Best way to fill in an old swimming pool with high water table :(
Lee Nowell
A friend has an old indoor swimming pool which he got converted into a
playroom. They removed the inner lining and constructed a deck over
the pool enabling him to use the old pool below as a good storage
area. This worked a treat until the winter rains came and it
transpired that the water table is very high and the pool was not
tanked on the outside. Net result water is seeping into the storage
area and stinks!!
Ordinarily, he would fill it all in then finish with a DPM and
concrete slab but this is going to cost a fortune - mainly because of
access/ distance issues to transport the gear to the pool. As a
cheaper option, a builder has suggested dropping the timber deck 100mm
adding some DPM/ sealant on top of it and pouring a 100mm slab of
reinforced concrete. I guess he would have to dig some of the edging
away to ensure the slab sits on the pool side walls. Would this
approach work?
My initial thoughts were...
1. water will still come in below the decking as normal but in theory,
you won't smell it if the slab is fully sealed - seems likely to fail
in the future.
2. during the wet months, water will come in from the "force" of the
surrounding water table. Will this go away in the drier months or just
sit there? The side walls are made of concrete blocks. Even if it
does seep back into the soil, won't it leave a horrible slimy residue?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this approach and whether you
can think of any other option? He did look at tanking it (in the same
way as you would a cellar) but again this was too expensive.
thanks
Lee.
Andrew Gabriel
Lee Nowell <leen...@yahoo.co.uk> writes:
> Hi All,
>
> A friend has an old indoor swimming pool which he got converted into a
> playroom. They removed the inner lining and constructed a deck over
> the pool enabling him to use the old pool below as a good storage
> area. This worked a treat until the winter rains came and it
> transpired that the water table is very high and the pool was not
> tanked on the outside. Net result water is seeping into the storage
> area and stinks!!
>
> Ordinarily, he would fill it all in then finish with a DPM and
> concrete slab but this is going to cost a fortune - mainly because of
> access/ distance issues to transport the gear to the pool. As a
> cheaper option, a builder has suggested dropping the timber deck 100mm
> adding some DPM/ sealant on top of it and pouring a 100mm slab of
> reinforced concrete. I guess he would have to dig some of the edging
> away to ensure the slab sits on the pool side walls. Would this
> approach work?
For a few years, until the timber went rotten and it all caved in
one day when the kids were playing on it.
The other thing is that the walls were probably not built to
withstand the static pressure of the soil long term without static
pressure of the water in the pool to compensate. They might start
collapsing in, and that movement might affect the building's
foundations. You really need a structural engineer to advise, but
if this is the case, you either have to turn it back into a pool,
or backfill with rubble. Structural engineer might advise if you
could use permanent horizontal props between opposing walls
instead, as is temporarily done when trenching. If the walls are
string enough to hold the static soil pressure, then you can
probably get them tanked, or lined and use a sump pump as is
done in cellars below the water table.
--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]
Lee Nowell
> In article <6fc0551b-8512-468c-a3f8-604399252...@c10g2000yqi.googlegroups.com>,
Hi Andrew - good points thank you. I will check on the wall
construction...
What do you think about the water hanging around during the wet months?
Phil L
> Hi All,
>
> A friend has an old indoor swimming pool which he got converted into a
> playroom. They removed the inner lining and constructed a deck over
> the pool enabling him to use the old pool below as a good storage
> area. This worked a treat until the winter rains came and it
> transpired that the water table is very high and the pool was not
> tanked on the outside. Net result water is seeping into the storage
> area and stinks!!
>
> Ordinarily, he would fill it all in then finish with a DPM and
> concrete slab but this is going to cost a fortune - mainly because of
> access/ distance issues to transport the gear to the pool. As a
> cheaper option, a builder has suggested dropping the timber deck 100mm
> adding some DPM/ sealant on top of it and pouring a 100mm slab of
> reinforced concrete. I guess he would have to dig some of the edging
> away to ensure the slab sits on the pool side walls. Would this
> approach work?
>
No.
The timber wouldn't last more than a few years, no ventilation, constantly
damp from the pool water etc, and when it rots away, the slab above is
spanning the entire pool without support
> My initial thoughts were...
> 1. water will still come in below the decking as normal but in theory,
> you won't smell it if the slab is fully sealed - seems likely to fail
> in the future.
> 2. during the wet months, water will come in from the "force" of the
> surrounding water table. Will this go away in the drier months or just
> sit there? The side walls are made of concrete blocks. Even if it
> does seep back into the soil, won't it leave a horrible slimy residue?
