Partial inground

[Hayseed]

I am expecting pool in around a week. Utopia doughboy. It states in the ads that if you want, you can bury the pool, it goes as far as to tell you, to bury the whole thing if you want. My pool placement spot is 18" out of level. So if I level up, one side of pool will be in the ground 18 inches. Now does this burying statement in ad mean, that I can bury this pool with dirt, and when later I need to let water out, to change liner, will the walls cave in? I have seen videos of people using a slurry mix of Portland and sand to fill the void. Is this what I will have to do? It will take a lot of money to do this. My soil is typical not clay not shale. It would seem if I used gravel it would not pack hard and push against pool wall as hard as eventually rain and water soaked soil would. Any and all help and ideas as to the different things acceptable in this situation will be appreciated. I also if I could would like to go a little bit deeper if okay

 

[Jamison04]

Our first pool was a Doughboy and just like yours was buried about 2.5ft on one side into a slope and the opposite side was all exposed. It was just backfilled with the excavated soil. When it was removed about 10yrs later the soil stayed in place just fine.

Anything like rock or sand will want to shift if the pressure from the water is removed like for a liner replacement.

I would just backfill with what is dug out. It will pack in place over time and be less likely to move.

 

[Hayseed]

Your liner lasted ten years without replacing? What did you install for a liner padding. I have heard of a one inch foam board but can't seem to locate where to buy

 

[CJadamec]

Home Depot or Lowes will have the rigid foam in the insulation section. Typically in 2foot by 8foot sheets.

 

[Jamison04]

Your liner lasted ten years without replacing? What did you install for a liner padding. I have heard of a one inch foam board but can't seem to locate where to buy

Yes the liner lasted 10yrs. It just had a sand bottom but foam cove was used. It was an overlap expandable liner but we had to dig so much to just get level the pool just stayed 4ft deep so the liner was only stretch to that depth instead of being able to expand farther. It only saw mid morning and afternoon sun. By 3pm the pool was shaded and it was always covered overwinter. Don't even remember much pattern fading if any. Plus this was waaaay back in 1994 when stuff was still quality made and not cheaply thrown together. But when it was drained there was never any shifting of the back filled soil forward into the pool wall.

Different house and pool now but this one had the foam panel bottom. Panels bought at Lowe's. Hope this liner lasts just as long.

 

[AndyPTx]

Well Hayseed reading your thoughts and concerns starting me having second thoughts and doubts all over again.
I too have a Doughboy (ancient and donated by a friend who was sick of the one in the house they moved into which they never used - we 'just' had to dismantle it and move it ... 'just' - haha!!)
We have a steeply sloping 'back 40' (nowhere near that in size, but it's the back of the yard behind the fenced section), so, having read that Doughboy were indeed the pioneers of AG pools that could be buried I recessed one side into the dug out high side with the low side at ground level where the ground is lower. BUT I could only get a little digger with a one foot scoop on it into my yard so even with the digger, the digging was not quick, and getting 4ft deep (even when tapering to 2 in the middle and zero the other side) was surprisingly difficult ... and so the dug dirt (also taking forever to take somewhere else after every dug scoop so I piled it up right there 'for now') turned into a bank that I piled on that high side.
I hope this is all making sense!
So it's recessed I guess 2 feet or so and then I *built up a bank another foot or so*, leaving the pool a foot proud of the ground on that side.

Jackson's responses are reassuring because if course to complete the build you need about a foot or so access around the pool - which this foot I then filled with the dirt, as well as the bank being dug dirt.
Perhaps helpfully here in NE Texas my dirt is, at varying depths, heavy sand, red clay, and solid-as-a-rock black clay. VICIOUS stuff to dig!

Pool's only been in 2 years but I WAS having mild fears, because in the spring/storm season we can have HEAVY rains which of course drain straight down to where the pool is, and through the ground right up against the wall, underground.

I'll say one thing I did:
I bought some 1ft diameter drainage culvert (is that what it's called?) - buried some with drainage holes against the back wall, feeding into some of the hole-less pipe variety on either side ... wondering if maybe that would help channel water around the pool. Partly also so underground water sits less against the buried (metal) pool wall, to rot it.

 

[Hayseed]

It all seems to be a toss up, with these pools and the different things and ways to install them. Half in ground, all in ground, half in ground, other half out of ground. It seems not everyone wants to voice their opinions either way about how they would do it, or even say exactly how they did it, I guess for fear of something going wrong, and having it come back on them. My pool is on a flat lot, with no drainage to speak of, I want to sink it 3 feet in the ground, with no real help available as to how best to do this, I am just going to wing it like everyone else. My thoughts are to dig a little area I little deeper than the other areas around the pool, put in drainage tile to lead to this hole and have a small sump pump in there, that I will turn on from time to time and see if and how much water I get out of there.