Drain and refill or?

[ecrabb]

Newbie here. It's been a couple of months since I started this journey. Read and researched in March and April, then it took a couple of months to find and hire concrete contractors, wait for an opening in their schedule, get the concrete poured, cured, and finished, travel for the Fourth, then finally get back to get the pool set up. The pad looked awesome though and I was excited.

So finally, this weekend I prepped the base with landscape fabric and the ground cloth and set up the pool, a 16x48 Intex Ultra Frame. I did it by myself and had no problems. The legs had plenty of room on my pad - a couple of inches on all sides. I put an inch or two of water in and took the wrinkles out per direction. Looks great!

So I started filling. As the water line started coming up and bulging the sides a little, a couple of the legs crept uncomfortably close to the edge, so installed a vinyl-coated steel cable with ratchet tie to stabilize the legs. I saw that somebody had done that here and liked the idea. The rope is worthless - I have no idea how anybody makes that work. Cable installed, and everything sufficiently tight and confidence restored, I kept filling to almost 3/4. Legs were still looked good, but I put I pounded in a couple of 2x4's on edge just outside the two legs I was nervous about.

Yesterday I came home from work to find that the two legs I was nervous about had crept out beyond the edge of the concrete, and mostly onto the 2x4's. I ran to Home Depot quick and grabbed another steel cable and ratchet strap and installed it to make sure nothing could move anymore. Both are like guitar strings. Not sure what note they're tuned to.

So, the question is, do I drain, reposition and refill? Or, does anybody have an idea for a satisfactory Band-Aid? It makes me sick to think about throwing away more water than my family of four uses in a month - I live in the desert! OTOH, I'm not sure if I have any other option but to buy a garden hose pump, throw away the water and lose another week of summer.

I'm so annoyed. I thought I took plenty of care to ensure the pool was centered (which is difficult until there's water in it) on the pad, and I thought the pad was sufficiently larger than the pool, but apparently not on either count.

Thoughts?

Thanks for any input.

So disappointed. Should have listened to my gut and gone with a 15-foot model instead of the 16-foot Ultra.

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[ecrabb]

Pics.

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[duraleigh]

If it's walking, it may be because it is quite a bit out of level.....more than about 1/2" and that's a no-no. Time to start over if that's the case.

 

[ecrabb]

Just guessing, but I don't think it's "walking" as much as a couple of legs just spread beyond the pad as the pool liner started putting the outward pressure on.

The slab looks pretty darn level. There's one slightly low spot where a little water collects, but I've had garage floors do that. I don't know how anybody could possibly get it any more level. It's a pool, not a NASA rocket-launch platform.

Judging only by the square tile pattern on the pool liner (which is probably only an approximation I realize), I'd guess no differences exceed half an inch. There is a bit of a "crown" to the slab... It's a little higher in the center than at the edges. I wanted that so water would drain off the slab when the pool wasn't on it. I'd guess 1/2" or so higher in the center of the slab than the edges. The concrete contractor wanted to slope the whole slab for drainage, and I rejected that, and asked for a little slope from edge to center instead. It should be pretty level from edge to edge overall.

If it comes down to the slab not being level enough, it'll be nothing more than a patio and no pool. I'm not re-pouring $3000 worth of concrete.

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[kimkats]

Hard call BUT you and I both know what the best call is drain it. I am sorry.

Can you call the fire station and ask if they can put the water on their water truck? At least it will not go used. They might even be willing to "hold" it for you.

Kim

 

[ecrabb]

Hard call BUT you and I both know what the best call is drain it. I am sorry.

Yep. That's where I am. I'm even thinking about just ordering a 15-footer and selling the 16-foot pool so I can go in this time with confidence I won't have the same problem. I think it's just too close for my comfort. I could empty it, reposition everything, then find out I moved something a tad too much and end up with the same problem again.

Can you call the fire station and ask if they can put the water on their water truck? At least it will not go used. They might even be willing to "hold" it for you.

That's actually REALLY good idea. It's not the money that's so annoying - it's probably only $50 worth of water, which compared to the total costs on this project is nothing. It's throwing all that water down the drain. The fire department is actually great idea. I'll swing by on the way home. Great call! Thanks, Kim!

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[ecrabb]

Haven't heard back from the fire station. I'm guessing they're probably not cool with putting anything "unknown" in their half-million-dollar trucks. I said there were no chemicals, but would you trust some random guy? Even if I do that, to go to a 15-foot pool, I'm going to waste the money reselling the pool and buying another, and the worst part is burning at least a week or 10 days of summer to get the new pool here.

So... I'm back to thinking about how to salvage this. Thinking about going to pick up a piece of green-treat 4x4 and hammering it in under the offending legs. Even 12-inch piece of 4x4 has a 42-sqin area. I can lift those legs ever-so-slightly, so there isn't that much weight on them. Assuming there's 300 pounds (that's high if I can lift it), then that's about 7 pounds per square inch. Call it 10 for a wildly high estimate. Probably not much more than the soles of my shoes.

