Going to post this here in the hopes of preventing someone else to run into the issue we had with our setup. Not an issue with the pool, but an issue with how we interpreted the instructions. In other words, don't be rushed and make mistakes like we did.
We got a 9x18 above ground metal frame pool.
The instructions said to use thick wood boards or reinforced concrete pavers to level the pool. We go 2" thick reinforced pavers, that was no issue.
Because our yard has a slight slope where we wanted the pool (that is still the most level surface we have), we thought we could simply put more than one paver under the legs where the ground was lower. So on the high corner we had 1 block, at the low corner we had 3.
If you're thinking of taking this as the easy way out. Do not. Don't do it. Don't give in to what seems to be a quick and easy solution.
Issue #1: that means you can only go up or down by 2" increments, sometimes that is too much, or sometimes that is just not enough. After a fair amount of fenageling, we got our pool level to within 1". Good enough... or so we thought
Issue #2 became apparent as we were filling the pool. All of a sudden we look and where the side rails are supposed to bow in, they did just that... but WAY more than what we thought was safe. I got in my wetsuit and got in the pool... our 9' pool was less than 6' wide where the poles were bowing in... 1'6" bowing in either side seemed dangerously much. What was happening was that the additional height of the blocks when we stacked them pulled the liner too high. As the weight of the water increased as the pool filled, there was too much down pressure on the liner and it was pulling the posts in too much. Physics always win.
Solution: drain the pool. Instead of stacking more than one paver where the ground was lower, we dug in pavers where the ground was higher.
Disadvantage: 1. That's a lot of water to go to waste... 2. That's a lot of digging and leveling paver.
Advantage: Our pool is now level within 1/2", and is filled again. The poles never bent more than a few inches, and straightened out beautifully when the pool was filled.
Since we're in colder climates, the pool will be removed over the winter, I plan on leveling that whole area of our yard next spring before we put the pool up again. For this year, this setup will work beautifully. We'll get better at this every year.
We got a 9x18 above ground metal frame pool.
The instructions said to use thick wood boards or reinforced concrete pavers to level the pool. We go 2" thick reinforced pavers, that was no issue.
Because our yard has a slight slope where we wanted the pool (that is still the most level surface we have), we thought we could simply put more than one paver under the legs where the ground was lower. So on the high corner we had 1 block, at the low corner we had 3.
If you're thinking of taking this as the easy way out. Do not. Don't do it. Don't give in to what seems to be a quick and easy solution.
Issue #1: that means you can only go up or down by 2" increments, sometimes that is too much, or sometimes that is just not enough. After a fair amount of fenageling, we got our pool level to within 1". Good enough... or so we thought
Issue #2 became apparent as we were filling the pool. All of a sudden we look and where the side rails are supposed to bow in, they did just that... but WAY more than what we thought was safe. I got in my wetsuit and got in the pool... our 9' pool was less than 6' wide where the poles were bowing in... 1'6" bowing in either side seemed dangerously much. What was happening was that the additional height of the blocks when we stacked them pulled the liner too high. As the weight of the water increased as the pool filled, there was too much down pressure on the liner and it was pulling the posts in too much. Physics always win.
Solution: drain the pool. Instead of stacking more than one paver where the ground was lower, we dug in pavers where the ground was higher.
Disadvantage: 1. That's a lot of water to go to waste... 2. That's a lot of digging and leveling paver.
Advantage: Our pool is now level within 1/2", and is filled again. The poles never bent more than a few inches, and straightened out beautifully when the pool was filled.
Since we're in colder climates, the pool will be removed over the winter, I plan on leveling that whole area of our yard next spring before we put the pool up again. For this year, this setup will work beautifully. We'll get better at this every year.
