AGP site prep and other questions

[dwood443]

I've been reading many posts over the last few days and I want to thank all of you for your contributions. I have learned a lot (more like drinking from a firehose). And you can guess the reason? I picked up a used 16' Glen Cove (Wilbar brand I believe) and I've never owned or maintained a pool before. After some searching I found a company to prep my site. The location is extremely unlevel and in fact a low spot in my yard. 2/3 of the pool will be about 20 inches below the yard. I'd planned on having the company to level a 18' circle for me to place the pool. They will also provide 4 inches of sand and level.
Questions.
1. I bought 4x8x16 pavers and not sure which direction to lay them? With this pool I don't think the supports will move much so I thought sideways with the 16" longwise? I think I read to allow one inch inside pool?
2. Do I then backfill the space on the 20" sides with dirt after filling?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give
Dave

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Here are a few articles to help you-

How to level above ground pool - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Pool Care Basics Archives

Your one-stop shop for all things TFP to include: ABCs of Water Chemistry, Recommended Chemicals/Levels, Test Kits, Troubleshooting, and much more!

www.troublefreepool.com

I'll ask a few above ground pool owners to chime in with help-
Paging @kimkats Paging @Casey Paging @zea3

Maddie

 

[kimkats]

You rang??? HI and welcome! Take a pic or two of the area you are thinking of putting the pool on.

Do I then backfill the space on the 20" sides with dirt after filling?

You can but that can cause the walls to rust over time (retained moisture). You can build a retaining wall and put a French drain to pull the water from rain and such away from the pool.

 

[dwood443]

See if these pics help? The area is just to the left of carport and has some loose dirt in it, sorry for the sideways pics. Still learning this forum. I will add I'm not committed on this location and can move if needed. Just want tp be close to house

 

[kimkats]

So what is under the mound by where you are putting the pool?

I was thinking the whole yard was sloped so this changes things a bit. Make sure your ground work people did DOWN to the pool in. The pool should be resting on undisturbed ground. Do NOT allow them to use dirt/sand to help level the pool up.

Under the legs of the pool-they need to be thicker that a normal stepping stone they sell as Lowes. The weight of the legs can crack them.

 

[zea3]

I've been reading many posts over the last few days and I want to thank all of you for your contributions. I have learned a lot (more like drinking from a firehose). And you can guess the reason? I picked up a used 16' Glen Cove (Wilbar brand I believe) and I've never owned or maintained a pool before. After some searching I found a company to prep my site. The location is extremely unlevel and in fact a low spot in my yard. 2/3 of the pool will be about 20 inches below the yard. I'd planned on having the company to level a 18' circle for me to place the pool. They will also provide 4 inches of sand and level.
Questions.
1. I bought 4x8x16 pavers and not sure which direction to lay them? With this pool I don't think the supports will move much so I thought sideways with the 16" longwise? I think I read to allow one inch inside pool?
2. Do I then backfill the space on the 20" sides with dirt after filling?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give
Dave

Yes turn the pavers sideways. The bottom rail holds the shape of the pool so the uprights will not move much if at all when the pool is filled. Be sure you are looking at resources for a hard wall AGP and not an Intex style pole pool. The pavers on a hard wall AGP pool will be inset level with the ground and covered by a sand or foam cove. If this is a steel wall pool I would not backfill against it at all. If there is an area where it is built into the side of a slope I would make a retaining wall at least a foot back from the pool and line the ground around the pool with pebbles, marble chips, something that will allow water to run off and not collect around the pool.

 

[dwood443]

Thanks all. The ground prep guys will be coming out next week. I do know that I should not attempt to build up at all to level the area. Our original thought was to put the pool just north of the ground depression which will require some dirt removal and we were going to put the dirt that was removed into this depression. The company doing the work is pretty experienced and I'll ask them which location they think is best

I'll talk to them and see if they can grade a slope or retaining wall a bit from the pool. I'd like to put some type of gravel around pool to keep it clean and separate from yard.

Appreciate all the comments and help
Dave

 

[kimkats]

Looks like you have a very solid plan! Keep up on your progress! We love celebrating and cheering on new builds!

 

[dwood443]

life got busy and forgot to update. got the pool installed and since my first liner install it has a few wrinkles I can deal with. I do have a couple questions for the experts
1. a couple of the pavers can be seen against the liner. Is that a concern?
2. the kids used an unauthorized pool toy and while standing on it it broke. put a dime sized hold in the floor which I patched.
3. when I first plumbed it the hose that flows into the pool came off and against the pool wall and undermined an area about 5x8 inches. nasty looking hole and against the paver.

Knowing all this could be an issue I do have another liner I could install. I'd lose the water and chemical cost (4 gallons shock).
Should I take the plunge and reinstall the new liner, fix the holes in sand and also the pavers?

 

[zea3]

Can you post some pictures? That will help us give you the best advice for your situation.

 

[dwood443]

Can you post some pictures? That will help us give you the best advice for your situation.

thanks for the help. pic one shows the undermining the hose did when it fell off and the arrow points to the corner of the exposed paving block. Pic two is on other side and upright appeared tp have moved out and about 1.5 inch of block can be seen against liner

 

[zea3]

Did you install a sand or foam cove against the bottom of the pool wall before you installed the liner? Do you have some photos of the outside of the pool wall at those same points? Im thinking you may need to re-install the liner in order to fix the cove area. If you tell the kids to stay away from where the pavers are you may be able to finish this swim season before making repairs.

 

[dwood443]

attached are some pictures of build. I put down a 4 inch sand base. I used 6x12x4 pavers and used a foam cove base

 

[kimkats]

We had the same thing happen with our pool. The hose popped off. Came home to find the water right at the skimmer It also washed out a bit of sand. It CAN be fixed.

First get some PVC and two valves so you can hard pipe the pipe to the equipment and the valves will allow you to close the skimmer and return for when you need to work on the equipment with out lowering the water.

So what you need to do for the washed out spot":
-2 people-one inside the pool and one outside the pool. The outside person pushes the sand back in while the inside person help move it were it needs to go. It is a process and not a lot of fun for the outside person. The inside person will use their feet/toes/heels to move the same. It will not be perfect but it will work.

Next put some pavers under the skimmer and return area so WHEN water comes out of those areas again it will fall on the pavers and not mess up the sand.

Now the paver being seen under the liner. We also had two just like that. We put a piece of red tape on the two uprights and asked everyone to not walk over there. It worked.............

 

[dwood443]

Thanks for the suggestions. I did add shutoff valves and put pavers under the hoses if they break loose again. I'm a little nervous about pushing in sand from outside and putting more stress on liner.

 

[kimkats]

That is the hard part. Being oh so careful about not pushing too hard on the liner. NO pointy rings to be extra safe. Go slow and the person inside can tell you how much further to push the sand. Your liner is new enough to still be very flexible. Small amounts rather than big amounts of sand is the trick. If nothing else just make sure there is no void under that lower area of liner for when someone steps in it.