Above Ground Pool Installation Mistakes
Read This Before You Install The Pool
Are you about to install an above ground pool and wondering how to avoid the
most common above ground pool installation mistakes? In my fifty
years of installing above ground pools I have seen them all. You see, when
people make an above ground pool installation mistake, here in Arizona, they call me to fix it.
It is
hard to know where to start, there are so many. Not
leveling the ground would be a good place to begin. The most
important part of installing an above ground pool is that it must be
set on perfectly level ground. When installations are
attempted on unleveled ground the results are never good.
Attempting to install a pool on a base of sand is an installation
mistake that is made a lot. The sand is a cushion for the
liner only, the frame needs to sit on firm, level ground. If
there is sand anywhere near the bottom rail when the wall is being
installed it can become a real mess. The rail fills up with
sand and the wall will not go in the way it is supposed to.
An above ground pool installation mistake I see a lot is letting the
sidewall stand without support. New sidewalls start looking
used real fast when they are allowed to blow over a few times.
Sidewalls left with no support, or held up with string or tape, will
usually fall over a time or two. Every time they fall over
they get dented, scratched and creased. If you build the pool
frame as you install the wall it will never be left unsupported.
It is also helpful to plan your installation so that when the wall
goes up you have enough time to finish with the liner installation.
The pool is only completely stable when it has water in it. This can
also happen at liner changing time as did the one in the photo.
Attempting to install a used liner has been the downfall of many
do-it-yourself pool installations. Everything is going fine
until that shrunk up used liner does not fit, things can go downhill
fast at that point. At this point walls can blow down, or be
pulled down from a liner that is too small. No matter how good
the job was so far it can all be ruined quickly by trying to install
a liner that will not fit. Used liners are hard enough for us
pros to deal with, they should never be used by a home owner. But if
you really want to know I will tell you how I do it. Used Liner Installation
Do yourself, your pool and your family a favor, buy a new
Pool Liner.
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Oval pools
are an installation mistake waiting to happen. The
side braces can be very complicated and if they are not done
correctly disaster can happen. You need to seriously consider
your building skills before starting this type of installation.
Be sure you have instructions and be sure they are followed.
We get called to finish oval pools all the time because they are
that hard. It is OK to say this might be over my head, let's
hire a professional. If you feel up to the challenge read these
pages first.
Oval Pool Installation
Oval Pool Installation Mistakes
Another one I see a lot is not starting the wall behind an upright. This photo
shows how not to do it and the next photo is the correct way. Doing this
incorrectly can lead to bad things as you will see. Not building the entire pool
before installing the liner makes this mistake go unnoticed at times.
This is the correct way to start the wall. This insures the skimmer and return
openings are not behind uprights, the only thing behind an upright are the nuts
and bolts holding the wall together. They are not that great to look at anyway,
why not hide them. The two photos below show what could happen when the wall
starting place is not behind an upright. In the thousands of pools I have
installed over the years I have seen one pool where starting in the middle of a
footplate ended up with a skimmer opening behind an upright. We had to take the
wall out and start between uprights, nothing else we could do, and I felt bad
because it is just not a good look. The wall was made wrong, this should never
have happened.
I see this one on occasion when doing liner installations. If you are using the
pre-formed pool cove but them up tight and then duct tape over every joint. It
is very possible for the liner to sink down into every opening, not a pretty
picture. Butt them up and tape them, you will have a much better end result.
A few things can go wrong here. It has to do with what I call the bottom rail
gap, meaning the little space between the bottom rail and the stop button. Some
instructions are specific about this but most are not. To start with my bottom
rails are connected using a tape measure from a center point so the pool will be
perfectly round. The gap is set either with my best judgment or the instruction
manual. Here is where this can go bad quickly. You unroll the wall and it is six
inches short of meeting at the ends, and this does happen. So you go back a few
rails and butt them up in the footplates. Now the wall fits but you have a pool
that is not round and your top rails will not fit properly in this area. The
proper way to fix this is to remove the wall, re-gap all the bottom rails, make
sure it is round and start again. It's a real pain but worth your time to do it
right. If I get to the end with only an inch or two off either way I can go back
maybe a third of the pool and make some small adjustments but keeping it close
to the same works.
Installing one of those uni-bead liners can be a problem also. You get to the
end and this happens. Or maybe you don't have enough liner. In Arizona with a
temperature over a hundred degrees it is easy to pull on the liner a little too
much and end up like this. You take it all out and start over. Vinyl can be
either pushed back or pulled forward depending on your needs. The important
thing is to make your changes uniform around the entire pool. Just like the
sidewall not fitting, don't try to adjust in a short area, take the time to do
the whole pool.
Let's talk about your above ground pool installation in the ground. How far can
you sink it? My recommendation is always have the water level well above the
backfill. The pool wall alone will not support the weight of the dirt, it's the
water that does that. I see big problems here when it comes to liner changing
time. When the pool is drained the chances of the wall caving in are great,
causing major expensive problems. You are much better off with the pool at least
a foot out of the ground, or six inches at the least. With six inches you can be
sure your water level is above dirt level, as long as the pool is always full.
With a foot out of the ground you have more leeway in regards to water height.
Each to his own but this is not the way I would do it.
One more thing when it comes to above ground pools sunk in the ground is the
landscaping around it. This looks nice and is not a bad thing. The pool is out
of the ground a bit so it is not going to cave in and will stay like this for
many years, but at some point you will need to change the liner. Before you
drain the pool pull all the rocks back away from it. The dirt will have packed
solid but with any movement on the pool wall during the liner installation and
those rocks will start getting in behind the wall. This can start an entire mess
of rocks and dirt caving in the wall. Avoid that problem and move the rocks,
they can be put back in when the new liner is installed and the pool full of
water.
Not really installation related but we were talking about new liner installation time, right?
If your pool ever has a leak, find it and fix it. Leaks can lead to big time
wall rust. Dry rot around the top of the liner, the part above the water level,
is inevitable and can cause this kind of thing from happening. When you see this
starting it is time to replace the liner.
The photo above could lead to this. If you are doing a liner change and your pool wall looks like this take some
time to make it pretty again. You can sand it, paint it and make it look like
new again. You can even reinforce any areas that you feel are week or thin. Take
your time and make it solid again. I have seen many pool walls last another ten
years or more if treated right. Now is a good time to take care of it.
My personal favorite installation mistake is too many friends and too many beers. The
scene is always the same. The yard is nothing but pool parts
and beer cans everywhere. The first hour is spent finding and
sorting the pool parts and getting rid of the beer cans. We
can then start to undo, and redo, what took a group of men all
weekend to accomplish. Two people can easily build an above
ground pool. This is a case where the more is not always the
merrier.
This page,
Above Ground
Pool Installation, shows you how two people can build a pool
without any of these big time pool building mistakes.
top of Above Ground Pool Installation Mistakes
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