Holy ****

[Ken S]

I cant believe what just happend. I have a 2 yr old AG 28' round pool. Last week I patched a hole about 4 feet away from the ladder. Today as my kids were in the pool a hole burst open right next to the ladder and I've just lost about 18,000 gallons in less than 10 minutes. I can tell that the ground has now collapsed arount where the water just burst out.

My uneducated opinion of what I need to do is, remove the liner, re-establish the foundation, get a new liner, etc etc.

I'm about to give up. Any ideas?

[CarlD]

Sounds like you have something more serious going on. Did the wall fail by itself, or was it buckled? In other words, did the foundation fail and cause the wall to fail, or did the wall fail and then wash the foundation away?

It sounds, from you description, that the sheet-steel wall burst allowing the liner to split. Is the pool still under warranty?

[Ken S]

No. The wall didnt collapse. The liner just burst open. The wall is still standing but a huge hole in the liner-about 6-8 inches long and there is now a small crater where the water burst out. And I can see the concrete support has moved by the nearest support to where the hole is which is incidentally under the center of the deck (which I purchased with the pool).

[hrsdennis]

Hi Ken, sounds like a mess.

I think your thoughts are correct however. Redo the ground and install new liner.

Best of luck, Dennis

[MaryLee]

Ken...Just wanted to say sorry...that really stinks

[joing]

THe same thing happened to me last Sunday!!!!!!!
the liner just popped off and water gushed out. washing away sand from the perimeter and sending water down the street. I managed to save the last couple of inches just to try to save the liner - We suspect the problem was caused by a shifting caused by some water over the winter and spring getting under one side of the pool and washing away some of the sand. (we just put the pool up last July - first time pool owners). We have redone the perimeter of the pool with cement filler stuff instead of just sand -and built a ditch to redirect water from that side of the pool to eliminate the problem from happening again. After much agonizing, I also decided to scrap the beaded liner and am going to replace with an overlap. Don't know if that will be safer or not. IN any case, I FEEL YOUR PAIN!!!!

[matt4x4]

Sometimes, animals will burry under the pool, once they get close to the liner, their burrow acts just like a washout, so it could also be rodent related.

[Ken S]

In my case it was the ladder. The ladder was rubbing up and down on the side until it broke open a hole which then just blew out with the force of all the water.

I just purchased a new liner ($750) and it will cost me another $400 to install.

I will stay away from drop in ladders and will now try drop in steps and hope for less abrasion of the walls.

All this for a 2-yr old pool.

[sevver]

That is funny, I now have proof, I keep telling everyone not to jump in off of the ladder, and ya know, I am the biggest meanie that ever walked the face of the earth. I kept picturing the ladder wearing out the pool liner and a disaster like that happening. I figure that once I get a deck they can jump in all they want, and if they break a leg on the bottom it is their own stupid fault. I also have a brick sidewalk area outside of the ladder that I can see someone falling backwards on to and busting their head open. I cringe every time I see someone doing it, the ladder flexes alot even using it for access and egress, boy do I want a deck. As for the place where the ladder touches the bottom of the pool, I wonder if some sort of a pad would help distribute the weight better. I have heard that stairs stop the flow of water and lead to algae, a freind of mine has steps and it gets boatmen under it, he puts pucks under there to kill them, but that would end up raising the CYA eventually too. I don't know about steps...

[matt4x4]

Sevver,
I also have drop in steps, and they are an algae breeders if not looked after properly, I also use pucks to eliminate that problem but putting in two pucks every 2 weeks is not going to have a big impact on CYA since enough water gets backwashed out and replaced (either by hose or by rain) to keep your CYA levels the same.