Tilted Pool?

[Danny Pritchard]

Thought I would post a few pictures of a pool I looked at recently.This house is located on a sloped lot that goes down to a navigable canal.The pool is within a concrete block stemwall and slab.The block wall is about 1' high by the house and 3'at the rear.

The first picture shows about 3" of tile exposed above the water level at the right end of the pool.

The 2nd picture has less than 1" exposed above the water level at the left end of the pool.

The 3rd picture shows settlement at the right end of the pool decking.There is an expansion joint to the left of this picture that where it butts into the pool has grown from its original 3/4" to almost double that width.

Download Attachment: 2 inch drop at pool.jpg

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Download Attachment: half inch drop at pool.jpg

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Download Attachment: diff settlement at pool.jpg

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[Norm]

Danny,

For what it's worth here are my thoughts not necessarily in the order of their likelihood. During construction of the pool shell the contractor may have incorrectly shot the grade points while forming the shell. Probably not the case since the pool would have been out of level from day one. Most swimming pool vessels which heave intact do so as a result of failure to dewater the well point, located beneath the deep end of the pool, when the pool is drained for acid washing, re-plastering, or structural crack repair. This is especially critical when you have a high water table. I've seen pool shells over a foot higher at one end than the other. At that point it's a total loss. Plus or minus $10,000.00 to demolish, haul away, and backfill. The dewatering process must be constant until such time as the water level in the pool is higher than the ground water level. Do you know if this pool was ever emptied for service? Finally, if you have a substantial sub-soil instability from poor compaction, decomposing organic matter, underground streams, and possible underground erosion into an adjacent body of water the pool vessel could rotate in it's entirety. I'm sure there are other possibilities, however, none come to mind at this time.

NORM SAGE

[Danny Pritchard]

Norm,

Thanks for the info.I do not know if this pool was ever drained for replastering or cleaning.Your poor soil compaction comment is what I believe happened.I could not look at the block wall since it was obscured by a rough sawn 2x6 fake retaining wall.My feeling is that the footer settled in the right corner is part of the problem.This would fall in line with your last comment about soil instabilty.

[Danny Pritchard]

Thought I would update this post.I saw the buyers agent for this house the other day and asked about the pool.He said a pool contractor came out and at first thought the pool had settled but finally came to the conclusion that it was installed out of level.

The crack in the slab was the result of a broken drain line that had washed out the soil beneath the slab and the footer.