Removing an In-Ground Swimming Pool Without Spending Thousands

If your in-ground swimming pool has been more of a hassle than it's worth, then with a little help from friends and family your eye sore can be demolished in the matter of 72 hours. You can do it yourself and save thousands of dollars that it would cost to hire a demolition contractor. My old man made in-ground swimming pool that was called a horse troff at one time or another was transformed into an attractive and level grassy play area for my daughter. You'll get more usable space and a more inviting backyard that's a lot safer for kids and pets.

My in-ground pool was built 52 years ago and was painted probably 5 or 10 times. It had to be repaired several times. Cracks appeared almost every few years and the filter system needed to be adjusted and repaired many times. The pool needed thousands of dollars to get it in top working condition. I decided it wasn't really worth it since it is so cold in Buffalo 9 months out of the year. I only was able to swim less than 10 times each year and enjoy it.

I decided to demolish the pool along with three other people and plant grass in its place. We just rented a powerful electric jackhammer from Home Depot for three different days. Make sure you do it a week apart three different times because you will be very sore and need time to recuperate. Take turns with your helpers going around the edge of the pool while the others use a sledgehammer to knock in pieces. Make sure you break up one or two areas at the bottom for rain water to drain out into the soil.

After you work around the edge chipping the concrete, your helper can use the sledgehammer to finish hitting the chunks of concrete into the pool. When you have the concrete below the surface of your backyard then you can set up a time to get clean fill or soil delivered and dumped into the hole. Make sure you measure and estimate how much you will need before you get it delivered.

After the soil gets smoothed out you can roll it with one of those huge rolling things or stamp it and get it compact. Make sure it is pretty level and not slanted towards your house or neighbor's house. Next, you can plant some fertilizer and grass seed. Finally, keep watering it for at least 4-6 weeks or until you see almost full coverage of grass.

Take pictures of your project before and after, you will be surprised at the difference. Now, the aggravation of fixing and maintaining an in-ground swimming pool that wasn't really used is gone forever. The worry that kids or pets may get hurt or even drown doesn't exist.