AGP Build - Pool Is Up - Drainage Issues

[roundbox52]

After hemming and hawing on the pool location we finally settled to push the pool further away from the porch. My neighbor used his backhoe to dig out roughly 34" on the high side. For those who are interested, the installer would have charged $25/inch after 4". I have a 3' perimeter around the pool per code (need a barrier height of 48" in my town, which leaves me 6" of play with the 54" height pool). Pool was installed yesterday, 7/7 and the installer took out an additional 8" which dropped the pool a lot more than I was anticipating. I managed to fill the pool with a foot of water and added dirt (clumpy) around the perimeter to the top of the wall track and tried to slope it down as the installer suggested, this was at 9:30pm so I couldn't see much of what I was doing. I also temporarily laid drain tile to mitigate anticipated storm water from an overnight shower, but as you can see this obviously didn't help much as I have a flood around the pool. Most of the rain came this morning (still raining).

How should I go about a permanent solution for draining the surface water? The pool is on mostly clay. I'm willing to replace the sloped dirt on the pool track if there is something better to use.

 

[ajw22]

Build a deck up around the pool.

Otherwise I think you need to remove the dirt you put around the pool and put in gravel with maybe a drainage system under it to carry the water away. Geotextile wrapped around perforated pipe can give you a french drain around the pool.

@jimmythegreek or @Rich D may have ideas for water management.

 

[roundbox52]

A deck is planned in the future - a year or two down the road, but ground water would still make its way down the hill and to the pool as 3/4 of the pool is dug into the ground/hill. The dirt I put around was simply 2" high x 2" wide with a taper. The installer suggested this to be done and then to add more backfill once the other dirt dries out. I've attached a sketch I want to bounce off everyone. Drain tile would be around the entire pool or close to it.

Is this the correct way to go about the drainage?
What would you use as a cover on the sloped area in order to stabilize the dirt and not have it wash toward the pool?
Should the drain tile be sloped?

Any other suggestions or anything I'm overlooking?

 

[Rich D]

It is hard tell what the slopes look like from those pics. If you took some pics from the lower areas it might be clearer. It looks like the ground off to the side is even lower than the bottom of the pool. Can you not cut some more dirt out on the downhill side of the pool so you would have a consistent pitch away from the pool?

Is this the correct way to go about the drainage?

I would do it differently. That 2" of sloped dirt will always get saturated and then it will tend to hold more moisture against the pool. You would be better off without it. The water will surge up in the stone on the side of the pool in a storm event but it will quickly drain off after the storm and leave the pool sides dryer. A better option is to dig the area under the drain pipe deeper so you will have positive slope away from the bottom of the pool to the drain. If you dig it 5" below the bottom of the pool then you will hardly get any water to the bottom of the pool. In addition It is the stone that does most of the work in these types of drains. So that is what should be protected with filter fabric. I would use a perforated pipe without the sock and put filter fabric under and on top of the stone, then put a little more stone on top of the fabric. You will need to find a low area to outfall this drain to. Be sure to run stone with the outfall pipe and encase that in filter fabric as well.

What would you use as a cover on the sloped area in order to stabilize the dirt and not have it wash toward the pool?

How steep is it? You can plant grass and mow a 3-1 slope

Should the drain tile be sloped?

That is not necessary for this type of drain. The outfall pipe should have a little pitch on it if possible but even that is not a absolute requirement as long as the water has a place to go once it leaves the pipe.

 

[roundbox52]

Well.... slow go around here, on 7/20 we had 4.5" of rain in 1.5 hours which filled in my trench with fine silt and washed away some of my dirt and sand, about 12" long and 3"deep. Packed more sand into the void. The dry pictures are from before the rain and before the trench was dug. Most of the water probably came from the swale area.

Once things dried out slightly I was able to taper some soil about 3-4" up on the wall out to about 3' where the french drain will be. I'll be digging the trench deeper than the base of the pool and hoping to tie this into the drainage pipe which is near the swale. Questioning whether or not to use drain tile or only stone.

We'll be using tailings on the larger slope and grass the shallower slope. #2 stone will surround the base of the pool 3' out from the wall.