Inground Pool Removal/Fill

[JigginGopher]

Anybody have any experience with this? Bought a house a couple years ago that has an inground pool in the backyard. The expenses for upkeep doesn't make sense living in Minnesota and i would rather just have trees and grass to enjoy rather than concrete! My wife seems to think I'm superman and can get a few buddies together and take care of it (she read about it online so it must be that simple )! I'm more of a realist and know that will only led to a mess, sore back, and a complete summer of on/off work if i'm lucky. Has anyone ventured down this path before? Do i need to pay the premium for having a pool removal company do it or would hiring a demo crew do the job? Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

[GSB Ice Man]

I have seen this done before. A demo crew would be able to complete the task. They will have to demo, remove, dispose, and then fill. Make sure they compact the new soil they install.

[pureinsanity]

Borrow a buddies skid loader for a couple weekends. Any contractor should be able to take this on. Try to salvage the pool parts such as pump and filtration system and sell it.

[Farmboy1]

I have the same job to do this summer. As a contractor, I may have a few more options than you do, but this is what I plan to do.

I will have (2) 20 yd dumpsters set. A friend of mine runs roll-offs, so he I am going to fill one right away, and get him hauling. There are many places that will take concrete for very cheap and sometimes free because they crush it and sell it back as rock base. Find a place like that within a decent range

(1) skidloader with a breaker on front, and another with a bucket on it. When removin concrete it helps a bunch to have a guy lift the edge of the concrete, then hammer it into chunks. It tends to break right where you want it if you have it on tension and you don't have to hammer all day. Once I get about a foot below grade, I will break the concrete up, but leave it in place. I don't need it to hold water, but there is no need to remove the entire thing if it is below grade.

Keep filling up the roll offs and cleanin up as needed. When the concrete is gone, backfill with whatever you have available and then about 10-16" of black dirt.

Not an easy job, but do able if you have the equipment. I wil say there is no way I would do it if I could not get my hands on the equipment. Hand jackhammering would take FOREVER and not worth it IMHO.

I figure I wil have about $1,000 in it all said and done

Good luck.

[spearchucker]

Stock it with fish and you have your own lake.

[Farmboy1]

I did not finish my thought.

$1,000 will be in fuel and dirt/fill costs. I have the equpment available by other means.

I could use an extra hand if you want to see how it is done Place is on Pool 4 past Lake City and we could chase some fishies when done.

[JigginGopher]

Thanks for the replies guys! This information has helped me out.

Farmboy1 - Depending on when you start the project this summer I may be game to help out for a day. It wouldnt be the first time i traded labor for some time in a boat I graduated from Winona Univ. in 2005 so its been awhile since i got out fishing in that neck of the woods!

[ac777]

Here's a thought, don't know if this is legal in the city or not, but what if you busted off the top section with a skid steer and piled it all in the bottom of the pool, bust a few hole open in the bottom of the pool for water to drain and then filled the rest in with dirt. Then you would save the cost of hauling stuff, and you wouldn't need as much fill to get it filled. Like I said, I'm from Rural MN, so I don't know all the codes and such in the cities, but just a thought.

[Farmboy1]

It would work, however the problem become that you cannot compact any of the soils because the concrete "bridges". After a few big rains you will have sinkholes due to the soils falling into these voids. I have seen it before and it might work good in a cowyard, but not so well in a nice backyard. Just MHO

[bowhunter54]

I removed my 20 X 40 inground with a 10 foot concrete deck around entire pool area about 10 years ago. I got qoutes from three excavators for removal of concrete and fill the hole to grade. The quotes at that time were in the $3000 range. The excavator was looking for work and I talked him into doing it for $2000. He hauled out over 12 large dump trucks full of concrete and I lost count the number of loads of fill that were hauled in to fill the hole. I can't remember if it was a two or three day job with 2 guys running dump trucks one in a large JD backhoe and one loading the dumps with fill. I am happy I decided to contract out the job.