crusher dust and pier holes

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Chewbubba

Chewbubba

0
Jun 13, 2012
133
Russellville, AR
I took up the pool last year so I could "do it right" this year and then leave it up year round.

Last year I used bricks for my piers. That didn't work well. Needed 2 bricks per pier, and each brick had to be level - it was a lot of work. [Edit: This year I'm going to put in 12x12 pavestones for piers.]

This year, I'm putting edging around the pool area and filling with crusher dust (recommended by the gravel yard).

So here are my questions:
1) Is crusher dust suitable under an AGP? I remember reading last year that crushed gravel was the way to go - I don't know if that is the same or not.

2) I pulled up the brick piers. If I am filling with crush/dust, should I leave the pier holes empty (because they would be filled with the crush/dust) or fill them back with dirt?

Thanks for your help!
 
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It's the same thing. It is excellent as a base for the pool floor. Good luck with the build process and take pics so we can watch! :mrgreen:
 
Okay, you asked for it, missteps and all. :) However, I have another question: will the crusher dust need to be packed down?

Hmm... I can't seem to post any pictures. I'll try again later.

Oh my, ALSO, I just saw the weather forecast and we are supposed to have thunderstorms for the next day or so. Should I cover my crop circle??!
 
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Okay, but what about rain? I'm at the point where I'm ready for the dust, but it's supposed to start raining this afternoon. Should I hold off until the rain has passed? Does it matter if the dust gets wet (I thought I read somewhere that it gets like concrete)?
 
You want it misted when you do the compacting. Many plate compactors have a water resovoir just for that purpose.

If you can compact it before the rain, great. If not, just compact after. Most landscaping yards or wherever you get it do not have it covered and it gets through the rain no problem. It really hardens up after the compacting.
 
So here is where I started - leftovers from last year. Overgrown mess. Dirt pile still there from last year, but hopefully will be gone in the next week or two.
01%20start%20here.jpg


Pretty much what I used to level the place. The airpump was for the wheelbarrow. I don't have a come-along, so I put gorilla tape on the rake and that worked.
02%20tools%204%20the%20day.jpg


I got an 8 foot board, taped my level to it, and thought I'd be able to start at the lowest spot and start leveling. Not really sure what I was thinking...
03%20bricks%20up%20start%20leveling.jpg


2 things about the following picture: 1) the orange line is crooked and crazy because as I was painting the circle, I kept stepping in the holes where my brick piers were and I would stumble around while painting. It was so bad, I was laughing - my neighbors probably thought I had been drinking. 2) I hadn't noticed yet that my board didn't reach all the way from center to the line. Leveling was awful. I'd work on the high end, and the low end would be digging holes and such on the other end of the board.
04%20wobbly%20short.jpg


Thanks to the internet and YouTube, I saw somebody drive a stake in the center and nail their board to it, so that's what I did. It wasn't until about 2/3 of the way that I noticed, "Hey, this doesn't reach my line!" I guess it was the heat. So I took another board, made it level with the first, and attached it with 3 heavy screws.
05%20extendomatic.jpg


By this time, I had already exceeded my "I don't care anymore - just get it done" limit (this has taken 2 days). It's more-or-less level. The edging isn't perfect either, but like I said, I had surpassed my limit...
06%20one%20ring.jpg


Now it sits underwater due to a heavy downpour and steady rain all afternoon. I'll guess it will be dry in a few days and then I can proceed with the crusher dust.
 
Crusher dust finally arrived yesterday (via my Father-In-Law, which saved me about $75-$100 in transportation fees). Got it in eyeballed level (which turned out to be pretty bad), and then tamped it with a 10"x10" tamper. My arms were noodles. Then I leveled it (notice how unlevel my edging is, but I expected that). I'm going to tamp it again since I added 1 1/2 wheelbarrow-fulls on one side, and relevel, and then call it good.
07%20crusher%20dust.jpg
 

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Re: crusher dust and pier holes [edit: new question]

Very important and urgent question:
I've got the crusher dust level. Should I put a tarp between it and my foam board?

Do I need to protect the foam board in any way? I noticed when I took it up last year, that some sort of insect (probably ants, they are conquering my yard) tunneled into one of my foam sheets.

Thanks!
 
Drug out the tarps and got them in place, and then put the foam board puzzle back together. I numbered them last year and took a picture before I took it apart so I could reassemble it.
08%20hopscotch.jpg


Put the top of the frame together to determine pier placement...
09%20pier%20placement.jpg


and then spent most of the day cutting foam board, cutting tarps, digging, leveling, and pretty much destroying what was left of my back. It's not a glamor shot - you can still see dirt on the board, but it was beginning to rain again, so I quit.
10%20piers%20placed.jpg
 
@Taterfink - Thanks - will do!
@Laceygirl - Yep.

It's going to be a few days before I can continue though. Weather is not cooperating. This time last year here in Arkansas, we were baking and the ground was rock-solid without rain for weeks. This year, the ground has hardly had a chance to get dry.
 
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