Swimming pool remodel help needed!

[Billy Zeigler]

We have a swimming pool built in the early 60's from concrete that has been repaired and going year after year. 11 years ago we had a pool outfit install a liner with new decking around. Worked and looked fine until this year when it needed a new liner.

Since the pool is old school it has a deep end and shallow end with the grade going from low to deep without any drop off. We are getting older and would like to fill in the the bottom and make it a 4 foot deep sports style pool.

I've got quotes to fill in it and complete the floor and liner, but have some contractor friends that could save us some money buy doing ourselves. I'm looking for info on filler, concrete and any suggestions on this project.

After the bottom is complete we are going to have a pool contractor install the liner part of the project.

Has anyone ever heard of someone doing this type of project? Anywhere I should look? I've checked You Tube, but came up with liner install videos.

Thanks,

Billy

[RBM]

I don't know what your location is, or if it matters, but I have a similar situation in NY. My pool was built with concrete walls, one foot thick. The deep end tapers down to a relatively small square, about 9 feet down. This work was done with very thin cement. The shallow end is pretty much a sand bottom. This pool was built to use a liner. At this point, the pool is old and needs major repair, so we looked into filling in the deep end and having a 4 foot deep pool. The pool companies here were just going to use sand, and smooth it out. Ultimately we decided to fill in the pool.

[RBM]

already have a garden

[Steve B]

The answer is yes, no, absolutely, maybe, and I don't have a clue. It's going to depend a lot on your location.

I do real estate surveys of HOA properties. We had one where they had five pools for about 125 OLD people, and wanted to fill in three or four pools. They contacted the county, and found out that the cost to fill the pool according to code was more than to operate them with no one swimming in them for the next ten years. I think it was $200,000 for four pools. The earth had to be compacted, then tested every foot.

I read RBM's answer, and apparently it can actually be a simple matter to fill in a pool. Or not when you go to sell. I'd just check first, then do what's legal for your area.

Filling the deep end might sound like a quick easy way to go, but you will have a big heavy plug there, and can the adjoining and abutting concrete support it, and settle at the same rate? Or is that something that one would just have to do and then find out five or ten years down the road, and open up a new expen$ive can of worms?

Please do keep us posted as to what you do, or are allowed to do, or are required to do.

With Google Earth now, building inspectors and zoning officials are scanning, and finding unpermitted structures and going after them. Police helicopters in some jurisdictions report pools with stagnant waters due to West Nile virus.

You can run, but you can't hide.

Steve

Heart surgery pending?

Heart Surgery Survival Guide

[jamesgangnc]

Just fill it with sand and put a new liner in. If the drain is still good and many are not then you'll need to decide if it's worth keeping and get a plumber involved. Frankly you don't really need a bottom drain. Shouldn't cost much more than just a new liner if you can get a small dump truck close to it.

[trader4]

If that's what it costs to just fill in 4 pools, it's a good example of what's wrong with this country. Even if you have to compact it every foot, that's no big deal to justify $200K.

[jamesgangnc]

.

Must be in NJ, haha. Fill with crush and run.

[aemeijers]

All this, plus all the pool-related tales of woe I have heard from real-world folks, makes me almost glad I'll never be rich enough to afford a pool. (Of course around here in SW MI, you can't throw a rock without hitting a lake, and unheated swim season is MAYBE Memorial day to Labor day, so they don't make much sense anyway.)

[krw]

We had a pool in NY and there are many where we lived in Northern Vermont. In NY the season was about Memorial Day to Labor Day. It was great when my son was young. It was a reason to make our house the one all the kids hung out at. My son was old enough when we moved to VT that a pool was no longer worthwhile. I'm glad we had one when we did, but also glad we moved when we did. Now that we're in the South I wouldn't mind a pool all that much.

[Evan]

.

Commercial sized pools for "HOA" type properties are quite a bit larger than backyard pools for a single house...

Size =3D Cost Commercial property =3D greater need for safety

~~ Evan