Bricks under Support Legs Breaking

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Castilloj73

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Dec 21, 2017
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Haiti
Hey guys , I’m having issues with bricks breaking under 2 of my buttress supports. I then Decided to measure the water to the top of the pool and this is what I got.

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475F53B8-5D93-4719-A328-5FE5056607E4.jpgHey guys , I’m having issues with bricks breaking under 2 of my buttress supports. I then Decided to measure the water to the top of the pool and this is what I got.
 
Your pool is out of level and there is significantly more pressure on the supports where the bricks are breaking. Either the pool was installed out of level or the ground under those supports isn't strong enough to support the weight of the pool. The best solution is to drain the pool and level out the base of your pool and correct any poor soil conditions you might have.
 
Oh ok, what stinks is that I just emptied the pool 4 days ago to fix the same issue. We have gotten allot of rain here lately.
at least here we have a big property with uses the water for the banana trees.
 
Make sure you inspect the ground/soil in those areas. Even if you pour your own concrete bases, putting it on poor quality soil will just lead to the same problem. You may need to dig down deeper to compacted virgin soil and pour a thicker base there if the rain you have gotten has cause soil expansion and erosion. You might also consider improving surface drainage around the pool area to help move rain water away.
 
The wall not being strait up and down doesn't mean very much with pools. You need to make sure the pool is level along the ground. You need to check the support bricks under all of the uprights. The tops of those bricks should be within 1/4" ( 6-7 mm) of each other. The blocks under the legs are what set the level of the pool. Its common not for builders here to use a laser level to get the blocks perfect but laser levels are still rather expensive for a homeowner to buy. A cheap way to get a very accurate site level is to build a water level. THIS is a pretty good article on how to build and use a water level.

As others have mentioned you need to look into the root cause of why the blocks shifted and anything you can do to make them more stable so this doesn't happen again.
 

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Your first diagram tells me your support blocks are no longer level. The question is why have the blocks moved.

Did you remove the top soil under the pool to get down to firm virgin soil when you installed the pool?
Did you remove all the high spots and dig the site down to level? Or did you fill in the low spots?
Was the area under the pool properly compacted?
Is the pool in a natural low spot that collects water? If so did you add drainage to carry water away from the pool?
Is the soil under the pool able to support the weight of the pool? Do you need to add more blocks under the support legs to increase the bearing area of each support?
Is there anything buried under or near the pool such as a septic system, dry well, electrical conduit, ect?

Not all yards are easy to put a pool in. Once your 18x33 pool is full of water it weighs around 124,000 lbs (56,200 kg). That is a lot of concentrated weight that you are asking the soil to hold up for you.
 
Since pool is empty, I started walking around and stepping on the paver stones under some of the supports and I noticed a couple of the stones moving. So We are now reinforcing it with blocks under to make it stronger. And also built a way for rain water to no longer accumulate.
we also have gotten about 13 inches of rain the the previous 4 days. So yesterday and today has been sunny and dry days with temperatures in the 80’s.
 
So after rechecking each support , I can say that it’s all level. So another thing I just remembered was that before laying liner , I think I may have added to much sand and not really kept a n eye on the leveling of it under the liner. Could that be the problem of why it’s not leveled?
 
The sand under the liner won't have any impact on the surface level of the water. If your pool frame and top rail are level around the parameter the surface of the water should be the same distance to the top rail the entire way around the pool or at least within 1/2" (13mm).

Since you have a buttressed pool (the support legs that stick out to the sides) make sure the blocks under the ends of those are level to the wall upright supports as well.

Are you still planning on pouring concrete under all of the support blocks? The broken blocks you are replacing could have been all that was out of level. Taken extra steps to make sure nothing else has shifted while the pool is empty is worth the effort. Also take the extra time to make the support blocks strong and wider to better distribute the load of the pool. If you are going to pour concrete I would do a minimum of 4 inches thick (100mm). The standard size for a support block here in the states is 8" wide x 16" long x 4" thick. If you are going to pour a footing I would do a 12"x12"x4" footing possibly 6" thick if I was feeling overly ambitious.
 
Anything from 1/2"-2" is within industry standards. Good job!
 
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