Skimmer Hole / Liner cut too much??

[pool4me]

Hey everyone,

My neighbor stopped over yesterday as my water truck arrived to check progress on my install.

He was commenting on my skimmer installation and mentioned that his leaks like crazy.

We both have essentially the same pools - 15x33 Above Ground.

While looking at his, I see that when the (POOL PEOPLE WHO INSTALLED IT!), cut the liner, they did a pretty bad job. You can pretty much see the hole / edge of the liner / pool wall under the bottom portion of the faceplate for the skimmer. The top and sides appear fine.

Obviously, the hole (at least the bottom portion) is too large. (And is gooped up with silicone. - And is "somewhat" holding water back - at least some water).

My questions is (His pool is 1 year old), could he (and me I guess at this point) drain below the skimmer and use some patch / adhesive to patch a strip of liner in this area to extend the liner a bit higher up toward the hole? (I have a nice new piece that I cut off my liner yesterday).

I'm guessing that, while not perfect, it would have to be a little better than a huge bead of silicone correct?? I'm guessing since there is not a lot of pressure, that a patch may hold in this area?

I'd hate to see him keep loosing water and rot out his pool wall. (unlike my pool, he does not have a stainless steel portion).

Any thoughts would be great. I'd love to see if I can help him out. He has 6 kids so his pool get's used a lot and I'm just wondering if some point his liner is going to "tear away" in this area if something is not done.

 

[waste]

You've hit upon the best solution! (other than a new liner)

Sounds like they cut the liner before attaching the skimmer and faceplate :?:

The fix you propose sounds good! I'd put a patch behind the liner covering the entire skimmer cut out, and an inch beyond where it's cut, as long as you have the water down It'll look better.

I assume you can't have the installers simply replace the liner and cut it right this time?


BTW - I'm seeing a lot of your posts of late and think you are giving VERY good advice 8)

 

[pool4me]

Hi Waste (Ted),

Thanks for the reply. I was hoping that a repair like that was possible. I was thinking the same thing. If I could cut a "skimmer hole-sized square" out of a piece of liner and glue it over the skimmer hole and to the back of his liner, withe might just luck out. Then we can cut a nice normal sized hole.

If we could just "fill up" that large open hole just a bit I think he would be fine.

He didn't notice it when they installed the liner. (I would have been screaming for them to correct it). I guess the silicone held for a little while anyway.

I told him that when he gets ready to close up for the Winter and lowers the water level, we'll let everything dry out and then we'll clean up the back of the liner, cut a nice patch that leaves a nice 1"-2" overlap behind his liner and patch that thing up.

We'll see how it goes..

I've done a few patches in the past but not that big.

EDIT: Ps. Thanks for that nice comment!