Installing Your Pool, Stage 1: Marking Out The Site And Ordering Your Materials

This is the first of a series walking through an above ground pool installation one stage at a time. No stage should take more than an afternoon, and each one has a clear finish line.

Stage one is the one nobody is nervous about, which is exactly why it gets rushed. There is no lifting, no assembly and nothing that can break. It is measuring, phone calls and a delivery.

It is also the stage that decides whether stage two is a pleasant morning or a miserable weekend. Almost every install that goes badly went wrong here, usually because somebody ordered the wrong amount of material or marked a circle that was too small.

By the end of this stage you will have: a marked circle in your yard, confirmation that you are allowed to build there, and a pile of the right materials in the right quantities sitting in your driveway.

First, the calls you make before you dig

Do these before you put a shovel anywhere.

Call 811. It is free, it is a phone call, and they come out and mark your buried utilities. You are cutting into the ground for this, and a struck line is an expensive and potentially dangerous afternoon.

Call your municipality. Your assembly instructions are explicit on this point: check local regulations including building and electrical codes and zoning requirements to determine whether a building or electrical permit is required. Ask specifically about setbacks from property lines, whether a permit is needed, and what barrier or fencing rules apply.

Confirm your barrier requirements. Most jurisdictions require a fence with a self-latching, self-closing gate, with the latch out of reach of children. This is not an accessory you add later. It is frequently a legal condition of having the pool at all, and often a condition of your homeowners insurance.

Look up. Check clearance from any overhead power lines. This is one of the few site issues that can rule out a location entirely, and it is much better discovered now.

Choosing the exact spot

Your assembly instructions ask you to take into account local by-laws about fences and utilities, and the landscaping you plan to do once the pool is installed. That last one is worth pausing on. Think now about where a deck or a gravel border might go later, because it affects which side you want clear.

Beyond that, the priorities are:

The flattest ground available. Every inch of slope is work in stage two.

Ground that drains away from the pool, not toward it. Water pooling at the base of a steel wall is the leading cause of wall rust.

Away from big trees. Roots make leveling difficult and cause settling later, and the canopy drops debris into your water all season.

Sun. More sun means warmer water and a longer season.

One safety point from the instructions that affects placement: your filtration system, pump and heater must not be positioned where someone could climb on them to gain access to the pool. They ask for at least four feet of clearance for anything climbable, including the filter, chairs and tables. Decide where your equipment pad goes now, with that in mind.

Marking the circle: it is bigger than the pool

Here is the thing people get wrong.

You do not clear a circle the size of your pool. You clear a larger one. The instructions specify drawing a circle 6 to 8 inches longer in radius than the pool itself, depending on the width of your uprights, and removing all the grass inside that outline.

That extra radius is where your uprights and foot collars sit. Mark the pool's size only and you will find yourself cutting turf away in stage two with the track already laid out, which is exactly as annoying as it sounds.

How to mark it: put a stake in the centre of where you want the pool. Tie a string to it cut to the turf removal radius from the chart below. Walk a circle with the string pulled taut, marking as you go with landscape flags, marking paint or a garden hose.

Then stand back and look at it. Almost everybody is surprised at this point. A 21 foot circle is much larger on the ground than it is in your head, and this is the moment to discover that rather than after a pallet arrives.

Turf removal sizes

Note that the wall diameter is slightly under the nominal size. An 18 foot pool has a wall diameter of 17'-10". Use the turf removal column for marking.

Once the circle is marked, remove all the grass inside it. Sod cutters can be rented and make short work of this.

Ordering your materials

This is the part most people underestimate, and getting it wrong stalls your install for days while you wait on a second delivery.

You need two different materials, not one. Sand and stone dust do different jobs, and your assembly instructions specify them separately.

How much sand and stone dust you need

When you call the supply yard, give them both quantities and ask for the delivered price. Ask about their minimum delivery charge too, since on a small order the delivery can cost more than the material.

Ask them to drop it as close to the pool site as they can get, but expect the driveway. Moving two or three tons of sand by wheelbarrow is genuinely part of this project, and it is worth knowing that before delivery day rather than after.

