The "Burying our above-ground pool" thread

[TMan]

So you're getting an brand new above-ground pool? Great! The whole family is excited and they should be. The salesman mentioned something about 'burying' your pool. What? "Yes, for a bit e$tra we can dig down 1-3 feet and bury your pool. It will look nice, you'll be able to put a small deck around it." You talk it over and think, neato! Then you search around the internet and find Ben's wonderful advice, and this forum. More specifically this topic.
Are you ready for some real-world experiences? More importantly, a 10-year new experience with burying an ABG? Let's go!
We bought a big pool even by in-ground standards, 18'x33', with a deep-end. It is a wonderful pool that's large enough for all the neighbors in the Texas heat. Excavation was done 3' down on the low side with a hill on the tall side resulting in about 6' of ground cut-away. Then a deep-end was added, nice! Installed was a Lomart steel-wall medium-grade pool. A deck was built around one end and down one side. We did not 'backfill' into the space but we did put some loose cedar chips in on the low-side per advice of pool store. The 2d year of operation we knew more (reading this forum and getting Ben's test kit) and we added a salt chlorinator. All was well with the big pool. 10 years after installation the liner pushed outward thru a hole in the pool wall. It was about 12" long and 6" high. Liner did not rip and we almost finished the swimming season without incident until the pool wall gave way about 5' away near a post. Dirt had fallen (washed) into the space between the embankment and the pool wall covering up to 1.5feet of the pool wall in some places. Didn't seem like much, right? Look at the pictures here
That's just a few feet of the pool wall, it's rusted like that many places all around. What happens is that when the ground gets wet, it starts to rust just a bit. No problems, but as it rusts a bit more, water then seeps in between the wall and the liner and over time rain/splash water gets pulled up between the wall and the liner and rusts from the inside out. You can see the outside fares much better leaving the inside to rust away
This is what is happening to your posts underneath the dirt packed against the side of your steel pool
We are replacing the pool and now I have a retaining wall which will keep the dirt from crumbling into the ditch between the pool wall and banks.
Don't get me wrong, we have had years and years of play and enjoyment while 'beating up' this pool with loads of teenagers .. and adults! So think twice before deciding whether to bury your pool. And think again when burying to make damn sure you don't backfill and plan to get in that ditch and keep the area around the bottom clean. We're expecting 15yrs or more on this next one. Good luck and happy swimming!

[PoolDoc]

Thanks for your post . . . and pictures, Tman. If you've got larger version, would you mind sending them to me at poolforum AT gmail DOT com?

You might want to look at this site and product line:
http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/...ate75x6x12.htm

At least in theory, installing zinc sacrificial anodes in the soil with the walls and electrically attaching them to your pool walls -- probably via your bond wires -- you should be able to protect the pool. Of course, you'll have to dig them up and replace them every (??) years. (I've never heard of any one doing this, so I have no idea how long they would last.)

Ben