Compacted Sand

by Rick McComb
(Winnemucca NV)

I hope I did not do an oops on setting up my 30' x 52" pool. My ground was only 2" out of level over 30' so... I receded the high side so the 12"x12" patio block was at ground level and then set the low side block on the ground. I used wet sand and rented a compactor to compact all the sand to a real hard base.

I put blocks at every support and in-between every support but I did use compacted sand between the blocks. I will be installing the pool later but should I dig all the sand out from between the block and fill with filtered dirt? I will be using 2" of sand inside the pool wall when it goes up. I did not think that the pool could push the compacted sand out from between the blocks. I was going to back fill around the pool on the outside with landscape bricks and gravel.


Hi Rick. By backfilling around the outside of the pool with dirt you might be all right. The best thing, of course, would be to remove the sand and use dirt. The two inches of sand under the liner is just fine, just not under the pool frame.

Your biggest concern is the sand washing out from under the pool. If your outside the pool landscaping can guarantee this will not happen, and this is possible, it should work.

An ideal pool rail base would look something like this photo. This was an area prepared just for the bottom rails out of a crusher run type of material. It is easy to level and packs solid. Good, hard packing soil, works just as well. The bottom rails, if at all possible, need to be sitting on firm, hard packed, soil.