Leaning buttress legs - Are they ok to leave?

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durtynacho

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Aug 4, 2015
50
Ellis County, TX
We just installed a 17x33 rectangle Splash Alpha pool. The pool is mostly level, within a half inch or better I would say, and the buttress legs are on the splash support boxes, which are then on buried two inch pavers.

Anyway, at the corners, the first one or two legs seems to lean toward the shorter wall. One is leaning bad enough to have a slight bow to it. However, all four walls and the water line is level, so I don't see how this could be happening. I'm sure some pavers are higher and lower than others, which is probably contributing to the leaning posts, but somehow the pool still came out level.

Perhaps the ground is settling some? I used about two inches of pool sand and tamped it down the best I could. If settling caused it, then I am not as worried because the ground was dug down, not built up, so it can only settle so far. Anyway, does anyone have any experience with this? If the posts don't get any worse, can I simply leave them? I think with the pool being mostly level, that I am not facing any structural issues. And these pools have to be engineered in such as way to allow flexibility and shifting, surely. But I wanted to see if anyone had seen this before and can offer some guidance.

Here is a pic of one of the leaning legs. Any feedback would be most appreciated.

unnamed.jpg
 
I think I may have already figured it out. I've been trying to figure this out for two days and wouldn't you know it, as soon as I post a thread about it, the light bulb goes off in my head.

Anyway, the buttress legs for the short walls are a tad lower than those on the long walls. This has caused the short walls to sit down a little bit, and as such the legs on the corners are naturally going to lean that way because they are being "pulled" that way. You can see in the pic the buttress leg strap on the left is relaxed, not tight like they should be. This is due to the leg settling down a bit.

I might try to straighten out the straps, which should add more inward force from the legs on the short walls. But, because this appears to be due to the height of the legs on the short walls, and not due to any sort of level issues, I don't think the problem will get worse. That, coupled with the fact that these legs are made to flex some, makes me believe I don't have any imminent structural issues here.

I will keep an eye on things, and if they get worse, I will drain the pool half way and address it. If not, then I will address next time we drain and refill the pool. I will post back here at some point in case this thread gets any followers who are interested in what may be the issue here.

Does anyone have any possible feedback or suggestions, or does this approach sound responsible?
 
I had a splash super pool about 15 years ago and the legs bent after a few months. That was before they had the plastic support blocks. The company replaced the legs and had just came out with the plastic supports and I had no issues after that until the legs rusted out 14 years later. That being said, I had the legs as straight as possible.
 
I've decided to go ahead and drain the pool half way and adjust the height of the legs on the short wall. I've found myself thinking about this issue non-stop and I figure I will continue to dwell on it for so long that I may as well just fix it. Thanks for the feedback!
 
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