Pool Setup Help

[baileyphil]

Hi Everyone

Wondering if somebody could give me advice, i have a 15 foot above ground Intex metal frame pool

I dont have a flat surface to put it on as my garden has a small slop, i was hoping to somehow build a frame of some sort and fill it with smooth pebbles to level off a area for the pool

Could somebody give me some advice, has anyone done anything like this ?

Thanks

[Demons1964]

Not a wise idea. Unless you construct a fully engineered retaining wall system (think $$$), the weight of the water in the pool will cause the frame to collapse.

Site preparation for above-ground pools always involves removal of soil to the lowest level, never addition of soil/pebbles/etc to raise the low side.

What kind of gradient are you looking at? Mine is 1 in 20, and even then I had to build a retaining wall just to retain the bank of soil that sits "above" the excavated area.

[baileyphil]

Hi Demons

Thanks for your quick reply much appreciated, yer was thinking about the weight myself but just was not to sure about it

The difference between the lower side and the higher side is around a foot, so i assume what your saying is dig out the higher side to level out the site were i want the pool to sit?

Gradient ? sorry not to sure what you mean, i was thinking of building a frame using railway sleepers which are around a foot in width and 6 foot long, and then filling this smooth pebbles to raise it to one height

What would be you advice then regarding this ?

[Demons1964]

Compaction of pebbles/soil/whatever you use under the weight of water means you will have enormous difficulty getting the floor of the pool to remain level. Over time you will get areas dropping, making at best for a lumpy bottom of the pool and at worst a risk of the metal pool frame collapsing.

So after all that my advice is to dig out the higher side to level out the site. Even after that I highly recommend you hire a compactor to compact the soil on the level site prior to assembling the pool.

And if you're lucky, depending on your soil type you may not need a retaining wall on the bank of soil that remains on the "high" side of the pool.

BTW, gradient is a measure of the change in height over the distance. Yours appears to be 1 in 15.