During the construction phase is the best time since everything is chewed on in the back yard anyway. As for specific remedies, without a soils report, survey and visual of the surrounding area, I couldn't offer more advice. Some of the remedies include dry wells, soil replacement, lawn drains and so on. Tanning ledges, BTW on a liner pool need a special, thick material to withstand the pounding of people bringing in lounge chairs and such and this will drive up the cost for the liner and replacements in the years to come. This thicker material is usually a solid white or blue. Most liners have a pattern and this section will not match. When a liner pool has steel steps instead of vinyl or fiberglass steps, the same material is used over the steps and, surprise, these liners cost more to purchase and install. Often, people opt for buddy seats with jets. They make some pretty neat ones that you can change the seat back and it changes the jets or the plain ones with or without jets. They are still comfortable and often have an umbrella stand built in. Scott

quote" and will heat it again next week for spring break. "quote I'm incredibly jealous. This is the first spring break in as long as I can remember that I haven't started heating a pool on the Thursday prior. I guess I'm getting old, I don't feel like a multiple Grandpa but I am, I don't feel like I'm old but my baby is 14, and she's the only one left out of all of them that's still at home. The truth is that my wife says I'm the biggest kid of the bunch. My business and my hobbies keep me young at heart. I still love the thrill of speed and racing kids right up until that millisecond before I hit the dirt, pavement, or the water, LOL!!! The morning after is when I feel my age, LMAO!!! quote" you said something to the effect of when you dive in whatever size pool it is, you get just as wet. "quote I don't remember the reply, but I'd feel reasonably certain that I probably followed it up with is that all you get in a larger pool is more elbow room. I've told pool buyers wanting a big pool with a small pool budget this for decades. Having big pools is like having children, if you wait until you can afford it, you'll never do it. Thanks for supporting the industry with your pool purchase. I'm sure the sweetness of pool ownership in Mississippi is AWESOME stuff. You guys enjoy the same great swim season we enjoy in SE Texas. See ya, Kelly

Im posting on this to bring this thread back to life. Lots of good information here. I just saw this post from Uniondawg and feel kind of relieved. Artisian is one of the pool builders I wanted to get a quote from. He didnt seem to want the business. We live out of state, and are building in the Charlotte area. I told him we were coming in for a few days for the sole purpose of meeting with a few pool builders and he couldnt find an hour to give me, even a month out. I felt like I was begging him to take my business. After asking about three different times on two different days and being met with, "thats family time, or Im pretty sure im booked" it was obvious to me he wasnt interested in my business. He was very nice, but strange behavior for a business man. Too many other pool builders in the area to be dealing with that. Plenty of other reputable pool builders out there that want the business.

There are different types of clay, some are extremely expansive and others are actually fairly stable. It is hard to say what caused the popping in the photo without more info. Most stories of popped pools are due to the pool being empty and then the water table rises due to excessive rains. When that happens it basically floats the pool right out of the hole. But since your neighbor's pool had water in it when it popped, I'm guessing you're sitting on some very expansive clays and possibly his pool was installed during dry conditions and it rose 4" after some wetter weather as the clays expanded. Then when he emptied it, it made things worse because the water table was so high it just floated the pool. If you are on highly expansive clays, you need to be very concerned about the subgrade prep regardless of what kind of pool you put in. There are things that can be done such as installing the pool on piers, moisture treating the subgrade, installing a drainage system and/ or over-excavating the dig and putting in select fill. I would highly recommend getting a structural engineer involved through the PB. If the PB says not to worry about it, they do this all the time and it will be fine; then look for another PB! Good luck!