I think I'll try it and see how it looks and feels before I go to the drastic measure of draining the pool.

The sand filter arrived from Amazon, so I think I'll grab a deck box while I'm at Home Depot (for the fifth time in two days) so I can work on that if I get the legs stabilized. Crossing fingers.

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[PAGirl]

Is the entire liner still on the slab?

 

[ecrabb]

Is the entire liner still on the slab?

Absolutely. It was really close to everything fitting on the slab. One of the feet is almost entirely off the slab, and a couple are about half off. But, there is probably 3 inches of unused concrete across from those legs. I just didn't get it centered.

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[ecrabb]

There. I fixed it.

Not the way I like to do things, but I think it will work. That's the worst one.

In other news, I brushed some of the dirt away from my shoring operation and my hand got wet. Yay! A leak!

The slab was cleaner and smoother than a baby's bottom before I set up the pool. There was a layer of landscape fabric, and the ground cloth. There was absolutely no way I punctured the liner. Obviously there was a pinhole somewhere in the bottom, which I did notice was much thinner than the sides. Nice, Intex. Way to save $20!

It's not a bad leak since it's not even running off the slab. It's not even pooling anywhere. Must be capillary between the liner and tarp, and just drying at the edge. Hopefully it doesn't get any worse.

I'm encouraged and discouraged at the same time.

I haven't even started on chemistry yet. Water has been in the pool for 2-3 days now untreated. Hopefully that's not my next disaster. Hoping to get the pump and filter going tomorrow and Thursday. Yet another trip out for salt and sand.

Cheers,
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[kimkats]

Looks good to me!

Please put a jug of bleach in the pool NOW and stir it in with your body (aw man you mean I HAVE to get in my pool? LOL) or use a straw broom to mix it in.

Kim

 

[ecrabb]

Finally made some real progress tonight!

- Put the last four or 5 inches of water in.
- Added 100 or so of the recommended 125 pounds of salt
- Temporary cartridge filter and saltwater chlorinator set up and in boost mode.
- Taylor 2006 kit ordered from Amazon to be at the office tomorrow.

Planning to read up chemistry again tonight and pick up CYA and anything else I need for chem on the way home tomorrow night.

Wife and kids get home tomorrow, so hoping we can swim after dinner tomorrow night even if chemistry isn't perfect.

Thanks for everybody's help and input! Over the hump now I think!

Cheers,
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[ecrabb]

Oh, need to pick up a clean soft broom as some of the salt is laying on the bottom undissolved. Thanks for that recommendation.

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[ecrabb]

Oh! I was also pleasantly surprised to see the temp up as much as it is. It was a very nipply 68 or 69 after the big fill.

It's now at 74 or 75 only 48 hours later, and that's after I just put another 750 gallons or so in. Only the cheesy included cover was on - half way. Thanks, hot Utah sun!

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[kimkats]

Please add some plain bleach to your shopping list you might need it to supplement the SWG now and every once in a while.

Kim

 

[PridgNYC]

May not be a leak, could just be condensation.

 

[ecrabb]

Please add some plain bleach to your shopping list you might need it to supplement the SWG now and every once in a while.

Thanks, I will do that! Making my list this afternoon.

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[ecrabb]

May not be a leak, could just be condensation.

Possibly, though with relative humidity in my neck of the woods in the 15-30% ballpark, and dew points 10-20 degrees below where the temps bottom out at night, it's not too likely.

I really am not sure, though. So, last night when I topped the pool off, I filled to where the water line perfectly hit the top of the inlet. It'll be blatantly obvious if it's much different tonight 18 or 20 hours after I filled it, and how much different.

Cheers,
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- - - Updated - - -

Oh, does anybody know where to get the correct spec sand for the sand filter? Do I have to go to a pool supply, or is that something the home improvement box stores would carry, i.e. the clean bagged play sand?

So much to learn!

Thanks!

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[PridgNYC]

Do a bucket test. Fill a bucket with pool water and mark the level, also mark the level in the pool. Set the bucket near the pool and wait a day. They should both evaporate at the same rate. If you lose water faster in the pool, you have a leak.

 

[Tere]

I had a similar problem in that my patio block supports where just not in the right place as we filled the pool. all the vertical posts were level to with in 1/2" off on 2 posts. It only had 4" water. The vertical post was at the very edge of the patio block so I dug around the patio block under my polystyrene foam too scooped out the dirt and mixed cement so it would be a sister patio block 6" thick, added heavy duty wire to reinforce the concrete. I made sure the top of new concrete was level with the patio block. Not sure if after the fact additions of cement are cool of not but I feel better knowing my vertical support has a sister cement spot to be next to it. My soil lol is clay never dug before and was under 6: deep xeriscape river rock. We are high mountain desert. There are actually water pillow people use to store water in that are very strong. It might be in the farming section. It's just like a huge water bladder. Great for temporary water storeage you can move when empty.