I am not confident in my ability to dig the holes correctly for my support pavers. Is it okay to use paver base under my pavers if I accidentally dig too deep? This my tenth or so year of having an Intex type pool and I’ve never done any ground prep before or had my leg supports sink. This year I want to do it right and have a level pool, landscaping, etc. luckily my site did not need much leveling (probably why I’ve been okay in the past) and I just had to do a little bit of digging. Ive watched a ton of videos and read threads but can’t find a whole lot of information on how to sink the pavers and level them and it seems so easy to accidentally dig to deep. I have a 14ft x 42 inch Summer Waves and very hard (possible clay-ish soil). Any help would be much appreciated.
Paver base to level pavers for 14ft Summer Waves
- Thread starter Manda25
- Start date
Hi, welcome to TFP! You can build a simple water level and use it to set the pavers. You will probably only be an inch or two off level digging pavers by hand, and can build them back up with dirt as long as the ground beneath is hard packed and undisturbed. If you had to dig out a foot or more on one side initially then the whole site would need to be dug down to level it properly.
This video shows how to build and use a simple water level.
Thank you! I may be overthinking the paver part. My site had a 1.5 inch slope so I did not have to go down very far. I got some tubing today to try the water level.
I used DG Decomposed Granite where I needed to bring the pavers back up and to level them if I dug too deep. Worked great.
I leveled, well thought I leveled, then sunk my pavers. I dug with a hand shovel and it took days and days but the actual paver leveling was a snap with the water level. After doing that and getting a good rain I found out my circle wasn’t near as level as I thought. So now I’m in the process of leveling my high spots down to the level of my pavers.
I know building up low spots with sand is a no-no but is it okay to use sand to fill out the bumpiness left by my uneven shoveling as long as it’s no deeper than an inch? My pavers are dang near perfect, I have a few off by a quarter inch at most; will the near perfect pavers make up for my bad shoveling job?
I know building up low spots with sand is a no-no but is it okay to use sand to fill out the bumpiness left by my uneven shoveling as long as it’s no deeper than an inch? My pavers are dang near perfect, I have a few off by a quarter inch at most; will the near perfect pavers make up for my bad shoveling job?
Yep, the inside of the circle can be a bit bumpy, you just want your legs level. Sounds like you got as close to perfect as possible!
Next question! Lol. I think I am finally at an acceptable level. Can someone please chime in on the rest of my plan and let me know if I’m making any horrible blunders?
1-gently slope the 4 inch ledge on high side of pool. (My original measurements for my circle, using a string level was a 1.5 inch slope but that was obviously way off. Not sure how my previous pools survived. Maybe because I never filled them up all the way...)
2-Re- level one paver that is slightly above the 1/4 measurement and is driving me crazy
3-smooth down a light layer of sand with board
4-lay down tarp
5-put up pool and babysit the legs, keeping those suckers straight. If pool is still unlevel, drain quickly and start again. Will keep fingers crossed.
6-wrap poles with ‘no dig’ edging purchased from Lowes and trim tarp
7-lay weed block in remaining portion of circle.
8-lay some type of outer border, probably strange landscaping blocks I received free from a neighbor
9- wrap and zip tie pool in reed fencing purchased from Home Depot. Does this break the ‘no touching’ rule? It will go around the poles so there should be some air flow between the fencing and the liner
10-test water. I have a small Taylor kit, I think it’s the 1004, from last year. Is that enough to get me started? I never really used it last year. I plan to order the bigger one a little later on.
11-learn all the pool math stuff. For previous pools, I rarely ran the filter because I was scared of electrocution, added baking soda and bleach at random, skimmed a lot with my pole skimmer, had all the values on the junk test strips come up as zero for everything tested, and usually did at least one (usually two) complete dumps and refills.
I grew up swimming in creeks and lakes and figured, hey we added some bleach so we are good.
I guess I will go ahead and admit all my sins.... last year (we hadn’t had a pool for the previous two summers) when all AGPs were out of stock, a friend gave me a 6 year old summer waves that had multiple holes patched with some type of tar and was missing a pump. I used a potato to plug the hole in the skimmer that hung off the side.
1-gently slope the 4 inch ledge on high side of pool. (My original measurements for my circle, using a string level was a 1.5 inch slope but that was obviously way off. Not sure how my previous pools survived. Maybe because I never filled them up all the way...)
2-Re- level one paver that is slightly above the 1/4 measurement and is driving me crazy
3-smooth down a light layer of sand with board
4-lay down tarp
5-put up pool and babysit the legs, keeping those suckers straight. If pool is still unlevel, drain quickly and start again. Will keep fingers crossed.
6-wrap poles with ‘no dig’ edging purchased from Lowes and trim tarp
7-lay weed block in remaining portion of circle.
8-lay some type of outer border, probably strange landscaping blocks I received free from a neighbor
9- wrap and zip tie pool in reed fencing purchased from Home Depot. Does this break the ‘no touching’ rule? It will go around the poles so there should be some air flow between the fencing and the liner
10-test water. I have a small Taylor kit, I think it’s the 1004, from last year. Is that enough to get me started? I never really used it last year. I plan to order the bigger one a little later on.
11-learn all the pool math stuff. For previous pools, I rarely ran the filter because I was scared of electrocution, added baking soda and bleach at random, skimmed a lot with my pole skimmer, had all the values on the junk test strips come up as zero for everything tested, and usually did at least one (usually two) complete dumps and refills.
I grew up swimming in creeks and lakes and figured, hey we added some bleach so we are good.
I guess I will go ahead and admit all my sins.... last year (we hadn’t had a pool for the previous two summers) when all AGPs were out of stock, a friend gave me a 6 year old summer waves that had multiple holes patched with some type of tar and was missing a pump. I used a potato to plug the hole in the skimmer that hung off the side.
My pool is about 1/4 filled and so far everything is coming out level!!!!!! As soon as the water got a little bit of depth I realized one of my poles was going to end up behind a paver so I quickly sunk another. I just counted squares and I’m equal all the way around. I’m so glad I took the time and effort to do it right this year. It looks so much nicer.
Last edited:
My (almost) finished pool! I think I want to build a little platform deck and change out the wobbling ladder that came with it.
That is adorable! You also need a flamingo floating thermometer!