frustratedinohio

Thank you so much jkusmier! This is great advice. We had an excavator out to see what needed to be done to fix the drainage. We said we wanted a guarantee that we would not get water in our basement or god forbid mess up the foundation of our home. He gave several ideas and is getting back with a quote. We spoke to the pool builder about what he suggested and he did not agree. He did admit that at least one place in the yard near the house does need a drain but that's not enough. He's sending his own excavator to our home for advice. We're not too worried because you don't have to be a genius to see there's a big problem. There is no clause with conspicuous language whereby we waived any consequential damages. It's a pretty simple contract. I'm hoping we can work this out without getting a lawyer but it's good to know you think we have a case.

When we initially bought the pool we had asked for a 4' shallow end and 6' deep end 14 x 28 inground pool with liner. They dug the hole and we noticed it didn't look 4' deep so we measured it and sure enough it was only around 3' deep. We talked to the pool builder the next day and he did remember us saying this but unfortunately it wasn't written on the contract and he said the price we got was for a 3' pool. We agreed to a little more cost to get the higher pool (a stupid tax for not having it in the contract). When I heard they weren't going to dig the hole deeper but just build up the ground to the pool a little more I was really concerned. They assured me this would be O.K. and that's the way she had built her pool. The pool people have been in business for 27 years. Everything checked out great with them. They got as far as pouring the cement bottom and putting the dirt up to the pool sides when I noticed how high the pool actually was sticking out of the ground. It looked so bad that I immediately called them to let them know this was not acceptable. I had the pool guy (he brought a friend), my neighbor whose an excavator and my spouse telling me this was O.K. They assured me that this pool wouldn't look so bad once it's finished because they would bring in dirt and gravel and it would gradually grade off and be fine. They took a string to the level ground to show me. O.K. but what about the house? The pool is about 20 feet from our house and we'll now have a water going directly at our house. They (my husband and neighbor) put in a tile to run the water from the house and said it will be O.K. Since everyone else was convinced it would be O.K. I gave in and said I'd stop being a real "B". They went ahead with the yard and the sidewalk and the patio and it looks O.K. but guess what it rained really hard today and my spouse was inthe basement dipping out buckets of water because our sump pump was having trouble keeping up. By the way, we have really nice finished basement! The drain hasn't been hooked up and we have a person coming over that says we just need to redirect the way the water drains in the yard. I think the pool company should have to pay for this? What do you think?

Concrete poured for the bottom of inground pool today and we already see a large crack across the angled side of the deep end. There are several that are about 2.5 feet long. We asked if this is normal and the pool builder said not to worry they would patch the cracks and it's normal. It will have a liner. Is this true? What should we do?