Something (Possibly Screws in Upright) Poking Through Vinyl Liner

[ellemgee]

Above ground pool has been up and running for about a month or two and we are currently working to put a deck up on one side of it. Yesterday, as I was vacuuming around the pool stairs/ladder, I noticed that there was something small and hard poking out of the vinyl liner right at the corner. At the place where the floor of the pool meets the wall.

It looked like a screw, though I thought it might just be a branch or a hard root that had possibly poked through when we were backfilling the area with dirt to grade it out around the pool. Then, I noticed a second object poking out. One was on each side of the upright (the posts that hold up the pool walls). I attached a picture, but you can't see the two things poking out because of the reflection off the water, so I just highlighted them in yellow.



I'm guessing that, somehow, these are two screws that have shifted forward and are now poking into the liner. I checked around the other uprights and didn't notice any other issues like this. I've called the original pool installer (he put it in last year) to see what he thinks we should do, but I'm wondering if anyone else has ever had this issue or if you have any advice on what we should do?

Is there anything you would recommend? Do we need to pull apart a section of the deck and the upright and unscrew the screws so they're not poking out? Or can we push them back from inside the pool (which I realize would pull holes in the liner, but those could be patched, correct)?

Anyone have any idea what these could be or how this could have happened? Thanks again for the help!

 

[Casey]

You should not have any screws going through the wall and protruding into the pool at all. If you do, someone messed up big time.

 

[ellemgee]

You should not have any screws going through the wall and protruding into the pool at all. If you do, someone messed up big time.

Yeah, it seems really messed up. Like an issue during install or something? But would it have taken a year for me to notice (we've only been actively swimming in the pool for about 2 months and I probably didn't check all the corners super throughly when it was first in. Only happened to see this because this is right next to the ladder)? I can't think of any other reason that there would be two pokes on either side of the upright though... I thought maybe when we backfilled with dirt something punched through, but there'd be no way that we could have gotten one stick or rock (let alone two sticks or rocks) up underneath the vinyl liner nearly a year after they were installed.

Anyway, hoping the install guy calls me back and has some answers. Just wanted to check here first and see if anyone had any thoughts.

 

[phonedave]

I went over my pool bottom sand many many times. I picked out any small stones. I put my new liner in and now a year later I have two small stones (much smaller than a pea) "poking" up in the bottom of the liner. Larger objects migrate upwards in the soil structure. That is why every year farmers get rocks in their fields they need to remove. They dont fall from space, it come up from underground. Put sand with rocks in it in a pan and shake it side to side, the rocks end up on top.

I cannot see how it could be a screw that is part of the pool. There should be no screws installed in that area. it COULD be a screw that was dropped in your sand, and was missed, and new has migrated upwards.But it could also be a small stone. Under a liner those small stones seem to feel amazingly sharp.

-dave