Hi all, we moved to a new house in June 2018 with gorgeous views and a big hole in a two tiered deck. What else to put back-in, but a pool?! Our thoughts exactly!
We received our Intex 12'x24' pool in early 2018, dimensions were almost a perfect match to the hole. In our excitement to get it set up we leveled the ground and tampered it to what we thought was relatively "good enough" and we decided, what the heck, let's just try it and see what happens. It seemed pretty level and we had a sparkling pool in weeks thanks to TFP that we got to enjoy for about 2 months.
Then, late August, the La Crosse area suffered torrential downpours and major flooding and she just couldn't hold an extra 10" of rain. Her legs buckled on the far side (which might have been a bit sandier) where it was probably a bit lower than the rest of the pool and she overflowed.
At that time I knew at least 3 of the legs had buckled, and suspected more because they sunk so far into the ground. Since I was still under the 90 day warranty with intex, I got 4 replacement legs. So I quickly got to work draining the pool, which seemed to never en. And thankfully we have a giant storm culvert on our property that I can drain into and not have to send thousands of gallons of sanitized water down our beautiful yard. What a depressing moment. We were just about to have one of our last pool parties of the year over labor day. I clearly shouldn't have invited everyone over the day before the rain. Also, word to the wise... never put your phone in your robe pocket and try to fix the corner of your pool while kneeling on the deck... your phone WILL go for a swim in ankle deep water. It wasn't a very good week for me while my husband was out of town for training! UGH.
We finally had time this past weekend to attend to the ~3" of water that was left in the pool. It sat there for a good 3 weeks and was getting gunky and full of leaves and tree gunk. And once we got down in there to sweep the water toward the pump, it was developing a smell. Ick! Now she is clean again! No gunk, and I sprayed Simple Green all over as we re-sprayed the pool when we were pumping out the remaining water so that the smell would dissipate and my brain would feel better about attempting to clean it. I don't have an after picture, but you can pretty much guess what an empty intex pool looks like. Sad and depressed, that's what! Especially when this past weekend was a HOT 92*+ in September! Oh, and it turns out a good 6 or 7 legs are shot. Boooo!
Now that you've joined me in mourning the loss of our pool, I have a few questions for you all:
1) What do I do about the pump? It's a sand filter (the one that came with the intex). Am I supposed to open it up and let the sand dry out? What's the best way to go about storing that for winter?
2) Do we try and fix the ground and put the pool back up before it starts to freeze, so that we are ready to go right away for spring
OR do we take it down and store the pool the best we can over winter and do setup in the spring?
3) Rebuilding ideas and plans--who's got'em. Cough 'em up! For the rectangular intex pools only please!
No matter what we do for #2, I am hoping some of you have VERY detailed plans for a RECTANGULAR intex pool that would be of use to us. There are TONS on the threads, I know, but I'm having a hard time deciphering measurements and choosing the best route. Our ground really is pretty level there because the previous owners had a pool, but we clearly just rushed the tampering process--PLUS we panicked at Menard's and went with cement pavers instead of taking the time to find the pressure treated boards we wanted. We also placed them on top of the ground instead of flush. So I think all of that compounded with the rain was a recipe for disaster.
Thanks for joining me on the saga. Any and all help and suggestions are appreciated!!!
Oh, and I know we screwed up in the beginning during prep, so please be kind, we can only move forward at this point. Thanks!
We received our Intex 12'x24' pool in early 2018, dimensions were almost a perfect match to the hole. In our excitement to get it set up we leveled the ground and tampered it to what we thought was relatively "good enough" and we decided, what the heck, let's just try it and see what happens. It seemed pretty level and we had a sparkling pool in weeks thanks to TFP that we got to enjoy for about 2 months.
Then, late August, the La Crosse area suffered torrential downpours and major flooding and she just couldn't hold an extra 10" of rain. Her legs buckled on the far side (which might have been a bit sandier) where it was probably a bit lower than the rest of the pool and she overflowed.
At that time I knew at least 3 of the legs had buckled, and suspected more because they sunk so far into the ground. Since I was still under the 90 day warranty with intex, I got 4 replacement legs. So I quickly got to work draining the pool, which seemed to never en. And thankfully we have a giant storm culvert on our property that I can drain into and not have to send thousands of gallons of sanitized water down our beautiful yard. What a depressing moment. We were just about to have one of our last pool parties of the year over labor day. I clearly shouldn't have invited everyone over the day before the rain. Also, word to the wise... never put your phone in your robe pocket and try to fix the corner of your pool while kneeling on the deck... your phone WILL go for a swim in ankle deep water. It wasn't a very good week for me while my husband was out of town for training! UGH.
We finally had time this past weekend to attend to the ~3" of water that was left in the pool. It sat there for a good 3 weeks and was getting gunky and full of leaves and tree gunk. And once we got down in there to sweep the water toward the pump, it was developing a smell. Ick! Now she is clean again! No gunk, and I sprayed Simple Green all over as we re-sprayed the pool when we were pumping out the remaining water so that the smell would dissipate and my brain would feel better about attempting to clean it. I don't have an after picture, but you can pretty much guess what an empty intex pool looks like. Sad and depressed, that's what! Especially when this past weekend was a HOT 92*+ in September! Oh, and it turns out a good 6 or 7 legs are shot. Boooo!
Now that you've joined me in mourning the loss of our pool, I have a few questions for you all:
1) What do I do about the pump? It's a sand filter (the one that came with the intex). Am I supposed to open it up and let the sand dry out? What's the best way to go about storing that for winter?
2) Do we try and fix the ground and put the pool back up before it starts to freeze, so that we are ready to go right away for spring
OR do we take it down and store the pool the best we can over winter and do setup in the spring?
3) Rebuilding ideas and plans--who's got'em. Cough 'em up! For the rectangular intex pools only please!
No matter what we do for #2, I am hoping some of you have VERY detailed plans for a RECTANGULAR intex pool that would be of use to us. There are TONS on the threads, I know, but I'm having a hard time deciphering measurements and choosing the best route. Our ground really is pretty level there because the previous owners had a pool, but we clearly just rushed the tampering process--PLUS we panicked at Menard's and went with cement pavers instead of taking the time to find the pressure treated boards we wanted. We also placed them on top of the ground instead of flush. So I think all of that compounded with the rain was a recipe for disaster.
Thanks for joining me on the saga. Any and all help and suggestions are appreciated!!!
Oh, and I know we screwed up in the beginning during prep, so please be kind, we can only move forward at this point. Thanks!
