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This was the biggest mistake we made. When July 4th rolled around we thought we would just fill the raw concrete pool about 7 feet deep for the family to have some fun. After a couple days of filling, we had the water about a foot over the play area floor (the picture below shows the level about even with the play area floor.) We turned off the hoses and started playing. The next day we were a bit surprised to find that the level had dropped about 4 inches overnight. We were disappointed but continued to play in the pool as it leaked thousands of gallons of water into the soil under the pool.
Maybe it was exhaustion from 2 months of hard work, maybe we didn't want to spoil the fun of swimming in the pool such as it was. Whatever the reason, we didn't realize the danger until the morning we found the big crack in the side wall. The pool had settled in the soft mud under the deep end and cracked the side wall. The repair worked fine and we have had no such problems since then, but our confidence was shaken and we worried about it for months after the pool was finished and full.
The picture below shows the skimmer sumps. These were poured with sack concrete. Next came the backfilling and preparation for pouring the sidewalks including the repair of the cracked wall.
The repair (below) was accomplished by pouring a thick splint of concrete on the outside of the wall with rebar set into holes drilled into the cracked wall. This stabilized the crack. Then we jack-hammered out the crack and filled the groove with Thorite®. I've hardly mentioned some of the incredible materials that allowed us to do this job. Thorite® is a material used for patching underwater tunnels and reservoirs. It did a marvelous job of sealing all the joints between walls, floors, and all the cold joints created by pouring the walls in 2 separate pours.
The pictures below show the partially poured "family area" and the sidewalk forms. Whenever we ordered concrete it was necessary to estimate on the high side. Any excess concrete went into the family area slab.
This shows the preparation for pouring the sidewalk which covers the skimmer sumps. The ditches cut in the fill dirt are cantilever supports for the sidewalk. These supports are located about every 6-8 feet around the pool.
