Pool Deck and Bottom Problems

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Rick Church
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Posts: 3
Joined: Tue 27 May, 2008 12:12

Pool Deck and Bottom Problems

Postby Rick Church » Wed 28 May, 2008 09:31

I've got a serious problem. Near the shallowest corner of my pool, the ground beneath the concrete deck has settled about 8 inches. The pool was built on a slope with backfilled dirt on the shallow end near the outside corner. The concrete deck was poured on soft backfill with a gravel base. Over the course of the last two years, the soil has compacted and settled. The result is three big cracks in the pool's deck and four inches between the deck and underlying ground. I caulked the cracks but not before rain and splash out fell through the cracks. The plastic rim of the pool (where the deck meets the concrete) has settled about an inch. It has caused the seam between the plastic rim to separate about 1/3 of an inch. The vinyl liner no longer conforms to the 90-degree angle between the bottom of the pool where the steel sided vertical wall meets the horizontal bottom. It looks stretched between the vertical and horizontal planes. Depressions (in the bottom) have formed near that area and the bottom feels soft in places in that area as if moisture has softened the bottom. If I press with my heel, the soft bottom dents very easily.

I am afraid the pool will need draining, portion of the concrete deck removed, additional soil/gravel added, more back fill behind the steel wall, new deck poured, liner taken loose and the bottom re-worked, all to the tune of a few thousand dollars.

Forget the warranty, it is long expired (1 year warranty) and the jerk that built it blamed the concrete guy anyway. The cracks appeared within one year of the initial construction. The pool contractor told me the concrete guy was responsible for that portion of the warranty and the concrete guy told me the pool builder was responsible for the warranty. They went back and fourth till one year passed and I got screwed big time!!

Am I assessing the situation accurately? How should I start the repair?


Guest

Postby Guest » Sat 31 May, 2008 20:34

Hi Rick,

How wide/long are your cracks and in which direction do they propagate (i.e., radially, contoured with the pool edge, or randomly)?

Do you have a record of your communications with the pool contractor and/or concrete guy?

You could always get a third party to assess the problem and see if they will assign blame. Depending on these results, you could then approach the contractors again and/or look into taking them to small claims court. This approach has the advantage that you would (hopefully) be fixing the problem the right way, and would also allow you to scope out the skill/advice of a new pool expert, since you probably don't want to work with the original pool contractor again if the assessment pointed blame towards him.

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