Does anyone know of any good reference material on pool failures? I've been searching teh internet with little luck. I'm inspecting a couple of pools for an insurance company. They're both above ground, round pools, approximately 24' in diameter. The homeowners are clamiing that the pools failed due to the weight of ice/snow (a covered loss) vs. normal aging (which isn't covered).

In both cases the rivets where two wall panels meet popped, opening the pool like a zipper. I didn't see any sign of corrosion. It seems to me that a few feet of snow/ice on top of the cover could overstress the tension tie, which was probably designed for only the weight of the water in the pool plus some factor of safety. The pools are both located in New Hampshire, which had a particularly tough winter this year (many roof collapses).

I'm interested in design information that would offer me some insight as to the design of the tension ties and what kind of weight on the cover they can normally hold. Any informatin on failures of this type would also be appreciated. Attached are photos of one of the pools.

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It appears that the pools was not winterized properly. I suggest that you get hold of an owners manual and see what the manufacture says about winterizing the pool. If it was not done properly then the insurance company should be off the hook.

Were the pools filled with water when they failed?

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Paul Kondzich
www.altitudehomeinspection.com

That pool looks like it may be a DOUGHBOY brand pool. They are one of the leading companies in the above ground pool business.

Doughboy Pools

We had one at our first house years ago the same size (24ft. round). We were advised to drain the pool down below the skimmer in freezing weather but we never had that worry at the time.

I've never seen one collapse as that pictured. It may be possible that the pool was allowed to be over filled with water which the water pressure could have led to the wall collapsing.

I'd contact the above company DOUGHBOY and maybe ask them about such an issue.

Good Luck.

rick

I can't understand the "failed due to the weight of ice/snow" part as both ice and snow weigh less than water.

If it is rated to hold water, it surely should hold ice/snow.

The only complication I can see there is if the ice were to be thick enough to be massive enough that expansion pushed against the walls sufficiently to shear the rivets.

In that case, I would suspect that it was "operator error".

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Jerry Peck, Construction / Litigation Consultant
Construction Litigation Consultants, LLC ( www.ConstructionLitigationConsultants.com )
EastWestData (www.EastWestData.com )

I'm guessing the next problem those poor people will be facing might be deck failure. Looking at the way it built, I'm surprised it didn't co lapse during one of their pool parties long before the pool itself

It also did not have a proper child resistant fence/enclosure around it, not even being an above ground pool.

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Jerry Peck, Construction / Litigation Consultant
Construction Litigation Consultants, LLC ( www.ConstructionLitigationConsultants.com )
EastWestData (www.EastWestData.com )

My thoughts regarding the weight of ice and snow are: if the pool is designed to retain 4' - 5' of water, and there is a cover on the pool with an additional 4'-5' of snow on the cover, the weight of the snow would increase the pressure on the side walls of the pool and possibly cause the wall to fail. I was hoping that there were some pool experts out there who might be able to offer some insight.

I've done some research into recommendations from pools manufacturers regarding winterizing, and I can't find any that say to remove the snow from teh cover. In fact, some say not to remove the snow because you can damage the cover. But, isn't there a point where the weight of the snow on tiop of the cover could overstress the wall?

Regarding the fence, I wasn't there to do a code review or home inspection. I was just there to try to determine the cause of the pool failure. At the risk of changing the direction of this post, as I recall there was a guardrail preventing someone from getting onto the deck and into the pool. The door from the house to the pool might have been alarmed, but probably not.

I had above ground pools growing up. We had to drain them about a 1/3 and always had a large (8'sq) inflatable pillow or bag placed under the cover to absorb the pressure when the water froze.
My bet is that the pools were not properly winterized.

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Rick Sabatino
Sabatino Consulting, Inc.
Oak Park, IL

Rick,

Now that you mention the inflatible, we did have one of those. You are correct in that the installer told us to put it in the pool if freezing weather was approaching. It was intended to keep the water from freezing solid across the top of the pool.

The other rick

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