Digging in an above ground pool, need some advice..

[flairland]

Hello again, a friend of mine is giving his above ground pool to a friend of his, but I'm doing the installation.. never done much with pools though! I looked at the pool tonight and it looks like taking it down, and putting it back up should be fairly simple. The question I have is how deep can you put these pools into the ground without the pool caving in? I'd like to put it 2' into the ground, which leaves 2' above the ground. I'm planning on adding water while back filling so the soil/water weigh against eachother. Tell me if this is correct..
Secondly, the pool is 27' diameter, I figure I should excavate at least a 29' diameter hole, so how many yards will I be taking out if I go down 2', and maybe down to 3' in the centre?
Thanks!

[Junior M]

Dont backfill while filling the pool, I've seen a pool that was filled prior to backfilling and it blew the walls out..

I'd go ahead and do the backfill, then fill.

As far as much they can take, I havent had anything to do with building this type, and Dad hasnt built one sense the early 90's. I'd contact your local pool company that installs above grounds and ask them.

[SiteSolutions]

All you have to do with an above ground pool is make a level spot on the ground. It needs to be level, and level. Get the dirt close, then put down sand, and rake the sand by hand, and make sure it is, uh, level.

The walls will hold the water in without any dirt against them. I can't say whether they will hold any dirt up against the outside. If you must place an "above ground" pool halfway "in ground", I would not recommend backfilling anything. I would cut the hole the right size in the first place, and leave it at that. Build a little deck around it to hide the big gap all around it.

While you might be able to toss some dirt up against the side and let it settle over time, I would think if you back fill and try to walk it in, you'll put a load against the outside of the wall in one spot, something it might not like. The reason the thing is round is so all the water pushes against the sides in a uniform manner. I've never seen a square above-ground pool, and I am guessing there is a reason for it.

[SiteSolutions]

By the way, that's 141,780 pounds of water in that pool when it's full. Or over 70 tons.

Maybe the dirt won't matter. But I bet it'll rust out faster.

[Junior M]

Oh yeah, I forgot to add something to my post:

When setting the liner, you'll need either a big vacuum or water on the spot as you drop the liner in and I am not talking about a water hose either, I mean a water truck..

[SiteSolutions]

And to just answer your question, pi * r * r * height gives volume.

3.14 * 14.5ft * 14.5ft * 2ft = 1321 cu ft

1321 cu ft / 27 cu ft per cu yd = 49 cu yd

[rednekk frank]

We recently installed a 27' AGP in our yard. It's on a pretty healthy slope, with the low side being ground level and the high side cut in almost 3 feet. We filled the pool completely, then backfilled where we had to cut into the slope. So far, so good. Premature rusting is an issue when backfilling against a steel pool, so we coated the wall with rubber roof sealer to help slow that down a bit. I've heard of others using roof tar for this as well.

For what it's worth, I did alot of research on whether or not it's safe to backfill an above ground pool, and there are as many opinions as there are people answering the question. So, in the end we just did it the way we wanted to, and if it doesnt work, well...lesson learned I guess.

[bobcatexc]

I don't know that much about pools, but the ones I've seen in the ground usually aren't backfilled, but if you where to backfill it I would think you would want to use somekind of finer rock like pea gravel that's not ridged more round. I would think putting dirt right up against the pool would be to much weight when the dirt got wet.

[rednekk frank]

I don't know that much about pools, but the ones I've seen in the ground usually aren't backfilled, but if you where to backfill it I would think you would want to use somekind of finer rock like pea gravel that's not ridged more round. I would think putting dirt right up against the pool would be to much weight when the dirt got wet.


Actually, you want to avoid anything loose like gravel or sand. Reason being, 10 years down the road when you need to replace your liner and drain your pool, this loose material will/may shift and collapse the pool wall.