The rest of the list

Beyond sand and stone dust, you supply:

Filter sand. Your filter tank ships empty. Check your filter's requirement for the quantity.

A patio stone, 24 by 30 inches, for the pump and filter to sit on. The instructions ask for this to be levelled on a little stone dust before the equipment goes on it.

A 36 inch grounding rod and 6 gauge copper ground wire, plus a 6 gauge terminal. The instructions specify grounding the second wall bolt from the top of the wall seam, with the rod driven at least 36 inches from the pool perimeter. Check your local electrical code, because requirements vary by state, and have a licensed electrician handle the electrical side.

Salt and ant repellant. This one surprises people, and it comes straight from the assembly instructions. You spread salt over the levelled area to stop roots growing back and to eliminate earthworms, and ant repellant for the same reason. Both are named as causes of post-installation cracking in your base. It costs very little and it is not a step to skip.

Tools you will want

Nothing exotic, but gather it before the weekend:

• A tamper or a rented vibrating plate compactor. The instructions call for the soil to be carefully packed, especially anywhere a lot of soil was added.
• A level you can trust across the whole diameter. The instructions suggest an optical or laser level, and for a pool this size that is genuinely the right tool. They rent cheaply.
• Stakes, mason string and marking paint or flags
• Shovels, a rake and a wheelbarrow
• A garden hose with a spray nozzle, for damping the sand
• A shop vacuum, which you will need at the liner stage
• Screwdrivers and a nut driver
• Light, flat-soled shoes for later. Once the sand base is finished you will be walking on it, and the instructions warn that the slightest heel mark can show through the liner.

One tool not to bring: an impact gun. The instructions specifically warn against using one on the wall screws, with a maximum clamping force given. We will come back to that at the wall stage, but do not let it appear on your tool list.

How many people, and when

Plan for more hands than the minimum. Our customers tell us this consistently, and the wall instructions assume two people working together with support bars.

Realistically: stage one you can do alone. Base preparation is much easier with two. The wall stage wants three or four. The liner stage wants two or three and a warm sunny afternoon.

Line up your help before you order the pool, not the night before.

Delivery day

Your kit arrives by freight. The carrier calls to schedule, and delivery is to your driveway or curbside rather than to the backyard. That is normal for the industry.

Inspect the pallet before you sign. Walk around it, look for damage, take photos, and report any problem within 48 hours. Signing off on a damaged pallet without documenting it makes a claim much harder for everyone involved.

Then, before you start assembling anything, do what the instructions ask: read the whole booklet through once and familiarise yourself with the parts. Check the parts list against what is in the box. Finding a missing bag of screws now is a phone call. Finding it with the wall half up is a lost weekend.

Before you move on

You are ready for stage two when:

• [ ] 811 has been out and your utilities are marked
• [ ] Permit and barrier requirements confirmed with your municipality
• [ ] Setbacks and overhead line clearances checked
• [ ] Equipment pad location chosen, with climbing access in mind
• [ ] Turf removal circle marked using the chart, not the pool's diameter
• [ ] All grass removed inside the circle
• [ ] Sand and stone dust ordered in the right quantities and delivered
• [ ] Filter sand, patio stone, grounding rod and wire on hand
• [ ] Salt and ant repellant on hand
• [ ] Tools gathered, level sorted, impact gun left in the garage
• [ ] Help lined up for the wall and liner stages
• [ ] Pallet inspected, parts list checked against the box
• [ ] Instructions read through once

The short version

• Call 811, your municipality and your insurer before you dig.
• Mark a circle 6 to 8 inches larger in radius than the pool, not the pool's own size.
• Stand back and look at it before you commit.
• Order sand and stone dust as two separate materials. An 18 foot round needs 1.5 tons of sand plus 3/4 ton of stone dust.
• Do not forget filter sand, a 24 by 30 patio stone, a 36 inch grounding rod with 6 gauge wire, and salt and ant repellant.
• Rent a level you can trust across the full diameter.
• Line up more help than you think you need.
• Inspect the pallet before signing, and read the instructions through once before you start.

Next in this series: preparing the base. That is the stage that decides how your pool sits for the next fifteen years, and it is the one our customers tell us is the hardest part of the whole job.