Cement slab for inground ladder support.

[Spensar]

Our pool is an inground rectangular 32x16 vinyl liner with aluminum walls. Originally it had one pool ladder in the shallow end, which was loose since we got the house, and we added another ladder by the diving board. A couple of years ago I poured some cement pads to stabilize the old ladder and install the new one.

But, I had a bad pour with the new one (crumbling) and I had used plastic pipe for an anchor so the ladder wasn't bonded. Around the old ladder the pour was perfect, but the ladder anchors are connected with a metal strap that lifts a good half inch when you exit the pool and they craked the slab in no time. I had hoped the slab would hold the strap down. The slab was about 2 feet by 2 feet and about 2.5 inches thick.

This summer I'm going to take another crack at it, hopefully the right way.

For the exsting ladder I'm going to dig out and remove the existing anchor setup and strap. I had thought of digging under the straps and setting them in the middle of the slab, but the anchors sit too high anyway. So the installation for both ladders should be the same this time.

The plan so far:

- pour 2 feet by 2 feet, 5 inch thick slabs.

- use ladder anchor sockets made to imbed into cement and set them flush with the top of the slab.

- bonding the anchors with copper run from the anchor to the pool metal supports.

- colour after the pour if I want to do that. The last time I also coloured the cement and think I messed around too much getting the colour right, which may have been a factor in the bad pour. Maybe afterwards I will colour it with one of the products to colour/texturize cement.


Questions I have:

- Is that slab big ok, too small or overkill? Is bigger better than deeper? I can make the area bigger.

- What kind of cement mix should I use? Is regular premixed cement fine or is something with less gravel in it going to be easier and stronger. eg. a Portland sand mix?

- Should there be some reinforcement steel in the cement?

- Should I put a tube or something under the anchor for drainage or is the cap that goes around the ladder fine for keeping the water out?


Any thoughts and experiences with ladders are greatly appreciated!