Hello Everyone ;-)
I am a first time pool owner; we had a pool when I was kid for many years - and now that I have children of my own, I figured they should have one too. I picked up a used pool last fall; it was in excellent shape - the previous owner even kept all of the manuals. It is a 21' round Cornelius pool. I've decided to go with the partially in ground above ground pool route... with somewhat of a twist. Last fall, I dug the hole for the pool. The ground was greatly disturbed... to give some context to this statement, I borrowed mini-Excavator, and when all was said and down - I hauled 42 yards of dirt out of my backyard. I tamped the ground down firm, and let the hole sit over the winter. Thus far, it's been an interesting Michigan spring -- rather wet, and much to my dismay - the ground is rather mushy. It's a nice mix of clay and sand. The hole is about 23-24 feet around, and I've created a psuedo retaining wall. I acquired a large number of industrial roof decking (B-Deck to be specific - http://www.metaldeck.com/b_deck.htm) and using 5 foot lengths of 1-1/2" angle iron - I've screwed all of the decking together, driven the angle iron into the ground, and screwed the decking to the angle iron.
So, yeah.
My next step is I want to level and create a firm surface to set the pool on -- I'm just not quite sure what to do. Mother nature has definately assisted in the ground compaction process over the winter, but I need to fill my "pit" with a sand of sorts, level it - and then start the pool assembly. The end goal is after the pool is setup within my ring, to backfill the space between the ring and the pool wall with pee gravel, and then backfill any remaining gap between the ring and the outside ground with dirt, then use landscaping pavers to create a nice border around it. On the high side of the yard, I've gone down 3 feet - and 2 feet on the lower end of the yard. I'm tempted to use a slag sand -- and create a nice firm hard level base, and then use foam for the pool bottom... but I like the idea of scooping out the middle of the pool as well, and I don't think foam is going to lend itself to that very well.
Any suggestions would be appreciated -- I know that I need to get it level (and it's reasonably level now, but needs tweaking) -- and a solid surface to set the posts on. Just looking for a little feedback on my already overengineered project ;-)
Thanks in advance,
David
I am a first time pool owner; we had a pool when I was kid for many years - and now that I have children of my own, I figured they should have one too. I picked up a used pool last fall; it was in excellent shape - the previous owner even kept all of the manuals. It is a 21' round Cornelius pool. I've decided to go with the partially in ground above ground pool route... with somewhat of a twist. Last fall, I dug the hole for the pool. The ground was greatly disturbed... to give some context to this statement, I borrowed mini-Excavator, and when all was said and down - I hauled 42 yards of dirt out of my backyard. I tamped the ground down firm, and let the hole sit over the winter. Thus far, it's been an interesting Michigan spring -- rather wet, and much to my dismay - the ground is rather mushy. It's a nice mix of clay and sand. The hole is about 23-24 feet around, and I've created a psuedo retaining wall. I acquired a large number of industrial roof decking (B-Deck to be specific - http://www.metaldeck.com/b_deck.htm) and using 5 foot lengths of 1-1/2" angle iron - I've screwed all of the decking together, driven the angle iron into the ground, and screwed the decking to the angle iron.
So, yeah.
My next step is I want to level and create a firm surface to set the pool on -- I'm just not quite sure what to do. Mother nature has definately assisted in the ground compaction process over the winter, but I need to fill my "pit" with a sand of sorts, level it - and then start the pool assembly. The end goal is after the pool is setup within my ring, to backfill the space between the ring and the pool wall with pee gravel, and then backfill any remaining gap between the ring and the outside ground with dirt, then use landscaping pavers to create a nice border around it. On the high side of the yard, I've gone down 3 feet - and 2 feet on the lower end of the yard. I'm tempted to use a slag sand -- and create a nice firm hard level base, and then use foam for the pool bottom... but I like the idea of scooping out the middle of the pool as well, and I don't think foam is going to lend itself to that very well.
Any suggestions would be appreciated -- I know that I need to get it level (and it's reasonably level now, but needs tweaking) -- and a solid surface to set the posts on. Just looking for a little feedback on my already overengineered project ;-)
Thanks in advance,
David