I can't say first hand about them doing damage to the gunite, but what about all the pipes that go to the pool? They are just PVC and can easily break at the fittings. I have had 11 leaks in my pool just because the soil wasn't properly compacted and settled. Nothing to do with massive roots putting pressure on them. Let's see what everyone else says.

Well, a ficus BUSH is really a ficus TREE cut to size. The ficus knows it's a tree and will send out roots accordingly even as you keep it pruned.
My backyard neighbor's ficus tree has sent roots the size of tree limbs into my yard.

We once lived next to a guy with a Ficus Benjamina hedge along the back of his property. The roots from his shrubs came all along the side between the houses where it proceeded to travel on and tear apart our sewer system in the front corner of our lot near the street! Beware!

OK, I've started removing the ficus! Not too hard to do the biggest root I've found has been about the size of your thumb maybe a little bigger... now for the roots left in the ground, Do I need to worry about them? Will they just die? Oh, by the way, does anybody want any free ficus. :)

livelife-Congrats girl, that is a very good, even though tough, sweat worthy project. I don't know about roots left in the ground. Do they keep growing?

Way To Go...nasty plants that will last for centuries if not removed.

The roots in the ground will die. If you are looking for a fast, inexpensive replacement - Cocoplum is a Florida native and can be grown into a hedge of almost any size. The roots will not travel far enough to cause your pool any problems.

My parents swimming pool was completely destroyed by the extensive damage caused by the next door neighbor’s fica tree. It cost them $45K to rebuild a new one on the opposite side of their yard! I’ve heard similar horror stories about the Fica’s invasive root system — it will eventually destroy anything in its path.

Had a friend in Venice who planted a ficus 20 feet from her house. Twenty years later, when she tried to sell her house, found out it had cracked the foundation and water was seeping up under her floor. She never noticed it because she had a floating wood floor over the concrete. She couldn't sell her house, so she took the tree out, killed the roots, then just tore the house down, ripped out the foundation, and built a new house.