# filling in an in ground pool



## Doc (Jun 5, 2003)

We have a 16/32 in ground swimming pool that came with the farm. We used it a couple of years but we're not big swimmers, it takes a lot of water and chemicals and so forth for only three months of use.

Thinking of filling it in -- anyone have any experience with doing this concerning materials to use and costs?


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## Tommyice (Dec 5, 2010)

We hired a local excavator to fill ours. They busted up the concrete sides and brought in fill and then screened top soil. 

As soon as it's done, go to your tax assessor's office and have it removed from your tax records. Ditto for your insurance broker.


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## Doc (Jun 5, 2003)

Tommyice: Ball park range in costs? 

What did you do with that area?


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## RonM (Jan 6, 2008)

Be sure to bust up the bottom so it will perk.


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## Lilith (Dec 29, 2012)

Pull the concrete out and instead of filling it in, make it into a green house or root cellar.

My sister says: 
Forget removing the concrete and just build a green house on top of it, you have a built in drainage system and can grow things up on benches instead of on the ground. the steps to get down in it would already be there, you just need to build the top. However because of recent drug busts for people growing pot this way, you might get an interesting visit from the sheriff.


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## Doc (Jun 5, 2003)

Oh, yes, minimum work, please. 

Once we fill it in, then we'll decide what to put on top.

Costs anyone?


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

> Costs anyone?


Costs will be locally variable
Call around and get quotes.

Personally, I'd try to think of some way to build OVER it, and keep the pool as underground storage or a storm shelter


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## Doc (Jun 5, 2003)

In what way, Bearfootfarm? 

When I ask for costs, I realize it will be a local thing, but I'm trying to get an idea of the range -- what are we talking about?


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

We filled in our pool years ago that was the same size as yours. It had been a wood-walled pool and the wood was rotted. We had them remove the lining and dispose of it and then they placed the broken pavers from around the pool randomly in the bottom of the hole (placed flat so they don't form voids) and then they brought in fill. They mounded the top enough that we have flat ground now 18 years later. They came back in a month later and seeded the area once it settled. It cost us $2000.


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## Lilith (Dec 29, 2012)

Cant see the inside of the pool very well, but, converting your pool to a greenhouse would look much like this from the outside. 


Here is an article on how one gal turned her pool into a mushroom house (dark green house).

An inside image of what your pool conversion could look like if you used aquaponics to grow in. 









inside of another pool/greenhouse.









From where I see it, this could save you a lot of work and expence in filling the pool in. 

You might also check out www.gardenpool.org.


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## Doc (Jun 5, 2003)

These are good ideas to consider. Thanks, Lilith.


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## Goat Servant (Oct 26, 2007)

Lilith now that's REALLY nice!
Why not covert to something useful?
Years & years ago friends filled theirs with garbage, old furniture & who know what else.
I would give a million bucks (if I had it) to see the look on the faces of the folks who bought the place when they had to prepare it for subdivision.


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## Doc (Jun 5, 2003)

Lilith: what did you "google" to find these links?


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## Lilith (Dec 29, 2012)

garden in my swimming pool, swimming pool greenhouse, swimming pool vegetables, things like that.


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## SilverFlame819 (Aug 24, 2010)

Why not leave water in it, but turn it into a fish pond instead? Your own private little stocked lake!  Then you won't have to worry about the costs of chlorine and all that...


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Yep.. Lilith nailed it.
Greenhouse was my first thought as well..


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## Tommyice (Dec 5, 2010)

Doc said:


> Tommyice: Ball park range in costs?
> 
> What did you do with that area?


We filled it in almost 18 years ago. I don't remember the cost. The area is now lawn and garden (we're suburban here). 

Annsi brings up a good point of having the ground mounded up. We didn't and now you can see the shape of the pool


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## Doc (Jun 5, 2003)

The walls of this pool are metal (?) and the liner is rotting. I've talked to people at the local garden center who said that in order to have a "pond", we'd still need a new liner.

I'd love just a frog pond with a fountain, but it's too deep for that. 

What we would like is to find a young design engineer student at one of the local universities to come up with something very creative. Perhaps a combo greenhouse/frog pond??? 

The sky is the limit on creative ideas but not on the pocketbook!


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## sam03 (Apr 26, 2012)

Don't fill it use it for a aquaponics and grow tilapia!


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## Joe.G (Jun 26, 2012)

I would turn it into some sort of pond, But if you want to fill it in price will vary from area to area and also from company to company. I would do it my self,i would rent a Excavator, Bust up the bottom, maybe knock sides in a bit and then I would have fill brought in, and then a nice layer of top soil I prob would then Roll it a bunch to pack it down and then top it off with soil again.

I think you could do it your self for no more then $1,000.


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## tentance (Aug 16, 2012)

i think the garden ctr people may have fibbed a bit to try to sell you crap you dont need. now go out and look around the rest of your property for some terra cotta or bricks that you can stack up to set your fountain into, fill it up to the brim with good water, get some great water plants from the nursery. also watercress, water chestnuts, cattails, etc. after the plants have been in there a few weeks, get some fish fingerlings. i would do crawdads or catfish myself, but i live in the south.
i think if the metal walls were going to be a problem, they would have been in the years since it was built. the paint has been keeping everything from corrosion...
dont spend too much on fish at the beginning. better to go slow and make a healthy ecosystem than do too much and waste money.

the people at gardenpool have chickens, talapia, and a ton of veggies! so innovative!


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## fireweed farm (Dec 31, 2010)

I'm not sure I'd bet on a greenhouse to be incredibly productive, the walls will cast plenty of shade.
I guess one could research solar greenhouses and see if the pool fits the model.


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