I'm hoping to gather opinions and ideas about the best way to proceed with our money pit, because we're getting closer to having our hand forced with a liner failure. I know this is a lot of info; I'd be ever so grateful for any input. We've been thinking about all this stuff for the past two years; I have about a million TFP threads bookmarked and I have information overload at this point. I'd love to choose and move on!!!
Prior pertinent threads:
yet-another-new-pool-owner-uh-oh-no-suction-t16238.html
This one has pictures of our coping and liner track.
money-pit-part-1-the-leak-update-new-weird-leak-t30788-20.html
Facts:
Pool age - early 70's probably, so around 40 years
Construction type and style - concrete block; some type of soft bottom; constant slope from shallow to deep, with completely vertical walls
Vinyl liner is shot - we could perhaps limp through another season, if the overbaked corner holds up.
Coping - 1x10 wood covered with white vinyl and extending over the decking
Liner track - appears to be horizontally mounted
Concrete decking - could be salvaged. Butts up to concrete block pool walls UNDER the vinyl-covered wood coping. One corner has sunk about 2" below the wood coping; could presumably be mud-jacked
Plumbing and equipment - underground plumbing is original; had a leak under concrete repaired last year. Pad is right under the only family room window. Plumbing is very simple: one skimmer line in to pump/filter, one line out to 2 returns. No heater, no solar, no chlorinator.
Initial renovation quote, which included everything we possibly considered. I was a bit surprised at the price of some of the items, though.
Liner = a bit under $4000 - 36x18 rectangle, constant slope, no 'tile' border, nothing but 4 vertical walls, a floor, 1 skimmer and 2 returns
Raise pool floor=$6500; we have vertical walls, so changing the floor should only involve resloping from shallow to deep; i.e. there is no traditional hopper with edges sloping in from the side walls
Precast concrete coping = a bit under $6000 - by my calcs around $55/lin ft
Alumnimum coping alternative = a bit under $1000
Decking= $6000 to remove and replace 3' around pool - by my calcs, around $16/sq ft
Move existing equipment and replumb = $6000
Desires, relatively in this order:
Money - balancing functional and appearance with common sense. The first quote came in 10% under the cost of an entire new pool!
Change pool floor configuration - it's a constant slope; we'd love to have a traditional shallow end with a deeper slope to the deep end, but $6500????
Coping flush with deck - I presume that this requires removing all decking. Theoretically, if we could cut the decking back to accommodate precast coping at about 1' wide, we could fit new coping in. However, this would also require cutting down the pool walls to get new coping flush with that existing deck. Doesn't seem within the realm of possibility.
Coping material - precast concrete coping was about 6x the price of aluminum coping. I really don't want aluminum; I'd take cantilevered over that. Is cantilevered somewhere between precast and aluminum?
More decking - if we salvage existing decking, we'll obviously have 2 different kinds of decking, so DIY pavers may be the best choice for extra decking as opposed to trying to match concrete. If we replace existing decking, we can have all the concrete we want at $6/sq ft.
Move pool pad and replump - for $6000, I'll listen to the pump!!!!!!!
Questions:
1) How feasible is it to DIY precast concrete coping?
2) Is it possible that the decking up against the concrete block walls is part of the pool walls' support system?
3) If we choose to live with most of what we have, we still really need to do something with the coping. Is there any kind of coping product or process we could use that would ride on the pool wall and over the existing decking? The pool wall is really only as wide as concrete blocks and is level with the decking under the existing wood coping.
3a) If all else fails, does anyone recognize the white vinyl stuff that covers the wood coping? I found something that looks similar from SRSmith, but I'm not sure if that's what we have.
http://www.poolsupplyworld.com/poolsupp ... 423160.htm
4) Pool mudjacking - I remember ConcreteJack's thread about how it is possible around a pool, but I wonder how it works around the plumbing? Can it damage the plumbing?
And the biggest question: is it possible to do this in 2 phases, months or years apart: A) redo floor slope and replace liner, and B) replace coping/decking and move equipment? My concern is that if we replace the liner, but leave the existing coping, we will be forced into a particular type of track that will prevent us from certain coping choices later. If we can chose a track that will work now, and will allow aluminum, cantilever, or precast coping in the future, then that's the one I want to chose!
