Hey everyone - long post incoming. First time pool owner and there’s lots for me to digest, so apologies in advance!
I recently purchased a fixer upper home and the pool, along with the rest of the property was pretty neglected. We had the pool inspected prior to purchasing and there were quite a few major issues that were pointed out. We knew we wanted the home and have a vision for what the pool and yard could eventually be so we still moved forward. Given the current state of the pool industry we just want to make sure we’re taking the right steps, in the right order and not to be taken advantage of.
The pool is a 1968 17x33 steel wall vinyl pool. The concrete decking around the pool needs to be replaced in its entirety. Its not really safe for adult use, let alone for our two kids. I’ve attached some pictures where you can see how much the concrete has moved, with certain areas having large enough gaps to reach half of my body behind the coping.
One side of the long wall has sunken down by 2 inches and the opposite wall is bowed inwards by 2.25 inches.
In June 2019 the previous owners had the following work done by a local company:
Remove sand floor and replace with vermiculite
Replace all wall foam
New liner installed
Total on receipts: $10,250
The pool was closed after this in 2019 and was not opened again until we inspected it. The owner said that they didn’t notice the “movement” in the walls until around this time. So that led us to believe that something could’ve been disturbed during this process.
Aside from the poor condition, it was deemed to be in 100% serviceable condition. The liner has no known leaks and has not needed to be topped off in 2 years. All equipment works and functions well. Based on what he saw, we should be able to use the pool until the end of the liners life for another 5+ years.
We were told by the pool inspector that we may be able to get away with replacing certain sections of the pool wall depending on what was causing the sinking/bowing. Obviously they only way to know would be to eventually pull back the liner and see whats going on.
I was then able to get in touch with the local company who did the work listed above and they were kind enough to answer any questions I had. In short they said that our property has a ground water issue that has washed away the base of the pool area over the 50+ years.
Note: I am 2 houses from a large lake so we have a higher than average water table. And in the short time I’ve lived here I’ve learned that my yard is prone to flooding from poor draining of the property. This will be addressed along with this entire project. Also worth noting almost every home in my immediate neighborhood has in-ground pools without catastrophic issues.
He said that the previous sand base had washed away and eventually caused the liner to fail. They replaced with vermiculite because it is porous and will allow ground water to come and go without “washing away.” He said that the same issue is what has caused the walls to shift due to the underlying earth being washed away (which also makes sense for the horrible condition of the decking). When I asked if it’s something that could be repaired he said that the walls are “in really bad shape and at the end of their life. Based on the condition and rust, you’re better off replacing the walls entirely. Based on the currently market it would cost roughly $25-30k to do so along with a new liner, plumbing, etc. And that he would try to salvage as much of the new floor as possible.”
Addressing the ground water is something thats a priority for me. Either some sort of de-watering drain under the pool or sump tubes around the deck based on some research. Not sure how that would work with the above suggestion of saving the existing floor.
I took this information with a grain of salt knowing his job is to sell pools BUT he’s currently the only person who’s seen the true underlying condition.
I guess my real question is: where do I start?
Our main concern before we knew about the walls was the decking for safety (as cosmetic) reasons. We want to do everything right and now cant justify spending any money repairing or replacing it if we’ll eventually have to rip it apart anyway.
I’d assume any reputable pool builder is going to want to see whats going on under the pool before saying how they would approach it. It also doesn’t really seem like something that can or should be put off once we starting going down the rabbit hole. If we drain the pool and remove the liner, we’re at the liberty of whatever we discover. It could be a single panel replacement or an entirely new pool install but we need to be prepared to address it instead of letting it sit empty and get worse.
Regardless, my plan is to open the pool next spring and use it for an entire season to get a lay of the land. I’d like to have the pool guy mentioned above open it and give me a thorough explanation of what he knows and how he would address it. Using that information I can contact multiple other builders and get more formal quotes throughout the season with the hopes of tackling this going into the summer of 2023.
I guess I’m just looking for any advice on the situation that can be offered. It’s my first pool and im sure there’s alot more going on than what I can see.
