How successful is it to fill in a inground swimming pool?
Answer from a client:
Years ago my brother had the exact same problem and chose to fill in the pool and thus enlarge his yard area.
His pool was a one-piece fiber glass design. Regardless of building product a filled pool needs to be avoided from collecting water which would produce a bog. My brother took an axe and sliced several holes in the pool bottom to drain any water and thus prevent buildup.
If you have a cement or masonry pool you could bust the holes with a sledge hammer.
He additionally cut off the leading foot or more of the upper edge of the pool sides so regarding get it well below the finished ground surface.
As soon as that was done he ordered a lots of fill dirt, and rented a “Bobcat” SKID LOADER with a front loader bucket attached. We then eliminated a section of his back yard fence for access, and with the skid loader began to fill the pool.
In dealing with, the dirt gets separated and loosened, and will settle [ “sag” ] greatly after filling the pool. To decrease this problem, we secondhanded a water hose to consistently [ nearly constantly ] saturate the dirt, triggering it to compact. This is referred to as “water tamping.” You might additionally tamp by hand, or just let it settle on its very own over time, and continually add even more fill dirt till it stops settling.
We sprinkle tamped continually as we fill in a inground swimming pool to minimize the amount of make-up filling we would have to do later. If you do not get the backfill stabalized prior to setting lawn sod, or growing seed, then when the continued settling occurs you have to ruin/bury your brand-new grass. So, see to it the backfill dirt is COMPLETELY SETTLED PRIOR TO you sod, plant lawn OR set up artificial turf.
Despite the fact that we sprinkle tamped as we filled, we slightly overfilled to about 6 or 8 inches above the wanted, finished surface level, and my brother remained to water greatly for a week around to guarantee complete settlement of the soil.
He then scraped the extra soil off to get a slightly successful, however near level area, then installed Saint Augustine grass sod to cover the entire fill area. It worked out wonderful, as we did such an excellent task, he never had any issue from settlement developing a bowl effect where the pool was located.
The tricks are to 1) avoid water retention in the filled in pool, and 2) to appropriately compact the back-fill soil to prevent settling which would develop the “sagging” you ask about.
Oh, I almost forgot. To save money, we utilized common “fill dirt” for the most of the backfill task, then used quality “TOP SOIL” for the upper 2 feet of backfill. No because squandering excellent top dirt below 2 feet.
Source (s):.
50 + years in the Construction and Handyman trades, AND GREAT DEALS OF DIY tasks for myself, family, friends, and neighbors.