How to Deal With Groundwater and Rock Problems During Swimming Pool Excavation
An in-ground swimming pool is a considerable investment that can add style and value to your property. One major stage of constructing a swimming pool is excavation, which entails using heavy construction machinery to dig and remove soils to create room for a pool. However, all sites are not the same, and you will find some pool sites with rocks and high water tables. Notably, you are likely to incur extra costs to deal with underground rock or water. A cheap alternative is to abandon a site or project altogether, but that is a bitter pill to swallow. This article delves into the process of dealing with water and rocks when excavating an in-ground swimming pool.
The Rock Problem
If you have never conducted a soil analysis, then it might be difficult to know what lies beneath the ground where you intend to dig a pool. You are likely to encounter different soil conditions, but the most tricky issue is dealing with rocks. If the rocks are small in size, you can easily remove them with tools such as a jackhammer attachment. On the other hand, huge rocks might need sophisticated equipment to blast the rocks into small sizes for ease of excavation. Large boulders can be strapped to heavy equipment and lifted off a site. Alternatively, if rocks are too costly to remove, then you can think about elevating a pool through walls and extra backfilling.
Groundwater
Water can get into an excavated pit in various ways. First, during the initial digging, adjacent surface water might flow into a pool hole. Second, if a water table is very high in your location, the chances are that you might hit the table after commencing an excavation process. A pool hole might fill up faster than the rate of excavation. Therefore, you have to dewater such a pool to continue digging. Notably, dewatering systems pump water out of a hole, which keeps it dry until the phase for installing a pool. Clients should note that high water tables coupled with sandy soils can cause caving in of soils, which might call for more gravel backfilling. Therefore, homeowners must bear in mind the cost of dewatering and backfilling. You might also be forced to construct a sump pit together with a pool perimeter pipe to address groundwater problems in future. If backfilling is not feasible, then you can decide to raise the pool above the water table.
If you're interested in installing an infinity pool, reach out to local infinity pool builders today.
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