I recently purchased a fixer upper home and the pool, along with the rest of the property was pretty neglected. We had the pool inspected prior to purchasing and there were quite a few major issues that were pointed out. We knew we wanted the home and have a vision for what the pool and yard could eventually be so we still moved forward. Given the current state of the pool industry we just want to make sure we’re taking the right steps, in the right order and not to be taken advantage of.
The pool is a 1968 17x33 steel wall vinyl pool. The concrete decking around the pool needs to be replaced in its entirety. Its not really safe for adult use, let alone for our two kids. I’ve attached some pictures where you can see how much the concrete has moved, with certain areas having large enough gaps to reach half of my body behind the coping.
One side of the long wall has sunken down by 2 inches and the opposite wall is bowed inwards by 2.25 inches.
In June 2019 the previous owners had the following work done by a local company:
Remove sand floor and replace with vermiculite
Replace all wall foam
New liner installed
Total on receipts: $10,250
The pool was closed after this in 2019 and was not opened again until we inspected it. The owner said that they didn’t notice the “movement” in the walls until around this time. So that led us to believe that something could’ve been disturbed during this process.
Aside from the poor condition, it was deemed to be in 100% serviceable condition. The liner has no known leaks and has not needed to be topped off in 2 years. All equipment works and functions well. Based on what he saw, we should be able to use the pool until the end of the liners life for another 5+ years.
We were told by the pool inspector that we may be able to get away with replacing certain sections of the pool wall depending on what was causing the sinking/bowing. Obviously they only way to know would be to eventually pull back the liner and see whats going on.
I was then able to get in touch with the local company who did the work listed above and they were kind enough to answer any questions I had. In short they said that our property has a ground water issue that has washed away the base of the pool area over the 50+ years.
Note: I am 2 houses from a large lake so we have a higher than average water table. And in the short time I’ve lived here I’ve learned that my yard is prone to flooding from poor draining of the property. This will be addressed along with this entire project. Also worth noting almost every home in my immediate neighborhood has in-ground pools without catastrophic issues.
He said that the previous sand base had washed away and eventually caused the liner to fail. They replaced with vermiculite because it is porous and will allow ground water to come and go without “washing away.” He said that the same issue is what has caused the walls to shift due to the underlying earth being washed away (which also makes sense for the horrible condition of the decking). When I asked if it’s something that could be repaired he said that the walls are “in really bad shape and at the end of their life. Based on the condition and rust, you’re better off replacing the walls entirely. Based on the currently market it would cost roughly $25-30k to do so along with a new liner, plumbing, etc. And that he would try to salvage as much of the new floor as possible.”
Addressing the ground water is something thats a priority for me. Either some sort of de-watering drain under the pool or sump tubes around the deck based on some research. Not sure how that would work with the above suggestion of saving the existing floor.
I took this information with a grain of salt knowing his job is to sell pools BUT he’s currently the only person who’s seen the true underlying condition.
I guess my real question is: where do I start?
Our main concern before we knew about the walls was the decking for safety (as cosmetic) reasons. We want to do everything right and now cant justify spending any money repairing or replacing it if we’ll eventually have to rip it apart anyway.
I’d assume any reputable pool builder is going to want to see whats going on under the pool before saying how they would approach it. It also doesn’t really seem like something that can or should be put off once we starting going down the rabbit hole. If we drain the pool and remove the liner, we’re at the liberty of whatever we discover. It could be a single panel replacement or an entirely new pool install but we need to be prepared to address it instead of letting it sit empty and get worse.
Regardless, my plan is to open the pool next spring and use it for an entire season to get a lay of the land. I’d like to have the pool guy mentioned above open it and give me a thorough explanation of what he knows and how he would address it. Using that information I can contact multiple other builders and get more formal quotes throughout the season with the hopes of tackling this going into the summer of 2023.
I guess I’m just looking for any advice on the situation that can be offered. It’s my first pool and im sure there’s alot more going on than what I can see.
