How to get rid of an existing underground Pool in the Backyard?

[ChefGirl]

Okay, this may be totally off-topic and weird to some of you. But, has anyone ever had experience with getting rid of an existing underground pool in the backyard? Any experience. Both DH and I just do not like pools.

thanks.

[dowlinal]

I have never done it, but my parents did look into it at one point. Basically in my town it costs a ton of money because you are required to remove the entire pool structure and then truck in a ton of soil to fill the space.

[Tondi G]

costs about as much as having one put in! You have to remove the cement that is in the ground and then truck in soil, pack it, more soil, pack it until it is good and full. otherwise the ground will sink! it's a big job. My old neighbors bought a house and decided to fill in the pool cause they have small kids and would rather have a play structure and grass than the small pool that took up their whole small yard!

~Tondi

[mudder17]

Our neighbor did it with a house behind us--the pool and house had been empty for 5+ years and while the pool was in good shape, he figured he would get more for his $$ if he just filled in the pool. So they broke up the concrete and used it partially as fillers and then filled in the entire thing with tons of soil. It was definitely a lot of work, but it looks great and they now have a backyard that can potentially be used for kids or other things.


Eileen

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[o_mom]

It depends on the pool structure. My parent's pool is a sand bottom with a liner, so there would be no concrete to break up, just drain it, remove the liner and sides and then fill. If you have concrete, it will have to be broken up and you may be able to use it for fill.

However you do it, you need to make sure they are packing the fill down every so often - I think it is every foot or less. Otherwise you will have lots of settling. I would plan to let it settle at least a year or more before building or landscaping over it.

[Melanie]

My friends bought a house where this had been done, but looked like crap b/c the people did a self-paving stone job where the pool was (only! Looked SO tacky having a bunch of different styles here & there) and it sunk a bit. Anyway, as it turns out the previous owners had done it "correctly" (at least for their area) had busted out the bottom of the pool and then filled it with dirt and whatever, but apparently had not packed it enough. What my friends then did was have someone come in and resurface the entire area so all the pieces matched and now it looks great. You'd never know there was a pool.

[shilo]

i know zilch about the cost, but here's something to think about when considering how you are going to do it...

there have been three owners of the house across the street from my parents.

the first dug and put in the pool.
the second had a young baby and wanted their yard back, so filled it in and lanscaped over it.
the third wanted to put an addition on the house... well apparently, you can't build on top of a filled in pool (at least in our city) so they had to excavate the filled in pool, then remove the concrete, then fill and pack the whole thing before they could even begin putting in the addition.

so, if the pool is in a location that you might _ever_ want to put a structure on (addition, guesthouse, play structure, etc) make sure you find out if your city will permit a project that will be built on a filled in pool. if not, you might want to strongly consider the complete removal/fill/pack option, even tho it might be more expensive up front.

hth, lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[kellij]

I looked into this, but then we ultimately decided just to move. If you do a google search you can find some people who have had it done. One guy explains the entire process that he went through, complete with pictures. Basically, it's an expensive pain, but can be done. Good luck, I feel your pain.

[fortato]

Could you fill it with sand and make it the greatest sand box EVER??

I wish I knew what to tell you... You'll have to contact a contractor, or rent a back hoe and buy a lot of fill....

[Globetrotter]

Yes, we did this! It cost about $15K to fill in the pool and plant grass in that area (that was six years ago, so it may have increased since then). It was a beautiful pool and spa (they said it must have been worth about 6$0K) but we did NOT want a pool - we bought the house during a crazy housing market during the tech boom so there were hardly any houses on the market and we compromised.

I did look into fences, covers, etc... but nothing is foolproof. I used to have nightmares about dd falling in :( so we never used our yard.

They drained it, drilled several deep holes into the bottom, broke up the top several feet of concrete and compacted dirt into it. It's very important that you do it properly because you don't want to have problems with overflow during the rainy season. We were really careful and allowed the soil to settle for over six months during the winter before we planted grass. I'm not sure that it was necessary to wait that long... we haven't had any problems. You would never know!!

I would never buy a house with a pool again (barring another tech boom LOL) because it's not only expensive but a huge pain to fill it in. We have side access on one side, but there is a large deck in the way so they had to go through the other side and demolish our small side deck on that side (which was fine because I wanted to get rid of it anyway). In the process we had to replace a portion of the fence and knock down our apple tree :( The front lawn was also spoiled by the construction vehicles, but we were going to replace it anyway. If you have concrete access all the way, it's not such a big deal.

ETA: It was a great decision. The kids use the yard all the time!

Kris