Hello.... long-time lurker here.....
Last year my wife and I bought a small 15'X36" "intex-style" pool we bought from Walmart for $90 and it got our kids HOOKED!!! Unfortunately we had left for a short vacation and when we came home we found severl small holes along the ring and was unable to patch them. (We have a hawk living in the treeline behind our house and there were several holes grouped together in a near perfect talon shape in several places.)
This year we plan on buying the Coleman 22'X52" above ground pool and I've read many mixed reviews, most of which were satisfactory. Luckily for us the previous owners of our house had an above ground pool and had poured a 26' diameter round slab that we will be using. The concrete is cracked in a few places, not breaking apart just long fractures, and it has settled in the middle so is is about a half-inch concaved.
I'll be putting down rigid insulation boards on top of the concrete, will they bow and form to the concave or will they crack?
Should I put the support legs on the boards? or will that 3/4" make a difference in the liner? Or should I glue down some concrete blocks for the legs to avoid the unsightly look of the foam boards?
Next set of questions is pertaining to the pump and plumbing system. I know that I want to install a Hayward wide-mouth skimmer.... Should I wait till later in the season to do that? or do it all at the time of setting it up? My thoughts are that the liner will stretch ever so slightly after a few months and could possibly damage the liner where the skimmer is?
I bought a sandfilter and pump from walmart last summer for our much smaller pool, it wasn't very expensive but holds almost a 50lb bag of sand. Will it be sufficient?
The pool has 1 return and two intakes to the pump..... I plan on installing a hayward eye return, what should I do with the two intakes? Could I convert one of those to some kind of pump intake (in addition to the skimmer, kind of like a traditional pool has a center bottom drain, but on the side) and the other one as an automatic vacuum port?
We look forward to spending many many days and nights in our pool!
Thanks in advance!!!
Last year my wife and I bought a small 15'X36" "intex-style" pool we bought from Walmart for $90 and it got our kids HOOKED!!! Unfortunately we had left for a short vacation and when we came home we found severl small holes along the ring and was unable to patch them. (We have a hawk living in the treeline behind our house and there were several holes grouped together in a near perfect talon shape in several places.)
This year we plan on buying the Coleman 22'X52" above ground pool and I've read many mixed reviews, most of which were satisfactory. Luckily for us the previous owners of our house had an above ground pool and had poured a 26' diameter round slab that we will be using. The concrete is cracked in a few places, not breaking apart just long fractures, and it has settled in the middle so is is about a half-inch concaved.
I'll be putting down rigid insulation boards on top of the concrete, will they bow and form to the concave or will they crack?
Should I put the support legs on the boards? or will that 3/4" make a difference in the liner? Or should I glue down some concrete blocks for the legs to avoid the unsightly look of the foam boards?
Next set of questions is pertaining to the pump and plumbing system. I know that I want to install a Hayward wide-mouth skimmer.... Should I wait till later in the season to do that? or do it all at the time of setting it up? My thoughts are that the liner will stretch ever so slightly after a few months and could possibly damage the liner where the skimmer is?
I bought a sandfilter and pump from walmart last summer for our much smaller pool, it wasn't very expensive but holds almost a 50lb bag of sand. Will it be sufficient?
The pool has 1 return and two intakes to the pump..... I plan on installing a hayward eye return, what should I do with the two intakes? Could I convert one of those to some kind of pump intake (in addition to the skimmer, kind of like a traditional pool has a center bottom drain, but on the side) and the other one as an automatic vacuum port?
We look forward to spending many many days and nights in our pool!
Thanks in advance!!!