Vermiculite cracking/settling along the bottom edge

[TriangleMan]

Hello all! Thank you in advance for even more free advice. I intend to pay it forward soon.
Regarding vermiculite settling, I apologize for asking what I'm sure has been asked before but I can't find the right thread.

My pool was installed at end of October 2020 in Chicagoland and closed within two weeks. It wasn't particularly dry when the crew did the vermiculite, but I didn't think it was terrible either.
Over the winter, it seems the vermiculite on the base settled... or at least that's the best I can describe it.

All along the entire seam where the floor meets the walls in the deep end, as well as going up the slope towards the shallow end, there is what I would describe as a "ledge" indicative of a crack that runs the entire length, as if the floor dropped another 0.5" to 1" below where it started, while the wall stayed put.

It is a hard and irregular edge, not soft or squishy. I'm concerned about two things:
1) That the hard edge will eventually rip the liner
2) That the vermiculite shell is now somehow compromised

The PB came out to inspect it and hasn't really offered any opinion on it yet aside from confirming that the settling exists. My thought is to leave well enough alone, as long as the liner isn't torn. In 5 or 10 years when it's time to replace the liner, I can have someone smooth out the edge and patch it up as necessary.

Does that sound right, or do I need to tell the PB to drain the pool and patch it at the end of this season to avoid future issues?

Thanks again!

 

[Newdude]

Post up some pics, night time usually really shows off the trouble spots. (A blessing in this instance and a curse the other 99.99% of the times) We’ve seen some that settled a little and stayed ok, and those that kept settling leaving large divots with sharp edges.

 

[TriangleMan]

Stay tuned; I'll try to get some pics tonight

 

[TriangleMan]

Ok, here we go. The crack runs the entire length of the back wall (as well as up the "right" slope), although it's mostly straight vertical except for a couple irregular spots where the crack wasn't perfectly in the "seam" and you can see some lumpy parts that push out a couple inches into the pool before they fall down about an inch.

 

[TriangleMan]

Bump -- Thoughts?

 

[Newdude]

@jimmythegreek is our go-to guy for these. @wireform has seen his share as well.

besides the divots…….. those pics THO.

 

[wireform]

Sorry to see a dream sort of twist on you. I have one location that had a small divot but it was almost two years after the build and hasn't budged in 2 years. There all were in agreement if it stays and doesn't grow to other areas "leave well enough alone". Here I'm of the opinion where there's quite a lot of it that it would need to be dealt with. Whose to say there won't be a larger or bigger area that will follow suit. The way I see it is, it needs to be drained and have the liner pulled back and have the base redone. Recommend to the PB to use the pool for the rest of the season and come fall it needs to be rectified. The liner, that's on him if it fails next year in those areas. Get it all in writing.

 

[TriangleMan]

So the interesting thing is those aren't divots... they're actually raised. In other words, they're the only areas that /didn't/ settle or compress about 3/4" lower over time... You can kind of see the dark line between the groups of raised patches, which is actually the vertical edge of the wall where the floor "dropped."
I guess that means the rest of the floor is behaving uniformly, but I'm unsure on what that means for how solid it is now behind the seam running along the rest of the edge.

And yeah... you guys weren't lying about TFP clear! You'd be forgiven for thinking there isn't any water in there! The night-time resolution of the cell phone camera is the limiting factor!

 

[Newdude]

And yeah... you guys weren't lying about TFP clear

Not gonna lie. Everytime a newb comes in talking about their clear pool I snort a little. Just you wait newbie……. Just you wait !!

 

[jimmythegreek]

Those look like raised edges not recesses to me. Thay usually happens as the slope/floor shift a little with time or groundwater and seasons. Depending on how sharp an edge it may be ok. How deep in that end? Tough to pull back a liner to fix amd reset in the off season, you need the warmth to get it back to where it was, unless you do a new liner that PB sponsors