OT: Drainage around a pool

Aug 24, 2012
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We had a liner pool installed approximately 7 years ago. The recent rains have caused sink holes to form in flower beds located adjacent to the pool wall. We have considered adding additional French Drains in this area to facilitate moving the water out more quickly, but not sure this is the answer. Don’t know if we need to consider mud jacking or not. Anybody know of someone that we could call to consult about this issue in the Jackson area?

Thanks
 

Russ Wheeler

Redshirt
Aug 3, 2020
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Can you add some pictures and how far away from the pool? I would be afraid you may have a leak in your plumbing.
Yeah I doubt rain is causing this particular sinkhole. It might be exacerbating it, but the cause was likely already there.
 
Sep 18, 2014
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We had a liner pool installed approximately 7 years ago. The recent rains have caused sink holes to form in flower beds located adjacent to the pool wall. We have considered adding additional French Drains in this area to facilitate moving the water out more quickly, but not sure this is the answer. Don’t know if we need to consider mud jacking or not. Anybody know of someone that we could call to consult about this issue in the Jackson area?

Thanks

Channel drains from National Diversified Sales. nds-pro.com
 

Jeffreauxdawg

All-American
Dec 15, 2017
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You are not going to be able to "mud jack" near a liner pool. You could destroy the walls and plumbing. In fact, mudjacking is almost completely obsolete these days. As someone else said, you likely have a plumbing leak unless there is absolutely no plumbing or overflow drains on that side of the pool. If it was closer to the build, I would lean towards it being a compaction issue. If you are in clay soil, its possible to get some sinkhole action with heavy rains after extreme drought. That is usually reserved for Texas and Colorado though as I doubt you get five or six month long droughts in MS.

If you isolate that its not a leak, it may be some old compaction issues rearing their ugly head. There are some techniques with subterranean polyurethene injections that can fill voids and compact soils, but it gets expensive quick and you run the risk of the foam finding its way into pool plumbing and then you are digging it up anyway. They would probably require SPT tests from a Geotech as well. By the time its all said and done, you might be close to the cost of ripping out and replacing the pool. Uretek is the only company I would trust near a pool... Not cheap.

I haven't messed with liner pools since building a few for a guy from church as a summer job in high school. But I have done a lot of remediation work (and turned even more down) for gunite pools experiencing settlement issues. I would lean towards hiring somebody to hand dig out the area (It was likely backfilled with a sandy fill and not compacted really well at construction.) Once dug out you can inspect plumbing and refill in 3-4" lifts compacted properly after leaks are repaired if present. I would drain the pool partially as the dig is taking place and watch out for ground water, you don't want to float your liner.

Other option is to hire a pool plumbing repair company to see if they can identify a leak. If not, just fill the depressions from the top through the flower bed and monitor. If you do not have a leak and the pool liner is not floating, its just a compaction issue and all of the rain might have done what the pool builder couldn't. After filling and leveling, then you can put in some drainage. Not french unless you discover tons of ground water. Surface drains and proper grading. French drains should be used to move subterranean groundwater... Surface drains and grading move rainfall/surface water.


Post pics if you can I would like to see.
 

Dawgbite

All-American
Nov 1, 2011
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Sink holes usually mean underground water flow. A pool leak of that volume should be noticeable in the pools water level. You mentioned other French drains, could be a blowout in a drain pipe. Underground gutter pipes are a common cause of sink holes, do you have any of those nearby?
 

Dawg_4_lifes

Redshirt
Sep 17, 2016
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nice flowers! just kidding. I would have someone come look at it. I would suggest a landscaping company that also does pool work inhouse. From that picture it could be anything really. It could be something as simple as the flower bed settling overtime, but it could be a leak in the pool also or a failure in an existing drainage system.

Is this the only place you see this? Do you have any other spots showing erosion or sink holes?
 

Crazy Cotton

All-Conference
Aug 26, 2012
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Any movement in the deck around the pool? I inherited a pool with the last house and noticed the deck had sunk a fraction or two. Had a tiny pool leak that was washing out under the deck so no sink hole to alert me to the problem, sinking deck was the first indication. Ended up doing a urethane foam injection under the deck to raise it after repair of the leak, that has held well for the last 5 or six years. Not in the Jackson area but sounds like that may be available based on the comments in the thread.
 

Jeffreauxdawg

All-American
Dec 15, 2017
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You should be fine. Thats just a compaction issue. A good landscaping company should be able to help you. Dig it out a little bit, fill in the holes, compact the dirt, put in a heavy plastic water barrier and put in some surface or channel drains in. The water has nowhere to go in there and the path of least resistance is along the wall of the pool.