I'm going to ask one of our Pool Forum Support Team members --- Waste aka Ted --- to comment on your questions. He is a pool installer and may have some good advice for you. He's a busy guy ....... so you'll have to be patient and wait for him to have a minute to get to your thread, though.
I will say that from my own personal first-hand experience with doing it, leveling ground for a pool installation is hard work and a real 'pain-in-the-you-know-what'!
Welcome to the Pool Forum!
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