Buried Pool renovation
- Thread starter michmela44
- Start date
+ 1 to all of the above comments. +1000 to you for letting us all be spectators to this. Good. Times.
Interesting stuff to watch. Looks like the bond beam was demo'd in some of these last few pics... I would't be surprise to see some large holes in the bottom. But good luck to you!
mguzzy
Gold Supporter
This is totally cool. I hope the pool shell is serviceable. Some of those pics look like the shell was demo-ed? I wonder if it would be worth it to do a quick and dirty measure of the bond beam to see if its still level. And I see you found the equipment pad... IN the pool! Good luck we are all roooting for you!
Saturn94
Bronze Supporter
- Mar 11, 2015
- 1,746
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
This is so cool to be able to follow!
Wonder if you went to your County inspections dept and asked if you could find the original plans or such for it.
Regarding plaster - we have a concrete pool that’s at least 35 years old (neighbors tell us). The quotes we received for resurfacing (including removing several layers of paint) were astronomical. $15k to $30k (20x40 with a dive well) and that was 10 years ago. (Evidently it’s the sandblasting that’s super expensive in our area because there are not many people who do I (supply versus demand)).
We decided to repair cracks and pits best we could with hydronic cement and repaint it. It’s worked great for! (Just finished our second time of repainting last week). Lasted us a full five years. You can’t expect a great smooth surface, but it’s not bad - nothing that hurts our feet or such.
I haven’t yet figured out what’s so difficult about plastering, besides that the sandblasting is messy. But I trust the folks here enough to have not wanted to try it myself (yet!). But I did recently discover a local tool rental place has a sandblasted they rent out. Something you might want to consider if you get frisky.
As for using equipment to help dig out, I must say I wonder if that’s a good idea. Maybe if you had a backhoe with a really long reach? The machine could sit far away enough from the edge on the outside of the pool and reach in to get out dirt? Otherwise, I’d think the weight of it could be pretty bad on the concrete.
For the dirt, could you get one of the roll-back trash containers contractors use when gutting a house? Might want to get two small ones rather than one large and put on each end or side of the pool.
Put a sign up on your mailbox that invites kids home from college to come help you dig for $x per hour or $x per wheelbarrow load?
Wonder if you went to your County inspections dept and asked if you could find the original plans or such for it.
Regarding plaster - we have a concrete pool that’s at least 35 years old (neighbors tell us). The quotes we received for resurfacing (including removing several layers of paint) were astronomical. $15k to $30k (20x40 with a dive well) and that was 10 years ago. (Evidently it’s the sandblasting that’s super expensive in our area because there are not many people who do I (supply versus demand)).
We decided to repair cracks and pits best we could with hydronic cement and repaint it. It’s worked great for! (Just finished our second time of repainting last week). Lasted us a full five years. You can’t expect a great smooth surface, but it’s not bad - nothing that hurts our feet or such.
I haven’t yet figured out what’s so difficult about plastering, besides that the sandblasting is messy. But I trust the folks here enough to have not wanted to try it myself (yet!). But I did recently discover a local tool rental place has a sandblasted they rent out. Something you might want to consider if you get frisky.
As for using equipment to help dig out, I must say I wonder if that’s a good idea. Maybe if you had a backhoe with a really long reach? The machine could sit far away enough from the edge on the outside of the pool and reach in to get out dirt? Otherwise, I’d think the weight of it could be pretty bad on the concrete.
For the dirt, could you get one of the roll-back trash containers contractors use when gutting a house? Might want to get two small ones rather than one large and put on each end or side of the pool.
Put a sign up on your mailbox that invites kids home from college to come help you dig for $x per hour or $x per wheelbarrow load?
Any update? I have been checking each day, I'm ready to see what it looks like with all the dirt removed.
Its only human to wonder. I would expect no less from you.
Ha. Sorry....
No progress.
We've spoken with 2 pool companies, a trucking company and a contractor.....no one has followed up with us.
The trucking company came to give us a quote to dig up and haul off the dirt, but hasn't actually sent the quote.
We maybe had a lead or two on some people who work with some local construction companies that may want to dirt to fill in a pond, house pad, etc, but no real response.
So it still looks the same, but we haven't given up on the project yet.
No progress.
We've spoken with 2 pool companies, a trucking company and a contractor.....no one has followed up with us.
The trucking company came to give us a quote to dig up and haul off the dirt, but hasn't actually sent the quote.
We maybe had a lead or two on some people who work with some local construction companies that may want to dirt to fill in a pond, house pad, etc, but no real response.
So it still looks the same, but we haven't given up on the project yet.
It will take 100 calls/emails/texts to find the one that could help out 
BUT YOU CAN DO IT!!
