Okay, so as I said, the legs were sinking into the foam. Some perhaps by up to 1/4 inch, so I decided I was going to put wood under, which was my original plan until very hot and tired I changed it at the last minute.
Problem is, the pool is full. And it's already up to a nice 68 °F and climbing. My wife doesn't want it drained, and I don't really want to spend a day draining, a day filling, and have it be cold for our 4th of July pool party. So I decided to do it with the pool filled. I've heard of people using a car jack, and that would certainly likely work, but I felt with the ground it would be difficult to use and prone to slipping. I've been thinking about this and decided to build a crane of sorts. I decided that one side would sit in the pool and out outside the pool, and I'd use a ratchet strap to lift the pool edge.
I had lots of scrap 2x4 sections left over from building the fence. With a miter saw and the air nailer in no time I had it built. One side has a large footprint, for the pool, so it doesn't dig into the liner or imprint the foam. The other side is whatever, but I added some angled pieces so it was more sturdy.
I would need some feet to go under the pool, so I cut one of the 2x12x8's into 1' sections.
I taped foam on the bottom of the pool side so it wouldn't damage the liner and hauled everything down to the pool.
With four large concrete bricks, I was able to get the pool side to sink. It isn't very heavy underwater and can be moved fairly easily. It's a hot day and I needed to get into the pool to position it...darn!
After positioning I quickly set up the other side and the cross 2x4 and using a ratchet strap, I lifted the pool edge. The foot popped out once I lifted it enough. The foam trapped them from sliding (much) and so the bottom was "tucked under" the liner a bit, all the legs had a curve to them due to this.
Detail showing the leg after lifting.
Detail showing the ratchet strap and how I ran it. If anyone else attempts this, use caution that you don't run it over the white locking pieces...you
really wouldn't want this popping apart while lifting...
At this point it was pretty easy to use a knife and a screwdriver and cut/pop foam out. I cut in as far as I could reasonably get with a utility knife.
I slide the wood block in all the way. The leg at this point was further out than pictured. It looked too far out, very angled outwards at the bottom. I pushed it in until it was at the middle of the wood block. I don't know if this is the ideal angle, still pointing outwards, but it seemed better than setting it down as is, and certainly where it was was too far in. It seemed "about right" to me, so I held it in place as I released the ratchet strap.
And that's it! One block done. Only 25 to go...
SO, would I recommend this? Well, I can't say that I do. It worked, for me, on at least one leg. There is quite a bit of force on this though, and there's a risk things could break or tear. I would say do this at your own risk! The safer, and easier, way would be to drain the pool. If you haven't yet put up a pool, get your blocks in place before filling.
Anyway, I'm off to do at least a handful more before calling it for the night. I hope to get a majority, if not all, done before the end of the day tomorrow. I have some river rock and I'd like to start putting it down to see how it looks, and getting the rest of the landscaping done before it starts getting to 90 °F or more every day. That's the days to float in the finished pool, not landscape!