There are different types of clay, some are extremely expansive and others are actually fairly stable. It is hard to say what caused the popping in the photo without more info. Most stories of popped pools are due to the pool being empty and then the water table rises due to excessive rains. When that happens it basically floats the pool right out of the hole. But since your neighbor's pool had water in it when it popped, I'm guessing you're sitting on some very expansive clays and possibly his pool was installed during dry conditions and it rose 4" after some wetter weather as the clays expanded. Then when he emptied it, it made things worse because the water table was so high it just floated the pool. If you are on highly expansive clays, you need to be very concerned about the subgrade prep regardless of what kind of pool you put in. There are things that can be done such as installing the pool on piers, moisture treating the subgrade, installing a drainage system and/ or over-excavating the dig and putting in select fill. I would highly recommend getting a structural engineer involved through the PB. If the PB says not to worry about it, they do this all the time and it will be fine; then look for another PB!

Good luck!

I build liners pools here in Tennessee red clay...the whole solution is proper drainage around the pool and decking. To have that many pool with problems there must be alot of underground water in your area...So be very careful that your builder installs forced drainage or french drains around your pool or any retaining walls

As a fiberglass pool owner that photo is very disturbing. Our PB installed a drywell around the periemeter of our pool. We installed a sump pump and run it very frequently in the winter and spring. The water is forced out through a pvc pipe to a french drain that runs to our storm sewer. The drywell pretty much stays full during these seasons. Now during the summer it's fairly dry. Gunite pools are very rare in this neck of the woods, and we did not go with vinyl because of the high water table. Our neighbor does have a vinyl though, his liner was always pulling away during the winter so he installed some drainage pipe underground around his pool and it has stopped his problem. It's seems proper drainage is the answer as the previous posters stated.

I am very disturbed by that photo as well. I have a fiberglass pool and had a terrible pool company (they are out of business and soon to be in jail I think).

If I were you, I would get the nicest above ground set-up as possible, spending the bulk of money on landscaping. It could be really beautiful.

I think it would be too much stress worrying about what might happen to your pool during the build and after every heavy rain.

What part of the country are you in?

tlbb