Rain has hit us hard this past week with over 5 inches at my house in 5 days. Yesterday the water was at the bottom of my thick brick pool coping and today it is at the top. 2.25 inches of rain overnight. Also last night a good client of mine who had me build her a pool two years ago called to let me know her pool was nearly full and ask if there was anything she should do about it. Here is the cold, wet truth about pool water levels.
At my work we get calls every rainy season from several clients who are panicked because their pool is nearly full and it is still raining. Their fear is that once the pool overflows their whole backyard will flood. This is usually not the case. As long as your backyard could handle the rain if the pool WAS NOT EVEN THERE, then an overflowing pool will cause no additional flooding hazard. Water will not start pouring out of the pool once it reaches the top; the only water coming out will be exactly the amount which will fall on the pool as rain. If instead the pool is a runoff basin (which it should not be) then an overflowing pool could lead to enhanced flooding. If the pool is actually taking a load off of the drainage system, then once it can no longer help, the drainage system could be overwhelmed.
In most cases a properly built pool will be unable to cause property damage due to flooding. As a pool builder I CHOOSE the finished elevation of the pool with the potential for flooding in mind. Normally, if the pool is to be roughly at the same level as the home, we set the final elevation of the pool coping about 2 inches below the level of the home. That means that water would have to be 2 inches over the top of the pool coping before the house and its contents are in danger of flooding. We also make sure that decks are pitched away from the pool (not to prevent flooding but to keep pollen and algae spores out of the pool during rains) and away from the house. This creates a "valley" effect which should further keep both the pool and house safe. As long as there are no "dams" keeping the water in the backyard any floodwaters should be able to flow along the surface around the house long before getting inside. As a landscape designer I pay close attention to allowing unimpeded flow around the home, even if there is an underground drainage system.
In general there is no real danger to the pool itself if it is full to the brim. There can however be danger to any surrounding structures (including pool decks), especially if the pool is built on expansive clay soils. On any pool, and especially an older pool, there is no guarantee that water will not find its way underneath the coping through small cracks or other passages through the bedding mortar which holds the coping in place. This joint is designed to be strong, but not necessarily waterproof as is the pool tile and pool interior. As such a completely full pool may be leaking water from below the coping and in the surrounding soils. If you have a concrete pool deck or any other structure adjacent to your pool you should take action if the pool is filled to the top. If the pool is allowed to sit full of water for an extended period of time water may get underneath the surrounding deck, and in areas of expansive soils this can lead to decks lifting, heaving, or cracking. These things happen when normally dry soils expand as they wet and exert extreme forces in the only direct that they can; upward. Once a deck has lifted, even by a small amount, it will usually not sink back to the original level. Cracks in concrete are of course undesirable and do not heal by themselves.
So now that we know about pools and flooding, how do we get excess water out of the pool? We can force it out or just let it evaporate by itself. If there is no danger to the house and no danger to the pool or deck (for example if you have no deck around your pool, just lawn) then there is no reason to do anything but let nature take its course. Evaporation will do all the work for you. If you do need to lower the water level in a hurry you can siphon it out with a garden hose, pump it out with a submersible pump, or pump it out using the pool pump. Regardless of the method you use it should be done fairly quickly to get the water level down at least an inch or two below the bottom of the pool coping.
You can easily set up a siphon made from a garden hose or two connected together as long as you have sufficient "fall" to get the siphon started. If you have a submersible pump it can be connected to a garden hose, which is run out to the street (or anywhere else that won't cause additional flooding). Another method is to use the pool pump to lower the water level. Some pool equipment sets will have a hose-bib plumbed into the piping at the equipment. Simply connect a garden hose to this hose bib and turn the pump on. Open the hose bib and pool water should be flowing out of the hose. It is also possible to "backwash" the filter (if your filter is the type that allows for "backwashing" and direct the wastewater into the street or other area that will not cause further flooding. remember to recharge the filter if you use this method. As a last resort, or if you are not comfortable doing any of the aforementioned methods, is to call your pool professional. We have several submersible pumps available for rent, or if you'd prefer for a small charge we can send a serviceman out to set the pump and collect it once the pool is down a bit.
