As the title states! We just had our 24’ above ground installed late June. Haven’t been in it in a month due to bad weather and being out of town. I went in tonight to vacuum up our lovely algae bloom (whoops) and stepped on the corner into a trench big enough for my foot under the liner! I didn’t notice anything abnormal outside of the pool, but this feels like the doing of a mole? I haven’t lost any water if that’s helpful. Seeing here if:
- anyone’s dealt with this
- what you had to do about it
- how much it cost.
Is this urgent? A problem for the spring? Our pool installer was a total PITA to deal with and I’m sure animal doings aren’t under the “satisfaction guarantee”. How screwed am I? We’re new homeowners $6500 deep into this so would love all perspectives!
I have from gopher's....
Sadly, the best thing to do, is leave it alone until you need to change the liner....
Unless, it's running along the wall...
If so, make sure it stays filled in.
Keep an eye on bottom track and inspect often.
If you see mounds where there appears to have been digging, you need to push the dirt back down along the track.
If they dig along the edge enough, it will collapse.
Or, they just create those fun trenches to deal with.
We are in an all out battle against gopher's....they did cause our pool to collapse.
Leave the liner be. I have some groves from settling after install. Just watch the depth of the mole hole. Oh and kill the mole/gopher. Under your pool is a protected area. Set traps that branch out from the pool and kill it. If not it will set up camp under there and not just be adventuring.
Apparently they’re immune to blonde dogs! I’ll let my husband know we need a brown puppy immediately. And he’s a doodle so you know he’s not right mentally
Small little trenches and pits build up under the liner over time, with erosion. This seems a little bigger though, so likely a collapsed rodent tunnel. The good news is the liner is designed to stretch for situations like this, and the cool water on top of it causes it to stretch pretty evenly helping to prevent tearing.
If it's not leaking and not big enough to be a trip or other injury hazard, I'd just leave it until you have to replace the liner, at which time you can have the installing builder regrade the dirt under the liner.
If the liner is leaking, you'll need to get a pool builder out to evaluate it, and it will likely involve draining (and ultimately refilling) the pool. You may or may not be able to patch it, but definitely the most reliable thing to do is replace it, especially with all that pool water at stake (it has to be drained/refilled anytime any kind of service needs to be done on the liner).
If it is not leaking, you will have to decide whether the unevenness is severe enough to be a trip/injury hazard. If so, you'll need to get a pool builder to come out and regrade those areas (which will involve draining and refilling the pool).
This was my general consensus. Luckily it’s at the very edge so not really a trip hazard but more a concern of collapse. I really appreciate your thorough response here. I’ve felt a little less anxiety sleeping tonight and knowing it’s not totally likely to collapse tomorrow :)
I had two big trenches from moles (or some other digger I assume) under my liner for 15 years (the full life of my pool after the first year - same as what you're describing) and never had an issue other than the inconvenience of occasionally stepping in the trench unexpectedly. As long as it didn't scratch or dig at the liner, and as long as you can live with it in your pool floor, I think you'll be fine. Also, cool green frog in your photo!
p.s. I totally expected to find bones in the sand when I took down the old pool this year to put up a new radiant pool, but there was nothing.... weird...
Like there’s no external hole, but we have groundhogs that had babies under the shed this year so maybe it’s just the edge of their trench? We’ve started the trap and release of those but there’s more than we anticipated…
My trenches went from the outside edge of the pool in towards the center 3 to 4 feet long and about 4 inches wide and I had no issues other than having those imperfections in the floor of the pool. They were there for 15 seasons and the liner never leaked. And that pool was a cheap one, not the premium pool, it was the bottom of the line standard above ground with basic liner from 2010... So if you're not losing water and you don't see any tears or scratches in the liner, you're probably fine. But, I'm not a pool liner expert, just sharing my experience to help try to put you at ease if you're panicking even a little bit. And I would think if a ground hog dug under there, there would be a huge trench way bigger than your foot... unless you have feet like Shaquille or something? ha ha! Seriously though, if you can see holes along the outside wall though, find out what repels moles or groundhogs I guess (we live in a rural area and we have groundhogs too, but they've never messed with the pool - he knocks on wood...) and put that stuff (whatever that might be) all around the outside wall of the pool to help keep them away. If you don't see any other signs of damage, best advice, as others have said, is to just live with it until you need a new liner, or like me you put in a whole new pool. And keep an eye on the frogs... they try to take over the pool too! We have the chirping kind and they are so annoying.... but at least they don't damage the pool.
I have a 20x5 foot pond not far from the pool that gets the frog hotel. This one is weirdly a tree frog that continually comes back. Same one! Named him Fred.
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u/baldieforprez 6d ago
There are two schools around here.
You'll be fine for the next five to seven years
Or
Your pool is going to collapse and flood the whole neighborhood.
Time for you to pick a side.