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Del Val Pools Innovates Coastal Pool Construction
DEL VAL POOLS of Southern New Jersey Develops Innovative Hydrostatic Pressure Technology in Coastal Pool Construction
(Wildwood, NJ) Developed to minimize the risk of pools lifting and sinking in sand due to varying hydrostatic pressures from tidal changes during lunar and severe storm cycles, the innovative steel cage and grade beam construction secured to three story below grade pilings is a creation of Bryan and Brett Hull, a multi generation pool construction and design engineering firm. www.delvalpoolsandspas.com
Many homeowners constructed swimming pools at the Jersey shore during the building boom from 1990’s up until the real estate market crash 2008. Shift in land’s best use occurred during this period making residential land more value than a commercial property. Commercial stores came down and houses went up fast, not necessarily of the best quality, and pools even lesser so. Most were vinyl pools wrapped over steel frames and some were concrete shot into simple frames dug into the sand relying on weight to keep them in place.
Hurricane Sandy, on October 29, 2012, hit the New Jersey coast as the largest Atlantic hurricane in history with an unusually low central barometric pressure of 940 mbar which set records in many cities as being the lowest pressure ever observed. The record setting barometric pressure helped drive the Category 2 storm with a surge of more than thirteen feet in places, and it peaked over a period of three full moon high tides.
Considering that a cubic yard of water weighs almost a ton, literally billions of tons of water pushed into the barrier isles of sand along the New Jersey coast fueled by eighty-plus mile per hour winds creating record setting hydrostatic pressure.
The majority of New Jersey coastal structures had water in their first floors, and many homes were completely destroyed. Swimming pools, unanchored and held in place by gravity, literally popped from the sand and were smashed against houses and carried inland with the force of the water. In many cases, the depression from the once existing pool completely filled in with sand erasing all evidence other than a few pipes sticking out of the ground.
“It was a horrible time for homeowners,” says Bryan Hull, co-owner of DEL VAL POOLS & SPAS, “It was a week before we could get back to the coastal islands, and we received many calls about restoring pools that had been built during the new construction peak by contractors who had long since come and gone. When we examined the storm damage and what was left of in-ground pools, they either no longer existed, or were beyond any sense of salvage. It was best to start from scratch, and my brother Brett, who has been constructing pools for decades, knew we had to engineer a unique design that would hold fast in the next superstorm. The term ‘Sandy-proof’ became stuck in our vocabulary for several years.”
Renovation at the New Jersey shore was mired with insurance bureaucracy and more work than contractors could repair after Sandy and progressed slowly over the next three to five years. Many houses had shifted on their foundations requiring certifications for stability and safety in order for restoration work to begin. The lifting or raising of many houses by a full story was a factor of FEMA’s Base Flood Elevation known as BFE and renovation and new construction followed new guidelines, but inground pools, for the most part remained below the BFE.
During the months and years after Hurricane Sandy, DEL VAL POOLS engineered, perfected, and effected a new way of building pools at the New Jersey shore using a combination twelve inch diameter three story, pressure- treated wood pilings sunk into the sand – one piling for every sixteen square feet of pool cut down to just below the surface of the pool. Anchored to these pilings are steel reibar runners that form the base of a cage frame with riebar forming perpendicular cross points every twelve inches. The reibar runners are drilled through the top of the wood pilings and then filled with concrete to create structural grade beams to withstand varying water table or hydrostatic pressures.
Hydrostatic relief valves are created when the pool cage is shot with gunite to form the shell. These valves allow for equalization of water pressure inside and outside the shell as the form cures. DEL VAL POOLS requires the inground pool shell to be a minimum of eight inches, and twelve inches thick at the base of the keel. “It’s about over-engineering pool construction for us,” says Brett Hull, co-owner of DEL VAL POOLS. “Many of the failing pools at the shore were poured with regular concrete which simply doesn’t hold up and were built on foundations that Sandy was able to decimate. From the thickness of our plumbing pipes to the gauge and density of our steel frame to the tensile strength of our grade beams, I know each pool we build will remain when the next superstorm comes ashore. For us, it’s personal. The south Jersey shore is our community.”
