We're in Western PA, and have a steel 16X 32' inground pool with a vinyl liner that's about 16 years old. Between replacing the liner, water under the liner, broken heater, movement of the concrete surrounding the pool, replacing the electrical box, the cost of opening and closing the pool, chemicals, fencing repairs, etc. it's a bottomless money pit. I'd like to get a price for having the whole thing just taken out and going back to grass. A realtor friend said that the pool doesn't add much value, especially with utility prices going higher. (Our town has also built a great community pool). Our pool guy and the pool store say they don't know who removes pools. Any suggestions?
You could have been describing the pool at our house, and with two small kids, safety was the the pool's death nail. Demo started yesterday! The guy who cared for the pool, when we bought the house last year gave us a price, and we also got a price from a local excavator. The excavator had the better price, and I would guess it was because he owns the required equipment and had experience with removals. It's not cheap, but there are a few important steps. Our town required a building/demo permit. The actual removal involves demo of the surround deck surface, steel bond beam, liner and plumbing, pump, filter, wiring, cover, etc. All this goes into a dumpster. Access to our rear yard is limited so a bobcat is being used to haul the junk out and to bring the fill in. A relatively large amount of clean fill (145 yards) is needed and it is important to have it compacted in 1 foot levels. Otherwise it is likely to settle quite a bit. That is just to get rid of the hole. We are going with lawn and adding 72 yards of top soil over the pool area to bring the area back to grade. Gardens or planting beds would need deeper soil depths. This is just a snapshot of our project, but thought it could be useful. Good luck.
Call your city's building inspector for ideas.
It will be a whole lot cheaper to just fill the pool in with dirt. Use fill dirt up to the 1 foot then finish it off with good top soil.
Check your local newspaper ads for contractors in your area. Some specialize in pool installation/removal. Make some calls and be sure to get references and see jobs that they have done. Talk to those people that have used the contractor that you may use. 'Word of mouth' is better than any advertisement.
Call some landscape/grading companies in the area. If it's accessible for a dump truck get quotes on getting it filled with 'fill' dirt (that's the cheapest dirt). Then have them pack it well with a loader or a small tractor(Bobcat). Cover the top with about 4-6 inches of topsoil and plant away whether it be grass, shrubs, trees. The cost will go up if the company has to dump the fill dirt say in the driveway then use a Bobcat/loader to haul it in to the pool. Removing it is going to cost way more; as you'll have a demolition charge, a disposal charge(unless they just use whats left to fill it in) than you've paid for demolition that's not needed) fuel charge and a charge to fill the great big hole. It will also make the ground around the dug out pool to constantly shift because you have re disturbed so much solid earth. Just fill it....
