Investor · San Antonio · Member since 2020 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
Best ways to fill in a swimming pool to make it disappear.
We have an inground pool on one of our investment properties and we are thinking about making it disappear as in get rid of it. Our property manager said what about getting some concrete company to fill it in with concrete. I’ve never heard of that, but I’ve never filed in a swimming pool either… Lol
The people I know that have filled pools have poked holes in the bottom (I'm pretty sure this step is very important so that it doesn't fill with rain water and cause you problems in the future) and filled it with whatever nonhazardous material they could find. I think some have broken up the pool surround and dumped that into the pool. From there, I'd guess trying to get fill dirt would be the way to go if you know someone with extra. You might get lucky looking through Craigslist or something like that to see if anyone has extra dirt. If you have to buy, I'd call a local rock supplier and see what the cheapest fill they have is. They've probably done this before and could give you an idea of what you need. Honestly, I'd think only the top half foot or so would need to be good, clean dirt for growing.
I live in the Central Valley of California, so there's a lot of guys with a lot of equipment, so sometimes you get lucky with a friend having leftover of something.
It looks like you're in Texas. If you were out here, I'd connect you with my buddy that dug my new leach lines for me with his backhoe. haha. Sorry!
To remove a pool, if it's a vinyl liner, remove the liner. If it's gunite or concrete you'll need to break up the bottom. Then with a backhoe, the sides can be caved in. Then you'll need lots of soil, sand, dirt to fill it. Figure a few thousand dollars for enough truck loads of dirt. If there's access and larger tandem axle dump trucks can get close, that will help. Also, make sure any underground wires and pipes are addressed.
I typically would deduct about $10k off the price if I was buying a home with a pool that needed to be razed.