From my research I concluded that Playsand should never be used to lay a base for a pool. Instead, use mason sand (all purpose specified for above ground pools). How did yours do after a few years?
ProTip: stake one end of the leveling board into the middle of the circle with any available object (garden stake, a piece of rebar, etc) and then drag the other end around the edge of the circle. I tied it to my lawnmower and had my son drive it in circles for a while, but you can pull it by hand too.
Quick tip to anyone who just bought a above ground pool: do NOT put sand, the water is a lot of wait so the pool will sink in the ground just like my neighbors did
Sand is okay. But they are supposed to put cement blocks under your supports for your wall. Also if the pool is super uneven, all the water weight will push to one side unevenly and cause sinking without the proper support. Paver blocks work well.
Mason sand is the correct sand. Your level will never work half buried on the high end and floating on the low end. I saw someone else say it, but your best bet is to dig out the high end then fill with MASON sand, stake your level and work it in circles. Common red dirt will work too, as long as you screen the rocks out of it. But there should be a disclaimer of this being an example of the wrong way to do something.
Anyone know if it's ok to put a 15×4ft pool ontop of a patio slab. I have sand would I put under tarp or on top of tarp? Pool is being delivered tomorrow :/ Help!!!!????
Eric Whitaker what’s really bad is when you have a Honda Civic and a fenced in backyard lol! I don’t want to carry bags of sand a few trunk loads at a time either...especially when I see most of these people on the Internet still wind up not perfectly level after all the work they did. At 4 or 5 dollars a bag...we’ve been digging at the area since November. We’ve tilled part of it loose, scraped it back...let it get some rainy days on it...look at it scrape some more down...I don’t know. I had a 14 foot in diameter summer waves frame pool up there for a couple years and it was only off by 2 or 3 inches but I want a bigger pool so we’re working at it. I want to put up an 18 foot easy set pool for a year or two because they are cheap and would be easier for my old grey faced chocolate Labrador to get out of. We are also needing to buy lumber to make a small pool deck with stairs (once again as a token of my love for my old dog lol) so hence the cheaper easy set pool.
Good call, I thought we had but that was this year. If anyone is doing this the hard work is in the first year. The years after that it's just a matter of making the corrections to the problems you noticed last year when you were swimming. Also I have found that putting a little bit of a bowl shape on it seems to make it easier to level it. Thanks again for the post and tip!
Stephanie, Thanks for your question. Every situation is going to be different but here's what I'd do. Go to the store and get 5 or 6 bags of play sand. Put them out in one spot and start leveling that area. It should give you an idea of what your needs are for the whole pool. So if it levels out 1/2 your pool then you double it, if it levels out 1/4 then you need another 18 bags (hopefully not). One thing I have learned is it always takes more than I think it will so get a few extra bags when on the next trip. Something to remember is once you get this done right the following years it's a lot easier and you may not need to add any after that. During the fall through spring months we put the trampoline out on this sand area so it gets year round use. Hope this helped you and have a great Memorial Day Weekend! BB
You could give it a shot I have not done it that way. You could also cut grass as short as mower allows and put tarp down for a few days in sun, might kill it off if you have the time. then just spread sand in it and go.
I did this on my 16 foot intex and no problems. I understand what you're saying and on the bigger pools that is much more important I think but on a the smaller ones as long as your material is compacted I feel its ok. 2 years on mine and we just upgraded to a 25 foot pool. On our new pool I took the ground down but ramped on the edges slightly.
yes it's in the same spot I upgraded the pool. I used play sand here. If you're out of level you need to dig down the high spots to get it level with your lowest spot then use the sand to make a soft surface for the pool to rest on. By soft I mean no stones / sticks that can cut your pool bottom. I'll attach a link for you from my new pool build, shows me doing it and may help you
The sand I used on the larger build was a construction sand. I don't remember the name(got it at lowes) but it was supposed to form and hold up better than play sand. I had some play sand mixed in as I leveled out the base but when I went to shape the bottom I used the construction sand. Pool has been up for two years now with no problems.
