We installed a doughboy 24’ pool last fall. It’s a 52” side wall if I remember correctly. We filled it 1/2 with water. We backfilled it last winter, but after having extremely dry winter and just now getting a 1/2” rain, we noticed that the walls collapsed in. We dug the dirt out around them and they have straightened back out, our soil is mainly clay base. What should back fill with? Trying to figure out what to do so that I can finish my deck around it.
Buried doughboy wall collapse
- Thread starter Shawbran
- Start date
Fill the pool at least 3/4 of the way. According to my pool installer never let the pool go below 3 or 4 inches below the skimmer. Much less than that then you run the risk of walls collapsing. My pool is winterized each year and when I drain it, I drain it to about 2 inches below the skimmer, because my winter cover ends up with water on it, and that displaces water out of the skimmer. So it stays at least 75% full. Half full is not enough to keep the walls from collapsing in my opinion.
CJadamec
TFP Expert
Along with keeping more water in the pool as Beave has mentioned backfilling with sand is better than clay. Clay soils expand quite a bit when they get wet and they will push against your pool wall. Clay is like those toys where you put them in a glass of water and watch them grow to 10 times their size.
A 1 foot thick column of sand in between the clay and the pool will act like a cushion to absorb the force of the expanding clay.
A 1 foot thick column of sand in between the clay and the pool will act like a cushion to absorb the force of the expanding clay.
I used just loose black dirt for my back fill. You need to remember to make sure that you back fill enough to let the dirt eventually settle so that it still covers the footings, and goes up only about three inches up the side of the pool. My pool builder told me just to back fill and not pack it down too much to let it settle naturally. After about a month and half of settling, I put large River Rock around the base of the pool. I have never had a problem. My guess is the rain you got absorbed into the clay causing the clay to expand into the side of the pool and because it was only half full combined to cause your wall to fail. How is it holding up now.
I would also recommend that at the point where you have that crease...that no one hang on the side or stand on the side of the pool where this took place. Even though it bowed back out...it is now permanently weakened where the crease is.
I would also recommend that at the point where you have that crease...that no one hang on the side or stand on the side of the pool where this took place. Even though it bowed back out...it is now permanently weakened where the crease is.