trying pics again...

Well, we haven't had rain here in about 3 weeks. Two days away from gunite and the sky falls out. My wonderful rebar job is now a huge mess!! I guess now I get to see how well the PB stands behind his contract. One of the sidewalls where the swimout was located collapsed pulling in the rebar along that wall and the sunshelf. So what are some things I should watch for in this repair? Someone told me if alot of the clay sticks to the rebar & then it is gunited it will leave voids in the gunite which may lead to problems down the road. Rain chances the next 2 days are 50%, thus it may not be over yet. I haven't seen rain like this in a long time.

Bummer or blessing?

Given the way your soil doesn't seem to percolate well due to it's clay content, imagine if you had to drain the pool after completion and the rain raised the water table.

I may be wrong but IIRC, a clay bed is not generally considered a suitable base. It hold moisture and it expands, placing vertical pressures on the shell.

This might be mitigated by over digging the shallow end and slope a couple inches and the deep end by a foot or so and setting either a sump or 1.5 inch pipe to the surface and adding gravel to make the elevation correct. Then a pump can be used to suck out the water under the pool.

If it had been done to begin with, the collapse would not be as big a hassle to correct, just a matter of sucking out the water via the dry well line/sump, forming the wall where it fell in and refilling with suitable material, and hosing the rebar clean before bending it back or replacing the steel section that's out of shape..

It's not too late but if you do it, and I do suggest you do, expect to be charged for it. I think it would be money well spent.

Scott

Scott,
Thanks for the info. I shouldn't be so misleading with the word clay. We actually have a very sandy base and that is one reason the side caved in. Where I had run the drainage pipe for the deck was very close to the patio slab and pool wall. The swimout was then placed in that location as well. Under the swimout ledge on the pool wall was very sandy. Thus, when the rain came it washed down the sand in that wall area, thus losing all support for the swimout above it and then in additon to that all the soil on the top in that area up to 20" deep was loose from the installation of the drain line. Thus, it just all fell in. I understand what you are saying about the gravel bed. We are about an hour east of Houston & I've never seen any of the gunite pools put in with a gravel bed in this area. We do have a type of clay that can be sticky in places though. I will post followups as they occur.