Intex support slipped off footing - Need advice

[ike0069]

Fairly experienced Intex owner. Owned Intex pools for the 13 years but the last one I put up was 9 years ago. It was the old style white metal frame and help up well, staying up year round. The rust had got to the point that I took it down and bought the 22x52.

After waiting 4 weeks to get someone to clear and level the ground, finally started the install on Saturday morning. The setup went fairly well and I stopped filling Saturday night when it was just below suction fittings. It rained hard Saturday night and Sunday morning I got up and started the water. Started the pump once the water was high enough and added 6 bags of salt. I need 8 bags, so I left to go get 2 more bags and when I came back the water was brown. After some calls, there was a water line break Saturday night and I was unaware, so my pool is full of iron. Started on the iron clean up and making progress (clarifier, aeration, sand filter) doing a slow clean up. Looks green in the pics, but its definitely iron related.

One thing about the new Intex pools, they no longer come with a rope that goes around the bottom of the legs, so I assumed I didn't need to worry about that. Go to work Monday, storms roll through and I come home to see a leg has slipped off the footing. Looking at it, the bottom kicked out a little and came off the footing and down into the ground about 1 -2 inches.

I'm not worried about it continuing to sink, just wonder how much stress is on that section right now. Pretty sure the only fix is to drain the pool - is there some sort of "trick" to fix it without draining? Also, should I get something to go around the bottom of the supports, and if so, any suggestions on what is best. I know the Intex rope from my last pool basically dissolved after a few years, but the post were set and never moved.

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[joeb65]

Draining off some water will help. Draining it all is possible. What I did when this happened to me on 2 different occasions were 2 different things. The first time, I still had the skidloader there I had for levelling the ground for pool installation. I drained some water off, hooked 2-4 inch tow straps to the mounting plate on skid loader and hoisted the pull up at that spot to to put the paver back into place. It took some messing around to get the level perfect with the other spots, but it did work out and did not crush the tubing on top of pool. My pool is only 18', so the volume of water, and consequently amount of force needed to raise are less, but if you drain a portion of pool off greater than I did it should work out fine. My second method was using an engine hoist. After an entire year of useage, the next hear we noticed a different spot had sunk in some. I hoisted with straps using the engine hoist after draining off about a foot of water, and added some crushed stone under the paver to about .25 inches higher than perfectly level. Over the winter, it shrunk back down to about even. I am not saying either is the best method, just posting that 2 methods I used to repair similar issues that worked out for me. YMMV, good luck.

 

[Zrock]

That leg will continue to sink remember that's allot of force on that single point. I had my legs sink 6 inches after a good rainfall and a few legs slipped off. I took a jack and a 2x4 across the upper rail and I was able to jack back up.. a jack on both sides of leg would be better

 

[ike0069]

Thanks for the replies. I plan to drain about a foot of water and will try to raise the post with a jack and 2x4.

What about rope around the legs? I bought a 100 ft (circumference is 69 ft) poly rope that I will put around the legs, but I have seen others suggest using a ratchet strap. Not sure if the rope is goo enough. Thoughts?

 

[philc]

My 22X 52 intex pool also had the legs slipping off the pavers as the filling pool pushed the legs outward. I lived with it last year, but it was unsightly. I had worked very hard to get all the pavers level, only to have some slip off, making the top rail "undulate" all the way around. So after last year's season, I bought stainless steel loops and fastened one on each leg down near the plastic foot. I drained about 80% of the water out so I could replace the legs on the pavers. I tried jacking, (without draining first) , up the top rail, but was causing a crease to form where the 2X4 from the jack pushed up on the top rail. I bought 100' of vinyl covered 3/16 steel cable and ran it through the loops at the bottom of the legs, around the pool and joined the two ends of the cable with a rather large turnbuckle. I positioned the legs where I needed them and applied tension to the cable with the turnbuckle. When I filled the pool all the legs stayed exactly where I wanted them, and now my top rail is level all the way around the pool, and Papa is happy!!

 

[ike0069]

I put a rope around the legs, but no way to get it as tight as i wanted. Drained the water to the suction ports and used a jack and 2x4 to raise the post. As I was raising it, I could hear the post next to it start to slip out, so I stopped and ended up using plastic coated wire and hand crank to tighten. I then raised again and was able to get it up to near where it should be and dig out a spot for a concrete footing. It doesn't look perfect, but its pretty close.

There was another support that had moved to the very edge of the footing and I used the same method to hold the with while I reset the footing so that it was back in the center.

I may drain nearly all the way next spring and get make all the supports "perfect", but I will leave it as is for now.

 

[joeb65]

That leg will continue to sink remember that's allot of force on that single point. I had my legs sink 6 inches after a good rainfall and a few legs slipped off. I took a jack and a 2x4 across the upper rail and I was able to jack back up.. a jack on both sides of leg would be better

Just coming back to this. 7 years later, not a single post has sunk any further in all of that time. Key is starting with a good base.