Wall completely out of track

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Frost heave can do some very unpredictable damage. You can't underestimate it. It can destroy an above ground pool. It's something nobody can stop nor control. The pandemic has done a number on all of us. My husband and I were in Corrections. I still am. He retired and I brought covid home to him which killed him on 12/15/21 just weeks after we installed our dream pool. I know its been rough.
 
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Yeah the thing we need to work on once the melts happens if figuring out the WHY and going from there to keep it from happening again.

List what you see that happened. See if there is a pattern to side to what happened. List it out for us so we can help solve this puzzle:
-is the wall out all the way around?
-Did any of the legs move at all?
-Did the cover pull down on the wall at all?
-How far up did the water come with the freeze?
 
Casey said:
Frost heave can do some very unpredictable damage. You can't underestimate it. It can destroy an above ground pool. It's something nobody can stop nor control. The pandemic has done a number on all of us. My husband and I were in Corrections. I still am. He retired and I brought covid home to him which killed him on 12/15/21 just weeks after we installed our dream pool. I know its been rough.
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OMG Casey that’s horrible. I’m so sorry.
 
kimkats said:
Yeah the thing we need to work on once the melts happens if figuring out the WHY and going from there to keep it from happening again.

List what you see that happened. See if there is a pattern to side to what happened. List it out for us so we can help solve this puzzle:
-is the wall out all the way around?
-Did any of the legs move at all?
-Did the cover pull down on the wall at all?
-How far up did the water come with the freeze?
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So he’s made his way around the pool. The entire pool is lifted out of the track. It’s still a frozen solid block of ice. He did put quarter down right up to the bottom of the walls during install and in some parts the track is stuck in the quarter down and he has to chip away at it to get the track back onto the wall. The hope is that once the thaw starts the wall with the track now attached will nicely come back down to the cement ring. The water raised about three inches in the freeze. Next time he’s under the deck I will get him to take more pictures.
Thank you to all of you. I know with your help we will get to the bottom of this.
 
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Is the deck bolted to the pool, or under the ledge of the pool?
I could certainly see the deck heaving separately from the assembled pool and pulling the wall up.

It seems a bit strange for the ground under the pool to heave, and then drop back down but for the wall to stay up. That's the part I'm having problems with right now.
 
What about the concrete ring ? It heaved and the pool froze high in place. The ice that lifted the whole kabootle is gone and now the ground is low causing a secondary (but still big) issue.
 
cj133 said:
Is the deck bolted to the pool, or under the ledge of the pool?
I could certainly see the deck heaving separately from the assembled pool and pulling the wall up.

It seems a bit strange for the ground under the pool to heave, and then drop back down but for the wall to stay up. That's the part I'm having problems with right now.
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The deck is not attached to the pool and does not overhang at the edge of the pool. The pool and the deck do not touch each other.
 
Newdude said:
What about the concrete ring ? It heaved and the pool froze high in place. The ice that lifted the whole kabootle is gone and now the ground is low causing a secondary (but still big) issue.
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Maybe.
I'm not really understanding what the concrete ring is. Is this sometimes used in place of individual blocks / pavers?

I observed the ice melting and freezing in my own pool and the edges melted every warm day we had. Literally there was a half inch gap or more all the way around and the slab of ice seemed like it was a foot thick at times. When the temperature dropped the gap refroze of course.

Now I'm quite a bit warmer than the op but the point was the edges of the ice on the pool would've melted long before the ground thawed and went back down. So the ice shouldn't have been in the way of the pool assembly going back down.
 

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cj133 said:
Maybe.
I'm not really understanding what the concrete ring is. Is this sometimes used in place of individual blocks / pavers?

I observed the ice melting and freezing in my own pool and the edges melted every warm day we had. Literally there was a half inch gap or more all the way around and the slab of ice seemed like it was a foot thick at times. When the temperature dropped the gap refroze of course.

Now I'm quite a bit warmer than the op but the point was the edges of the ice on the pool would've melted long before the ground thawed and went back down. So the ice shouldn't have been in the way of the pool assembly going back down.
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The cement ring is poured once the ground is levelled, covered with quarter down and compacted. It’s an oval ring of cement (oval pool here) and the track for the wall sits on the cement ring rather then the ground. The cement ring was level when the pool went up. As he is attaching the track back onto the bottom of the walls the cement looks fine and no cracks.
 
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The thing is, with frost heave, it's the ground moving in unpredictable ways and the fact that he can reattach the bottom rails and get his hands under the pool is concerning. The pool bottom "was" sitting on solid cement. Now he can put his hands under the pool. You're not supposed to be able to do that. The ground heaved and it moved the pool in the process. Its unfortunate.
 