Yes it works good, this is our second year now using this method. Gets better every year. We let the pool kill the grass the first year, easier that way. the next year all we did was add a few more bags of sand and I put more of a bowl on it, made it a little deeper in the center. I feel that helped out with keep it level.
Mason sand is good, polymeric sand is even better because it's designed to set up more semi-permanently when it gets wet. As others have pointed out, it's better to dig down the high spots than to build up the low spots, but for a small Intex this will be fine. Mine sat there for years with a "low side" two or three inches below the other side. It was noticeable but it wasn't a problem. When I upgraded to a metal-walled AGP we dug and leveled properly.
i found a chart on another video that said for a 15' wide pool, which is what I am about to put up, you need 1 ton of sand approx. I don't know what guidelines that chart was using, but buying the sand by the bag is a gigantic rip off. I just bought 10 bags which is 1/4 ton for $63. I just found out I can buy 1 ton of sand for $37 at the hardware store just down the street and they'll load it into my truck with a bobcat. I'm taking the bagged sand back today and picking up the other sand which is almost 8x cheaper.
Eric Whitaker what’s really bad is when you have a Honda Civic and a fenced in backyard lol! I don’t want to carry bags of sand a few trunk loads at a time either...especially when I see most of these people on the Internet still wind up not perfectly level after all the work they did. At 4 or 5 dollars a bag...we’ve been digging at the area since November. We’ve tilled part of it loose, scraped it back...let it get some rainy days on it...look at it scrape some more down...I don’t know. I had a 14 foot in diameter summer waves frame pool up there for a couple years and it was only off by 2 or 3 inches but I want a bigger pool so we’re working at it. I want to put up an 18 foot easy set pool for a year or two because they are cheap and would be easier for my old grey faced chocolate Labrador to get out of. We are also needing to buy lumber to make a small pool deck with stairs (once again as a token of my love for my old dog lol) so hence the cheaper easy set pool.
I understand what you're saying but it is in it's 2nd year now. I went over the grass because I didn't feel like cutting out and pulling the sod, just laid the sand, smoothed it and leveled it. I did see some areas I wanted to improve on this year and since the pool had been there for all of last summer and part of the fall it had killed the grass so this year it was a lot easier to level it out(no sod to cut out) and get it how I wanted it. I put a slight bowl shape to it and the pool sits perfectly level.
You need it as close to level as possible or you will have 3 extra inches of water pushing against one side. I don't remember now how much it was out of wack but my wife set it up and started filling it and it was leaning towards the house. That's how this video came to be
Did you pull a permit for that is it built to code before staring a project like this make sure you make sure you dont have to pull a permit just in case you have a snitch neighbore every one
From my research I concluded that Playsand should never be used to lay a base for a pool. Instead, use mason sand (all purpose specified for above ground pools). How did yours do after a few years?
ProTip: stake one end of the leveling board into the middle of the circle with any available object (garden stake, a piece of rebar, etc) and then drag the other end around the edge of the circle. I tied it to my lawnmower and had my son drive it in circles for a while, but you can pull it by hand too.
Curious to what happened when it rained? Didn't it wash away the sand? Your supposed to dig from the lowest point.
Quick tip to anyone who just bought a above ground pool: do NOT put sand, the water is a lot of wait so the pool will sink in the ground just like my neighbors did
Sand is okay. But they are supposed to put cement blocks under your supports for your wall. Also if the pool is super uneven, all the water weight will push to one side unevenly and cause sinking without the proper support. Paver blocks work well.
Mason sand is the correct sand. Your level will never work half buried on the high end and floating on the low end. I saw someone else say it, but your best bet is to dig out the high end then fill with MASON sand, stake your level and work it in circles. Common red dirt will work too, as long as you screen the rocks out of it.
