Pool wall collapse. What are my options?

[Hoss81]

Good Morning folks. Well this weekend we had a bunch of people over and were having a jolly old time, having some drinks and floating around the water. And all of a sudden we hear these 2 really loud popping noises, and a huge BANG, and the corner of our pool collapsed.
If you recall, I recently purchased a home with an above ground pool and a deck surrounding it. I know very little about pools and have never owned one before.

When an above ground pool wall collapses........what are the next steps? Can it be repaired? Or am I up a creek with no paddle?

 

[zea3]

I'm so sorry about your pool. If that liner has not ruptured yet it will soon. I would start pumping it out as soon as possible, once that liner gives out it the rush of water is going to do some damage. If you look at the second photo you can see the rust where the wall failed. This pool is a total loss and cannot be repaired. You can check and see if your homeowner's insurance will cover the loss. Once the pool is down you will probably see more extensive rust on the inside of the pool wall. I have a link to my pool failure in my signature to show what kind of damage I had. You guys are really lucky the deck prevented the liner from bursting and washing y'all into the fence.

 

[Newdude]

+1 and so sorry for this experience. Above ground pools do not have a lot of leeway for structural integrity. Once they buckle they will do so again but with 10X (?) less force next time.

 

[Hoss81]

I'm so sorry about your pool. If that liner has not ruptured yet it will soon. I would start pumping it out as soon as possible, once that liner gives out it the rush of water is going to do some damage. If you look at the second photo you can see the rust where the wall failed. This pool is a total loss and cannot be repaired. You can check and see if your homeowner's insurance will cover the loss. Once the pool is down you will probably see more extensive rust on the inside of the pool wall. I have a link to my pool failure in my signature to show what kind of damage I had. You guys are really lucky the deck prevented the liner from bursting and washing y'all into the fence.

Thanks for the reply. So the water drained about 3/4 the way down over the weekend. The liner is still holding strong somehow, the liner is 22 yrs old. Lol. Luckily we live in Rural ohio and have a pretty enormous drainage swale that was put in by the farmers who owned the land before it was residential. It did a very quick job of moving all of the water out of our yard. I've been keeping tabs on my sump pump, but it doesn't seem to be working any harder than normal. The entire yard slopes down to that swale so I think that saved us from any further damage.

The second I saw the crease I made everyone get-out ASAP. It let go about 3 minutes after we got out of the pool.

I'll be calling the homeowners insurance and the home warranty company this morning.

I'm assuming to uninstall and install a new pool. that the entire deck has to come out? Is that a fair assessment?

 

[zea3]

Is the deck all the way around the pool? If it only surrounds one side you may be able to leave it up. If the boards are in good shape you could carefully dismantle it and save the wood to reconstruct it after you get another pool.
A sawsall works great for cutting the pool into smaller sections to make it easier to haul off.

 

[Newdude]

A sawsall works great for cutting the pool into smaller sections to make it easier to haul off.

Get ‘Axe’ blades from Milwaukee. They are 5X thicker and last a good chunk longer. The teeth still wear down but at least the blade doesn’t snap before then.

sauce :

 

[Hoss81]

Is the deck all the way around the pool? If it only surrounds one side you may be able to leave it up. If the boards are in good shape you could carefully dismantle it and save the wood to reconstruct it after you get another pool.
A sawsall works great for cutting the pool into smaller sections to make it easier to haul off.

Yeah, the deck is also 22 yrs old and is not in great shape. The bad part about living in Rural Ohio is there is no building code out here. The previous owner of the house ordered a bunch of wood, and had buddies come over and provided beer and pizza, and they just started building with no plans.

The pool is 21x41 and the deck is 64x51. With current lumber prices, I'm not looking forward to rebuilding a deck that size.

 

[Selenap]

I’m so sorry for your loss.

 

[Hoss81]

Quick update. The homeowners insurance and the home warranty company have both told me I'm on my own. I even tried to get the home warranty to just remove the pool/deck as I have no use for a broken pool, hoping that would be covered over the home warranty, and no dice.

So now we have to decide what our next steps are. Sadly, I don't love the pool enough that I want to invest the $ required to buy a new one. But, the wife and kids feel differently.
Can anyone recommend a good brand of above ground pool with a solid reputation?

I've seen some pools claim a 40yr corrosion warranty, but any idea if they would actually honor that in a situation like my current one and replace the pool?

Regardless of what we do, we will be doing nothing until next spring. I need to drain the pump and bring it into the garage, remove the stairs and water slide. Come spring time I'll have to rent a 30yard dumpster and start tearing everything down.

 

[zea3]

You might ask around if any local artists or scrap metal collectors would like to come and get some free steel sheet metal. You may find yourself lucky enough that someone is willing to take it off your hands.

Doughboy is a good brand, they make a pool that is rated to be semi-inground. You can also look at a pool with resin walls and bottom rails. Those will not rust.

My sister's experience with a pool warranty was with Vogue pools, which has their headquarters in Canada. Her pool failed at 5 years due to rust from and unrepaired leak and it had a 20 year warranty on the pool except the liner, filter, ladder, and pump. She sent in all the required info and had actually registered her pool when she bought it so her warranty claim was honored. They would send a new wall and replace several uprights, bottom rails and top rails. All she had to do was pay for shipping. Shipping to her home by train and truck was going to be $1500. She would have to buy a new liner and pay for installation (if she could find an independent installer) out of pocket. She declined and decided to buy a different pool with all new equipment and installation for about $3000 and take her chances on any further warranty.

 

[Newdude]

I cut my semi inground up and listed it as free scrap on the offer up app. It took 3 weeks with a couple of no shows but someone came and took it.

 

[Casey]

You guys are very lucky you weren't seriously injured and got out safely.