Our neighbors had told us that at one point there was a pool in the backyard but about 15 years ago they dug it up and filled it in. Well apparently...they just tore up the decking...threw it in the old shell and covered it up with dirt.

Oh my gosh!!! So what is the PB going to do? Are they going to have to remove all the old debris before the new pool can be built?

I guess it's $250 a load to haul off the trash and another $5000 or so to demo the old shell.

Wow, I'm no expert, but shouldn't that have been in the disclosure when you purchased the home?

I bought the home in 2000 so I guess it's too late to do anything about it now....I'm waiting to hear back from the salesman to find out what we are going to do. The excavation crew is just kind of hanging out now until someone tells them what the plan is.

So I had the options of either having this crew go ahead with trying to break this up or getting an excavation crew in to bid the job. The construction manager said they didn't really have the right equipment to break up the old shell so it may be cheaper and quicker to have the excavation company come in and bid it. They crew is cleaning up right now and I should know in the next couple of days what this means to the budget. Right now it's looking at about a $7000 - $10,000 hit.

That is terrible and that should have been disclosed. I would look into that. So I guess I shouldn't fill in mine.

I bought the home in 2000 so I guess it's too late to do anything about it now....
Not if your in California. You can go back to RE agent and make them pay for everything or tell them you want out of the house. Its a weird state in that regard. We actually found out that a tiny piece of electric was not to code on a house 8 years down the road, and our RE company had to pay for everything to be fixed.

Its too bad, you didn't know about this before hand...if you had told your PB up front, you might have had them absorb it to get the PB contract....but they will get you if they are in the middle of it.

Right now it's looking at about a $7000 - $10,000 hit.
Go to the city and get the plans of what the old pool shape was. Maybe you can demo only half or part of it and make your new pool take on the shape and depth of whats left of the other pool and they can spray new gunite against part of the old shape. Might save a few $.

Wow, what a nightmare!! It's hard to tell in your picture as to how big your yard is, is it possible to move the new pool so that it's not over the top of the old one?

rpoldrack,
Barco is correct if you live in CA. Disclosure laws require RE agents to have selling owners sign disclosure statements for things like this. Previous owner should be on the hook. Most areas require some kind of demo permit so the old pool comes off the property tax rolls. Again, if you are in CA, you have been paying property tax on a non-existing pool. Should be able to get some kind of refund. Good luck.

We are in Dallas, TX. My guess is we are going to just bite the bullet and pay to have the old pool removed. The Excavation guy will be out tomorrow to take a look at it and give us a bid. We knew there was a chance that this could happen but we guessed it might take $2,000 - $3,000 not $7,000 - $10,000.

If you can figure out a way for your plan to fit into demoing only half the pool, it would be more like $3K to $5K. And frankly, there is no real difference between concrete and rock under ground once your new pool is in. $4K-$5K will pay for a deck in some cases.

I live in Texas now. Texas is the opposite of CA. Its Buyer Beware...I don't even think you could get your money back after escrow closes even if there was a toxic waste dump in your back yard. I prefer Texas over CA, and think its a great state and wouldn't want to move back to CA---sorry to offend. :>)

I will be following this closely as we might find the same thing when we get to the point of building our pool (next year maybe??) I know there was a pool back there. We have no idea if it was just filled in or if it was dug up. Keep us posted!

I have to speak up on this. I sell real estate in Texas and we have very strict disclosure laws here.

With that said, the listing agent is only able to verify what she/he was, or was not told by the seller. The seller of the house is the one ultimately responsible for non-disclosure, not the agent -- unless you can prove that the agent knew about the pool and was intentionally deceptive.

Not every agent is a good agent, but the agent did not live in the house, and was not there when the pool was filled in. Go to your state board if you feel that a disclosure law was violated and let them guide you.

Ok...we just go the bid from the Excavation Company...to tear out the old pool it will be $6600. $6900 to do both the pool & my old patio. I have another guy I know that owns a construction company coming out this afternoon to bid the job too.

i am so sorry this is happening to you! and so sorry that they filled IN that pool, which you might have been able to renovate to your liking if they had kept it up and barely operational! good luck!

Quote: "And frankly, there is no real difference between concrete and rock under ground once your new pool is in."

Any of the gunite left in place isn't so much a problem, but the fill that was in it should be completely removed. Every time we do a commercial project on a site where old fuel tanks have been removed we always end up removing all the fill because it was not installed & compacted properly. Usually when people fill a hole they just throw dirt in it until it's full. Seeing all the debris in the fill in the first couple of pics tells me that some cheapo contractor did the work on this fill job and more than likely didn't do it properly. All that fill needs to come out to prevent future uneven settling problems.

This is scary. I bought my house in 1995 and found out that there was a pool but house was vacant so "the town" filled in the pool. I'm getting estimates now. Is "the town" responsible for the cost of removal of old pool!?!?

