Weeds and other things - Will they grow through my Pool?

[Alysenlynn]

I have a question about treating the pool area with grass killer prior to installation.

We have this crazy patch of trees (I haven't been able to ID them) that grows just off of our property. It seems to have runner roots as little versions pop up all over our yard weekly. We just mow them down and they go away. None have ever grown up under stationary objects in the yard but the will grow very close to the edge of things. Do you think we need any extra protection under our pool then the usaul weed killer and landscaping about 3 feet around the edges? Should we put any landscaping cloth under the pool?

[sevver]

I know that matt4x4 was going to address this too. I would like to also suggest the underlayment that they use under the pond liners. We used something like it in my construction job I had and it is tough stuff.

[hrsdennis]

Hey Sevver, it was I who wanted to address this. I do hope that Matt comes in with his viewpoint. I agree with some extra protection if you know that roots are present near by. I also wanted to talk about the whole issue of treating the ground and protecting the pool from roots. I am working on that and will post back soon.

Being as ground conditions vary from around the country I was really hoping that many of our above ground pool owners who are reading this could post what they did with there pool with regards to ground treatment and plastic under the sand. These are very important issues and I am sure the answers will vary from one location to the next.

The two questions we are asking here, what did you treat the ground with? Did you use plastic, Gorilla Pad or anything under your liner?

Let's here what you all thinks. Thanks, Dennis

[sevver]

Well, I have a yard that slopes a bit, and my pool is installed around 8" at one end and 14" at the other end. When I installed it I brought home a truck and trailer and tractor from work. I also had a compactor and rotating laser level. I dug for the pool and a sidewalk at the same time, and what I did was removed all of the black dirt, then I leveled off the clay and loaded that on the truck, I kept all of the black dirt for the yard I spread it around and redid the grading.

So with the pool dug down to the clay, I compacted the clay, then I put in around three inches of sand, leveled with an asphalt lute, and then I did the happy bottom, with the foam cove and duct taped everything together, so far four years later everything is great still.

In my situation, I don't think that I needed to use an underlayment because my pool is actually in the clay. I did surround the pool with mulch though, which I may change to rock eventually, I do get grass growing into the mulch on the one side, but that is the same with all of my beds and is just a maintanance thing.

I have some plants by the pool, most of them are away from it, I have a hosta close to it, which I will move when the deck goes up, and some varigated grass by there that I just threw there when I moved it from digging in the gas line for the heater. It does not send up shoots and tends to just grow in a clump so it does not bother me by being there.

[BlueBlobTX]

Here in Texas we have "oak suckers"... they run off the roots of the oak trees. With some oaks, like Red, there can be hundreds. It's a non-stop battle to cut them down in my gardens. If you use round-up or something like that, you're going to kill the tree. The only option, if you don't want to kill the tree, is to periodically cut them to ground level. I also have some cactus that send out runners and sprouts like that. All that said, and I am by no means any sort of expert here, but these root shoots are all looking for the same thing: sunlight. If they try to emerge and there is no light, they move on out until they come up and find light. They won't live without it. Assuming they already have moisture and some sort of medium to start their growth (like your basic 1st grade bean sprout experiment) the next most important thing is light. Yes, they will probably be running around under your liner, no matter what you put under it, but they aren't going to actually emerge until there is light. I live in the country in a heavily wooded area, so I don't have the option of clearing all the trees near the pool. I would think that would be the only way to prevent these suckers from coming up around the pool. I don't think I'd worry too much about them sprouting up through the pool underlayment and liner. A decent, standard installation should be good enough to prevent growth and sprouting. The plants are always going to take the path of least resistance.

On another note, my biggest concern where we are are stupid fire ants. They are all around the pool and I'm sure are tunneling mega-cities underneath it. I'm worried about parts of the ground collapsing underneath the pool. I did notice this year some new "trenches" under the liner when we walked in the pool that weren't there last year. The pool keeps that ground nice & moist underneath it... perfect environment for fire ant colonies. I haven't a clue what the long-term effects are going to be... just watching and learning for now.

Lori

[hrsdennis]

Excellent point Lori, ants. I have seen them do major damage. Greenlight ant killer around the pool at all times is a good cure for those nasty ones.

Other liner killers could be nut grass, gophers, palm trees and ect.

Any other problems and solutions? Or problems with no solutions? This is as good a place as any to share.

Later, Dennis

[hoffmans]

Does anyone remeber this thread from fhcaputo-
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=521
He shows pictures of his install & what he used under his pool for weed control. Also he has great pictures of him building his wrap around pooldeck.
Too bad these pictures were never posted in the Above Ground Pool Gallery.

-Hoffmans

Food grade (not filter grade) DE kills ants and their friends too.

[hrsdennis]

Hoffmans, great find. Notice the abundance of trees near the pool area. This is an ideal place to lay down an extra thick layer between the ground and the liner.

Looks sorta like Matt's place. I gosta get out of this stupid, hot desert.

[hrsdennis]

To treat the ground I use a product called Pure Blue. It is a grass killer that is designed to kill nut grass and other types of growth under vinyl lined pools. It is a granule, non oil base grass killer. I prefer this type of ground treatment because I can treat the ground and install the liner the same day. With an oil base treatment a few days should pass before you can install the liner. A strong oil base grass killer can melt a vinyl liner if installed to quickly.

I prefer installing the pool on a sand base directly over the dirt. Should your liner ever leak the water does not get trapped, it can drain into the soil. When a ground pad is used the water has no place to go. This causes squishy sand and moss quickly grows underneath the liner.

There are times however when I strongly recommend a thick ground shield. Near by tree roots or a bad case of gophers are two examples where I would want the extra protection.

Some unique situations are so extreme a concrete pad is the best way to go. You should spend some time picking the brains of the people in your area with pools. What’s good here may not be at all good where you are.

Later, Dennis

[Alysenlynn]

Well, I think we're definitely going to not only treat chemically before putting down our pool but we are also going to use some type of physical weed barrier! I need to locate that pro bottom mentioned above. Any ideas?

Close friends of ours have a 24 ft vouge in their back yard (they have been our inspiration for getting a pool) and while they were on vacation this summer a weed grew up through their liner!

Thanks for all the info!