My installer says it is not necessary. Not surprisingly, the pool company says I should buy it! It does seem like the foam cove would be more stable, but it also seems like the installer would know what is best. What to do???
Do you recommend the foam cove?
- Thread starter ellruss
- Start date
I would go with the installer recommendations. The pool company is in the "sales" business. As long as your installer is one that can build you a good uniform cove out of sand, then you should be good. Does he guarantee his work? The sales pitch for a foam cove is that it will not wash away like sand when wet. I beg to differ. I had alot of trouble with my foam cove. We got a good afternoon thunderstorm mid build and the cove got wet after we had laid the liner, but before we hooked up our shop vac and started the water. Only thing that could have caused this was water getting under the wall track, or through the skimmer opening (at this point we did not have any dirt around the bottom of the pool. Once the sticky is wet, it's wasted. We pulled ours and built a cove out of sand because I didn't want the cove to shift under our liner. I know the weight of a lot of water would seem to hold the cove in place, but where there is an inch, and the way my luck went with the build, it would have shifted and ended up out of place. Foam coves haven't been around for forever and most pool company instructions recommend a sand cove. We have been fine with a sand cove and on our seconed season.
I used the foam cove, foam Happy Bottom, & foam wall liner when I installed my pool 14 years ago. When it comes time for a new liner or new pool, I'll do it all the same again. I like it & have had excellent results with it.
Another side of the foam cove coin is that we have one and it works very well. Uniform and stays in place. Our pool is about 3 years old and we haven't had one issue with it. In addition to the foam cove, we also had a foam bottom installed over the sand. I believe the pool store called it a "Happy Bottom". So far, we are happy with it. Nothing has worked it's way up through it and nothing has shifted.
I suppose you could go and check out a few pools that have a foam cove and some that don't and then make that decision for yourself. Whatever you decide to do, you will have checked out all of your options and made a decision based on that.
Good luck and happy swimming!
I suppose you could go and check out a few pools that have a foam cove and some that don't and then make that decision for yourself. Whatever you decide to do, you will have checked out all of your options and made a decision based on that.
Good luck and happy swimming!
- Apr 8, 2007
- 1,616
- Pool Size
- 17450
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
I have had our old 18' pool with a sand cove and my current pool with a sand cove - we now have the foam cove, wall foam and Gorilla pad and this is most definitely the best setup - my vote is WITH foam cove
We bought a used pool that had a foam cove and our installer actually encouraged us to reuse it. It was surprisingly still sticky and after cleaning the sand out of the grooves, snapped into the track beautifully. I'm glad we used it as it gives the edge a nice finish and hasn't shifted. If I had to do over again I would get the foam bottom as well.