Piers or no piers in North Texas?

[Jay15]

Hello All!

Very excited to be here, but very nervous to be starting this process to become a brand new pool owner. We've narrowed our PB search down to 2 we like; however one insists they will not build a pool without piers in our town, the other (who happens to be the oldest pool company in DFW) said their engineer said we don't need them. I'm just wondering what other North Texas pool owners have done in this situation.

I have so many questions, so you'll be hearing from me a lot...but this one has me stumped and I can't move forward.

We are looking at having an independent engineer give us their opinion. We're also waiting for our builder to send us a soil test. But in the meantime, I'd love to hear your opinions.

Thank you!
Janice

 

[bobodaclown]

Hello Janice and welcome to the forums. Be sure to read pool school: http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/
Lots of good info.

Its a small point but install the skimmer downwind side of the pool. It will assist with skimming. If your electric rates are less than $.30 KWH then get a 2-speed for energy savings.

Good luck.

 

[JasonLion]

The need for piers very much depends on your local soil conditions so it is difficult for us to comment. There are also other things that can be done to eliminate or at least minimize the need for piers.

 

[zethacat]

I would definitely trust an engineer over a pool builder.

 

[n240sxguy]

I would definitely trust an engineer over a pool builder.

It's odd that the one without the engineer is the one saying they need piers. If I had to have piers on a pool I had put in I'd want like a 50 year warranty on cracks . That's some serious reinforcement for a hole in the ground. We're having a new section added at work. In previous expansions we've had to drive metal I beam piers. This time we had to dig 64 50ft holes with concrete and rebar to reinforce the pad the new equipment is going on. I guess I depends on code and the specific soil sample they get. Definitely get a third quote and a decent warranty.



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[pooldv]

We are smack in the middle of black clay north texas dirt. We have piers under the house and it still moves. We do not have piers under our pool. Our pool builder who lives down the street doesn't have piers under his pool. We put drip irrigation around the pool after the first year with some movement. Our pool still moves a little, but a lot less than it did the first year without drip irrigation. Even soil moisture is the key to minimize movement here. We discussed piers with our PB and he pretty much said no way. Dirt here moves up and down, it doesn't only sink. He said he has seen pool shells ripped of their piers when the dirt moves up. Our pool shell has a lifetime warranty.

 

[H-12 1/2 Mike]

I live in Highland Village and have had my pool for 20 years with no piers. As someone stated earlier my shell (pool) is warranteed to hold water for life. So far I have had no problems with the pool moving but am trying to find a leak which is probably in a fiiting.

 

[JonnyB]

When we lived in Plano we had a pool built by Sandler Pools and they did not use piers. Now this was back in 1987 but we lived in that house for 10 years and never had 1 issue with that pool. (Unlike my current pool)

 

[imrodee]

No piers.. lots of rebar, Waxahachie here.

 

[Jay15]

Thank you for all of the responses. We're definitely leaning towards "no piers". I appreciate all of your input!

 

[rathboma]

Super late to this thread, but my wife and I are in the same position- in East Dallas, we have two pool quotes, one says piers are for sure needed, the other says they are for sure not needed.

@Jayo what did you end up doing here? You happy with the outcome.

Not really sure what our best next steps are to try and figure out who to believe. It’s a $9k difference in cost.

 

[Spyderagent]

We just had a pool built earlier this year and 2 of the 3 bids we received required piers. The 3rd pool builder said that piers may not be necessary so they left it off the initial quote and would assess during dig day. We asked they include piers in the quote so we wouldn’t receive sticker shock on dig day.

We live in Las Colinas, which is notorious for soil movement, and our back yard slopes down towards a 5 foot retaining wall. Piers were a no-brainer for us. A dozen piers @ $800 a pop is a small price to pay for peace of mind of our $80k+ investment.

Just before we began requesting bids, a newly built neighbor’s pool shifted on them. So when our pool builders put piers in the quotes, we trusted their experience of working in the various soil conditions that vary wildly across North Texas. We did not share with any pool builder about the shifting of our neighbor’s pool, as it could have easily been an install error vs. soil movement. They are still in litigation regarding that mess.