Case of beer, several pizzas, and friends.

Sounds like a solid plan except for the fact that mandatory “social distancing” for the foreseeable future is putting a damper on the friends part LoL. Hoping the skid steer approach will make up for the lack of manpower.

If you can deal with the repair on the lawn and immediate area around the pool, the skid steer will work fine and quick. We've demo'd lots of things with our skid steer. Very versatile machine. Makes work quick.

Tearing it down manually will definitely limit impact of damage, but it's tedious.

Thank you for the reassurance! My husband is a landscaper and we’ll need to regrade most of the backyard anyways so not overly concerned about tearing it apart. I just wanted a 2nd opinion since I’m not finding much online about using this approach.