But there should be a disclaimer of this being an example of the wrong way to do something.
You explained exactly what I needed to know!! Thanks!
you need about 2 tons of sand for a 15 ft wide pool just fyi man, and play sand is no bueno, use masonry sand.
Anyone know if it's ok to put a 15×4ft pool ontop of a patio slab. I have sand would I put under tarp or on top of tarp? Pool is being delivered tomorrow :/ Help!!!!????
Eric Whitaker what’s really bad is when you have a Honda Civic and a fenced in backyard lol! I don’t want to carry bags of sand a few trunk loads at a time either...especially when I see most of these people on the Internet still wind up not perfectly level after all the work they did. At 4 or 5 dollars a bag...we’ve been digging at the area since November. We’ve tilled part of it loose, scraped it back...let it get some rainy days on it...look at it scrape some more down...I don’t know. I had a 14 foot in diameter summer waves frame pool up there for a couple years and it was only off by 2 or 3 inches but I want a bigger pool so we’re working at it. I want to put up an 18 foot easy set pool for a year or two because they are cheap and would be easier for my old grey faced chocolate Labrador to get out of. We are also needing to buy lumber to make a small pool deck with stairs (once again as a token of my love for my old dog lol) so hence the cheaper easy set pool.
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Don't use play sand.use all purpose sand it compacts
Thanks! Super helpful!
You're welcome Carrie. Appreciate the post
Tip: remove all grass before leveling pool for better results.
Good call, I thought we had but that was this year. If anyone is doing this the hard work is in the first year. The years after that it's just a matter of making the corrections to the problems you noticed last year when you were swimming. Also I have found that putting a little bit of a bowl shape on it seems to make it easier to level it. Thanks again for the post and tip!
Yep just settles more more if you dont
What do you Think For a 488cm pool. How much sand?
You dont bring up the low spots the bring the high spots down.
Not when their point is to avoid digging. They would rather buy sand than dig level.
The pool will settle this will not work
put a stake in the middle so wifey doesn't have to hold the 2x4 lol
how much sand would you need for a 22x52 above ground pool
Stephanie, Thanks for your question. Every situation is going to be different but here's what I'd do. Go to the store and get 5 or 6 bags of play sand. Put them out in one spot and start leveling that area. It should give you an idea of what your needs are for the whole pool. So if it levels out 1/2 your pool then you double it, if it levels out 1/4 then you need another 18 bags (hopefully not). One thing I have learned is it always takes more than I think it will so get a few extra bags when on the next trip. Something to remember is once you get this done right the following years it's a lot easier and you may not need to add any after that. During the fall through spring months we put the trampoline out on this sand area so it gets year round use. Hope this helped you and have a great Memorial Day Weekend! BB
I bought 4 tons is that enough
For a 14 foot round pool, what should the outside circle be
At least 2 feet bigger, I'd go for 4 feet, that leaves cleared ground that you can put some gravel down or pea stone
would it work if I laid the sand on top of a tarp to level out instead of removing grass?
You could give it a shot I have not done it that way. You could also cut grass as short as mower allows and put tarp down for a few days in sun, might kill it off if you have the time. then just spread sand in it and go.
Better put some kind of retaining border on the low end or runoff will be a bitch with sand
Wrong. Pool will settle into what you just did. Bring DOWN not build up.
I did this on my 16 foot intex and no problems. I understand what you're saying and on the bigger pools that is much more important I think but on a the smaller ones as long as your material is compacted I feel its ok. 2 years on mine and we just upgraded to a 25 foot pool. On our new pool I took the ground down but ramped on the edges slightly.
We did this same process with our smaller initex pool. It did sink alittle about an inch? But overall it worked.
I don't know why you got any thumbs down! I've been through 10 videos and this one is the best so far! THANKS
Try it and then get back to us.
