Want to see our clay??

[hoffmans]

Hello All, Hoffmans here.

Well-- it is finally time.
Pool has been sitting in boxes in the garage for several weeks waiting for dry weather.
The pool is an Artesian 33' round.http://www.sunenterprises.com/ultima.htm


Yesterday a guy came w/ his skidsteer and transit.
Heres the pics:











Yes it is level but it is bumpy, he couldn't get his tire tracks out b/c the ground is clay- all clay- and it is moist clay.
The west side is dug down 2 1/2 feet the east side only a few inches.

We don't exactly know how to get it smooth. Those tracks are big/hard & solid.
No way will it rake out smooth.
Any advice?

Should we:
Tamp it w/ a gas tamper?
Use a sod cutter?
Use a slicer?
Cover it all w/ sand? ( manufacture instructions say "do not use sand to level")
Make a pool-krete bottom?
Wait a week for the sun to dry out the surface then try something, what something?

Any ideas?

Thanks guys,
~Hoffmans

[ChuckD]

Heh, the first two shots looked like you had a strip mine going, or something.

I'm wondering if thoroughly wetting it down to loosen up the clay and then a roller might do it.

C.

[GraceByDesign]

Hey, I have no advice, but am wondering if you live in our area... looks like they took slabs of stone out in the strip-mining shots!! Our yard is about 50% clay and 50% stone.

In my experience, wetting down clay only makes it worse! It just gets stickier...

[hrsdennis]

Hi Hoffmans, glad to see you are getting started and look forward to following your progress.

At this point I think Matt and I would both agree 100% that a few inches of crushings smoothed and packed would be the perfect cure for that lovely soil you have there.

Don't level it with sand, but crushings are perfect. Best of luck, Dennis

[sevver]

Limestone screenings or crushings would be perfect. Either that, just attack it with something, likely a shove and shave off all of the high spots and toss them on the pile you have. It sucks, but it may be worth it in the end, and remind yourself that it doesn't last forever. I suppose that a compactor would work, don't use a jumping jack type compactor if the soil is moist clay though, it will just dig in even more. Rollers on wet clay tend to just turn things into a waterbed, and if you vibrate with it you are sunk. Personally, if I had access to one, I would go with a gas compactor, second option, the shovel.

Good luck.

[hoffmans]

Thanks for your advice Dennis so happy to have you.
Thank You Sevver and Carl.
So grateful for everyone's advice.

Yesterday (Tuesday) Tom went to the concrete place. They had no Crusher Run so he got Masons Sand.

Yesterday (Tuesday) We tossed a little bit of the Masons sand down to fill in the tire track ruts from the skidsteer. The sand is about an inch thick or less.
*Rain rain rain all day today (Wednesday)

Here's the Plan:
Step 1. This wkend rent a Tamper/ Jumping Jack or whatever they have & tamp down where the ring will go.
Smooth out middle.
Step 2. Check for Level.
Step 3. Lay out ring and plates to get a visual of where they go.
Step 4. Pour mini concrete footers instead of using patio blocks.
Step 5. Get some heavy black plastic or whatever and lay that out as extra barrier/weed block/peace of mind?.
Step 6. Happy Bottom on top of that.
Step 7. Install ring and plates on top of plastic and Happy Bottom.
Step 8. Read manufacture instructions for the rest of the set up.....???

Hows that sound? Good Bad Ugly?

CarlD- We had the same idea! Tried the water. Put a little water in a small area- opps, didn't work at all.
No harm done tho.

Sevver- Thanks for the heads up on the Jumping Jack! I will call around tomorrow (Thursday) for the Gas Compactor.

Thank You All so much,
Hoffmans