Pool removal for Gretna, the West Bank and New Orleans backyards

Partial removal or full removal: the decision that shapes everything else

Almost every pool job in the New Orleans area starts with one choice. With the partial route, sometimes described as abandoning or burying the pool, much of the original basin simply stays buried. The contractor breaks off the top portion of the walls, cracks or perforates the floor so water can pass through it, drops the broken pieces into the hole, and then brings in fill and compacts it up to grade. A full removal pulls the entire shell out, hauls it away, and replaces the empty space with fill chosen and placed so the ground can carry weight later.

Partial removal is usually the lighter job: fewer truckloads leave the property and less material comes back in. Full removal is more work, but it leaves nothing buried that a future buyer, surveyor or building official has to wonder about. Which fits depends on your plans for that part of the yard and what your city or parish expects.

Why the buried shell matters more in soft Louisiana ground

Much of Jefferson and Orleans Parish sits on soft clay and organic soils, close to or under sea level, with groundwater that is never far below your feet. That ground compresses slowly under load and moves when it gets wet and dries out again. A buried pool shell behaves differently from the soil around it. The concrete wall stays put while the native ground beside it settles, so a fill-in that looked level on the day the crew left can develop a shallow bowl or a ridge along the old pool outline a couple of seasons later.

Drainage is the other half of the problem. If the floor of an abandoned shell is not broken thoroughly, rain soaking down through the fill has nowhere to go. The old pool becomes a buried bathtub, the fill above it stays saturated, and the lawn turns spongy every time a summer storm parks over the West Bank. A careful partial removal breaks the floor into pieces rather than drilling a handful of holes.

Concrete, fiberglass, vinyl liner and above-ground pools each come apart differently

The construction of the pool sets the method, the equipment and a good share of the effort. A few photos usually settle which kind you have.

• Poured or sprayed concrete (gunite or shotcrete) pools are the heaviest to break. The shell is reinforced with steel, and a hydraulic breaker on an excavator or skid steer is the usual tool. This is where partial versus full removal makes the biggest difference in hauling.
• Fiberglass pools arrive as one molded shell. Crews commonly saw that shell into manageable pieces and hoist them free, and since fiberglass cannot be crushed into reusable base the way concrete can, those pieces usually ride off to be buried at a landfill or dropped at a transfer yard.
• Vinyl liner pools have a thin liner over a sand or cement floor, held by walls of steel, aluminum or polymer panels. The liner is cut out, the wall panels are unbolted or cut, and the metal can usually be scrapped.
• Above-ground pools are the simplest. The water is drained, the liner and frame come apart, and the work that remains is leveling the footprint, filling any dug-out area and dealing with the sand base underneath.

How a typical in-ground pool removal unfolds, step by step

Most residential jobs follow the same basic order.

1. Site visit and scope. The contractor checks access to the backyard, what surrounds the pool, the construction type, and whether you want partial or full removal.
2. Permit and utility steps. The permit is pulled from the city or the parish, the electrical circuit feeding the pump and lights is shut off and made safe, and Louisiana 811 is called so buried lines are marked before any digging.
3. Draining. The water is pumped out to a location the city allows. Where it can go is a local question, so the contractor follows whatever the permit office says about discharge.
4. Decking and equipment come out. Coping, the surrounding concrete deck, the diving board, ladders, rails, the pump, the filter and the heater are removed.
5. Breaking the shell. For a partial job, the upper walls are broken off and the floor is cracked up thoroughly for drainage. For a full job, the whole shell is broken and loaded out.
6. Fill and compaction. Clean fill goes in a layer at a time, each layer compacted before the next is placed, until the hole is back to grade.
7. Final grading and inspection. The surface is shaped to shed water away from the house, topsoil goes on top, and the city or parish may want to inspect before closing the permit.

Draining the water without causing a new problem

Thousands of gallons of chlorinated water cannot simply be dumped into the nearest ditch. Where that water may go depends on local rules, and it is the kind of question the permit office answers, not a website.

There is also a practical risk unique to low-lying ground. An empty in-ground pool sitting in a high water table can be pushed upward by the groundwater around it, a failure called floating or popping. That is why breaking and filling usually follow the draining closely here.

Fill and compaction: the part you never see but always live with

The quality of a pool removal shows up years later, in whether the yard stays flat. Two things decide that: what goes into the hole and how it is packed down. Loose dirt dumped in all at once will keep settling for a long time. Fill that is placed in layers and compacted as it rises behaves far more like undisturbed ground.

For a lawn or garden, a contractor might use a different fill than for an area where you plan to put a slab, an addition or a garage. When the future use involves weight, an engineered or select fill and documented compaction testing may be part of the scope, and some buyers and building departments will ask to see that paperwork.

Electrical, plumbing and the pool equipment pad

A pool is wired and plumbed into your house, and those connections have to be dealt with properly instead of being buried. The circuit feeding the pump, the lights and any heater is shut off at the panel and the wiring is made safe, which is a job for an electrician, especially where a subpanel is involved. Supply and return lines are cut and capped. A gas line to a heater is shut off and capped by whoever is qualified to handle gas in your jurisdiction.

The equipment pad can come out with the pool or stay. If you want the surrounding patio or walkway removed as well, that work is covered on the concrete removal page.

Permits, closing out the job and telling a future buyer

In Gretna, New Orleans and Kenner, the city issues the permit. In unincorporated Jefferson Parish, including Marrero, Harvey and Terrytown, the parish handles it. The details differ, but most offices want to know the method, whether the shell stays or goes, and how the hole will be filled. Some inspect the broken floor before fill goes in or the finished grade before closing the permit.

When you sell, Louisiana's property disclosure process asks owners to share what they know about the property, and a buried pool shell is the kind of fact a buyer's inspector or lender may ask about. A fully removed pool with a closed permit is usually a non-issue. A partial removal with a closed permit is generally acceptable for a lawn, but some buyers prefer to see full removal.

What you can put on the old pool site afterward

This is the question that should settle partial versus full removal. If the plan is grass, a vegetable bed, a play area or a lightweight shed, a well-done partial fill usually serves fine. If there is any chance you will want a room addition, a detached garage, a new slab or a raised rebuild on that part of the lot, full removal with engineered fill is the safer route, because a foundation sitting partly over buried concrete and partly over native soil can settle unevenly.

The cost drivers a contractor looks at before pricing a pool

What a contractor weighs during the site visit before pricing:

• Construction type, size and shape, and how thick and how heavily reinforced the shell is.
• Partial or full removal, which changes how much material leaves and how much fill comes in.
• Access from the street and how far material has to be carried or driven across the property.
• Decking, coping, equipment pads and any attached structures that come out with the pool.
• Fill type, whether engineered fill and compaction testing are part of the scope, and final topsoil and grading.
• Electrical and plumbing work to make the pool circuits and lines safe.
• Permit requirements, inspections, and disposal or recycling for broken concrete, metal and fiberglass.

Start with an address and a few photos

If you are ready to be rid of a pool in Gretna, Metairie, Kenner or anywhere nearby, send the address and some photos of the pool, the deck and the route in from the street, and say whether you lean toward partial or full removal. If the house itself or an outbuilding is coming down too, see the house demolition page, and the service areas list shows the communities on both banks.

Pool removal for Gretna — common questions

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