Repair Caved In Pool Wall

by Rick
(Erie PA)

How can I repair a caved in above ground pool wall when the pool is set in-ground?

Hi Rick

I have had to do this a few times. Not on my own pools, but on customers.

One of the nicest jobs I ever did was located in a small town way up in the mountains. I think they had the only pool in the whole town, but they did it right and went all out. We installed a 21' x 41' oval pool in the ground with a deep end. The pool was backfilled with dirt. When it was completely packed they poured concrete around the pool including a large patio area at each end. The entire area was then fenced and it was open for parties for several summers. I would get photos from the customers from time to time showing me how much they were enjoying the pool.

And then it happened, they drained the pool. It was just to fix a leak I think, but it rained hard while the pool was low of water. The ground got soft and caved in. They still wanted the pool so they called me to fix it.

The first step was completely removing the pool from the hole. We took out the wall, side supports and the whole works. We did not want any of the pool to become more damaged during the next step of the operation.

We rented a concrete cutter and spent a couple days cutting and removing concrete. We went back an even two foot from the pool edge and made a cut. All the concrete in this two foot area was removed.

The next step was to remove all the dirt from this two foot area, plus the dirt that had fallen into the pool area. Now we had two foot of working room around the outside of the pool and the pool could be reinstalled.

We reset all the side braces, added more sand to the base, re-leveled all the end rails and had everything ready for the sidewall. The only problem was this wall looked like it had just been through a war. It was a mess.

There was still plenty of concrete left so we rolled the wall out and pounded it flat. We started by walking on it and finished with a sledge hammer, but we got it flat. It was then rolled up, just like a factory roll. The wall was installed and a new liner was installed. Once the pool was full all the dirt went back in around it. Once the dirt was solid more concrete was poured.

The pool was enjoyed for many more years, but it was never emptied. They only made that mistake once.