Is your pool still on the same spot? Did u have any problem with the sand? Is that play sand?
yes it's in the same spot I upgraded the pool. I used play sand here. If you're out of level you need to dig down the high spots to get it level with your lowest spot then use the sand to make a soft surface for the pool to rest on. By soft I mean no stones / sticks that can cut your pool bottom. I'll attach a link for you from my new pool build, shows me doing it and may help you
ua-cam.com/video/_nWbnFYk7BQ/v-deo.html
The sand I used on the larger build was a construction sand. I don't remember the name(got it at lowes) but it was supposed to form and hold up better than play sand. I had some play sand mixed in as I leveled out the base but when I went to shape the bottom I used the construction sand. Pool has been up for two years now with no problems.
The sand cement mixture have dried up and there are rocks in it now, what do i do?
so does this work because we where doing the same thing but putting weed killer on top of the grass and a tarp on top of the sand and alittle grass
Yes it works good, this is our second year now using this method. Gets better every year. We let the pool kill the grass the first year, easier that way. the next year all we did was add a few more bags of sand and I put more of a bowl on it, made it a little deeper in the center. I feel that helped out with keep it level.
First mistake among many others in this video is your using the wrong sand.Never use play sand use the sand bricklayers use.
Mason sand is good, polymeric sand is even better because it's designed to set up more semi-permanently when it gets wet. As others have pointed out, it's better to dig down the high spots than to build up the low spots, but for a small Intex this will be fine. Mine sat there for years with a "low side" two or three inches below the other side. It was noticeable but it wasn't a problem. When I upgraded to a metal-walled AGP we dug and leveled properly.
How many lbs of sand is needed for that size pool
i found a chart on another video that said for a 15' wide pool, which is what I am about to put up, you need 1 ton of sand approx. I don't know what guidelines that chart was using, but buying the sand by the bag is a gigantic rip off. I just bought 10 bags which is 1/4 ton for $63. I just found out I can buy 1 ton of sand for $37 at the hardware store just down the street and they'll load it into my truck with a bobcat. I'm taking the bagged sand back today and picking up the other sand which is almost 8x cheaper.
Eric Whitaker what’s really bad is when you have a Honda Civic and a fenced in backyard lol! I don’t want to carry bags of sand a few trunk loads at a time either...especially when I see most of these people on the Internet still wind up not perfectly level after all the work they did. At 4 or 5 dollars a bag...we’ve been digging at the area since November. We’ve tilled part of it loose, scraped it back...let it get some rainy days on it...look at it scrape some more down...I don’t know. I had a 14 foot in diameter summer waves frame pool up there for a couple years and it was only off by 2 or 3 inches but I want a bigger pool so we’re working at it. I want to put up an 18 foot easy set pool for a year or two because they are cheap and would be easier for my old grey faced chocolate Labrador to get out of. We are also needing to buy lumber to make a small pool deck with stairs (once again as a token of my love for my old dog lol) so hence the cheaper easy set pool.
With that much of a slope, it'll probably collapse in a few months. Better to remove than add foundation.
I understand what you're saying but it is in it's 2nd year now. I went over the grass because I didn't feel like cutting out and pulling the sod, just laid the sand, smoothed it and leveled it. I did see some areas I wanted to improve on this year and since the pool had been there for all of last summer and part of the fall it had killed the grass so this year it was a lot easier to level it out(no sod to cut out) and get it how I wanted it. I put a slight bowl shape to it and the pool sits perfectly level.
Ok, nice
Did I hear 2-3 inches over the course of the entire pool? Was this even that necessary?
You need it as close to level as possible or you will have 3 extra inches of water pushing against one side. I don't remember now how much it was out of wack but my wife set it up and started filling it and it was leaning towards the house. That's how this video came to be
not the correct way to install a pool disaster in waiting
I pray to God you don’t do this for a living.
nope... i sell sand
Did you pull a permit for that is it built to code before staring a project like this make sure you make sure you dont have to pull a permit just in case you have a snitch neighbore every one