To Elevate or Level or Do Both

by Debbie
(Mississauga, Ontario, Canada)

Hi Dennis. Absolutely love your web site. I've spent many hours reading lots that you have to say with questions and answers. We live in Mississauga Ontario Canada. We currently have had an 18' blow up pool for years. Ground is great and firm.

We will now be installing an 18x33'x54" oval resin above ground pool. We will be placing our new pool over the existing 18' round that we had our old pool on. We have removed our sod. The ground closest to our house has a slight incline. There is aprox. 1- 1 1/2' difference in elevation from where the old pool was to where the end of our new pool will be on one side and approximate 4" on the opposite side. This is making us dig in a L shape to accommodate our pool.

Would you suggest that we level what we have and have one side of the oval end of the pool into this elevation? Or should we remove some of the dirt on the higher end of the ground and raise up the existing pool dirt? I've even considered raising the whole old section to match the new but I honestly believe as you've said many times. We should always leave existing ground where it is to provide strength for the weight of the pool and the one side of our pool would now be man made and never the strength that our new section would be.

Limestone seems to be your preference of packing foundation. What is your take on this? If we leave our steel wall into this side of the ground will that cause the pool to rust? Could we perhaps put a weeping tile tube around the edge of our pool at the one end and decorate the top of it with small white rocks to prevent water build up that would sit against the pool wall.

We do have a sewer in our backyard that takes any excess water from our backyard. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. Not sure if it makes a difference on your answer but we will be using 2" Styrofoam as a base for our liner. We've always used styrofoam and love it.

Debbie.

Hi Debbie,

I think I would prefer to dig down the high side to the level of old pool base. Any type of granite or crusher run is fine for raising any low areas.

As long as the dirt packed around the pool has plenty of run off you are fine there. You just don't want water sitting around the pool.

Using the foam for a base is great, be sure to use the preformed pool cove to go along with it.