Hi everyone! I am in the middle of replacing the liner in my saltwater steel wall pool. Upon removal of the old liner I found the steel walls overlapping the skimmers have rusted severely. Its so bad that the surface that the skimmer gasket mates to was almost gone. See pics below.
I went ahead and cut the rusty steel away from around the perimeter of one of the skimmers (pic of that also included below). I am wondering if I need to patch new steel back over the skimmer housing frame or if i can simply place a gasket over the now exposed plastic skimmer housing and reinstall new liner, gasket and faceplate. Or is it important that the steel wall be sandwiched between skimmer housing and faceplate? The skimmer housings are very rigidly mounted (i guess the concrete of the pool deck holds them in place). If they werent sandwiched between steel wall i dont think they would move around at all.
So my proposal would be to reinstall the liner with the steel wall trimmed back exposing the plastic skimmer housing like shown in the photo where i cut the steel away. I think the normal order of layers would be skimmer housing->gasket-> steel wall-> gasket->liner->gasket-> faceplate. My proposed order would be: Skimmer housing->gasket (or two to replace thickness of missing steel wall)-> liner -> gasket-> faceplate.
Is it ok to have a "floating" skimmer frame or does it absolutely have to overlap the steel wall? Is this a bad idea and if so why?
Thanks for the help!
Notice the severe rust of the portion of the steel wall that overlaps the skimmer housing frame.
Another angle of rust wall around skimmer
I used a cutoff wheel to trim back the steel wall just outside of the skimmer housing frame perimeter.
Another shot of the trim job. Why couldnt I just put the liner right over this?
I went ahead and cut the rusty steel away from around the perimeter of one of the skimmers (pic of that also included below). I am wondering if I need to patch new steel back over the skimmer housing frame or if i can simply place a gasket over the now exposed plastic skimmer housing and reinstall new liner, gasket and faceplate. Or is it important that the steel wall be sandwiched between skimmer housing and faceplate? The skimmer housings are very rigidly mounted (i guess the concrete of the pool deck holds them in place). If they werent sandwiched between steel wall i dont think they would move around at all.
So my proposal would be to reinstall the liner with the steel wall trimmed back exposing the plastic skimmer housing like shown in the photo where i cut the steel away. I think the normal order of layers would be skimmer housing->gasket-> steel wall-> gasket->liner->gasket-> faceplate. My proposed order would be: Skimmer housing->gasket (or two to replace thickness of missing steel wall)-> liner -> gasket-> faceplate.
Is it ok to have a "floating" skimmer frame or does it absolutely have to overlap the steel wall? Is this a bad idea and if so why?
Thanks for the help!
Notice the severe rust of the portion of the steel wall that overlaps the skimmer housing frame.
Another angle of rust wall around skimmer
I used a cutoff wheel to trim back the steel wall just outside of the skimmer housing frame perimeter.
Another shot of the trim job. Why couldnt I just put the liner right over this?