The Truth About Owner Builder Pools in California (and around the world)
As a professional pool designer I am often told by a prospective client that he or she is considering putting in a pool but are torn between hiring someone to build the pool for them or doing the project as an owner/builder to save money. My response is usually quite frank and straight-forward. I ask the person if they have owned or had a pool built for them before, or if they are an experienced general contractor. Surprisingly most of the time the answer is no. At that point in my head I am wondering what in the world this person is thinking, but I bite my tongue. With no experience with a pool, pool construction, or negotiating contracts and integrating sub-contractors there is almost no way a layman can come up with a quality project and save money at the same time.
The owner/builder figures that if "all" of the money that I was to make on my professionally built swimming pool or spa stayed in their pocket then they would save a ton of money. They also assume that building a pool is a simple task, almost like assembling a "Boboli" pizza, and that they will be able to assemble a team of sub-contractors and direct them at or below the cost that I would charge for the same work. Lastly they believe that having pool building permit, and therefore a building inspector, means that only quality work will be done on their jobsite. In fact they are 100% wrong in all of these assumptions.
Firstly the pool and spa business is very competitive, and there are very few swimming pool builders out there who simply name their price however extravagant it is, and expect to get the job. In fact, even most of the high quality builders have to keep their profit margins near the levels of the low quality, low price pool builders because the average swimming pool buyer has a very hard time distinguishing the difference between the good and the bad. In general it seems that the extra cost you pay to have an established and reputable company build you a pool versus having a "yesterday's superintendent" with just a truck and a cell phone is as low as 10-20 percent of the total job cost. Unless you are unemployed (in which case you really shouldn't be building a pool anyways) or taking home less than what that recently laid-off superintendent wants to make (he is most likely uninsured or under-insured and not carrying workers compensation insurance) then what you pay him is exactly what you could earn yourself with a little more effort at the office. There just isn't "all that money" to be saved.
Secondly, building a swimming pool or spa is a lot more complicated than just fill a hole with water. Unless you've done it before and paid quite a bit of attention, there is a good chance you might miss something important during the building process. If you took apart your blender with no experience, then put it back together, if you screwed up there would most likely be a part or two left over or the case wouldn't close properly. With a pool that won't happen. It could look just perfect up until the day you put water in it. Sometimes it might look good even longer than that. However, unlike the blender which can be taken apart and reassembled countless times for no extra money, the pool only gets assembled once for the allotted cost. If you need to"take it apart" the dollars really start to ring up. For instance we occasionally get the call to finish a pool which was "abandoned" by a builder who went out of business or was fired during the course of construction. Most of the time they leave defective work behind. Even in these cases where the builder should have known what they were doing the cost of picking up the pieces and finishing the job put the budget over what the pool would have cost if initially contracted with us to begin with.
The last mistake made is assuming that working with experienced sub-contractors and having a permit, and thus a building inspector, equals having "quality control". I just looked at a pool job in Vista, California, which was being done owner/builder with an employee of the owner acting as superintendent. The call was to quote the cost of finishing the rockwork, tile, and plastering the pool. The pool had a large artificial rock waterfall/slide/grotto complex attached to the pool. Just looking from the outside of the rock structure I could tell that it wasn't properly built. I asked if they had a permit and engineering drawings for the rockwork and was told that they did. I reviewed the engineering and noted that there was no drawing that covered the rockwork at the size of the structure being built. The "super" told me that the building inspector had reviewed the work and approved everything. I then noticed that an access hole had been left at the rear of the structure, so I asked permission to go inside. Permission granted I entered. Peering up at what should have been a solid concrete ceiling I was astounded to see an awful lot of blue sky peeking back, and NONE of the reinforcing steel encapsulated within the concrete as specified in the onsite engineering plans. The concrete had been basically "draped" over the steel structure, which had been covered in burlap and chicken wire FROM THE OUTSIDE prior to the concrete being applied. In this case the reinforcing steel is not being protected from the elements and will eventually rust away. At that point the entire structure will collapse. In order to correct this mistake all of the concrete covering the structure needs to be removed and new concrete applied to full encase the steel, as per the plans. The client will end up paying twice for this structure. His mistake was to have an inexperienced supervisor and to rely on the building inspector for quality control. The funny thing is that the owner ended up hiring another sub-contractor under the supervision of his superintendent to coat over the structure as built who came in at about one hitrd of what I estimated to correct the issue. I'm expecting a call back to that address in about 4 or 5 years once the steel corrodes through.
