Has anyone had experience with getting rid of a swimming pool? m

[Kris]

I can’t believe I am posting on a do-it-yourself board, because my husband and I are “let-someone-else-do-it” types 🙂
My daughter is crawling and I want to get rid of our pool. I’ve looked into all the fences and covers, but we really don’t want a pool so we have decided to bury it and
plant some grass in its place so our daughter has some place to play (we don’t have a huge backyard!). I’m having a hard time finding any information on this. Who does it? HOw?

I would appreciate any feedback. thanks!

Kris

[Jim -ATS]

There are several “abatement” companies out there that get rid of old gas station storage tanks, oil furnace tanks, etc. They are experts at removing underground stuff and replacing the hole with useable compacted fill. I would try that route first.

Second, you might try calling around for some pool installers to ask them what they think.

I wouldn’t recommend just dumping the pool full of dirt, because I suspect you would find voids and other problems down the road, such as a saturated soil condition as the pool fills up with water again.

Lastly, it would be interesting to see if there is a way to do this without totalling out your pool, so you can keep the value of the pool when you go to sell the house whenever that happens. Besides, you may decide later that you wish you still had it!

Good luck to you!

[Martha]

I think it would be WONDERFUL to retile the bottom of your pool with old credit cards like I did for my American Express commercial a few years back. You could do a Venus deMilo, or even a nice Picasso. Then sell your home, with the LOVELY pool art, at a nice profit and buy a new home that has a larger yard without a swimming pool. That would be a good thing!

By the way, BOB, thanks for finally finishing the chicken coop. Unfortunately, all of my prize chickens have flown the coop while we waited for you to return and finish the job. Someone mentioned to me at Starbucks the other day that they thought they had seen one of my Rhode Island Reds galavanting around with some of the local pigeon vermin. This was NOT wonderful.

Now I have no eggs to stencil! You can forget about my final payment, as I will have to now use that money to replace my birds. Oh, and the next time you come over after filming a show, will you please take a shower first? You scared my poor maid Rita, who has now forgotten what little english she spoke. My spanish isn’t very good either, so instead of getting her to help me set the table for dinner last Friday, she got a puzzled look on her face and shaved the dog instead! I did use the hair to make a lovely pillow though. See? Every cloud has a silver lining.

So long from Park Avenue!

Did I mention I’m looking at property near Carmel CA?

[bc]

I’m with the others. Don’t destroy the pool. Fix the drain so water will run down into the soil underneath and fill with dirt. You would have to haul truckloads of fill dirt anyway. Then in the next year or two or so or at school age when your daughter is old enough to swim and you then decide you want the pool, you can remove the dirt, repair the drain, and repair any damage to the pool surface. May help a little on resale too. Contact any contractor who has dirt moving equipment.

Or install a deck over the top with a gazebo in the middle. Then you can remove the deck if the pool is used later.

[JB]

Hi, Despite what others say, in most parts of the country a pool is usually a negative selling point. More people will shy away from a pool than be attracted to it when shopping for a house. Some of the comments in the other messages sort of prove my point. If you are scared by it with a young one, and you could use the extra lawn space, just do it right and have it filled in. Any scheme that would “cap” it is not practical and would cost a lot of money, leave you with a dank underground space, and not give you the lawn you crave. Fill it in, but do it right.

Your town or city probably has a “pool demolition” code. You probably need to follow it and get a pool demolition permit. Even if your town doesn’t have one, you should probably follow a similar procedure. 1. cut holes for drainage, 2. Fill bottom with gravel and/or sand and compact each layer. 3. break up the top part of the pool and carefully mix it in with clean fill to fill the majority of what’s left, taking care to compact often and not leave any voids. 4. Top dress with loam/top soil and have fun on your nice, safe lawn. I am no expert, I just did a “power search” on metacrawler.com using pool demolition as a phrase and here are some of the results:

http://g-site.com/dipiazza/pooldemo.htm

http://www.ci.torrance.ca.us/city/dept/BLDG/swimpool.htm

http://www.poolremoval.com/procedures.html

http://www.scag.org/homepages/huntington_beach/PoolDem.html

[Kris]

Lots of interesting ideas…

but I think JB is on the ball with this one 🙂

I agree with JB – I think a pool is a liability in many ways and makes it harder to sell your home, so no big loss.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the housing market is insane!! It’s becoming popular to buy older homes in desirable neighborhoods, demolish them and rebuild new houses!
That’s why we had to compromise and buy a house with a pool – not much to choose from! Glad we bought last year because prices have gone up by 40%!

I was searching for info on this but i didn’t know what to call it – pool demolition, huh?

I did call someone who does it locally (though I was not happy with his attitude so I’m searching for someone else now!)
He did explain that it is important to jackhammer holes in the bottom and compact the “filling”. I even went by a neighbor’s house yesterday – I heard she had her pool
removed and replaced with grass three years ago (just planted topsoil) and so far so good!!

Thanks again for your help..

Kris

[Al]

The filling of swimming pools is covered by the enviormental protection laws in most states.
It must be done properly or it will turn into a pig sty. You should not accept any dirt without knowing it source as it may be comimg from a gas station.

There is one company in the Northeast that specializes in pool removal. It is All Pool Demolition. Telephone 1888 pool out

http://WWW.PoolRemoval.com

[JDI93]

Kris – My pool liner just died and I am considering filling in my pool, too. What action did you end up taking, who did the work for you and are you happy with the results? Thanks.

[Bob W]

We are facing the samething here in Northern VA.

We have a 33 year old Anthony 16 x 32, 8 ft deep.

We have not really used since the kids left for college over a decade ago. There are some county governments that are quite restrictive. I may do this myself. Any body out there doing the same?

rwallace@erols.com

[Author]

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