Buried Pool renovation

well....little progress.

Got in touch with someone that can dig it out. $10 per yard for fill dirt. $15 per yard for landfill dirt.

Since I'm assuming most of mine is landfill dirt with all of the junk in it, and I'm guesstimating the pool at 140 yards of dirt (hopefully no more) that puts me worse case at around $2100. Sounds like he is available next week.
 
That’s sweet. Even if you were off by 40 yards you would be well under your original expected $3k on the low end. (But hoping you *over* estimated of course, because bills).
 
Awesome!! It'll be interesting to see what condition the shell is in.

Word of Caution - Have them dig it out slowly and look for any holes punched in the shell. Start in the deep end. Get the main drain cleared, open it up and look for a hydrostatic valve. If there is one in there, open it up immediately but also be prepared to punch at least two 2" to 3" holes in the shell. You do not want an empty shell with no way to equalize water pressure. I have no idea what the condition of your ground water is but I have to imagine Louisiana is quite a bit more moist than Arizona. If that pool were here, I wouldn't worry at all about ground water (most people have to drill down 200+ feet to get to ground water around here) but it's not. If you do excavate it, it's going to sit open for a long time while you work on getting it restored. There needs to be a way for ground water to flow into it if it gets high enough or else the shell will pop out of the ground like a boat.
 
Awesome!! It'll be interesting to see what condition the shell is in.

Word of Caution - Have them dig it out slowly and look for any holes punched in the shell. Start in the deep end. Get the main drain cleared, open it up and look for a hydrostatic valve. If there is one in there, open it up immediately but also be prepared to punch at least two 2" to 3" holes in the shell. You do not want an empty shell with no way to equalize water pressure. I have no idea what the condition of your ground water is but I have to imagine Louisiana is quite a bit more moist than Arizona. If that pool were here, I wouldn't worry at all about ground water (most people have to drill down 200+ feet to get to ground water around here) but it's not. If you do excavate it, it's going to sit open for a long time while you work on getting it restored. There needs to be a way for ground water to flow into it if it gets high enough or else the shell will pop out of the ground like a boat.

So far from what we uncovered we don't see any holes in the shell. There was water seeping through the main drain in the bottom so we assume right now that was the only water relief which may have been helped by the fact that there were large voids in the deep end due to the trees.

I don't know what the current water table in the area is, but our house is on one of the highest neighborhoods in the area (that's right, a whole 31ft above sea level). Many of the surrounding neighborhoods are at 24ft or below.

Not sure if any of that really matters but we will keep an eye on it.
 
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I don't know what the current water table in the area is, but our house is on one of the highest neighborhoods in the area (that's right, a whole 31ft above sea level). Many of the surrounding neighborhoods are at 24ft or below.
While i agree that you are probably ok, ground water and sea level can be 2 completely separate things. Think of all the lakes, streams and whatnot atop mountains.
 
For example, I can find a well run by the US Geological Survey near me in Tucson (there’s only 3) and the data tells me that the depth of the water to the surface is about 316ft and we are well over 2000ft above sea level. So yeah, no worries here with pools floating out of the ground. Louisiana on the other hand ..... not so sure .....
 
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yeah, I know sea level isn't the same. The only point there was that we are in the higher, dryer area of the city.

I tried searching around for my area but USGS doesn't have any current information. Historical information from 2000-2010 shows a water table of around 50ft
 

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Assuming the 50ft is “close enough” you don’t have to worry too much about ground water from the aquifer. Depending on what your weather is like though, you could still get ground saturation with water if a good rainstorm comes through. Just inspect the main drain for a hydrostatic valve, if one doesn’t exist then you might want to consider having a hole or two drilled into the shell. There’s no harm in doing that as the hole will get plugged with hydraulic cement just before your final surface is ready to be applied (assuming it’s plaster).

Good luck with the excavation. Take lots of pictures so we can see if they find Jimmy Hoffa in there ...
 
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First discovery of the day....

EA3-FD235-42-A5-4-F5-C-B0-A3-CB68-B35-B33-E4.jpg


It comes with a hot tub
 

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