Broken Pavers - am I screwed?!

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Geebot said:
Is the liner actually sitting on the ground? I know very little about above-ground pools of this type. I assumed the liner is suspended and doesn't actually reach the ground; if it does then the legs are still carrying a substantial amount of weight, certainly more than 5% (there's a lot of force resisting the lateral pressure of the water on the liner).
Click to expand...

Those legs can't carry that kind of weight. They aren't substantial enough to carry even a few hundred pounds each. The legs mostly hold up the top of the liner while the weight rests on the ground. Imagine filling a bread sack full of water and sitting it on the floor. Takes almost no force to hold the sides up unless you start to lift it off the floor.
 
Geebot - yes - MOST of the water weight sits on the ground. The liner is flat on the bottom until if curves up on the sides. As JohnT says - the legs mostly just hold up the liner (and there are 12 not 8 - two on each end as well) UNTIL something like this happens and the water shifts in the liner - then the legs must try to support undue weight and in this case one of them buckled. This is all my fault - not the pools - hundreds of thousands of these pools set up every year and the legs don't buckle - unless you make a mistake like I did.

As an update - I am about 40% drained now - at about 50% I will see if I can lift the supports at all (without damaging them or the crossbar of course). My guess is BEST case scenario is I ll have to drain 70% and maybe more - although I only need to lift these a couple of inches to re-do the ground underneath and replace with better pavers/wood.

Probably won't have the new support until Monday anyway at earliest - but I will get all the prep work done this weekend.
 
OK - still draining (I just used a single garden hose since I am waiting for the replacement leg anyway - arrives on Monday). Should be done in the morning - at least low enough to move things around. SO, I need to find replacements - everyone is suggesting 2"-4" pavers.

I am not seeing these at HD or Lowes online and I don't remember seeing any in my local one when I purchased the 1" versions? I mean I see and saw the paver bricks - but no larger (LxW) size 2" plus stones.

I see some posts about using wood - but their are also comments that wood splits and is really better for temporary installs. Although I don't know for sure, there is the real chance that ours will be up on a permanent basis since we have no winter to speak of.

SO, where do I get these thick pavers? If wood do I just get like a 2x8 and cut it into pieces - pressure treated I assume if I go this route, correct.
 
You may also want to try landscaping businesses. I've never bought 2"+ pavers so I'm not sure where they can be purchased at.
 
JMC - Thanks - yeah - I ll be out this afternoon shopping - if I can find them its not a cost issue. Pool almost empty. I am just going to drain all the way - makes it easier to work with and I can re-check the pool bottom base itself to make sure all is good.

I think you may be the closest to daily use similarities to me since we are close up in Casa Grande (I put Phoenix in my profile since nobody would know where that is!). I am open to any learning experience as to chemistry, keeping the water cool, etc. that you can offer once I get this thing up!

At least the weather has been kind of lousy for our standards this week so we likely would not have had much use anyway.
 
My 12 x 24 Intex did the same thing. Lost about half the 2" pavers. Everything stayed pretty level though. Just a dip or two. Though everything was level the area under the pavers wasn't tamped enough with some type of fill. Crushed granite, sand, pea gravel. There has to be some base material tamped really well below the pavers...I'll be fixing mine shortly as well
Geebot....the liner actually sits on the ground, it is not suspended by the top rail and legs. The seams couldn't take the pressure unless the ground under the pool helped support it.
 
Sh9, look into fountains to cool your pool using the search feature upper top right. There are so many DIY ideas here.
 
OK - 99% done - best pavers I could find were 2" thick and 12" x 16" - but we did a much better job of ground tamping this time and put some gravel to help with settling and erosion etc. I think we ll be ok this time. Luckily it appears the 8" or so of water we didn't drain is still almost perfectly level and we are level at the top bar after replacing the pavers.

The support leg should be here Monday and I will refill! Hope it all works - back to mid 90's on Wednesday - be nice to have it all ready to go!
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply