Pool removal experiences

[Balboa]

Hi Piggs!

We live in Midcity on one of the smaller lots, about 3200 square feet. Thirtyish years ago, a previous owner put an addition on the house *and* put in a concrete pool. The pool is very close to the rear of the house and the rear fenceline, and takes up quite a bit of the outdoor space. More importantly, the rest of the backyard is concrete that slopes toward the house on all three sides and turns our raised foundation into a grotto.

We’ve been in the house going on 5 years and are finally in a position to permanently address the terrible drainage. (We are not, unfortunately, in a position to just buy a different house, especially now that our interest rate is 2.6!

We received a quote a few years ago for a “partial” removal. It’s certainly a cheaper, faster option and our narrow lot has some access challenges that will already draw out even a partial removal. But the soil in this part of San Diego is such a PITA and I’m very concerned about ending up with a weird depression in the space after a few years, having new and different drainage issues or, worse-case scenario, developing a sinkhole.

Other thoughts:

**We’re personally not concerned about building on the pool spot- this lot is as built up as it can be for SFR. But we would be paying for a professional landscape/build firm to redo the lot and don’t want to jeopardize any of that work by making the wrong pool removal choice.

**We’re not overly concerned about losing value. Our appraisal at purchase said the pool was worth 25k, removing it isn’t going to flip our LTV and would likely expand the buyer pool (ha) if we decided to sell.

**We haven’t been in the pool in more than a year, even though I’ve being working from home most of the time. We had to replace our roof and didn’t opt to install another passive solar system because we were so traumatized by the old one turning our kitchen into a Rainforest Café the first year we moved in. I actually love being in a pool, provided it’s 85-95 degrees, but our pool cover is cumbersome and even in summer the pool doesn’t stay that warm without the cover if there’s no additional heat source.

**Pool service is $100 a month and the pool is due for about 5k work of surface/mastic maintenance.

** Does removing/regrading everything around the pool without actually removing it seem possible? Could we just … shave several inches of the top of the pool as part of leveling the area?

All thoughts/anecdotes/contractor recommendations welcome. Happy Monday!

[sdrealtor]

Ive seen removals done. They take off the top foot or two and break out big hole in the bottom for drainage. They can throw all the waste into the pool as long as they bring in good fill and compact it all. Seems like a no brainer for your situation. Been a while but cost was below 10K

[Balboa]

Thanks sdrealtor. It seems like even though we don’t want to build on the site, we may not be able to plant the way I thought we could, either — I was definitely hoping to add a tree or two back there. So many before-and-after shots show a pool and then some hardscape or fake turf in the shape of a pool. Not the look we’re going for… Ugh.

Starting to talk to some landscape designers and demo people. Hopefully we can make something less spartan than what I’ve seen online.

[sdrealtor]

Google san Diego pool removal if you havent already. Ive seen plenty of yards where pools were removed that look quite nice

[Balboa]

Updating in case anyone else ends up searching for pricing info.

We got 2 quotes in the 22-25k range. The caveat is the quotes include breaking up and removing all the hardscape, not just the pool work. I’d estimate 19-22k if we were just doing the pool, since the quote from 4 years ago was about 17k.

This includes demo, capping off utilities, filling and compacting, and grading done by licensed contractors with permits. The project would last around 2 weeks, weather permitting.

The pool is close enough to the house that it casts amazing patterns on the ceilings on that side of the house, which I’m going to miss.

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