Re-using Bent Pool Braces

by Rob
(New Brunswick, Canada)

Hi there - moving a used (5 yr old) AGP to my property. It appears to be in generally good shape although many of the buttresses are buckled. Most Minor, a couple major.

I will enclose a pic of the worst one. The rest are mainly just a little crushed where they attached to the vertical post/brace. Any thoughts/advice?

Hi Rob

Those braces are a little flimsy to begin with and I would reinforce each one of them. Angle iron can be screwed or bolted to the inside of them for added strength. I think even a piece of 2 x 2 lumber would work inside of them.

There is a lot of water pressure pushing out against those braces so you would definitely want to straighten them and then reinforce them. If you were to replace them you would be getting the same thin metal you have right now. I would not waist the money on new ones. You could build a much stronger pool by fixing the bent ones.

Support Is Bent And Wall Is Bowing

We installed a 12' x 20' above ground pool yesterday and filled it and about 2-3 hours later we saw that the support completely bent and the wall is bowing outward.

We bought the pool second hand, and there was a kink in the support, so we are thinking it may have been weak to begin with. Is there anyway, other than draining it and adding a new support, to fix this? If we support it with wood (deck will go over top) would it be unsafe?

Thanks.

Hi

I am sure you are right, the existing kink in the support caused the failure.

Anyway you can reinforce the support would be fine. You may be able to force a piece of lumber inside the support. You may be able to attach some steel to the outside. There are many ways to reinforce a pool support without having to replace them.

The advantages are you do not need to completely drain the pool and you do not need to buy new parts, which may, or may not, be hard to find.

If you let a little water out of the pool, usually to about half full, a few husky guys should be able to push the wall straight, allowing the reinforcement to be made.

There is no reason why a deck could not work into the repair. Anything that will hold the wall straight up and down is fine.

Oval Pool Uprights

by Kim
(Richmond,il)

We have oval pool that is approximately 20 years old. We have two uprights that have pushed away from the bottom of the pool. There is one on each side. The liner is fine and the wall doesn't appear to be rusted. How can we repair them and do we need to worry about the pool collapsing? The pool is currently full.

Hi Kim It sounds like the strapping connecting the braces rusted out. The braces can be easily secured with concrete blocks set behind them or a bag or two of quick set concrete.