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Casey said:
The thing is, with frost heave, it's the ground moving in unpredictable ways and the fact that he can reattach the bottom rails and get his hands under the pool is concerning. The pool bottom "was" sitting on solid cement. Now he can put his hands under the pool. You're not supposed to be able to do that. The ground heaved and it moved the pool in the process. Its unfortunate.
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Hi

He definitely can not place his hands under the pool. The metal side lifted from the track- the pool is on the ground. Maybe the middle heaved up we don’t know yet. But the metal wall around the majority of the 18x33 pool lifted and became detached from the track. As he is attaching the track back onto the siding it’s still lifted. Our hope is that as the melt happens it will just settle. He can put his hand under the coping which is by the cement ring but not completely under the pool.
 
Do u have unaddressed run off that goes around the pool area? This can leave the ground saturated & when the water in the ground freezes it goes up. For instance- We have issues in our flower bed with poor drainage & when we had our polar spell this winter it looked like crystals shooting out of the ground in the low spots. We don’t get the extended deep freezes like y’all but heaving due to runoff/ saturated ground around the buried side of my pool gave me some pretty terrible crevices near my sand cove in my liner. The way my land falls the house is the highest & my pool is inserted into a hill. We thought we had the water naturally flowing around & away from the pool with the dirt work but now we realize we still need drainage pipe all the way around the pool to divert the water.
 
Mdragger88 said:
Do u have unaddressed run off that goes around the pool area? This can leave the ground saturated & when the water in the ground freezes it goes up. For instance- We have issues in our flower bed with poor drainage & when we had our polar spell this winter it looked like crystals shooting out of the ground in the low spots. We don’t get the extended deep freezes like y’all but heaving due to runoff/ saturated ground around the buried side of my pool gave me some pretty terrible crevices near my sand cove in my liner. The way my land falls the house is the highest & my pool is inserted into a hill. We thought we had the water naturally flowing around & away from the pool with the dirt work but now we realize we still need drainage pipe all the way around the pool to divert the water.
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All down spots are rerouted completely away from the pool and he put in a French drain around the entire pool. We had an abnormally dry summer- in fact many areas around us were in a extreme drought.
 
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Just trying to cover all the bases.
Like @Casey said sometimes heaving just happens 😩 we are at Mother Nature’s mercy. I hate this happened to your new pool.
As it thaws keep an eye on it as it will quickly become unstable if not in the bottom track. The liner can /will push its way through the gap & burst. The cove & the water currently being frozen is all that is holding it back. You don’t want 15k gallons of water all at once rushing through your backyard. Be ready to drain as it thaws w/ 1 or more submersible pumps. It needs to be relatively ice free as ice can slice the liner too.
You may or may not be able to re use the liner even if it is unscathed. Especially if its still quite cold & you have to go ahead & drain quickly to prevent collapse - the liner will shrink in the cold & without water. Most who have luck re - setting a liner do so the day of draining & have warm sunny conditions. I would go liner shopping now. Also prepare to brace the empty pool until the liner can be replaced & repairs made.
Are y’all planning on repairing the pool yourselves?
 
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Here at the prison... it's one big piece of concrete. The blocks are concrete and so are the walks. We have to set big orange cones in the winter on the walks because the concrete heaves and presents a trip hazard to staff and inmates. Sometimes it'll crack the concrete, sometimes it'll go right back to where it previously sat... unscathed. I've seen it heave up to 3 inches in some places during very cold spells.

I would like to see more pics of your pool from afar along with the trouble areas. I think these pics will speak volumes so we can see what the pool as a whole looks like. We want to help you but we need your help in posting pictures. We dont care if the pool is frozen right now.
 
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Tammie-Lee said:
All down spots are rerouted completely away from the pool and he put in a French drain around the entire pool. We had an abnormally dry summer- in fact many areas around us were in a extreme drought.
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Fellow frosty Canadian here. This is indeed the work of heaving. The base build is the issue here. It sounds like more or less, it was built as if you were installing pavers for the foundation when it should have been built to hold the massive weight of the water. IE;, the foundation wasn't deep enough to keep the water from getting away from the concrete pad OR when the french drain was installed, too much of the compacted soil around the pool was disturbed leaving lots of air pockets and compromising the soil underneath the pool with all the weight. How deep are the drains? Typically 2ft deep so, think of it like being in a desert and you place your foot down with all your weight. Your friend trenches around the perimeter of your foot. Eventually your foot will heave to one side.

So, either the drains caused the issue, they should have been installed first, or the pad was not properly prepared. This is a tear down to fix as mentioned.
 
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Hi everyone. We are still in a freeze so not much has changed. He did take the four feet of snow off the deck and it is now evident the pool is higher than the deck around it- so the pool lifted. I am attaching pictures of the pool in its summer glory
 

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