I had another call in northern San Diego, California, to give an estimate for tile and coping on an owner/builder pool. In this case the pool was only "steeled" and had not been shot with concrete yet. I looked in wonder at the crudely twisted rebar, none of which was either straight, parallel, or perpendicular, which is what I am accustomed to seeing. The quality of workmanship was similar to some of the stuff my then 3 year old son was doing with pipe-cleaners at home. I asked the owner who had installed the rebar. He said that he had assisted his supervisor in doing the work themselves. I asked if the supervisor was a licensed pool builder and he answered that he was not, but that he "had worked for a pool builder before". He also assured me that the building inspector had been out and signed off on the work. I pointed to a rotting board in the soil underneath the pool floor. The owner said that there had been a vinyl liner pool there and that the wood was left from the steps of the old pool. So much for soils engineering and compaction. In this case I didn't bite my tongue and explained to the homeowner these and other defects that I saw. I told him he did not need a tile and coping estimate, but did in fact need someone to run his project. I let him know that we had a project that was just a few weeks from being where his was on that day, and told him I would invite him to take a look when we were there. Well, I did call that man about two weeks later, but he was not interested in coming out. I really think he didn't have the guts to tell his wife what a mess he had gotten them in.
In both of the above instances the owner really didn't save any money. Sure they didn't pay as much as they should have, but they got an inferior product. Both of the owners above will end up paying to refurbish their pools in the near future, and because they didn't make the smart decision upfront or put on the brakes when they still had a chance they will end up paying more than they should have for a still-inferior product, with all of the hassles and headaches that come in the meantime.
In summary, an owner/builder pool is not an impossible task, but it is not for the inexperienced. The risks outweigh the rewards most of the time. Unless you have vast experience as a general contractor or have built several pools with a quality builder in the past AND took the time to follow the process carefully, you will do better finding a builder you would like to work with and negotiating a fair price for your project under his direction.
The owner/builder figures that if "all" of the money that I was to make on my professionally built swimming pool or spa stayed in their pocket then they would save a ton of money. They also assume that building a pool is a simple task, almost like assembling a "Boboli" pizza, and that they will be able to assemble a team of sub-contractors and direct them at or below the cost that I would charge for the same work. Lastly they believe that having pool building permit, and therefore a building inspector, means that only quality work will be done on their jobsite. In fact they are 100% wrong in all of these assumptions.
Firstly the pool and spa business is very competitive, and there are very few swimming pool builders out there who simply name their price however extravagant it is, and expect to get the job. In fact, even most of the high quality builders have to keep their profit margins near the levels of the low quality, low price pool builders because the average swimming pool buyer has a very hard time distinguishing the difference between the good and the bad. In general it seems that the extra cost you pay to have an established and reputable company build you a pool versus having a "yesterday's superintendent" with just a truck and a cell phone is as low as 10-20 percent of the total job cost. Unless you are unemployed (in which case you really shouldn't be building a pool anyways) or taking home less than what that recently laid-off superintendent wants to make (he is most likely uninsured or under-insured and not carrying workers compensation insurance) then what you pay him is exactly what you could earn yourself with a little more effort at the office. There just isn't "all that money" to be saved.
