An old above-ground pool takes up half the yard, and taking one down is a bigger job than it looks. The liner and walls are the easy part. The parts that trip people up are the water, the sand base and the fence around the pool. Here's how it works in the Kansas City metro.
1. Stop the chlorine and test the water
Stop adding chlorine about a week before you drain. Missouri DNR's benchmark for draining pool water is no chlorine for seven days and a test reading below 0.13 mg/L. Johnson County's stormwater guidance asks for chlorine under 0.1 ppm and a pH between 7 and 8. A cheap pool test kit tells you when you're there.
Chlorinated water and filter backwash never go into the street or a storm drain. Storm drains run straight to creeks with no treatment. Some cities go further: Lenexa doesn't allow anything into its storm drains, so pool water there goes onto the lawn, slowly enough that all of it soaks in. Independence sends permitted pool drains to the sanitary sewer, so ask the city before you drain there. Salt pools can kill grass, so keep that water off the lawn you care about.
2. Disconnect the equipment
If the pump and filter plug into an outlet, unplug them. If anything is hardwired or runs on gas, like a heater or pool lights, have an electrician or plumber disconnect it first. That's licensed work in every city in the metro.
3. Take it apart
Cut the liner into strips and roll them up. Take off the top rails, then the uprights, then unroll the wall. Wear gloves: cut steel wall edges are sharp. Ladders, steps and skimmers come off along the way.
4. Decide what happens to the sand base
If you're putting in a new pool, leave the base. If you want the yard back, the sand, the cove and any paver pads under the posts have to come out, and that counts as digging. Missouri's One Call law covers material in or on the ground, with no exemption for yard work, and Kansas covers any earth moved below the surface. Call 811 (Missouri One Call is 1-800-344-7483) before you dig. Missouri needs 2 to 10 working days' notice and Kansas at least 2 full working days.
Don't take the fence down first
Most KC-area cities require a barrier around a pool for as long as the pool is there: 6 feet in Independence and 48 inches in Liberty, Overland Park, Lenexa and unincorporated Jackson County. If the fence around the pool is coming down too, take the pool out first or on the same day.
Where it all goes
The liner, rails and walls go to a permitted landfill as construction debris. A scrap yard may take steel walls and uprights. Used filter sand or DE powder is solid waste: bag it for the trash or the landfill, and never rinse it into a drain.
When to hand it off
Draining takes patience and a test kit, and taking the pool apart takes an afternoon with a helper. The hauling is where most people stop: a pool comes apart into a pile that won't fit in a pickup. Our above-ground pool removal covers all of it: we test and drain the water the right way, take the pool apart, call in the locate if the base is coming out, and haul every piece.
This guide is general information for the Kansas City area, accurate to the best of our knowledge as of its last update. Facility hours, fees, accepted items, and city programs change, so confirm details with the facility or your city before you go. Nothing here is legal or professional advice. See our Terms.