Im throwing a change up on the pool discussion this summer and wandering if any of you have any insight to pool removal.

Backstory. I purchased a house 2 years ago that the previous owner had filled in the gunite pool. The pool reportedly had an undetectable leak so the owner punched holes in the bottom, caved in the sides, and filled with dirt. The pool (as best I can tell thru google maps) was about 35'x16' with a deep end.

I am looking to remove the pool before installing a new one and was wandering if any of you here has done that before. I am mostly curious as to what this might cost, and any associated issues with installing a new pool in the same area. I don't want to try to salvage the old one.

If you want to well and truly remove it, its going to involve digging it up and hauling it off.

That means digging a big hole. Unless your new pool is going to at least encompass the entire area of the old pool, I don't see the benefit of paying to remove portions of the old pool that aren't going to interfere with the new one. I would talk to your new contractor and see what they think.

They're going to be out there digging a hole already. They're going to have heavy equipment. They're certainly capable of doing it. It really might be cheaper to just have them remove the parts of the old pool that they need to. Getting someone else out there to do the work would probably be more expensive. Getting the equipment and doing the work yourself might not save you that much (even if you dig the hole yourself, I wouldn't give you ALL the money back that I would normally charge) and it would be a pain in the ass and a liability.

Agree with the above, no reason to involve another party since your pool builder will already be excavating for the new pool. I would just be upfront with them and provide as much information as possible and let them price any needed demo with your build. There will be added costs.

Probably depends as much on how well the original pool was broken up.
Small chunks will be like digging rocks. If it is still in large sections with rebar, it will be much more difficult.

Builder here, most pool diggers have a 1000 lb hammer on the trailer with the excavator.

Just be up front with the builder of what's down there. It may come down to a cost plus situation as it'll be hard for him to quantify.

If you're in the west side of the metroplex, I'd love to give you a quote for a pool if you're interested.

I appreciate all the feedback. My original thought is the same as y'all have suggested, get the pool builder to remove the old pool. I was a little shell shocked at his quote (15k) for pool removal only.

Corpsag, i appreciate your pool builder insight. If you serviced the south texas area, I would have called you first for a quote.

That's about what it costs unfortunately. That's about what it cost last time I pulled one out.

You might ask if he'd do it cost plus and get a breakdown of cost/hr and track their time on it. What would bother me is you said he gave you a quote, which in my mind means estimate. Unless it's a hard $15k, I'd push for cost plus.

Approx a 1/4 of our projects involve a pool removal, so happy to answer any questions offline if that's helpful

I'm familiar with most of the builders in s texas, so happy to help guide in that way as well if helpful

Thanks and good luck!

Pool builders charge extra if they have to break up and dig up rocks. My pool builder was going to charge $1000 for the first two hours after hitting rock and $300 every hour after that.

That's a pretty standard pricing structure