I have a hayward wide mouth skimmer in my inground pool. Previous owner used tabs in the skimmer exclusively and I think years of leaching out high chlorine water made a number on the liner directly below, it shrunk and now I have visible rips right under the skimmer plate.
I used pool putty to fix it to some extent so at this point I don't have pictures of actual problem. But here is the schematics
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The liner is 15 years old and degrading fast so it will have to be replaced in few years. I was thinking to attempt a fix for the skimmer leak at the end of this season hoping to get a leak free year or two...
So I was thinking to buy a piece of liner or clear vinyl patch material and cut it few inches larger than skimmer face plate. I would take the plate off, glue the patch to the liner overlapping the tears, replace the gasket and put the plate back. Something like this:
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I have few concerns and maybe some knowledgeable folks can share some thoughts..
1. First concern is that there could be some tension on the liner and once I take all the screws off it will pull down far enough making repair impossible. I repaired few tears right under the liner track and there didn't seem to be any tension. So I hope that I would be ok here as well. I could leave 1 bottom corner crew in, undo the others, swing the plate off, put some other screws back in. This way at least one screw will hold it. Which it also might not and the liner will rip off of it.
2. There is also a possibility that the fix will make it all worse. Nothing I can do beside trying to do the best job I can.
Any advice, thoughts on overall approach? And is clear thin vinyl repair plastic better than actual liner for this kind of repair?
I used pool putty to fix it to some extent so at this point I don't have pictures of actual problem. But here is the schematics
The liner is 15 years old and degrading fast so it will have to be replaced in few years. I was thinking to attempt a fix for the skimmer leak at the end of this season hoping to get a leak free year or two...
So I was thinking to buy a piece of liner or clear vinyl patch material and cut it few inches larger than skimmer face plate. I would take the plate off, glue the patch to the liner overlapping the tears, replace the gasket and put the plate back. Something like this:
I have few concerns and maybe some knowledgeable folks can share some thoughts..
1. First concern is that there could be some tension on the liner and once I take all the screws off it will pull down far enough making repair impossible. I repaired few tears right under the liner track and there didn't seem to be any tension. So I hope that I would be ok here as well. I could leave 1 bottom corner crew in, undo the others, swing the plate off, put some other screws back in. This way at least one screw will hold it. Which it also might not and the liner will rip off of it.
2. There is also a possibility that the fix will make it all worse. Nothing I can do beside trying to do the best job I can.
Any advice, thoughts on overall approach? And is clear thin vinyl repair plastic better than actual liner for this kind of repair?
