Buying Pool this weekend need some advice..

[maggiemaye]

We picked a Liberty Pool 24ft round....we have a very hilly yard...so am nervous, to put pool on side of hill.....dont want to go down the hill in pool..lol..
we have one spot that is semi flat, with big slope right behind it.....any advice? or success stories with this kind of yard?
Thanks....

[PoolDoc]

Dunno what a "Liberty Pool" is, but then I'm not up on AG pool brands. However, Google doesn't know what a "Liberty Pool" is, either.

Still, you probably can't tolerate more than 3" elevation difference from side to side. And even that is stretching it. So, before you buy the pool, you may want to see what it's going to take to level your area to that. I've seen some folk with AG pools comment that the cost and difficulty of leveling the area where they put their pool was WAY more than they expected.

It's possible to measure -- very accurately -- the elevation difference with a water hose and two yard sticks:
#1 - Start with an empty hose, 3 people, some duct tape, a bucket of water, and a large kitchen cup.
#2 - Tape one end of the hose carefully to the yard stick so the hose is taped at the 1' mark and the end is taped at the 2' mark, and have 1 person hold upright in place on the HIGH side of pool area.
#3 - Position the other end of the hose along the yardstick, with the yardstick upright and placed at the LOW side of the pool area. Have your 2nd person get comfortable where they can hold the hose along the yardstick, but adjust its position up and down as needed. Start with the end of the hose at the 3' end of the stick.
#4 - Then you remove all the kinks from the hose, so water can flow easily through the hose. (If you didn't drain the hose first, this won't work!). Go to the HIGH end with your bucket and cup, and use the cup to gradually fill the hose.

If water begins running out of the LOW hose before you get the HIGH hose full, you have OVER 12" of elevation difference. In this case, forget the pool till you've hired an excavator.

If the HIGH end fills before water runs our of the LOW end, have your #2 person adjust that hose till they can see water in it. Then fill more, and adjust. Keep doing this till the hose is full, and water is at the top of the hose at BOTH ends. THEN, read the elevation on the LOW yardstick and SUBTRACT 24" from it. This is your elevation difference.

Hope that is clear. Al, feel free to improve this process.

Ben

[maggiemaye]

Thanks for the advice...we have decided to let pool place figure it out...lol..will post, hopefully with great news next week, that the pool has been installed, with no problems...

[Watermom]

While you are waiting on the install, do yourself a favor and go ahead and buy a good test kit so you'll have it when the pool is ready. Click on the Amazon link in my signature and get either the Taylor K-2006 or the K-2006C which is the same kit with larger bottles of some of the most used reagents. Buying through that link makes the Pool Forum a little money on the sale which helps keep the forum up and running. Only buy if the seller is Amato Industries, however. Some other sellers are substituting the K-2005 which you do NOT want.

Let the pool place do the build, but don't let them start you up chemicals-wise. When your test kit arrives, go ahead and test your fill water and post the results here. It will help us advise you of what to do with your freshly filled pool and will also give you practice with running the tests. Don't do the CYA test, though. Your fill water will have no CYA in it and you'll just be wasting the reagent.

Buy several jugs of Walmart generic bleach. Also, buy a box of 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle at Walmart), some baking soda and also some CYA -- probably a 5 lb. container. (Sometimes labeled as conditioner or stabilizer. If the ingredient label says cyanuric or isocyanuric acid, it is the right stuff. Don't let a pool store talk you into buying anything else.

[CarlD]

Ben's right: creating a level surface can cost more than you realize. If possible, dig down to match the lowest point. Building up is far more difficult and expensive. I HAD to do it, using retaining wall block, filling it in with QP (Quarry Product, like a dirty form of gravel) In the end it cost over $5000! But that is for a 16x40 rectangular, and I had build up about 30" at the lowest point. Digging down is much cheaper. In my area you can even rent a Bobcat for a day for a few hundred $$$.

The water hose level is the least expensive way to get an accurate level, but it's also the least practical. If you can rent or borrow either a transit or a laser level they can be much more practical to use. When I did my base, none of the workers could run my transit level, so I set up an inexpensive laser level...they could barely manage that.

BDTD had a nice alternative: Find a straight, long 2x4 (like 16 feet). Make one end the center of a circle, say on a bolt on a short piece of 4x8, put a 4' or 6' carpenter's level on it, and you can swing the arc and make it level. Just be sure to measure the height at the center. One person can use this.

I am much more conservative than Ben: I wouldn't allow more than 1" of deviation from level and would aim for 1/2". The more out of level, the more added stress on the structure.

BTW, when I had my original Intex Donut, I had to build a platform. I had enough debris around from tearing out a rustic stone fireplace (now slate and granite) to build a 16x16 platform that rose about 14" at the low point. Not knowing what I was doing, I filled it all with sand when I should have used QP, with 2-3" of sand on top. Still, it worked for the 3 years I used the Intex. I'd cover it with a staked-down blue tarp over the winter.

Carl

[maggiemaye]

Well, they sure dug us out....grrrrrr! the one side will need an 8 ft. retaining wall...so that would be like 3 1/2 foot above the pool...I dont think thats safe! they coming today to see what can be done....any experience you have on this would be greatly appreciated!!!!wish I knew how to put picture on here!

[Watermom]

Send your pics to poolforum AT gmail DOT com and reference the URL of this thread.