So the excavation company is coming out on Monday to tear out the old pool. All the people at Riverbend Sandler have been really great. They even helped negotiate the price down a little for me. Hopefully after Monday things we'll get back on track. I'd love to be swimming by Labor Day but who knows what other surprises we will find.

We are going to cross our fingers that you do not have any more surprises and your pool build is smooth sailing from here on out. Good luck on Monday.

From your post Rpoldrack you seem unfazed by the situation. Very calm and collected. I would be having a coronary.
Thank god the smallest hiccup we had was the final grade of the shed pad was 4" to low. They just added to the top it with some rebar drilled into it. Hope the rest of the project goes smoothly for you.

Thanks guys. I've been remodeling the entire house by myself for the last 3 years. I guess once you've lived through ripping down the walls, ceiling, floors, etc a little thing like an old pool in your back yard just doesn't seem like a big deal. :)

Update: The Excavation Company is here breaking up the old pool shell. They have a big wrecking ball they are using. It's actually pretty cool to watch.

The old pool is gone and they new one is dug. We may be ready for gunite by the end of the week.

Hi rpoldrack, looks great please continue to post updates.

Excellent, I'm sure it was a bitter pill to swallow on that change order but you did the right thing in getting all that old garbage out of the ground. Congrats on the dig, looking good so far!

Looks good, you certainly handled that better than I would have....

Ok...plumbing went in yesterday and the steel guys are already on site today. They said it should only take them about 5 hours to finish the steel. These guys are quick.

Oh yeah...we found another patio. :) Apparently, at some point someone decided to pour a patio over the existing patio. I swear it's like an Archaeological dig in my back yard but instead of finding treasure I just dig up more concrete.

oooops, I've been watching this one.

That tablet feeder connected to your salt cell is bad news. There is a check valve in the feeder but it is worthless. If you use that feeder, you will now demo your salt cell with corrosion. They should know better. Move the feeder to an off line type or separate the two units with a corrosion resistant check valve.

Why do you need a chlorine feeder with a salt cell anyways?

Thats too bad about finding more concrete....

Why do you need a chlorine feeder with a salt cell anyways?

They said it's something they do in case you need to add some chlorine after a hard rain or a party with a lot of people.

Yeah, but if you use it you're dumping a super-high concentration of chlorine right into the salt cell! I'd have them remove it and just add bleach when you need to raise your FC levels due to heavy bather load or dilution.

If you need to add a bunch of chlorine quickly because of heavy bather load....tablets are probably "not" the way to go. The tablets will take as long to dissolve as turning on the salt cell to full. One tablet takes about 2-3 days on average for me....which sucks because adding chlorine tablets every 3 days is really the same amount of hassle as dropping in bleach every 3 days.

You can always cut it off after they leave and sell it on EBay I presume.

If you need to add a bunch of chlorine quickly because of heavy bather load....tablets are probably "not" the way to go. The tablets will take as long to dissolve as turning on the salt cell to full. One tablet takes about 2-3 days on average for me....which sucks because adding chlorine tablets every 3 days is really the same amount of hassle as dropping in bleach every 3 days.

You can always cut it off after they leave and sell it on EBay I presume.

ok...so as long as we don't use the chlorine tablet feeder we should have a problem?

The AquaPure, like any other has a boost mode to superchlorinate. If anything, the feeder makes a great cooler with a few ice cubes and one can of beer.

Steel is in.

ok...so as long as we don't use the chlorine tablet feeder we should have a problem?
Yeh, don't put any chemicals in it and after they leave, cut it off and pipe join the two sections and sell it on Ebay. I really don't think you are going to need it with a SWCG. It doesn't make any sense. The only time you are going to need to add chlorine with a SWCG, is if you have some kind of problem and you are going to need a bunch of it quickly. At that point, you will be using superchlorinate and/or shocking probably.

Gunite goes in

Me Wetting Down Gunite

Tile is in...rockwork begins

Does Dallas get that cold for long periods?
Perhaps the feeder is for supplementing the SWCG when the temps drop and it is ineffective although it is in a bad place.

How much did it cost to relocate your electric service? We are still waiting for a quote from our power company.

VICTORY!!!!! We had another 2 week delay because of some fence permit issues. We got the green tag from the inspector yesterday and they had the plaster guys out the same day. We are now filling up the pool. Just in time for fall. :)

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/rpoldrack/FillingPool3.jpg[/IMG]

funny how they do pools different in different areas. My equipment hook up is one of the last things they do. Yet they had your pump and all hooked up before they even had the shell shot.

What color is that plaster?

Wow, seems like a lot of patience went into your project, but it does look GREAT! Enjoy..

I thought the old pool looked better, you should have kept it. Haha! Just kidding, it looks great. Congrats!