>
I think he needs to decide whether he wants to keep this as a storage space
or just cover it up once and for all and forget about it.
If the former, he'll either have to pay out for tanking, or put up with the
water ingress and associated smells, etc, if the latter, and he can't afford
to get it filled, he'll have to cover it up properly.
Concreting over wood is useless for the reasons mentioned earlier, steel is
slightly better but also liable to rot / expand / both.
His other option is to use concrete beams laid from one side to the other
with blocks inbetween (block and beam*) and then concrete over this, you
don't mention the size of the pool, but he may need to build a wall in the
centre of the span to hold up the concrete beams, although this may well
work out more expensive than having it tanked.
--
Phil L
RSRL Tipster Of The Year 2008
Jim K
> Hi All,
>
> A friend has an old indoor swimming pool which he got converted into a
> playroom. They removed the inner lining and constructed a deck over
> the pool enabling him to use the old pool below as a good storage
> area. This worked a treat until the winter rains came and it
> transpired that the water table is very high and the pool was not
> tanked on the outside. Net result water is seeping into the storage
> area and stinks!!
>
"cellar" smell?
Jim K
Lee Nowell
It is a stagnant water stench ......
Andrew Mawson
"Lee Nowell" <leen...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:9a5fab9a-74c9-4ff4...@d8g2000yqf.googlegroups.com...
You can hire sections of conveyor belt intended for moving spoil quite
cheaply, and in urban situations people seem desperate to give away
rubble to avoid skip fees, so it should be perfectly possible to
rubble fill it relatively easily and cheaply despite the distance.
Then a proper concrete floor can be installed delivering the concrete
by the same conveyor.
AWEM
Sidney Endon-Lee
In some countries (I don't know if it applies to the UK), the local
authority requires unused swimming pools to be completely removed -
you can't just simply leave them in the ground. If that is a
requirement where you live, then if the LA has records, filling it
with concrete could turn out to be expensive when you are required to
remove the pool and concrete (or reinstate the pool).
This happened to someone I know in Denmark - he didn't fill his pool
with concrete, but did have to remove the old pool, which was a long
and expensive operation.
Sid
Andrew Gabriel
Sidney Endon-Lee <unop...@mail.com> writes:
> In some countries (I don't know if it applies to the UK), the local
> authority requires unused swimming pools to be completely removed -
> you can't just simply leave them in the ground. If that is a
> requirement where you live, then if the LA has records, filling it
> with concrete could turn out to be expensive when you are required to
> remove the pool and concrete (or reinstate the pool).
So, how do you remove a hole in the ground, other than by filling it?
> This happened to someone I know in Denmark - he didn't fill his pool
> with concrete, but did have to remove the old pool, which was a long
> and expensive operation.
I'm guessing this is because a hole in the ground, when no longer
maintained full of water, is an inherently unstable structure - it's
just waiting to collapse in.
Jim K
<andrew@no_spam_please_mawson.org.uk> wrote:
> "Lee Nowell" <leenow...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
google "miniveyor"
- not cheap to buy or hire IIRC but once you have amassed sufficient
shite to fill the hole, undoubtedly a good way of moving it quickly
and easily - you just shovel it on at one end and eventually it falls
off the other end - hopefully exactly where you want it, spread around
and compact, repeat as necess.
CHeers
Jim K
dennis@home
"Lee Nowell" <leen...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:6fc0551b-8512-468c...@c10g2000yqi.googlegroups.com...
Expanding foam is light and could be removed if he wants a pool back.
Jim K
wrote:
> "Lee Nowell" <leenow...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
erm.... if he made the newer pool smaller it could certainly be nicely
insulated!! er at some cost obvioushly....
Jim K
Chris J Dixon
>I'm guessing this is because a hole in the ground, when no longer
>maintained full of water, is an inherently unstable structure - it's
>just waiting to collapse in.
Or float out?
Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
ch...@cdixon.me.uk
Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.
Martin Bonner
But he should read about canoes on the wiki FIRST!
Grimly Curmudgeon
drugs began to take hold. I remember "dennis@home"
<den...@killspam.kicks-ass.net> saying something like:
>Expanding foam is light and could be removed if he wants a pool back.
A whole swimming pool's worth of foam? How much would that cost? I
suppose it could be sliced out in sections and used for roof/wall
insulation if the pool is wanted later.