Leaning walls on my 15x30

[Djsrcy]

No idea what I'm doing but I am fairly handy. The posts on the straightaways are leaning a lot. Leaning so bad that its pulling the liner off of the opposite side of the pool. I will put a level on it tomorrow but I'm guessing 5"+. The pool is an '09. I am assuming the posts are sinking just from rain and splashing over the last 13 years. I dug down to the bottom of the center post. There is 2" river rock and then 5" of dirt to get to the bottom. There is what appears to be some kind of steel tubing that is under the post and running perpendicular to the pool. I took a bad picture of the bottom of the post. The pool is drained to about 4". I am assuming I am going to have to pull and replace liner to repair this. Somehow raise the posts and put a paver(s) or something under the posts?? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[AK-]

That tube is the under channel that the straight section upright will connect to it and a steel plate will connect it to the under channel of the other uprights in the same side. It is likely to be connected with a steel strap to the under channel of the upright on the opposite side of the pool.

This is a random manual to better show the “tube”:


If you dig a little further around the “tube” you should find a concrete/pavers block….

 

[Djsrcy]

To correct the problem, are we talking a full tear down? Are there any shortcuts? Is this something a fairly experienced DIYer can do? I know I ask a lot. Thanks for the response.

 

[AK-]

To correct the problem, are we talking a full tear down? Are there any shortcuts? Is this something a fairly experience4d DIYer can do? Can you please supply a link to where you got that diagram and an installation manual would be great! Thanks for the response.

Do you know the manufacturer of your pool? You might be able to find the manual of your specific pool online.

That manual I got from the website of The Pool Factory (store). It was from a random pool just to give an idea of what that is.

Do you have a “bump” in the bottom of the pool in front of the upright leaning outwards?

There is always a possibility that someone else will have a simple solution for that. But I DIY my pool and based the experience I had assembling it I can’t see an easy way out without an almost complete tear down.

There is also the possibility of rust… what seems to be the bottom railing looks rusty… rust is the worst enemy of a steel AGP.

 

[Djsrcy]

Yes there is a bump directly in front of supports. sort of a T shaped deformation.
I will find original pool paperwork when I get home. I stashed it somewhere.
Oh man I hope there isn't a lot of rust. Is the pool supposed to be backfilled that much? Seems like a lot of soil/moisture constantly against the wall.
Thanks

 

[AK-]

There are plenty of steel pools advertised as semi-unground … I personally wouldn’t burry steel… even completely above ground pool can rust.

A bump in front of the upright gives the impression the soil on the end of the under channel right under the upright either sunk, washed away or something similar and the weight of the wall/water cause the upright to lean leveraging the pressure plate up.

Are you having issue with a single upright of multiple?

 

[Djsrcy]

Multiple. One side of the pool is against a deck. The deck is holding that side up. Its pressing so hard against the deck post, the top rail is cracked. The other side has 3 very obvious leaning posts. I'm sure the ones on the deck side would be just as bad if they weren't supported.
Thank you

 

[AK-]

I don’t think you can get away without a complete tear down.

Even if you tear it down the soil will no longer be undisturbed. Leveling the ground in a way that the pool would keep its relative height to the deck may be quite challenging as the conventional recommendation would be to dig down and re-level on undisturbed soil.

Give a little more time to see if someone else comes with a bright idea. Hopefully I’m wrong…

My pool was assembled over filled “not-soil”… it is just not advisable to do so.

 

[Stephz520]

To correct the problem, are we talking a full tear down? Are there any shortcuts? Is this something a fairly experienced DIYer can do? I know I ask a lot. Thanks for the response.

We had this problem recently. We did end up fixing it without a total tear down. We drained the pool and put wood pieces under the sinking legs along with sand. It fixed the problem.

 

[AK-]

We had this problem recently. We did end up fixing it without a total tear down. We drained the pool and put wood pieces under the sinking legs along with sand. It fixed the problem.

As long as not in contact with the liner I would rather use stone dust rather than sand. Sand has a bad habit of washing away.

How did you level everything back?

 

[Djsrcy]

As long as not in contact with the liner I would rather use stone dust rather than sand. Sand has a bad habit of washing away.

How did you level everything back?

Was wondering the same thing. I understand how you stopped the posts from sinking further but how did you get them back to level/plumb?

 

[AK-]

I could imagine using something like a farm jack to pull them up but actually leveling everything back is a different story.