Fiberglass Pool Installation: What to watch out for
| Speaker 1: | What are some of the things that we should watch out for when installing a fiberglass pool?
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| Jay Tucker: | The couple of things that are extremely important is that the base that goes up underneath the pool, there’s always a couple of different versions that some of our folks in our industry teach and actually install. You can do sand or gravel is typically one of the things you want to do. In our case, what we recommend is to do the gravel because it’s a good base that can be compacted and stay that way and then also the backfill around that pool needs to be gravel as well for proper drainage. Also, the compaction works as that sand which could shift and move and potentially cause some problems down the road.
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| Speaker 1: | I see. Also, is there any specific leveling or anything interesting about the hole that’s dug for the pool to go in?
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| Jay Tucker: | Yeah, absolutely. It’s important when a pool is dug, sometimes you may find some rock that is there that has to be excavated out that could leave you a deeper hole than what you would normally do. It’s extremely important when that pool is filled and you have the water in, it’s a lot of weight. If that base is not compacted well then all of that weight, once that pool is filled, it could shift. The pool could settle and then your pool is out of level and it could have some potential issues. It’s important to understand if, when that pool is excavated, if it’s over excavated for whatever reasons, is you come back in with layers of larger stone and then smaller stone and in some cases, depending on what you have, a geo-textile fabric that goes in to help stabilize that area and soil and get it compacted so that your pool doesn’t move years down the road.
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| Speaker 1: | Is there anything about the tubing or the intake and outtake of the pool before you put it in the whole as well? Is there a certain standard you use whether you …
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| Jay Tucker: | You talking about the levelness of the pool? In our industry the standard is one inch from the highest to lowest because it’s almost impossible to get a fiberglass pool absolutely perfectly level. It’s just almost impossible. The industry standard is that one inch like I’d mentioned, but one of the things that should be the goal is anywhere from a quarter, no more than a half inch, is really what it should be. If you can get a half inch and that pool being a half inch out of level, which is sort of oxymoronic because we feel like our pool should be level, but it’s almost impossible to do it. A quarter inch to a half an inch is really where a good installation is where it needs to fall.
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