Bottom Puncturing - How To Remove An In-Ground Swimming Pool

Part of the process of removing your pool is ensuring that it won't become a pool again.  How?  By breaking up the bottom of the pool so rainwater can drain through.  We did this with the backhoe since the vermiculite was pretty easy to break up.  We started at a corner and worked our way across the bottom, using the thumb to break up pieces as we went.  You technically only have to break holes every so often but it was so quick to just do the whole base with the machine that it was over before we thought any more about it.  Plus, we wanted to keep the inspector happy!  The bottom was broken up first and then the sides. Here's a progress picture as we were doing the bottom:

Ok, on to the next step: Side Wall Removal