Concrete Pad Cracked Under Pool

by Bill
(Manitoba, Canada)

I bought a house with an existing 24 foot Diameter above ground pool with a concrete pad. The pad may be poorly reinforced and is developing significant cracks that are easily felt, and a couple of places the liner has been repaired and needs to be replaced, significant leakage.

I was thinking of filling any cracks with sand, and using foam insulation on top before putting in the new liner. Do you think the foam insulation idea will work as opposed to ripping up the concrete pad?




Hi Bill. I think your idea is fine. You do want to fill in the cracks and you do want to put something over the concrete. If you don't have it already you should use the preformed pool cove.

Above Ground Pool Preformed Pool Cove

There are foam pool pads you can use and there are also the 4 x 8 sheets of foam. A 1" or an inch and a half thick foam base would be ideal over your concrete. The preformed pool cove could then go on top of the foam.

The cove is made a couple of different ways. For use over top of foam sheets you want the sticky back foam. The other type is for snapping into the bottom rail, not what you want for this application.

For most concrete installation a thin pool pad or Gorilla pad type material works fine. So does indoor/outdoor carpet or carpet felt. You situation sounds like it may need the added protection the foam sheets have to offer.