Replacing Liner & Want To Do Upgrades Need Advice

[ymm]

This is my first time posting so forgiving me if a little slow. I've read quite a few postings but I still would like to get some feed back from actual pool users. We are replacing our AGP liner and would like to make some upgrades to it. One of those situations where if you had to do it over again what would you do differently type of thing. Our pool is an 18x33 Voyager by Garden Leisure, we've had it since 2003 and it holds 15,041 gal of water and the walls are 52" heigh.
1) Is it worth expanding the bottom and creating a deep end?
2) Should we put another skimmer in (we already have one wide mouth skimmer)?
3) Should we put another return in, we only have one now and it seems like from reading other posts that a second return would be a good choice for circulation.
4) Should we add a SWG? I think I know the answer to this one and it's yes.
5) Does anyone have any recommendations on a specific brand of bottom (geotex type of flooring), wall foam and coving. We had issues with ants with our last liner. The second year we had our pool ants dug underneath and made divots all around the bottom, it was still fine to swim but looked terrible. I don't want that to happen again and I've even considered having some cement put down, any thoughts on that?
6) Where is a good place on-line to get an AGP liner, at least 25gauge, and if we do a deep end where we could get an expandable one, those seem to be a little more difficult to find in the higher gauges.
Here is some more info on our equipment.
Hayward Max-Flo pump 1hp; Hayward ProSeries high-rate sand filter 24' holds 300 lb of sand; Titan Ti2 heat pump; Intermatic timer/T104R3; 1 1/2" - 2" PVC; 2 Nitelighters
Hope that's all the info you need? Thanks in advance for your help. After reading about the chemicals I'm definitely going to switch over to the BBB method, can't believe how much money I've been wasting.

 

[NWMNMom]

Wow a lot of questions.

The choice for a deep end in your pool is very personal. We would have but have an extremely high water table in our current location so it is not an option.

I'm not sure another skimmer is necessary and may be overkill but an additional return would be great for circulation. If you have the skills, equipment and your setup makes it easy to add another, go for it!

Chlorine generator additions are also a personal choice, however I personally believe it was the best choice we ever made regarding our pool. WOW, how easy it makes maintenance! You still have to test and maintain all chemical levels but the SWCG made life SO easy for us.

Many people have been satisfied with both the Happy Bottom and the Gorilla Pad. We chose to go with Gorilla Pad this time around ourselves. I think almost all the wall foam and cove are the same brand. There is a notched cove that fits right on the rail and flat back type of cove, but I think both the same brand as well. With the wall foam and foam coves, we simply looked for best overall prices inc/shipping and handling. We purchased our wall foam and adhesive from NationalDiscountPoolSupplies.com. The liner, cove and Gorilla Pad from PCPools.com Both places had great prices and fast shipping. Shop around is all I can say. The SWCG came from PoolandSpaSupplyStore.com as they are a Merchant Member here at TFP and TFP members get a discount.

Good luck with your search!

 

[ymm]

Thank you so much for your quick response. Ya I do have a lot of questions but I thought if we're doing it again I wanted to make sure we did it right. That's one thing I need to check first is our water table here to see if we would be ok with a deep end, I believe we are. We are up in Vancouver, Washington so we have pretty mild weather although this spring has been pretty cold for us, in the 40's......yikes. I was just curious how much harder it makes for cleaning when you have a deep end and then if you need to put in a main drain down in the deep end? Still up in the air whether or not I want to go thru all the hassle of digging out. Oh, we won't be doing this ourselves we will have a pro put in our liner etc. I believe I have already decided on a second return, I don't think our pool is big enough to have a second skimmer but I just wanted to get everyone elses opion here. The question on the second return is where to place it in our pool, we have an oval pool so would you place it on the same side as the other return but just down further. We have wedding cake steps on the same side as our skimmer and return and I thought if I was going put in a second one it would be on the other side of the steps
I'm sure I will have more questions but I'm drawing a blank for now. Thanks for the websites too, I'll be sure to look at them.
ymm

 

[NWMNMom]

If installation, logistics, etc were no problems I agree with your thoughts and would want to have the second return on the other side of my steps too - that is where I find the dead spot in my circulation with our oval pool too.

 

[poolgirl22]

My husband and I were having this same basic discussion just the other day...it went something like this:
Me: Hey, if we ever replace the liner again while we live here, do me a favor...
Him: uh, huh.
Me: Don't let me do that without AT LEAST another return over there in no circulation land (pointing to the other end of the pool) and possibly another skimmer.
Him: uh, ok.

And today...
Me: yah, there's other methods of adding bleach to the pool. ( I don't recall him asking..but I'm sure he was wondering.. )
Him: uh, huh. Ok.
Me: (explained SWG and Liquidator)
Him: I see. Ok.
Me: So yah, those are on the ever-growing list of must haves on the next pool.
Him: Uh huh.

And he returned to pulling up deck boards and I returned to testing my water.
So there's what I'd do if I had it to do again...