[julieb500]

Can I put an above ground pool in a hole with about one foot of it sticking up?
What do I do about water splashing out and washing away the back fill?
What do I do about pluming and elec. Thanks

[donf]

Julie,

I cannot speak to the legality of putting the pool below ground, I can speak to an immediate design flaw.

The outside stabilization's and support structures are not sufficient to keep the pool's shape against Mother Earth. Ground shifts would eventually crush the sides of the pool or at the very least, tear the fabric of the pool liner.

Don't do it.

[ballengerb1]

Sorry Don but I can't disagree more. I have done several of these and one was for my own home. It lasted 20 years and even then it was only taken down because the kids weren't kids any more. I scooped out a 40' diameter hole 3' deep with a bobcat and got a level flat bottom large enough for a 24 ' pool. I assembled the pool and installed the liner, filing the pool before back filling. Back filling is the key since you do not want rocks or large clumps of clay to cause bulges in the side walls. I rototilled most of the soil and backed filled with that dirt and lots of coarse sand. Water stays in a above ground pool year round and the surface freezes to about 12" in northern Illinois. If anything that freezing did was to square everything up each year. There was no grounf shifting and the liners lasted about 6 years.

[donf]

Ballenger,

By its very definition, the pool is meant to be above ground. In-ground pools are designed for that purpose.

We might want to take this offline and I readily agree with you that I may be all wet with my response, however, I feel into this very wet hole in the ground where my above ground pool should have been! :)

I'm very interested if you did this to code or just went and did because your could?

[The Pool Guy]

I have to agree with ballengerb1. I also have done this for customers a few times. I let them know this is not an ideal way to do an installation of an "above ground pool" and have them sign a waiver of responsibility for the install and especially if they ever have me do a liner replacement in the future.

As for washing away the backfill... you can put plastic drain pipe in your backfill, slopeing it away from the pool.

As for plumbing... upgrade to an in-ground pool super pump. They are self-priming

Hope this helps...

[ballengerb1]

Pool guy, since I did not have a self priming pump I was limited on how deep I could place the pool since I was gravity fed. I ended up about half and half in the ground. Worked well for 20 years with just the normal liner replacement about every 5-6 years. ASold the scrap to the Reynolds recycler for ggod money.