Hello everyone.
My name is Adam - grew up in Boston but now I live in NH. Pool hasn't been opened in 15+ years, bought the house 3 years ago. My parents had a pool when I was in elementary school but I was too young to understand any of the workings or operation or anything of it.
A couple of you great guys helped me out in another thread of mine already with some missing parts to my Hayward filter.
I finally got my 18x36 in ground vinyl lined pool up and running two weeks ago!
The old liner was falling in, the vermiculite base was in horrible condition, and the return and skimmer lines did not hold pressure.
I pumped out the water and got the old liner out of the pool. I planned on fixing the vermiculite base correctly, but because of serious time and material constraints, I unfortunately had to patch the base with a hydraulic cement and sand mixture. I never patched a pool base before but it wasn't too difficult. It was more difficult than I expected, but that's just because I had ground water coming in at a fast rate. I pulled the main drain out of the ground by accident (it wasn't secured very good!). So I purchased a new main drain (this one had a small crack) and reconnected the flexy ABS line, and got a new hydrostatic valve. I set that and had to redo basically the entire deep end bottom and walls because they were in such bad shape. The shallow end only had a couple of small spots that needed repair.
I obviously bought all new return plates and gaskets (2 returns), and a new plate and gasket for the skimmer. I put 1/4" wall foam all the way around with spray adhesive on the walls and duct tape at the top. This is how it was done previously so I basically redid what was already there.
I purchased the liner from Inyo pools. They were the most expensive, but they seemed to have the best reviews online. My stepdad helped me measure for the liner - we used a length of 3/4 and 1/2 copper and a 4' level to get the "straight edges" for the measurements for the slopes of the walls and the slope in the middle. The liner fits great! The corners of the pool are rounded and it seems like the liner isn't touching the walls in the corners but I don't know if they'll stretch over time. Either way, it's a problem that I can live with.
After the liner was set, I ran 3/4" PVC electrical conduit underground and a 20amp, GFI protected circuit to where my pump will be. I cut back about 10' on each of the main drain, skimmer, and return flexy ABS lines and transitioned to schedule 40 PVC with a barbedxmale fitting and a PVC female adapter. I tested the lines before I made this transition and the return line and skimmer line do not hold pressure but the main drain does. I have another baby coming in about three weeks so I didn't want to replace any lines now - maybe next year. I dug out about 50 square feet, 3-5 inches down and spread a yard of 3/4 smooth rock for my 'filter area.' My pump and filter is on one concrete pad, there is an LP heater on another pad, and the LP tank on another pad.
I am a plumber, so I plumbed the pump, filter, and heater in.
Filled the pool and went for a swim. It's been a lot of work, and we're probably about $4000 into it. With prices of $6000 just to replace the liner, with all the pool base patchwork that needed to be done, I think it would have cost $10,000 to get us up and running. Even cleaning all of the old stuff (old slide, the concrete around the pool, everything was gross), it was a lot of work.
I'm sharing my story so if anyone needs any help, I'm no expert, but I'll do my best to try to help. And to let everyone know that it may seem overwhelming if you're trying to get something like this up and running, but if you take each aspect of it and tackle that one at a time, it's not so bad. (base, liner, plumbing, electrical...)
Thanks everyone! I'm happy to be a part of TFP
My name is Adam - grew up in Boston but now I live in NH. Pool hasn't been opened in 15+ years, bought the house 3 years ago. My parents had a pool when I was in elementary school but I was too young to understand any of the workings or operation or anything of it.
A couple of you great guys helped me out in another thread of mine already with some missing parts to my Hayward filter.
I finally got my 18x36 in ground vinyl lined pool up and running two weeks ago!
The old liner was falling in, the vermiculite base was in horrible condition, and the return and skimmer lines did not hold pressure.
I pumped out the water and got the old liner out of the pool. I planned on fixing the vermiculite base correctly, but because of serious time and material constraints, I unfortunately had to patch the base with a hydraulic cement and sand mixture. I never patched a pool base before but it wasn't too difficult. It was more difficult than I expected, but that's just because I had ground water coming in at a fast rate. I pulled the main drain out of the ground by accident (it wasn't secured very good!). So I purchased a new main drain (this one had a small crack) and reconnected the flexy ABS line, and got a new hydrostatic valve. I set that and had to redo basically the entire deep end bottom and walls because they were in such bad shape. The shallow end only had a couple of small spots that needed repair.
I obviously bought all new return plates and gaskets (2 returns), and a new plate and gasket for the skimmer. I put 1/4" wall foam all the way around with spray adhesive on the walls and duct tape at the top. This is how it was done previously so I basically redid what was already there.
I purchased the liner from Inyo pools. They were the most expensive, but they seemed to have the best reviews online. My stepdad helped me measure for the liner - we used a length of 3/4 and 1/2 copper and a 4' level to get the "straight edges" for the measurements for the slopes of the walls and the slope in the middle. The liner fits great! The corners of the pool are rounded and it seems like the liner isn't touching the walls in the corners but I don't know if they'll stretch over time. Either way, it's a problem that I can live with.
After the liner was set, I ran 3/4" PVC electrical conduit underground and a 20amp, GFI protected circuit to where my pump will be. I cut back about 10' on each of the main drain, skimmer, and return flexy ABS lines and transitioned to schedule 40 PVC with a barbedxmale fitting and a PVC female adapter. I tested the lines before I made this transition and the return line and skimmer line do not hold pressure but the main drain does. I have another baby coming in about three weeks so I didn't want to replace any lines now - maybe next year. I dug out about 50 square feet, 3-5 inches down and spread a yard of 3/4 smooth rock for my 'filter area.' My pump and filter is on one concrete pad, there is an LP heater on another pad, and the LP tank on another pad.
I am a plumber, so I plumbed the pump, filter, and heater in.
Filled the pool and went for a swim. It's been a lot of work, and we're probably about $4000 into it. With prices of $6000 just to replace the liner, with all the pool base patchwork that needed to be done, I think it would have cost $10,000 to get us up and running. Even cleaning all of the old stuff (old slide, the concrete around the pool, everything was gross), it was a lot of work.
I'm sharing my story so if anyone needs any help, I'm no expert, but I'll do my best to try to help. And to let everyone know that it may seem overwhelming if you're trying to get something like this up and running, but if you take each aspect of it and tackle that one at a time, it's not so bad. (base, liner, plumbing, electrical...)
Thanks everyone! I'm happy to be a part of TFP