BUT YOU CAN DO IT!!Ok. Got a bit of an update.
We talked to the pool company again this week and they said that if the pool was filled in properly, it can't be salvaged. I gather they think that the proper way is to break out the entire bottom, which I have seen before.
We asked them about digging it out and why they think we can't find anyone that wants to do it, since in our mind there's no difference between digging out that dirt than if we went to them and said we wanted a new pool. The same amount of dirt would need to be taken out of our yard. We know it's possible. They agreed, but told us it would cost ~$15,000 for them to dig it out.....
All of the pool companies immediately told us they don't think we can fix it and said basically the same thing....it was filled in for a reason. Even after we told them the neighbor said there was nothing wrong with it, they just didn't want to take care of it anymore, they still seemed skeptical. They all said they can't really tell us anything until they see it dug out....
Soooooo.......
Since we have other projects going on around the house that are gonna need an answer about this project before they can move forward, we got sick of waiting. We decided it was worth the money to do an exploratory dig to see if we could find the bottom and make sure the deep end wasn't completely missing the floor.
So that's how I spent my day.
Dug out a chunk of the shallow end first to make sure it was all there. Floor looks in the same condition as the walls.
So we moved on to the deep end hoping it would be a bit easier to dig and not be so full of junk....
Wrong...
We found what appears to be all of their landscaping, trees and all. Concrete slab, diving board, etc all there. Completely full of voids, etc because of the way they did it.
The good news, though, is that we found the bottom. There is no evidence of any of the bottom being broken up. Looks like they possibly just disconnected the main drain and that's the only way for the water to get out.
We also found the light. We still aren't sure if there is more than light. The glass is cracked. Presumably they hit it with some of the massive chunks of concrete/tree they threw in there.
So we have hope now that we have enough information to know that it should be fixable (hopefully) so we will try to get someone to come get the rest of the dirt and empty the pool out.
Once it's empty we'll re-assess.
Any reason not to think that since the low point isn't broken that likely none of it is? We didn't uncover all of completely, but can feel the floor through most of the deep end anywhere we tried.
We talked to the pool company again this week and they said that if the pool was filled in properly, it can't be salvaged. I gather they think that the proper way is to break out the entire bottom, which I have seen before.
We asked them about digging it out and why they think we can't find anyone that wants to do it, since in our mind there's no difference between digging out that dirt than if we went to them and said we wanted a new pool. The same amount of dirt would need to be taken out of our yard. We know it's possible. They agreed, but told us it would cost ~$15,000 for them to dig it out.....
All of the pool companies immediately told us they don't think we can fix it and said basically the same thing....it was filled in for a reason. Even after we told them the neighbor said there was nothing wrong with it, they just didn't want to take care of it anymore, they still seemed skeptical. They all said they can't really tell us anything until they see it dug out....
Soooooo.......
Since we have other projects going on around the house that are gonna need an answer about this project before they can move forward, we got sick of waiting. We decided it was worth the money to do an exploratory dig to see if we could find the bottom and make sure the deep end wasn't completely missing the floor.
So that's how I spent my day.
Dug out a chunk of the shallow end first to make sure it was all there. Floor looks in the same condition as the walls.
So we moved on to the deep end hoping it would be a bit easier to dig and not be so full of junk....
Wrong...
We found what appears to be all of their landscaping, trees and all. Concrete slab, diving board, etc all there. Completely full of voids, etc because of the way they did it.
The good news, though, is that we found the bottom. There is no evidence of any of the bottom being broken up. Looks like they possibly just disconnected the main drain and that's the only way for the water to get out.
We also found the light. We still aren't sure if there is more than light. The glass is cracked. Presumably they hit it with some of the massive chunks of concrete/tree they threw in there.
So we have hope now that we have enough information to know that it should be fixable (hopefully) so we will try to get someone to come get the rest of the dirt and empty the pool out.
Once it's empty we'll re-assess.
Any reason not to think that since the low point isn't broken that likely none of it is? We didn't uncover all of completely, but can feel the floor through most of the deep end anywhere we tried.
mguzzy
Gold Supporter
Wow.. it looks like they just used the pool as their personal refuse pit for awhile.. lots and all the pool equipment! Have you come across the Lost Arc in there?
I bet when you get this thing dug out you will not be that far from a real pool!
I bet when you get this thing dug out you will not be that far from a real pool!
There are a 100 reasons why people do things that defy reason. That being said if you were to find a big hole, it should have been in the deep end. Things are looking up for sure.
I think your neighbors are probably right. It might have a couple of holes punched in the bottom somewhere, but if there are they can be patched. You may end up having to DIY the excavation and offer free dirt and firewood to the neighbors. I love your signature by the way!
