New pool owner here, looking for advice or ideas as to what's going on here. Our pool was installed on 8/20/19. It's a 12,000 gallon 15x30 above ground resin pool. Once we got the pool filled up, we immediately noticed a wet spot coming out from under the pool. This spot is on the opposite side from the pump and skimmer (that section is dry). It's important to note that it's been very dry here. At our house, we have measured a total of 1/2 inch of rain in the last 6 weeks.
We talked to the store where we bought the pool and they told us that this is normal as the weight of the pool pushes ground water out and to just keep an eye on it. They also had us stick a piece of tape on the skimmer at the water level to measure how much was lost in a 24 hour period. That came out to 1/4 inch and it was perfectly sunny and mid-90s that day. They told us that was normal and google searches seem to confirm that. So we've just been watching it. After a couple weeks the wet spot started getting smaller so we thought perhaps it really was just ground water seeping out.
Fast forward and this last week we took a trip out of town. I filled the pool up right to the "max" line on the skimmer so it wouldn't get too low while we were gone. We were gone for 5 days total during which it was sunny, low 90s, and zero rain. When we got back, I measured 1 inch of water loss (less than 1/4 inch per day). However, the wet spot is now larger than it's ever been and pushing on the ground causes water to gather next to my finger. In fact, a picture from last night and a picture from this afternoon shows the spot is growing.
I took a paper towel, pushed it on the ground to get it wet, and then squeezed it onto a test strip and it has no free chlorine and no total chlorine in it. The pool tests with 3 ppm of both free and total chlorine. This would indicate that it's not actually pool water (unless the ground acts like a filter and filters it out).
Is this really just ground water? Is it normal to still be getting ground water when it's been this dry and it's been more than a month since installation? You can see in the picture I'm providing that the ground is so dry that it's cracked everywhere. We are about to have landscapers come in and put in a small retaining wall on one side and some river rock around the pool and we'd like to have this figured out before then. We are worried about a soft spot on the ground creating a weak area and possibly structural problems later on down the road. Are we being paranoid?
We talked to the store where we bought the pool and they told us that this is normal as the weight of the pool pushes ground water out and to just keep an eye on it. They also had us stick a piece of tape on the skimmer at the water level to measure how much was lost in a 24 hour period. That came out to 1/4 inch and it was perfectly sunny and mid-90s that day. They told us that was normal and google searches seem to confirm that. So we've just been watching it. After a couple weeks the wet spot started getting smaller so we thought perhaps it really was just ground water seeping out.
Fast forward and this last week we took a trip out of town. I filled the pool up right to the "max" line on the skimmer so it wouldn't get too low while we were gone. We were gone for 5 days total during which it was sunny, low 90s, and zero rain. When we got back, I measured 1 inch of water loss (less than 1/4 inch per day). However, the wet spot is now larger than it's ever been and pushing on the ground causes water to gather next to my finger. In fact, a picture from last night and a picture from this afternoon shows the spot is growing.
I took a paper towel, pushed it on the ground to get it wet, and then squeezed it onto a test strip and it has no free chlorine and no total chlorine in it. The pool tests with 3 ppm of both free and total chlorine. This would indicate that it's not actually pool water (unless the ground acts like a filter and filters it out).
Is this really just ground water? Is it normal to still be getting ground water when it's been this dry and it's been more than a month since installation? You can see in the picture I'm providing that the ground is so dry that it's cracked everywhere. We are about to have landscapers come in and put in a small retaining wall on one side and some river rock around the pool and we'd like to have this figured out before then. We are worried about a soft spot on the ground creating a weak area and possibly structural problems later on down the road. Are we being paranoid?
