Bottom Plate to High

by Kandace
(Debert, Nova Scotia, Canada)

First thing I want to tell you is we love this site and find it very helpful!

Our question, we just installed a 27'x52" round AG pool, it has resin bottom plates and rails. After triple checking that all of the concrete blocks are level using a laser level and doing the adjustments needed to make sure they are level, we then put the bottom rails and plates back into place measuring from the center of the pool making sure we had a perfect circle each plate was 13'6" away from the center. We were very careful making sure everything was level and took our time in this step. When it was time to put the steel wall in place, then install the liner, everything went well until we started filling the pool with water.

Just one bottom plate is now about 1/2" from touching the concrete block!! We stopped filling it at 3" of water and put wooden supports under the plate to hold it up as we are afraid the wall will come out of the bottom rail on this side. We also shoved more crusher rock under the rail for support. Will it be ok or should we drain it and start over???

Please help us ASAP as we are so afraid of the pool collapsing!!! We did install wooden supports around the perimeter of the pool until we can fix the problem.

We appreciate your time in this matter.

Kandace and Stephen

Nova Scotia, Canada

Hi. Kandace and Stephen I can think of a few possibilities. If the block was set too low, and everything looks fine with the spacers in place, it should be fine. The pool should fill just fine and be OK.

It's also possible the liner is pulling slightly on the wall raising the post slightly. When you finish the pool installation, meaning uprights and top rails, the rails would hold the wall back pushing the footplate back where it belongs.

It also happens a lot that if the rails are a little high on either side it will raise the footplates off their blocks. The blocks were laser leveled, not the dirt in between them. If you scrape some dirt out from under the rails it might drop the plate.

So, I would first check the rails and see if they need lowered. I would then install the uprights and top rails and see if that doesn't push the rail down. With the pool completely assembled it is also easy to see if one post is sticking up higher than the rest. If it all looks level then just leave it. If it is obviously to high then work to lower it.