Apartment Magazine |

Apartment Management Magazine, July 2009

By David W. Frisch, July, 2009
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Why Remove Your Swimming Pool

Being involved with many different property owners, I have heard many different
reasons why people are tired of their swimming pools. Lack of use, property taxes, sky-rocketing electricity costs, repairs, remodeling, maintenance, water costs, insurance, liability factors, or just ‘Baby Boomers,” whose children are grown and gone, and no longer have any use for the pools or spas.

With today’s costs of remodeling a swimming pool, in most cases, it will cost less to remove the pool. In the long run, the cost to demolish your pool would be considerably less than continued annual maintenance and repair costs. Our company provides property owners with a written estimate on the first appointment. All costs will be noted on the proposal before any work proceeds. In most cases, there is NO deposit for the work until the job is completed. Most jobs are completed within one week.

Frisch and Sons Inc. will take care of all phases of the demolition process. We never use sub-contractors for any portion of the demo or backfill operations. Our “soils engineers” are state licensed, and provide a “stamped” compaction report for each pool when required by the various cities. Some cities do no require such testing, but it can be provided at the owner’s request.

We will pump the water from the pool to the existing sewer or drainage facilities. We will pull all required permits from each city, county, or state jurisdiction. We schedule all required inspections, and meet with inspectors on the job, to keep each job on schedule. Codes change
from city to city; therefore each owner is made aware of existing specifications so there are no surprises. Usually there are numerous drainage holes cut into the pool/spa “floor,” so as the area will not act as a super saturated bowl, which could prone to be a hazard to the public’s safety.

The other consideration is that there may be a future building on the site and the uncompacted fill would not be adequate to sustain the loading, and the new structure would likely suffer structural damage. In most cases it is a good idea to know what the pool area will
be use for, so as to plan for final grading, landscaping, concrete pavers, etc. In most cases the pool walls are removed to at least (24″) below finish grade. In some cases, an owner will request that the entire pool structure be removed, but at a substantial extra cost.

Surrounding concrete decking is removed from site to local recycling facilities; rather than dumped into the pool area which will cause future “settling.” A lot of cities require a layer of crushed rock over the pool floor to facilitate free drainage of natural ground water. We use
compaction grade material for backfill, and will install landscape grade topsoil at an owner’s request. All material is compacted to 90% minimum, per city requirements using hand held wacker to achieve compaction in hard to reach area. Our soils engineer will take mid-level and surface tests during the backfill operations.

Utilities are capped and terminated at the “point of connection” on the first day. Gas lines, electric lines, sewer p. trap, water lines, and return lines. Pool areas are graded to drain away from structures, to street area’s or drainage facilities. The price to remove your pool could vary, between $5,000 to $15,000 depending on a number of factors. Such as: accessibility to the pool area, distance from the “dump” area, size of the pool, amount of concrete to be removed from site, permit fees, and engineering or compaction testing required.

Our company has been featured in the Orange County Register (May 07′/05′) regarding pools that have been left empty for extended periods of time, and have “lifted” out of the ground during heavy rain periods. Also, a new state and federal law was passed in Jan 09′ that requires all swimming pools to have a “DOUBLE” drain system that prevents a swimmer from
being “sucked in” to a single drain from excessive pressure during the cleaning cycle. Just one more reason to remove your swimming pool.

David W. Frisch is a general engineering and building contractor, with over 32 years experience in the demolition industry. Frisch and Sons Inc. has been in business for the past 15 years in the Orange County area. Frisch and Sons Inc. has been involved in more than 1000 swimming pool and spa removals, both residential and commercial. We have experience in gunite, fiberglass, plastic liner, and spa demos. Frisch and Sons Inc. is located in the city
of Orange, Ca. (714) 282-0643. http://www.pooldemolition.com