Inground pool skimmer hole stripped. Suggestions

[oledalee]

I am just finishing up replacing my pool liner this fall. I admit I am a little slow. I was double checking the skimmer screws before I cut the hole and noticed one screw would not tighten like all the others. Since I replaced the liner with my wife, I recalled a rust hole on the wall around the skimmer in that area. I initially thought it was caused by the gaskets failing overtime. Now I believe the installer many moons ago stripped it on installation of pool and never addressed it. It is the lower left corner screw.

I used the rubber gaskets for the Hayward wide mouth skimmer when I replaced it, hopeful that is better than original gaskets. I have called around to pool builders and only one offered advice on fixing/repairing it. He said to put a larger stainless steel screw in it. I am concerned that would break the plastic.

I called Hayward, they told me to put lots of silicon in the hole and put screw back in.

I did find a post on the forum that talked about using Anderson flexible sealer. I have ordered some of this material. The water is just below the skimmer.

Does anyone have any experience or advice for this issue? Thanks

 

[duraleigh]

I like the larger screw plan. You can always drill the hole out a bit to accommodate the screw.

 

[oledalee]

Okay, what I ended up doing was replace the existing screw with a longer screw from Hayward for the skimmer faceplate, and used as much Anderson flexible sealer in the hole as it would take. The screw is not as tight as the others but it is definitely snug and only time will tell if it leaks. I am optimistic that it is better than it was.

Replacing with a larger screw is easier said than done. I went to five hardware stores in my area and most took one look at the screw and said "that is a screw for plastic, we don't carry them." They did teach me that the thread is different and that if I bought a screw that seemed to tightened, when it got to the last 1/4 turn it would break the plastic. I didn't want that to happen. Did not have any success looking online either.

 

[gary300]

Another way is to wrap several turns of thread sealer tape around the screw and put it back in. Wrap the tape in the direction you are turning the screw. The more the threads are stripped out, the more turns of thread sealer tape you need to use. This works up to a point, then other methods have to be tried. The last thing you want to do is to split the threaded hole. If there is enough material, the last resort is to drill out the hole for the next size up hole, then tap the hole and put in the proper size stainless steel screw and never worry about it again. You might have to go buy the right drill bit and tap for the size, but could be well worth the cost..