Browse Forums Building Standards; Getting It Right! 1 Dec 31, 2016 10:29 am Hi there. First time poster (or close enough), long time viewer. I'm in Brisbane in the leafy suburb of Forest Lake. Pretty much every man and his dog has a pool here, as many know. My pool was put in in 2008. I purchased the place in 2009. By that standard, the pool and the concrete work is "quite new" I guess. It is an in-ground pebblecrete pool of about 36,000 litres. Not massive, but not tiny. It is sunk into the hill at the front of my house and has a large retaining wall made of treated pine to hold all the earth in place. Over the course of the last couple of years I've noticed odd bowing of the pine retaining structure at the front of the pool. See images. http://imgur.com/a/PrrtC You can see that on the "high side" of the pool there is no gap between the slab, the magic black lining foam and the pebblecrete shell - but on the "low side" you can see the ~1cm gap that has developed in the slab. Further, in the other shots, you can see the unusual "bow" that one of the retainer wall down-posts seems to have taken. The fence (colourbond) has sort of "bowed" a little as a result. People tell me I should expect some concrete cracking over the course of a period like 7 to 8 years - but I'm not an expert and I'm not sure. So. What should I do? Should I get a structural engineer in to take a quick look at things and tell me what he/she thinks? If so - whom? Can you recommend some good local companies that do this kind of work? Should I not be worried at all? No issues were picked up on the original building + pest inspection of the place when we purchased. My ideal situation would be to actually get rid of the shabby pine retainer entirely and block it with massive flag-stone style blocks of sandstone or some such...but I'm open to suggestions there too. Neighbours say: * Others in the street are bowed similar. Don't stress. * "Yep, should have been done with hardwood. You'd not have this problem if it was hardwood". None of that really helps me to know how "serious" or "not serious" a situation like this is, however. Thoughts are most appreciated. -z Re: Advice on pool concrete/potential retaining wall slippag 2Jan 01, 2017 2:05 pm From the information you have provided it wouldn't be a major issue if the same thing happened to me. I would look to replace the retaining wall with a better constructed wall. Probably the easiest way would be to construct a better wall in front of the existing wall and fill the gap with free draining material. There are a few articles here to give some more advice http://anewhouse.com.au/category/constr ... ing-walls/ The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. At 17m long you need it… 1 18162 All 3 items listed are defects and are of concern. Please seek qualified independent inspector and/or legal advice for your state. 1 8231 Just removed 40 liters of water in the span of 2 hours. Water fills up the hole just above the seepage point and doesn't overflow. 1 949 |