Howdy TFP peoples,
My name is Andy and I have been lurking on the forums for about a week or so now since a friend of ours turned us onto the site. Great wealth of knowledge that I hope to dive into if I am ever able to get my pool setup for use. brief background, my wife and I purchased a 27' X 54" aluminum wall and resin everything else pool from Lighthouse Pools and Spas. We opted to do the install ourselves (by we, I mean she opted to have me do the install). The grading was a pain, but I got it done. The wall was a pain, but we got it done. The liner went pretty easy. Now to the issue at hand. This is where I screwed up. The water guy had come and put the first load in the pool to set the liner. I hadn't installed my skimmer box on the outside of the pool wall yet. Through miscommunication and a very big misunderstanding (mostly a misunderstanding on my part) I wound up putting some screw holes through the liner before I realized that these screws should have been behind the liner. DOH! So I go into freakout mode. I think to myself, SELF, (I knew it was me because it was my voice and I was wearing my underwear), we have to fix this. There has to be a hole cut in it anyways. So I made some small X shaped incisions to give me access to the wall and the ability to mount the skimmer box to the wall. Problem is the liner ripped out to where my outside screw holes were. So feeling down and defeated I called the water guy and said no more loads of water were needed until I could get the pool fixed. I explained my bone headed move to him. He told me, no worries, we can stretch the liner a tad bit (it had to pull in from the sides about an inch and about an inch up from the bottom. Fast forwarding a day the water guy shows up and we attempt this fix. To my amazement with the help from my wife's hair dryer it stretched very easily allowing my to move the small screw holes inside of where the skimmer opening was. I thought the problem was fixed. Last night we received our final load of water to put the water level to where it was going into the skimmer. The water guy felt the pool wall and assured me all was well, there were no leaks. Like a ding dong I didnt check myself. So this morning I woke up and went out to check and there it was...... A steady drip coming from the right side of the skimmer and a steady flow running down the outside of the pool wall on the leftside. I am in the process of draining the pool to below the skimmer level to assess the situation. I knew looking at this gasket situation that something was not right. But, I know nothing and I took the water guy's advice that it was sealed and shouldnt leak. I guess I am here to ask what would be the best course of action from this point forward? Do I patch over the entire skimmer hole and start fresh? Do I drain it all the way assess if any sand eroded out from my birm that was built up? I am very frustrated and cursing myself for not just paying the $1000 to have had someone else install it. i have included pictures for your amusement. The screws are loose because I was trying to get the gasket to line up properly. I was unable to which is apparent by the leak I found this morning.
My name is Andy and I have been lurking on the forums for about a week or so now since a friend of ours turned us onto the site. Great wealth of knowledge that I hope to dive into if I am ever able to get my pool setup for use. brief background, my wife and I purchased a 27' X 54" aluminum wall and resin everything else pool from Lighthouse Pools and Spas. We opted to do the install ourselves (by we, I mean she opted to have me do the install). The grading was a pain, but I got it done. The wall was a pain, but we got it done. The liner went pretty easy. Now to the issue at hand. This is where I screwed up. The water guy had come and put the first load in the pool to set the liner. I hadn't installed my skimmer box on the outside of the pool wall yet. Through miscommunication and a very big misunderstanding (mostly a misunderstanding on my part) I wound up putting some screw holes through the liner before I realized that these screws should have been behind the liner. DOH! So I go into freakout mode. I think to myself, SELF, (I knew it was me because it was my voice and I was wearing my underwear), we have to fix this. There has to be a hole cut in it anyways. So I made some small X shaped incisions to give me access to the wall and the ability to mount the skimmer box to the wall. Problem is the liner ripped out to where my outside screw holes were. So feeling down and defeated I called the water guy and said no more loads of water were needed until I could get the pool fixed. I explained my bone headed move to him. He told me, no worries, we can stretch the liner a tad bit (it had to pull in from the sides about an inch and about an inch up from the bottom. Fast forwarding a day the water guy shows up and we attempt this fix. To my amazement with the help from my wife's hair dryer it stretched very easily allowing my to move the small screw holes inside of where the skimmer opening was. I thought the problem was fixed. Last night we received our final load of water to put the water level to where it was going into the skimmer. The water guy felt the pool wall and assured me all was well, there were no leaks. Like a ding dong I didnt check myself. So this morning I woke up and went out to check and there it was...... A steady drip coming from the right side of the skimmer and a steady flow running down the outside of the pool wall on the leftside. I am in the process of draining the pool to below the skimmer level to assess the situation. I knew looking at this gasket situation that something was not right. But, I know nothing and I took the water guy's advice that it was sealed and shouldnt leak. I guess I am here to ask what would be the best course of action from this point forward? Do I patch over the entire skimmer hole and start fresh? Do I drain it all the way assess if any sand eroded out from my birm that was built up? I am very frustrated and cursing myself for not just paying the $1000 to have had someone else install it. i have included pictures for your amusement. The screws are loose because I was trying to get the gasket to line up properly. I was unable to which is apparent by the leak I found this morning.
