Set-up in awkward small space

[kaddie24]

Hello! My backyard is extremely small and is half dirt/half concrete, split straight down the center of the yard. Last weekend I had quarantine fever and measured out an area in the back and purchased one of the last above ground pools online. I ordered the Bestway steel frame 18 x 9 x 48. At the time I wasn't allowing for space for the legs and assumed it would fit perfectly in the dirt portion of the backyard. Now after actually using my brain and the internet I realize that our space may not work at all. The pool is set to be delivered on May 12th and we're working to get the yard ready for it's arrival. The width I have from the back fence to the concrete is 10 feet (width of the pool is 8.98 ft). We plan to get rid of the weeds and level the dirt.

Do I have any options? The only two I can think of:
1. Is it possible for one side of the legs to sit on the concrete and half on the dirt if the pool liner is fully on the dirt? I can't imagine it would. I could use wood blocks on the dirt to line up with the concrete, but is that too much pressure on the liner?
2. Do we frame a sandbox and have the pool sit 3 feet on concrete and the rest on the sandbox- and i know this is not ideal and the amount of work and cost of sand seems like a lot.

I've been trying to search for other weird set-ups and found a few responses where people are half concrete half paver. Any thoughts? Am I hosed?? I attached some screen shots to what our space looks like and my awesome iphone editing skills.

Thanks!

 

[Macboy]

My gut tells me that you should try to lift the dirt area to match the concrete. You need the frame to be level all the way around first and foremost - the ground can have some degree of irregularity I'm sure. The other concern would be the wear spot created at the dirt to concrete edge. I'd be tempted to lay down some sort of drop sheet or something to cover that transition (and maybe to cover the portion of the liner resting on the cement). I'm not sure but I bet some searching here would tell you what's best to put under your pool if it was just dirt or cement or whatever. Then, just find a way to bridge the two.

 

[kaddie24]

Thanks! I'm also researching the layering- a lot of great ideas on this board!

Another question I had was do most people take down this type of pool at the end of the season? I assumed so but then during research it seems like people do leave the pool up. We are in Northern California where we could use the pool mid April- end of October/early November. If it's no harm to the pool I'd be happy to leave it up.

 

[Macboy]

We left ours up this winter and it froze solid. As soon as the iceberg started to float again I decided it was time to fill it up. I had to VERY CAREFULLY carve away the ice where the pool return was - the ice was pushing hard against it as it floated up while filling. And then I had to carve away a good two foot berth around the skimmer so that the pump wasn't starved for water. Talk about stressful cracking at 18" of ice with a sharp chisel only an inch away from a fabric pool liner!! Ha!

We drained it down to about 2" below any sidewall fittings and packed away all the hardware (pumps, filter, heater etc) somewhere warm for the winter (after drying them out as best as I could of course). I was so happy we left it up this winter. I remember last spring how long we had to wait for the area where the pool sits was dry and firmed up again. So, so nice to just top it up and jump in. I'm in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada where winter can really set in. We didn't have a terribly bad winter this year but enough to freeze everything right solid. I imagine anywhere else would be a piece of cake comparatively...

 

[kaddie24]

Progress update- still not sure what we're doing but we did get the majority of the weeds up today. We started to box out where we'd put a "box" still not sure if I can have it overlap from the ground to the concrete. I drew it out a little more if anyone has advice (white lines would be the box, blue lines are roughly the pool).

If it's level and packed (looking to rent a plate compactor) do we need to frame it? Could it manage with the pool 6 feet on the dirt and 3 feet on the concrete? We'd put pads under the liner.

 

[Pv2]

in general you can't build up without professional type materials and equipment, even then the better advice for leveling is to dig down to the lowest spot. in your case, I would want to know the difference in height from the dirt to the concrete. if close I would try using the concrete for the legs only on that side and set pavers at that elevation for the rest of the legs - again get thick pavers or solid blocks that you can put on undisturbed (scrapped/dug out) dirt NOT fill. build a box for sand to have the main part of the pool to sit on.

 

[paco103]

I'm following this because believe it or not we have the same issue . we are putting an intex 18' round (52" h) on flagstone patio. It will just fit. It's pitched away from the home so it's not quite level and I read on this site that we can level with pavers and roof shingles. Part of the feet might be on the grass like yours. So I'm posting so I can follow all of the responses here.