What happens on install day for a fiberglass pool?

By the time the shell arrives, most of the decisions are made. The pool has been designed in 3D on your lot, the permit is in hand, and the utilities have been marked. Ohio law requires the excavator to notify OHIO811 at least two working days before digging, not counting the day of the call. Your Liberty Composites shell has been built and scheduled for delivery on a set date.

We have also planned the access route. The shell travels on a trailer and has to reach the hole, either by being driven close or lifted over something. Leisure Pools, another fiberglass manufacturer, notes that installers typically visit the site ahead of time to plan the access path for the lift. We do that on the site visit, looking at the driveway, overhead wires, trees, fences and how close a crane can park.

The crew paints the outline of the pool on the ground and sets elevations with a laser level. Then the excavator digs to the shape and depths of the specific shell, following a dig sheet. River Pools describes the finished hole as about a foot larger than the outside of the pool, with 12 to 18 inches of working room around the sides, and slightly deeper than the pool so there is room for a gravel base.

The spoils go into trucks or to wherever the grading plan sends them. Wet clay makes poor structural fill, so a lot of it usually leaves the site. Depending on the pool size, River Pools puts excavation anywhere from a few hours to a day and a half, and in practice many crews dig the day before the set so the hole is ready when the shell arrives.

In much of Northeast Ohio, this is the part of install day that separates a good job from a problem later. Our glacial till and silty clay soils drain slowly, and the USDA describes common soils in the region as holding a perched water table within a foot of the surface for much of the fall, winter and spring. A fresh hole in that ground can start to fill with water.

We pump it out and keep it out while the base goes in. Fiberglass manufacturers recommend a groundwater access pipe or hydrostatic relief, a vertical pipe from deck level down into the gravel at the bottom of the excavation, so water under the pool can be checked and pumped if ever needed. River Pools builds one into every install. In soils like ours it is cheap insurance.

A fiberglass shell needs its entire floor supported evenly. The bottom of the hole gets a layer of clean crushed stone, leveled with a laser and screed rails. River Pools calls for roughly 2 inches of clean crushed stone about 3/4 to 1 inch in size, and explains why it prefers stone to sand: sand can shift when saturated and is hard to compact fully, which leads to settling and leaking fittings. Crushed stone locks together as it is placed.

This base is where the patience goes. A level, well-supported floor is what keeps the pool level for decades, and it is much easier to get right now than to fix later.

This is the part everyone comes outside to watch. The shell is lifted with straps attached at points the manufacturer specifies, usually by a crane parked in the street or driveway, sometimes by the excavator on an open site. It swings over the yard, or over the house on a tight lot, and is lowered slowly into the hole while the crew guides it by hand.

Once it is down, the crew checks level all the way around. River Pools aims for within half an inch of level, while noting that the industry standard allows up to an inch. If it is off, the shell comes back up, the base is adjusted and it is set again. That can happen more than once, and it is worth the time.

A few practical notes for your household on lift day. Move cars out of the driveway if the crane will use it. Keep kids and pets inside while the shell is in the air. Let close neighbors know a crane will be on the street for a while. And have your camera ready, because it is a good photo.

With the shell set, the plumbing is run from the skimmers, main drain and return fittings to the equipment pad. River Pools recommends rigid PVC pipe, strapped to the shell, and pressure-testing every line before anything is buried. The equipment pad gets its Pentair variable-speed pump and DE filter, which come with every Ohio State Pools package, plus the pool heater that comes with every package and any salt system you chose.

Northeast Ohio does not hand out guaranteed dry weeks, so rain gets planned for. Light rain does not stop most of the day's work. Heavy rain is different. An open hole in clay collects water fast, a saturated base cannot be leveled properly, and a soaked lawn will not carry a loaded truck without deep ruts. Crane lifts also depend on wind, and the crane operator has the final say on whether a lift goes ahead.

When a big storm is forecast, it is usually better to move the set by a day or two than to rush it. If the hole has already been dug, we keep water pumped out and protect the base until conditions allow. A day lost to weather is annoying. A shell set on a wet, uneven base is a problem for the life of the pool.

A fiberglass shell is strong, but it is designed to have water pushing out from the inside while gravel pushes in from the outside. If you backfill the outside without water in the pool, the gravel pressure can bow the walls in. So the two happen together. Latham, another fiberglass manufacturer, describes the method as alternating about six inches of water in the pool with about six inches of gravel around it, all the way to the top.

The crew packs gravel under the steps, benches and tanning ledge as it goes, because those areas need firm support too. River Pools uses clean crushed stone for backfill, not pea gravel, because the angular stones lock together. By the end of the second or third day, River Pools says, the pool is typically full.

While that happens, the electrician can be wiring the equipment so the pump can circulate the water once the pool is full. Our package includes the electrical hook-up at the equipment, and the run from your panel to the pad is priced from the site visit.

A full pool sitting in a ring of gravel, with dirt, tire tracks and some mess around it. That is normal. The deck comes next: forms, reinforcement and a concrete collar around the pool, then the 4 ft concrete wrap deck included in every package and any extra patio you added. River Pools puts coping and concrete at about 2 to 5 days depending on size and material, with weather deciding when it can pour. After that come the barrier fence, inspections, cleanup, grading and startup.

Our customers tend to remember install day for how fast it goes. Josh C. wrote that we installed his fiberglass pool "in record time and was very professional." Mike C. called us a "fantastic fiber glass pool installer." The speed comes from the shell being built in a factory. The quality comes from the base, the level and the backfill, which is where we take our time.

• How will the shell reach the hole, and is a crane needed?
• What goes under the pool, and what is the backfill material?
• What is your level tolerance?
• How do you handle groundwater if the hole takes on water?
• Is there a hydrostatic relief or groundwater access pipe?
• Are the plumbing lines pressure-tested before backfill?
• When is the electrician scheduled?

A builder who answers those clearly has thought about the parts of the job you will never see once the deck is poured.