Draining your Pool and Hydrostatic Pressure

[Trition]

I would like to drain my Pool and patch the plaster it then paint it. I have heard pools can pop out of the ground when emptied. I live in Cape Coral Florida. How do I go about making sure I can drain my pool? I assume when it was built it was empty so I should be able to empty it again? It was only partially full and loaded with algae when I bought the house six months ago.

Jamie

[Poconos]

Hi Jamie and welcome to the forum.
I don't know what the pros do but if it were me I would use a post hole digger and dig a few holes around the perimeter to see how high the water table is. If the holes don't fill with water you are home free. I guess another, and probably easier way would be to drive a tough pipe, like iron, into the ground. Pull it out to remove the cores, then put it back in the ground. You can fashion a dipstick of something to check the level of water in the pipe. You would have to let it sit for a while so the water level stabilizes before checking.
Happy New Year.
Al

[Phillbo]

Call a pool builder in your area.

[Trition]

What water table level is acceptable for draining the pool? The deep end is maybe 6 feet and its a gunite pool. How would they be able to build a pool inground if the water level was too high?

[aylad]

I'm not sure about the first part of your question, but as for how to build a pool in a high water table area, when they build them down here they have a pump running to pump out the excess water in the work area.

Janet

[Poconos]

Just imagine your pool is a concrete boat hull. Kind of tricky to calculate but when the amount of water displaced is greater than the weight of the pool shell, then you have lift and it can float. The depth of water displaced is equal to the level of the water table minus the level of the water in the pool. Knowing the shape of the pool you can roughly calculate the volume and therefore the weight of the displaced water. Of course, the big unknown is the level of the water table. The weight of water is about 62.5 pounds per cubic foot. I know this doesn't help you much but if the area is relatively dry then you should be OK. Saturated ground or standing water, NO.
Al