This is why you never drain your pool

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For a business doing the work, the claim might go under General Liability Insurance, Professional Liability Insurance, Commercial Umbrella Insurance, a surety bond or a state contractor’s fund.

For a homeowner doing the work, it depends on the circumstances and the insurance.
 
Insurance is funny. A few years ago I had my concrete deck dropping on one side 1-2" causing issues with the inground cover. About the same time there was a swarm of earthquakes. I have earthquake insurance and my pool is covered under other structures. I got a quote of $8000 to redo half the deck. So I called the insurance and the adjuster came out but said it looked like normal settling and denied the claim. I said you should send a pool specialist adjuster and they said ok. So the sent a pool engineer and he took measurements and a bunch of other stuff and they still denied it. So I thought ok and just had the work done and paid for it myself.

A few moths later when my renewal came I saw they raised my rates and "rated" me. I asked why since the claim was denied. They said it cost them over $2000 to fly the pool specialist in for the report. So even though I had no claim I ended up paying in the end.
 
avspin said:
Insurance is funny. A few years ago I had my concrete deck dropping on one side 1-2" causing issues with the inground cover. About the same time there was a swarm of earthquakes. I have earthquake insurance and my pool is covered under other structures. I got a quote of $8000 to redo half the deck. So I called the insurance and the adjuster came out but said it looked like normal settling and denied the claim. I said you should send a pool specialist adjuster and they said ok. So the sent a pool engineer and he took measurements and a bunch of other stuff and they still denied it. So I thought ok and just had the work done and paid for it myself.

A few moths later when my renewal came I saw they raised my rates and "rated" me. I asked why since the claim was denied. They said it cost them over $2000 to fly the pool specialist in for the report. So even though I had no claim I ended up paying in the end.
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Next time use a public adjuster. In fact, if it is within 3 years, call one now and have them assess it.
 
JamesW said:
My guess would be Florida.

You need at least one open well near the pool to monitor the ground water and pump it out if necessary.
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Can it happen immediately after emptying? I saw a guy on a Facebook group telling people you can drain a pool anywhere, anytime and it only can pop out of the ground if you leave it empty for a few days or more. Didn't seem right to me. If the water table is high, it is exerting upward force the moment the pool is drained.
 
JamesW said:
Bad information on Facebook?

First time I have ever heard of that.

I thought they had a team of experts verifying all posted information.

:unsure::unsure::unsure::unsure::unsure::unsure::unsure::unsure::unsure::unsure::unsure::unsure::unsure:
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A pool "expert" with a supposed 40 years of experience and 200,000 pools under his belt argued that aeration decreases both alkalinity and ph. I'm sure that was accurate, too. 😂 We could have an entire thread of the ridiculous claims I've seen on Facebook groups.
 
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JamesW said:
My guess would be Florida.

You need at least one open well near the pool to monitor the ground water and pump it out if necessary.
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I'm glad my pool builder did something similar.
My pool builder placed a 12" pvc pipe going down to the bottom of the pool on the deep end. They said to check this from time to time, although there shouldn't be any water in there. If there is lower a pump and pump out the water.
The water would be coming from under the pool, and if I see the level drop drastically, then there may be a leak...of course I'd have to do the 5gal bucket test.
So far all is good!
When they placed the FG pool in the hole, they also anchored it with the rebars every 12" or so around the pool, and the rebar of course is in the concrete.
With that said, the builder did say to never drain the pool and if I needed to, to call them. I have drained the pool when it rains a lot, but only to keep my skimmer working properly, and not totally drain the pool...only 3" or so.
 

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Plettschner said:
Got me thinking now... what's there to prevent a return line failure from draining your pool while you're away for a few days?
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Probably not much. What I have gathered from this discussion is a pool “popping” out of ground is rare. So not sure it’s that critical to have some sort of monitoring in place for an event like that.
 
Plettschner said:
Got me thinking now... what's there to prevent a return line failure from draining your pool while you're away for a few days?
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Once the water goes below the skimmer, the pump will suck in air and lose prime.

If you are pulling from only the main drain, then you could potentially drain the entire pool and flood the yard at the same time, which greatly increases the risk of floating.
 
JamesW said:
Once the water goes below the skimmer, the pump will suck in air and lose prime.

If you are pulling from only the main drain, then you could potentially drain the entire pool and flood the yard at the same time, which greatly increases the risk of floating.
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😬

I pull about 70/30 skimmer/drain... may be enough from skimmer to lose prime and toast pump seals rather than draining the entire pool. Definitely not something I would want to happen either way.

Doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to have a flow sensor at one of the pool returns and one on skimmer line to monitor and shut down if one flow signal drops with a bypass setting for backwashing, draining, etc.
 
joboo7777 said:
Of course. The challenge will be is there automation that can notify you of such an event? Not sure.
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Has it ever happened? If so, I would suspect it is a very rare event. And if a pool drained inadvertently, did it further result in the pool popping? Probably even more rare. If one wanted to account for every disaster scenario certainly they could come up with something to prevent the pool from accidently emptying. But as far as I know, it is a statistically insignificant event.
 
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PoolGate said:
Has it ever happened? If so, I would suspect it is a very rare event. And if a pool drained inadvertently, did it further result in the pool popping? Probably even more rare. If one wanted to account for every disaster scenario certainly they could come up with something to prevent the pool from accidently emptying. But as far as I know, it is a statistically insignificant event.
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I don't know. The fuel oil guy has to pull his line around my pad and plumbing to get to the oil tank and he's a bit of a baboon. I could see it being a possibility.

Gonna have to put some rebar baboon-proofing around the pad.
 

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