My pool is 27 ft round and I'm wanting to put stone around it. I need to know how much to buy. I would really appreciate any help.
Need help with amount of stone to buy.
- Thread starter gina9101962
- Start date
What kind of stone?
if it is loose rock, how deep and how wide.
As an example.
Your 27 foot diameter pool has a surface area of 573 square feet (pi x r^2)
If you wanted a 2 foot wide border of rock around it, the diameter of that is 29 feet. A 29 foot circle is 660 square feet.
Subtracting the area of the pool from the area of the 29 foot circle (since there will be no rock UNDER the pool) gives an area of 660 - 573 = 87 square feet.
Now lets say you want that rock 4 inches deep. 4 inches = .3333 feet
87 foot area x .3333 deep is 28.9 cubic feet. A yard is 27 cubic feet. So to add a two foot wide border around the pool, that is 4" deep, you will need just over a cubic yard of material.
if it is loose rock, how deep and how wide.
As an example.
Your 27 foot diameter pool has a surface area of 573 square feet (pi x r^2)
If you wanted a 2 foot wide border of rock around it, the diameter of that is 29 feet. A 29 foot circle is 660 square feet.
Subtracting the area of the pool from the area of the 29 foot circle (since there will be no rock UNDER the pool) gives an area of 660 - 573 = 87 square feet.
Now lets say you want that rock 4 inches deep. 4 inches = .3333 feet
87 foot area x .3333 deep is 28.9 cubic feet. A yard is 27 cubic feet. So to add a two foot wide border around the pool, that is 4" deep, you will need just over a cubic yard of material.
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Make sure to get the right kind of rock. Some rocks will damage(corrode) a metal pool wall when rain hits the rock and then splashes onto the pool wall. You want river rock that won't do that.
My neighbor had that happen to his pool with the wrong rocks. He got little holes in the pool wall from the wrong type of rock. Must have been acidic.
My neighbor had that happen to his pool with the wrong rocks. He got little holes in the pool wall from the wrong type of rock. Must have been acidic.
I have a hard time believing this.
It has been a long time since my college geology classes, but from what I remember most metamorphic and igneous rock is pretty much inert.
Sedimentary rock, such as limestone and sandstone will RAISE pH.
Even if there was some rock that lowered pH, the amount that would be raise in a drop of water that hit that rock, remained in contact with that rock for a split second, and then landed on the pool wall would be minute. Not to mention that the rain that is falling directly on the pool wall would pretty much wash it off immediately.
I would put my money on physical damage - who does the weed whacking around the pool.
I can also see certain types of rock causing physical damage. Egg rock or river rock is usually very smooth. Crushed stone is less smooth. Something like lava rock can be downright sharp. I have some igneous rock in my backyard (not around my pool) that is actually painful to walk on in flop flops. This stuff, pretty to look at, not fun to walk on (or weed in) - Garden Rock Eastern Sunrise I suspect something such as this around a pool would easily cause scratches.
I'd wager that there was no gap and moisture was being trapped on the wall. It rusted from the bottom up.
Then the pool store dug elbow deep to pull an explanation out.
Then the pool store dug elbow deep to pull an explanation out.
There was no rust. Just pinholes all around just where the rocks were placed, up to about 3-4 inches above the rock line. When the sun was shining through the pool wall it was shining through the pits. The damage was not from weed wacking.
So you are suggesting that in the moment a drop of water splashed off the rock was long enough for it to acidify?
Impressive little rock...
Not suggesting anything. Just passing along what I saw. That is what my neighbor assumed. What else would cause what happened only where the rocks were?
If Gina reads this, maybe she will research and NOT just put down any old rocks.
If Gina reads this, maybe she will research and NOT just put down any old rocks.
And acidify enough to burn pinholes through a steel wall. Wow, I mean, don't handle that rock with bare, sweaty hands either.
Fertilizer is acidic, most weed killers are VERY acidic. Was the lawn fertilized and sprayed on the pool? How arey the killing the weeds in that rock?
There are many more plausible solutions than the rock is causing rain that splashes off of it to be corrosive.
I also have a hard time with rock being any significantly worse at trapping moisture than other media.
I'm all over the place with it. Lol. Rocks will sweat while mulch or such won't, but will retain moisture for a longer time.
Most bury their bottom rail with the material of choice, possibly a few inches deep, and either way it's going to cause rust down the road.
VinnyinNJ
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- Jul 20, 2022
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I have a 24 foot round pool and I added pea pebbles to about a 2 foot radius around the pool along with where the pipes from the filter are. For the amount of pebbles I took the circumference difference between the 26 and 24 foot measurements. But you need area, so I had to estimate about 2 inches of pebbles; of course not everywhere is a uniform 2 inches nor is everywhere exactly 2 feet away from the pool wall. Then I added the rectangle of the pipe area to that amount to come up with a guesstimate of what we needed. After using the pea pebbles we felt we probably should have used larger pebbles but the pea pebbles could provide a nice base rock for larger (3/4 inch ?) river rock.
As far as water holding, the pea pebbles are possibly 1/4 to 1/2 inch up the side of the pool wall, something that I need to work on. The sun beats down on the area most of the day so I would imagine as long as it doesn't rain those rocks dry out during the summer. When it does rain a lot I can get water pooling in certain areas around the pool; winter is anybody's guess.
I think that unless you are using precision any calculations on needed material is going to be an estimate and you may need more or less depending a a couple of factors.
As far as water holding, the pea pebbles are possibly 1/4 to 1/2 inch up the side of the pool wall, something that I need to work on. The sun beats down on the area most of the day so I would imagine as long as it doesn't rain those rocks dry out during the summer. When it does rain a lot I can get water pooling in certain areas around the pool; winter is anybody's guess.
I think that unless you are using precision any calculations on needed material is going to be an estimate and you may need more or less depending a a couple of factors.
Rocks "sweat" because their thermal mass keeps them colder than the surrounding air as the day warms up, and moisture condenses on them.
You know what also remains colder than the surrounding air a sweats like crazy - the wall of my pool with the thermal mass of 17,000 gallons of water behind it.
I think the whole thing is just people telling stories. "I put new rock around my pool this year, and now there is rust - it MUST have been the rock"
No doubt. And you can't control that part. But you can control the bottom edge area with proper airflow/drainage and (hopefully) not make it even worse.
While I agree with your method, in your example, the diameter of the 2 foot wide border would be 31 feet.
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