Whew! Thank you for reading all this. Anything anyone has to share would be most appreciated!!!
Amy
Prior pertinent threads:
yet-another-new-pool-owner-uh-oh-no-suction-t16238.html
This one has pictures of our coping and liner track.
money-pit-part-1-the-leak-update-new-weird-leak-t30788-20.html
Facts:
Pool age - early 70's probably, so around 40 years
Construction type and style - concrete block; some type of soft bottom; constant slope from shallow to deep, with completely vertical walls
Vinyl liner is shot - we could perhaps limp through another season, if the overbaked corner holds up.
Coping - 1x10 wood covered with white vinyl and extending over the decking
Liner track - appears to be horizontally mounted
Concrete decking - could be salvaged. Butts up to concrete block pool walls UNDER the vinyl-covered wood coping. One corner has sunk about 2" below the wood coping; could presumably be mud-jacked
Plumbing and equipment - underground plumbing is original; had a leak under concrete repaired last year. Pad is right under the only family room window. Plumbing is very simple: one skimmer line in to pump/filter, one line out to 2 returns. No heater, no solar, no chlorinator.
Initial renovation quote, which included everything we possibly considered. I was a bit surprised at the price of some of the items, though.
Liner = a bit under $4000 - 36x18 rectangle, constant slope, no 'tile' border, nothing but 4 vertical walls, a floor, 1 skimmer and 2 returns
Raise pool floor=$6500; we have vertical walls, so changing the floor should only involve resloping from shallow to deep; i.e. there is no traditional hopper with edges sloping in from the side walls
Precast concrete coping = a bit under $6000 - by my calcs around $55/lin ft
Alumnimum coping alternative = a bit under $1000
Decking= $6000 to remove and replace 3' around pool - by my calcs, around $16/sq ft
Move existing equipment and replumb = $6000
Desires, relatively in this order:
Money - balancing functional and appearance with common sense. The first quote came in 10% under the cost of an entire new pool!
Change pool floor configuration - it's a constant slope; we'd love to have a traditional shallow end with a deeper slope to the deep end, but $6500????
Coping flush with deck - I presume that this requires removing all decking. Theoretically, if we could cut the decking back to accommodate precast coping at about 1' wide, we could fit new coping in. However, this would also require cutting down the pool walls to get new coping flush with that existing deck. Doesn't seem within the realm of possibility.
Coping material - precast concrete coping was about 6x the price of aluminum coping. I really don't want aluminum; I'd take cantilevered over that. Is cantilevered somewhere between precast and aluminum?
More decking - if we salvage existing decking, we'll obviously have 2 different kinds of decking, so DIY pavers may be the best choice for extra decking as opposed to trying to match concrete. If we replace existing decking, we can have all the concrete we want at $6/sq ft.
Move pool pad and replump - for $6000, I'll listen to the pump!!!!!!!
Questions:
1) How feasible is it to DIY precast concrete coping?
2) Is it possible that the decking up against the concrete block walls is part of the pool walls' support system?
3) If we choose to live with most of what we have, we still really need to do something with the coping. Is there any kind of coping product or process we could use that would ride on the pool wall and over the existing decking? The pool wall is really only as wide as concrete blocks and is level with the decking under the existing wood coping.
3a) If all else fails, does anyone recognize the white vinyl stuff that covers the wood coping? I found something that looks similar from SRSmith, but I'm not sure if that's what we have.
http://www.poolsupplyworld.com/poolsupp ... 423160.htm
4) Pool mudjacking - I remember ConcreteJack's thread about how it is possible around a pool, but I wonder how it works around the plumbing? Can it damage the plumbing?
And the biggest question: is it possible to do this in 2 phases, months or years apart: A) redo floor slope and replace liner, and B) replace coping/decking and move equipment? My concern is that if we replace the liner, but leave the existing coping, we will be forced into a particular type of track that will prevent us from certain coping choices later. If we can chose a track that will work now, and will allow aluminum, cantilever, or precast coping in the future, then that's the one I want to chose!
Whew! Thank you for reading all this. Anything anyone has to share would be most appreciated!!!
Amy
