Pool Deck Demo Help!

I am working with a customer right now who wants us to relandscape the whole house she also wants us to demo her concrete pool deck build some retaining walls and do stamped concrete. My questions is how big of a pain in the butt is it going to be to remove the concrete butting up againts the pool? I can just see a slab falling in the pool or something. Let me know I have no pool deck experience.

 

Is it a gunnite pool or vinyl?

 

it looks to be vynal

 

shouldn't be much of a problem. there should be expansion joints between the coping and concrete. if you demo with a jackhammer or by hand, it should separate at the coping without a problem. just be careful and make sure you are paid right. probably wire in the concrete, if not rebar so it could take some time.

 

be care full of the bonding wire, that some times get stuck in the concrete.

 

There will also be steel from the pool wall supports that typically tie into the pool deck. Try not to mash them up too much either.

 

I dont know anything about the construction of pools.. but I will share a story with you...

Was at a customers house last year, and he had just gotten the pool concrete demoed, and re-poured.. As we were working on the irrigation, We heard him yell... I looked over, and saw him in the pool, with the entire wall of the pool falling on top of him. He was standing on the edge of the pool diving in, when it collapsed.. Luckly he wasnt injured. What happened was the jack hammering loosened (I dont know exactly what) but the inside of the pool was made unstable, and this happened.... I wonder if the liability is worth it, if you should just sub it out..

 

what kind of pool was it? Sounds like there was a weak spot in the construction on the pool. Gunite pools are typically 12" thick with rebar every 4 - 8 inches depending on code. Vinyl is steel or PVC walls bolted together then held by a 12" concrete footer around the base. A pool can become unstable if it is empty. Hydrostatic ground water pressure can build up behind the walls causing them to collapse or pop from the ground. A pool deck although conected to the pool is really a seperate structure from the pool itself. Anything is possible I guess. But it seems unlikely that removingthe pool deck would cause a collapse unless teh pool was built poorly to begin with.

 

Like I said I have no idea what was up with the pool.. I know it was almost 30 years old.. but the owner said insurance and a contractor both said the demo of the pool deck contributed

 

Make sure you are aware of the lines coming in to the pool filtration and the ground wire. The concrete should separate easily from the pool wall. There will likely be 6" wire mesh. Bring wire cutters and a hydraulic kango. Have fun.