How to reduce potential cracks on the pool - North Dallas

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p_pan

0
Apr 16, 2008
32
Texas
Hello There,
I am a newby here. First pool, first experience, and lots of anxiety already.
We got our permit and will start excavation this weekend. Wish us luck!

I have a quesiton though, I live in North Dallas and the soil here is very expansive and cause cracks on houses, buildings, pools, etc. A lot of times, it doesn't happen but depending on the region, it happens a lot.

I heard that chemical injection is an option to be done before the pool is dug but the cost is around $2,500.

I also heard someone saying that if you keep the excavated hole wet for 1 week after the excavation, it helps to increase the moisture and the adherence of the gunite/pool to the ground. Is this true? Any advice out there?

Thanks.
Looking forward to post more info.
 
p_pan,

Welcome to the forum. You'll get lot's of good help on all phases of your construction. (we all love pics! :lol: )

I understand the anxiety. I'm pretty sure you can let go of some of it concerning the gunite. The nature of the way it's poured will make it strong enough to stand up to expansive soils.

If your PB has been doing it a while in your area he'll know of any considerations he must make for your local conditions. I've been on these forums about 7 years and cannpt recal a gunite pool cracking from clay (expansive) soil.

In short, I'm pretty sure your good to go. I have now knowledge of a chemical injection that would do anything to stop the physical movement you're talking about.

PS - water and the weight of the gunite will keep your pool in the ground....they won't wet the soil.
 
Dave,

Thanks for the warm welcome and for your insight on the soil situation. It makes me feel more comfortable to hear from someone who has been around and listening and providing advice to pool owners.

I appreciate it. Looking forward for a long lasting collaboration with this site.
 
I think you already saw my response on Gardenweb, but I'll post it again here in case anyone else is searching for the same info and runs across this thread:

Hello, I'm in the DFW area as well and deal with this on commercial projects all the time. Do you have a PB or are you building the pool yourself? If you have a PB then you should consult them as they are warranting the shell. Tell them about your concerns and see what options they have for subgrade treatment.

As far as treatment goes, there is chemical injection as you mentioned; there's also removal/ replacement (remove several feet of existing soil and replace with better fill), moisture treatment (remove several feet of soil and inject it with water before replacing it in compacted layers) and lime stabilization. I don't know whether those are used much in pool construction, but we've used all of these in commercial work depending on the area the project was in. There's also a structural option of building the pool on piers with void forms between the shell and soil. The void forms eventually rot out leaving a void space. It's very effective in expansive soils, but also probably expensive.

The good news is we've had a lot of rain late last year and this year, so it's actually a pretty good time to build as the subgrade is pretty saturated right now. The worst time to build is during a drought, best time is after prolonged wet weather.

Quote: "I also heard someone saying that if you keep the hole wet after the excavation for 1 week, it helps to increase the moisture and the adherence of the gunite/pool to the ground. "

Wetting the surface doesn't help the underlying conditions as the moisture only penetrates a couple of inches into the soil. It's a good idea to wet the soil down just before applying gunite so that the soils don't pull the water out of the gunite too quickly though.
 
How to avoid pool cracks concern

Hi Tresw,

yes, I got your reply on gardenweb but I had posted this here as well already. Always good to cover on both sides although I am now convinced that TFP has many more years of expertise if you stack together all the people who provide feedback and help here. It is amazing. I wish I was reading this site before I closed on my pool, not that I feel I did anything wrong but I would feel much more prepared and less overwhelmed. Anyway, I am still overwhelmed though and don't think this feelign will go away any time soon but I trust it will improve significantly if I keep reading these threads, learning and asking questions.

Thanks to you all.
 
duraleigh said:
TresW,

Very good post. We get lot's of questions about concrete and structure and need someone with your background on the forum. Glad you're here.
Click to expand...

Glad to help when I can, it's the least I can do after having gotten so much great info here myself :)

p_pan said:
yes, I got your reply on gardenweb but I had posted this here as well already. Always good to cover on both sides although I am now convinced that TFP has many more years of expertise if you stack together all the people who provide feedback and help here. It is amazing. I wish I was reading this site before I closed on my pool, not that I feel I did anything wrong but I would feel much more prepared and less overwhelmed. Anyway, I am still overwhelmed though and don't think this feelign will go away any time soon but I trust it will improve significantly if I keep reading these threads, learning and asking questions.
Click to expand...

I'm new to pool ownership myself and believe me, I can fully relate to your feelings of being overwhelmed! For me the stress levels didn't go down until the pool was finally done and everything was up and running smoothly. But this is a great support group and it's amazing how much info there is here. I haven't posted a lot here, but I've spent many, many hours using the search engine and reading through hundreds of posts (maybe thousands) to get answers. Sometimes the answers are sitting on top and sometimes it takes some digging, but it's all here! :-D
 
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