manufacturer and ask for specifications...if for warranty purposes alone. If not in spec, they may not warranty.

We have had this thread of a troubled fiberglass pool install where they needed to get the manufacturer involved...

Fiberglass Pool Install

The equipment installation guide said to use a 90 degree radius pipe. What do the members think/feel about this?
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

Another that was fixed.

Oh no, the wall is bowed in! Repair and waterfall install {w/PICS}

In the summer of 2013 we had a 12x23' fiberglass pool installed, and had a patio and pool shed installed that summer also. We had planned to install a waterfall wall along the back side by the back fence in the spring of 2014, but put it off until this year. In April 2015 i went out to open the...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
Click to expand...
Thanks for the links. I'm definitely scouring the web trying to find as many similar situations and doing my due diligence to educate myself where I can on possible outcomes..I understand the scope of repairing this and it just sucks for everybody involved as it's a massive undertaking.
 
I would be upset as well. Be sure to hold your funds until you are satisfied. Some links below that might help with your meeting tomorrow. Common theme from all sources...... the water fill and soil/gravel backfill process must be done simultaneously (rising together) to prevent excessive bowing inward or outward. I'll try to look more later, but I believe some manufactures have an acceptable tolerance of X-inches per liner foot bow (same for level). But in your photos, they appear to have blown that one by a lot.
Note the second sentence of paragraph #2 under Step 3.
www.lathampool.com

Inground Fiberglass Pool Installation | Latham Pool

Wondering what's involved in an inground fiberglass pool installation? Discover the process and timeline to install your dream pool with this guide from Latham.
www.lathampool.com www.lathampool.com

Everything You Need To Know About Fiberglass Pool Installation - Thursday Pools

From choosing the right pool to how to avoid installing mistakes, this is everything you need to know about fiberglass pool installation.
thursdaypools.com thursdaypools.com

www.parrotbaypoolsnc.com

Fiberglass Pool Installation Process | Parrot Bay Pools NC

Curious about our inground fiberglass pool installation process? Learn about each step of the pool construction process!
www.parrotbaypoolsnc.com www.parrotbaypoolsnc.com
 
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Latham and Leisure pools Installation Guides are linked to in Fiberglass Pools - Further Reading


Page 7 of the Latham Installation Guide says:

The walls of the pool may bulge inward if too much backfill has preceded the water in the pool, or outward if too much water precedes the backfill. If bulging does occur during the installation, the only remedy is to dig that area out and proceed correctly. Slight bulging has only visual effects, while not affecting the structure of the pool. A string line is very useful in determining the straightness of the pool walls during the backfilling process.
 
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I'm curious- did the PB fill it all in one fast swoop (such as in trucked in water) or did he do it correctly by only filling it slowly as they also backfilled with stone (I hope?) to the same level as the filling water? It is a slower fill, of course, but helps to maintain the walls.

Sidenote: My pool's actual manufacturer came on delivery day while the PB did the work. He inspected as they flew the pool over my house and leveled it. One thing he did mention to me as we sweated with that pool dangling on the crane was that curvy pools retain their shape better in transport then straight pools did. Just something to be aware of, okay?

Good luck badgering your builder...Keep us posted, we want to know how it is going.
Maddie :flower:
 
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Here's some photos the PB sent from the day of the pour. The water level was down because they were fixing a light housing they had cracked while backfilling. Maybe having the water level down to this point caused the sag in the walls to start once the concrete was poured. I'm now even more ****** that he didn't notice, or thought he could pass it off as quality. You can clearly see the warp already before they even cut the control joints. This should have been shoveled out while wet and redone immediately. Uggggh.

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It's right at about 3" buldge to the middle when measuring from corner to corner. At this point I'm mad that the pool wall itself is that deformed. Considering the PVC is "locked in" with the gravel halfway down, and the top fill and concrete is what seems to have pushed it in, how is that not creating enormous strain on the pipes?!?. What a cluster this is turning into. It was so close to being done well, I don't know how they didn't see this or thought it was acceptable workmanship. This builder has great reviews and I'm just hoping that his reputation is important enough to do the right thing here and fix it properly which unfortunately means a whole tear-out of the coping and digging out a good amount of the backfill.
 

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MidWestIsBest said:
I'm just hoping that his reputation is important enough to do the right thing here and fix it properly
Click to expand...
Pictures on every review site there is will tell your story very well, free of emotion. 'If you'd like your $100k pool to look like this, XYZ Builder is your guy'.

Hold off on any emotion or threats while it plays out, just keep this knowledge in your back pocket. :)
 
I have a River Pool that was installed in about 2011. Mine was installed by them before they had franchises like the one you are dealing with. I had a pretty steady stream of conversations with Marcus and Jason (2 of the 3 owners) during the installation. There is absolutely no way they would have let something like yours pass. My guess is that they put the fill in far too fast - that is really the only way to get bows like you are seeing. @Newdude is 100% correct. They knew it was wrong well before the coping was poured and hoped that you would not notice.

The real fix it to remove the coping and dig out the fill and more or less start over. There is going to be a lot of pushback from them to do that. Good luck today.
 
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Winger 03 said:
There is going to be a lot of pushback from them to do that.
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Let's hope it goes well.

As a last resort, a simple (and emotion free) 'listen man, I'm posting pics of this everywhere I can...... it's your choice what the pics look like. I can say you went above and beyond when speed bumps happened as they always do, or i can simply state/show what a $100k pool from you looks like and let your prospective clients make up their own minds'
 
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Outward bows are more easily fixed than inward bows. Hope they do the right thing. I had an outward bow that you could see on the pool when it was on the truck.
 

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