New 24' AG Pool, Backfill ??

[lcook]

When the pool company installed our round AG 24 X 54 yesterday, the guy advised us to push all the remaining dirt along the sides of the pool. He said that it would help the pressure (created from the water)on the walls. They had to dig down 16 inches to get the site level which you can imagine is a LOT of dirt. Should we do this? My thought was the soil would eventually make the metal disintegrate. Also, if we do this we will have to install a retaining wall to hold all of the soil. Any suggestions? Do we need to put some type of plastic, fabric etc. between the wall and the soil?
Thanks!

[sevver]

No matter what you put there the moisture will still be next to the steel. As a matter of course you should put the soil back there though, it will contain the sand from washing out under the pool. As for using plastic or fabric, of the two I would choose a fabric, but neither of them is reall necessary. I just pushed the dirt up agains mine, except where the brick sidewalk is near to it, there it has stone and sand against it.

[les_smith]

Your install sounds just like ours, 16 inches to level. Took me a week to get rid of all the dirt that I didn't need. We backfilled with the dirt that was removed to level the ground. Our pool store, which are really good people, warrantied the pool even with backfilling of dirt. We didn't use any fabric or plastic.

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/les_smith/Picture001.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/les_smith/ca5b4a8e.jpg

[lcook]

Your install sounds just like ours, 16 inches to level. Took me a week to get rid of all the dirt that I didn't need. We backfilled with the dirt that was removed to level the ground. Our pool store, which are really good people, warrantied the pool even with backfilling of dirt. We didn't use any fabric or plastic.

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/les_smith/Picture001.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/les_smith/ca5b4a8e.jpg


Hi Les:
Thanks for the answer. How far up the pool wall did you actually fill? In one spot we have the full 16 inches with about a 2 ft walk area.
I just don't want to do it wrong and have to go back to fix it.....
Thanks/Leslie

[traceyb]

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/9850/1001670mx6.jpg

This is our newly installed pool as well....after backfilling. This might give you a visual. I worked with the dirt ourselves, and then had a landscaper friend come over w/ a small tractor and move the excess in addition the filling in low spots around the pool. They dug down about 7 inches (must less than 16) so you must have alot of left over.

Ideally you should backfill to ground level around the pool allowing the dirt to slope upward at the wall about 3-4 inches. This will allow water to fall away from the walls and not rest at the wall. We have the Esther Williams aluminum walls, so I wasn't worried about backfilling. You shouldn't either.
Anyway,,,,,,,,,hope this helps.

[les_smith]

They had to dig down 14 inches on our high side. Like traceyb, we leveled the dirt around the pool with the undisturbed dirt. We partially filled with the dirt removed and then we finished it off with good soil for the flower beds.

[hrsdennis]

I too would go with just the dirt. Pool walls are so well treated you should be looking at many years before rust is an issue. If the pool, over time, does rust below ground level there are so many easy fixes. If you want twenty plus years out of pool you should have no problem. Every time you change the liner do a close examination and deal with any proplems. By doing this you would be amazed at how long above ground pools can last.

Later, Dennis