How to make a platform for a frame pool

Recommendation points

• What is an unpaved site
• Site preparation
• Unforeseen difficulties
• Supports for legs
• Installation of a cushion for a frame pool

A frame pool is one of the best methods for organizing an artificial reservoir in the country. All thanks to the ease of assembly, minimum maintenance efforts and low cost. Nevertheless, when installing such a pool, you must comply with a number of requirements for site preparation..

What is an unpaved site

Most of the pools are installed on the ground. Solutions with the arrangement of a terrace or concrete site are good in their own way, but these options are more complicated and costly. Most often they resort to the preparation of the soil base, because all the work is easy to do yourself with minimal investment.

So, what qualities should a platform for a frame pool have:

1. It must have sufficient bearing capacity so that the soil does not sink under the body of water.
2. The platform must be leveled horizontally so that the water level in the pool is uniform over the entire area, and the bowl itself does not begin to slide down the slope.
3. The presence of gravel, glass, twigs and other sharp objects on the surface is unacceptable.
4. The site and the area adjacent to the pool must be hygroscopic so that splashing water does not form mud.
5. It is important to make the thermal conductivity of the bed as low as possible so that the water does not cool down from contact with the ground..

However, the most important requirement is that the site retains its properties over time: it does not sag, does not erode, does not wipe the bottom of the pool. Many frame pools are not drained or dismantled after the swimming season, which is possible with modern water treatment stations. In this regard, it is better to eliminate any possibility of repair or alteration of the site, because a modern frame pool can and should be stationary.

Site preparation

First of all, you need to make a markup and prepare the soil on the site. Frame pools can have round, oval and rectangular bowls. The easiest way to take dimensions in real life is to assemble the frame and mark its dimensions with pegs driven into the ground. But sometimes you have to resort to marking, because the site can be prepared before the pool itself is made and delivered to the site.

When choosing a place for a pool site, consider the proximity of cellars, foundations, drain pits and technical wells. It is undesirable to place the pool under the crowns of trees and near fruit-bearing plants. Also, do not install the pool over old concrete structures or in places where capital buildings were previously located..

Round pools are easy to mark with a compass – a rod driven into the ground in the center and a rope on a sliding loop. Oval pools are marked in a similar way, but in this case there are two circles connected by tangents. To mark rectangular pools, it is enough to drive in four pegs, then check the equality of the sides and diagonals.

Please note that the platform should protrude beyond the dimensions of the bowl. Firstly, the pool frame is slightly displaced outward relative to the rubber walls, and secondly, it is very convenient when the fallen water immediately seeps around the pool, and soft sand underfoot. In this regard, it is recommended to prepare a platform of such dimensions that it protrudes beyond the frame by 80-100 cm on each side, it is recommended to make a tide up to 2 m wide at the place where the stairs are installed.

All that needs to be done from earthworks is to remove the fertile soil layer with plants and roots. When a sufficiently dense sedimentary rock is exposed, you need to clean up the walls and check the size. After that, the bottom of the site is planned. In the standard version of the platform, it is aligned horizontally.

There is, however, a tricky trick: after leveling the bottom at the walls, start evenly deepening the middle of the pit. This will increase the maximum pool depth, but it will make it difficult to drain the water. On the other hand, bottom sludge will always accumulate in a small area in the center, making it easier to clean the pool..

In the general case, the bowl is deepened in this way by 1/3 of the height of the walls, but the bottom can also have a large curvature, it all depends on the size of the pool. Without harm to the structure, it is possible to deepen to 1/2 the height of the walls, but in this case the lower part of the walls will be extended to the center and the vector of the load on the legs will deviate from the vertical. Therefore, strong penetration is possible only if the frame is sound and strong enough..

Unforeseen difficulties

It is necessary to foresee in advance those non-obvious moments that can spoil the result even with a seemingly absolutely correct organization of the site. An example of this is rodents that tear up the soil under the pool, which causes subsidence, leading to the formation of unevenness in the bottom and the collapse of the legs..

The only adequate option to combat this phenomenon is to lay a galvanized metal mesh with a fine mesh (up to 10 mm) along the walls and bottom of the pit. The second method, which gives only a temporary effect, is the annual scaring away of earth-moving animals using a deep vibrator for concrete shrinkage.

To combat rodents, you can use electronic or homemade repellents.

Another problem that can be encountered when operating a frame pool is the germination of overgrowth from trees and shrubs. Some trees have such tough and fast-growing shoots that it is only a matter of time before they pierce the bottom of the bowl. However, the plant will not develop a root system in soil whose pH is very different from normal. The electrolyte for lead batteries, which is poured into the pit at the rate of 0.5 l / m, will help to permanently change the acidity of the soil.².

