No Question, The Right Choice For Your Pool Dig!
There's not a lot of level land around these parts. So installing an above ground pool usually requires digging a flat spot for it. In the past the dirt removed was used elsewhere on the property or hauled away. But these days most people are backfilling around the pool after installation. Sometimes I'm called in just for backfilling, sometimes for the digging and sometimes for both.
You definitely want someone with experience to do the dig job because it's easy to get it wrong, meaning your pool will almost surely need to be torn down, the dig re-done, then the pool put up again and re-filled.
I have the lazer level, and other tools required to achieve the proper grade and the experience to ensure a good above ground pool dig the first time. There's a lot to it.
Upper Pic: Bobcat Man backfills a pool in Madison, TN
Lower Pic: Digging for a 14' above ground in Gallatin. The pool, not pictured but sitting to the left of the dig area, had been installed incorrectly by the homeowner and was draining for relocation to this new spot when Bobcat Man arrived. The fence being so close made the job more difficult than the typical pool excavation.
Safety note: An above ground pool MUST be leveled to within one inch. Even a small 15' x 3' pool has about 4,000 gallons of water. At about 8 lbs. per gallon that's over 30,000 lbs. of weight! While sand can, and should, be used for the final inch or two for final leveling and to help ensure no stones or debris work up through the ground, trying to fill a slope with sand much deeper than a few inches will lead to collapse of the pool wall and a possible catastrophe. Don't do it!