Secondly, building a swimming pool or spa is a lot more complicated than just fill a hole with water. Unless you've done it before and paid quite a bit of attention, there is a good chance you might miss something important during the building process. If you took apart your blender with no experience, then put it back together, if you screwed up there would most likely be a part or two left over or the case wouldn't close properly. With a pool that won't happen. It could look just perfect up until the day you put water in it. Sometimes it might look good even longer than that. However, unlike the blender which can be taken apart and reassembled countless times for no extra money, the pool only gets assembled once for the allotted cost. If you need to"take it apart" the dollars really start to ring up. For instance we occasionally get the call to finish a pool which was "abandoned" by a builder who went out of business or was fired during the course of construction. Most of the time they leave defective work behind. Even in these cases where the builder should have known what they were doing the cost of picking up the pieces and finishing the job put the budget over what the pool would have cost if initially contracted with us to begin with.
The last mistake made is assuming that working with experienced sub-contractors and having a permit, and thus a building inspector, equals having "quality control". I just looked at a pool job in Vista, California, which was being done owner/builder with an employee of the owner acting as superintendent. The call was to quote the cost of finishing the rockwork, tile, and plastering the pool. The pool had a large artificial rock waterfall/slide/grotto complex attached to the pool. Just looking from the outside of the rock structure I could tell that it wasn't properly built. I asked if they had a permit and engineering drawings for the rockwork and was told that they did. I reviewed the engineering and noted that there was no drawing that covered the rockwork at the size of the structure being built. The "super" told me that the building inspector had reviewed the work and approved everything. I then noticed that an access hole had been left at the rear of the structure, so I asked permission to go inside. Permission granted I entered. Peering up at what should have been a solid concrete ceiling I was astounded to see an awful lot of blue sky peeking back, and NONE of the reinforcing steel encapsulated within the concrete as specified in the onsite engineering plans. The concrete had been basically "draped" over the steel structure, which had been covered in burlap and chicken wire FROM THE OUTSIDE prior to the concrete being applied. In this case the reinforcing steel is not being protected from the elements and will eventually rust away. At that point the entire structure will collapse. In order to correct this mistake all of the concrete covering the structure needs to be removed and new concrete applied to full encase the steel, as per the plans. The client will end up paying twice for this structure. His mistake was to have an inexperienced supervisor and to rely on the building inspector for quality control. The funny thing is that the owner ended up hiring another sub-contractor under the supervision of his superintendent to coat over the structure as built who came in at about one hitrd of what I estimated to correct the issue. I'm expecting a call back to that address in about 4 or 5 years once the steel corrodes through.
I had another call in northern San Diego, California, to give an estimate for tile and coping on an owner/builder pool. In this case the pool was only "steeled" and had not been shot with concrete yet. I looked in wonder at the crudely twisted rebar, none of which was either straight, parallel, or perpendicular, which is what I am accustomed to seeing. The quality of workmanship was similar to some of the stuff my then 3 year old son was doing with pipe-cleaners at home. I asked the owner who had installed the rebar. He said that he had assisted his supervisor in doing the work themselves. I asked if the supervisor was a licensed pool builder and he answered that he was not, but that he "had worked for a pool builder before". He also assured me that the building inspector had been out and signed off on the work. I pointed to a rotting board in the soil underneath the pool floor. The owner said that there had been a vinyl liner pool there and that the wood was left from the steps of the old pool. So much for soils engineering and compaction. In this case I didn't bite my tongue and explained to the homeowner these and other defects that I saw. I told him he did not need a tile and coping estimate, but did in fact need someone to run his project. I let him know that we had a project that was just a few weeks from being where his was on that day, and told him I would invite him to take a look when we were there. Well, I did call that man about two weeks later, but he was not interested in coming out. I really think he didn't have the guts to tell his wife what a mess he had gotten them in.
In both of the above instances the owner really didn't save any money. Sure they didn't pay as much as they should have, but they got an inferior product. Both of the owners above will end up paying to refurbish their pools in the near future, and because they didn't make the smart decision upfront or put on the brakes when they still had a chance they will end up paying more than they should have for a still-inferior product, with all of the hassles and headaches that come in the meantime.
In summary, an owner/builder pool is not an impossible task, but it is not for the inexperienced. The risks outweigh the rewards most of the time. Unless you have vast experience as a general contractor or have built several pools with a quality builder in the past AND took the time to follow the process carefully, you will do better finding a builder you would like to work with and negotiating a fair price for your project under his direction.
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