With Flowable Fill there has to be a few very important things to keep in mind. The first thing is you must leave enough space for the Flowable Fill to flow under the specific item you are looking to support. For example, for a tanning ledge, if you only left a few inches or you sat it directly on stone, Flowable Fill won’t be effective as it can’t flow under. Leave 12” space, that will allow Flowable Fill to freely move under and around to support.

Second factor to consider is the material that is under is there such as dirt or rock, pre spray the area with water. That will help the Flowable Fill actually flow are not get jammed up.

Regarding what type of Flowable Fill to ask for: Ask for 100 PSI excavatable Flowable Fill. They may ask what it is for. Explain it is to support a tanning ledge on a fiberglass pool.

Finally, you must be careful. IMPORTANT! If you are doing a pool with a ledge and you get over aggressive with the Flowable Fill, you put too much in, or driver doesn’t turn off flow when you ask, you run the risk of lifting the pool or the ledge. You want to be sure when it flows under there it makes its way under and around and just, just comes up around the edge of what you are supporting AND THEN STOP!

It’s also important to keep some water in the pool  at the time you are doing this. Not much but a few inches of water helps and it is also good to have some additional counterweight on site. A good idea to have 10-15 bags of salt, that’s 500 pounds of weight. You want to have a worker stomping around with their feet in the ledge area feeling around. You can feel the Flowable Fill move when you in the ledge as it is flowing.

If done correctly you will have a feel unlike anything else. Solid to the touch, under foot. Because Flowable Fill is non-shrinking once it cures, it won’t shrink away much. It’s going to give you a feel you can’t get with stone or any other material.

Content courtesy of Pioneer Valley Fiberglass Pools / Holyoke, MA