Pole Sprung Up

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S

Sharkey

0
Jun 20, 2012
7
Tuckerton, NJ
After years of our above ground pool working out fine for us, we came home to this surprising mishap...

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This is my first post here, so I don't really know what else to describe... I think the picture speaks for itself.
I'm guessing the pressure from the pool water took a toll on the side and caused this.

We just need to know what we can do to fix it! We tried hammering it down using a mallet but there was no luck.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you very much. :party:
 
I "uncovered" the situation a bit further and it looks as if the entire post came outwards and upwards!

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Our only guess is to put a piece of wood on the top and use a sledge hammer to nail that sucker back in there.... going to take a lot of force but we can't drain the pool and refill it right now!
 
Have the other posts always leaned outward? Maybe it's just the angle of the photo. It appears the other posts to the left are leaning out. There is a lot of pressure on the wall and supports along the long side of an oval pool. Probably would be a good idea to take some of the water out and alleviate some of the pressure on that side before trying to do any work on that side just to be safe. Don't want it collapsing on you while you are trying to figure out what to do about fixing it. I'd start by digging out more of that side along the pool and try to get a better idea of what's going on. After draining some of the water off of course, just to be safe.
 
Thinking outloud here, I think your post went up because your veritcal was forced outward by the wall bucklling. Since the vertical was anchored by the angled support, the angle support rotated up and the vertical went with it (up). Now why did the wall buckle, could it be that the vertical's attachment to the lower support plate rusted through and it became loose and allowed the wall to push outward at a weak spot where the pressure was also the highest (near the bottom of the wall)?
 

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Yeah, we knew we'd have to drain at least half to get it fixed. I've done a complete inspection of the pool and found no other signs of damage thankfully.

I can't recall if the wall was buckling before or after this whole thing. No doubt it had something to do with that though, the pole had nowhere else to go but up and out, so that's where it went after the years of pressure.

We'll have to drain some water and get it re-situated back in with some brute force.
 
I am not sure "brute force" is the answer here, personally I would do whatever I had to in order to identify the root cause of this problem, and make sure any and all repairs are done properly, otherwise this could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Using brute force could result in overlooking a very serious problem just waiting to happen, (even worse than what you already have).
 
May I ask what brand of pool this is? I am almost positive it is the same as ours -- the same color wall, supports, top railing, etc.

We have no idea what the brand of pool ours is as we can't find a name on it (or don't know where to look) and it was given to us. Ours is a 15 x 30.
 
If the bottom support didn't come up with it I bet the vertical came loose from the lower foot of the support. Then, water pressure forced it back and up since it cannot go straight back due to the angle brace. If I am right, you might have more coming sooner than later.
 
What does the ground end of that riser look like?

I am guessing here... but I am going to guess that either the screws at the bottom of the riser, the metal of the riser proper or the footer beam that goes under the pool rusted through and pushed back on that leg. The angle brace there prevented it from going straight back and up was the only direction left.

I would think I would want ALL of the water out of the pool so I could pull back the liner to see the full extent of the problem. Right now the stresses have changed and it may not stay up (or full) for long. You may find all of the legs are close to failing (boo :grrrr: ) or that this is an isolated problem -- :goodjob: yeahh!
 
I'm on the phone with my friend. He said that from what I described he really did not need to see the pictures. Without seeing the pictures, his advice was to drain the pool ASAP :!: :!: . His reasoning is that more than likely the adjacent supports have been compromised thru a combination of twisting, shifting from true, and some lifting. He also suspects that the root cause is that the anchoring bracket the vertical was affixed to has failed from corrosion and that more than likely the other retaining brackets may also be in some state of corrosion.

He concurs that when the retaining bracket failed that the buttrace forced the vertical to heave. The Vertical being attached to the cross-rail may have twisted the adjacent verticals. The failure of the vertical has now forced the remaining verticals to take its loading - the concern being that if their brackets have been compromised then their failure is assured with the additional load. IF they have been twisted then their buttracing is not taking the full loading for the design and they may fail, worse, with the point of contact nolonger true, the failure will allow the wall to break as the vertical will not heave but will instead twist out of line with the buttrace.

From my own engineering background (started out as a chemical engineer) combined with what I understand from plane old physics, this pool is in trouble!

IMHO - Drain the pool
-wc
 

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