Another not obvious danger is when the pool bowl is located at the border of the site with subsiding soil. When wetted, it is pressed more strongly, which leads to a skewed bowl. Possible areas of subsidence can be determined by uneven absorption of water after the pit has been dug out and leveled in a horizontal plane. Spill the bottom well and mark the places where moisture goes away almost immediately, while there are puddles in other areas. You can also be convinced of a significant difference in soil density by pinning to a depth of 1 m after abundant wetting – on subsiding soil, the pin enters the ground much easier.

Installation of a frame pool on an area with a slope

A fairly common difficulty that summer residents face is installing a pool on a slope. In this case, the only option for preparation on the ground is terracing with a tie-in into the upper part of the site. Thus, on the one hand, the pool will stand on the ground, and on the other, it will smoothly deepen into the ground with an indentation from the walls of the terrace of at least 0.5 m.If the ground walls exceed the height of the sides of the pool, they must be reinforced with masonry or undersized bushes.

Supports for legs

The frame rests along the contour on the posts, thus supporting the walls of the bowl. And although the main load from the pool falls on the bottom, the pressure in the places where the frame legs are installed is higher due to the small support area. Often there are problems with pushing the legs into the ground, due to which the pool wall is blown out and at the same time squeezes out the leg. Uneven load distribution also leads to rupture of welded seams and deterioration of frame elements..

There is only one way to prevent the legs from sinking into the ground – by organizing support pads under them that can withstand a concentrated load. Initially, you will need to mark the locations of the legs, for which you can assemble a frame on site or simply use a tape measure.

The simplest version of the support patches is 3-4 bricks stacked on top of each other and buried in the ground. In this case, the surface of the upper bricks should lie in one plane, which coincides with the plane of the finished site.

Another way is to pour concrete cylinders without reinforcement before excavation and install a frame on them. A round pit with a depth of up to 0.5 m serves as a formwork; a piece of a 5 liter plastic water canister will come off as an upper side. The upper edges must be aligned in the general horizon with the water or laser level.

It is recommended to avoid materials such as timber, paving or stone tiles, and shingles as foot pads. Some materials simply crack under stress, while others are prone to decay and corrosion. You should choose the most durable of the possible options, because we are considering a site for a frame pool with the expectation of a stationary installation.

Installation of a cushion for a frame pool

The embankment under the pool has a uniform thickness and completely repeats the relief of the bottom of the pit. The exception is the top layer, which is designed to level irregularities and equip a perfectly flat and soft surface.

If, after removing the sod, the depth of the pit turned out to be more than 20 cm, illiquid bulk building materials and chernozem with admixtures of clay, construction battle or coal slag can be poured onto the bottom. Any materials that are incompressible, hygroscopic, or contain no organic matter will do..

A crushed stone backfill with a thickness of 15–17 cm is necessary to absorb a large amount of moisture and its rapid evaporation. However, if we are talking about a deepened pit, water will constantly flow into the central part. If there is a slope on the site, it is enough to simply lay a drainage pipe from the center towards the fall of the ground level. On flat areas, a puncture of the upper waterproof layer with a 50 mm pipe will help. If the GWL is low, and the upper layer of sedimentary rocks is represented by sandy loam or other hygroscopic soil, this problem is not relevant. How to determine the level of groundwater, Our site told in detail.

The gravel pad is poured in one layer, compacted by hand. After that, geotextiles are rolled from above with a density of 300 g / m² and make sand filling. It is better to take washed quarry sand, the content of clay or other dense inclusions is unacceptable. Expanded volcanic rocks, expanded clay and stone chips can also be used instead of sand..

The upper layer of the embankment should be carried out in layers of 2-3 cm, spilling abundantly with water. The soft surface of the pillow should be 3-5 cm higher than the level of the adjacent area. Using the support platforms as beacons, you need to align the ring, stepping back a meter inward from the border of the bowl installation. Further, as evenly as possible, you should smooth out the central part of the site.

It remains only to lay the insulator on top of the sand. It performs two functions – it excludes abrasion of the bottom when the water fluctuates in the bowl, and also provides thermal insulation of the pool from the ground. A standard substrate for frame pools can act as an insulator, but often its properties are insufficient. A complete replacement for such a substrate will be inexpensive foamed polyethylene in 2-3 layers with a total thickness of up to 30 mm.

A more reliable material will be foamed rubber or mats on a polyurethane foam base. Parts of the substrate must be glued together on both sides in a joint using construction tape. After installing and filling the pool, the insulator should be cut with an indentation of 5 cm from the bowl, and the protruding edges should be sprinkled with a 5-7 cm layer of sand or fine expanded clay, which will cultivate the place where the pool adjoins to the platform and will serve as a soft footpath covering the track.