Hi! I'm alive.
Holy cow! Sorry to hear about the storm damage to your dig. Those darn tropical storms, no amount of prep would make a difference. You just have to sit there and watch it take its course.
Hang in there. I’m hoping your dry season arrives early and lasts longer than normal.
Hey I'm a Jacksonville actually orange parker. Anyways I will be in a similar situation as you needing new pool walls. Not sure if your up to it but would like to reach out to get some advice on my future project.Thanks for the kind words! I'll be back at it as soon as possible, and I'll make sure to document as much as possible when I do!
Hi! I'd love to help if I can. The two biggest pieces of advice I can give is
I wouldn't even attempt to dig the pool out any bigger. And to be honest after talking to a Brick Mason. I'm not sure I would go this route anymore. Filling every cell for 600 blocks is something like 6 yards of concrete, were at $300 a yard for concrete here. The footer is 3 more yards, Rebar is probably another 2k I'm already at the cost of polymer pool walls with half the headache. Were at I'm guessing around 5k material cost. I would probably have to sub some of the block work out. I'm thinking dig out what I got and re use my hopper. Buy another polymer pool kit and slap it in for another 40 years. One good thing is my water table doesn't start until around 10 to 12 foot im really high up for Florida. It's fairly dry really fast here.
I dont think filling every cell is necessary. I'm only planning on filling the ones that will get vertical rebar, and that's every 3 or 4th hole. One thing to keep in mind is you need concrete even for polymer walls, they need to be locked in once installed. My old poly panels had moved all over the place, which I thought was weird until I got down there and saw there was zero concrete or even gravel behind them.
My pool hasnt fully collapsed in I'm still running it until it does. I have one wall that's busting with dirt pushing. I have an oval pool like you but larger. 17x34. The Brick Mason I talked to stated he dint think every third cell with vertical rebar would be enough. He said he fixed a wall that day (bulk head) were the same exact thing happened. He said the dirt would eventually push the wall. He said horizontal and vertical rebar would be needed. I'm not sure he understands the weight of the water pushing back on the wall but who knows. This guy has done it for 36 years. Admittedly not a pool builder. I could mix and pour the slurry of concrete my self if I had to. The 8 inch collar on the bottom doesn't really scare me there's absolutely no finish work needed. I also found a place that made walls they claimed don't need a concrete collar. That's crazy your pool dint have any concrete locking it in. I wouldn't be shocked if a lot of them dint. In my personal opinion I can't imagine a block wall even with every third or fourth cell filled on a footer couldn't hold back more then these flimsy panel systems. They look thin and dirt cheap. Maybe the engineering and bracing makes them better. But I can't imagine how if they did everyone would be using them as bulkheads and I've NEVER seen a system like this used EVER!
I see where he's coming from, but in the end it's a 4 ft tall wall, not an 8ft tall basement.
I looked at how his was built. I agree this guy would mortar joint them as well he wouldn't dry lay them. I have an oval with a radius he said that would create another nightmare laying the block on that radius. Could be done but a lot of cuts and labor. I'm still thinking and researching. I also thought about seeing what a monolithic wall system would cost. Unfortunately construction materials have shot through the roof. Although I think we're about to see a starving market for work here soon. We will see.
Oh yeah, keeping the oval was out of the question for me. Rectangle it is. Easier of course but also opens up tons of space.
I paid over 9k after covid but they're like 6k last time I looked. You could get one, sell when done and make most of your money back.
Nice I seen them for under 5k. Definitely a lot easier then shoveling.
I did a "test run" with a shovel when I first started, just to see how much material I could move with an honest effort. It was laughable. What took me half a day with several breaks, the machine did in 5 minutes. And the tree roots... oh how satisfying watching those tree roots just pull right up out of the ground and snap.
Right
. With the wall systems guys can dig out and have the pool in two days. It's ridiculous how much these things are installed.I was quoted 15k to build the concrete walls. Filll every cell footer rebar horizontal and vertical. I would probably go that direction as it should last a lifetime over flimsy panels.
15k? Worth it. You'd use a liner, yeah? Waterproof coatings just ain't gonna work.
Of course a liner would go over the walls. That's a lot better then 100k I've been hearing a new tiny shallow pool cost these days id probably have 25k total in it.