Ice Damage Repairs

[BarbadosSlim]

We had a bit of ice damage this year as a result of the unrelentingly frigid Northeast winter. Our pool supplier told us to make an insurance claim, but even if it were covered, the deductible would leave us paying for most of it out of pocket.



Desperate, we ended up building a hydraulic clamp to flatten out the wrinkles, using a car jack and some scrap lumber.



Here's what it looked like in action. Those are my socks on there, to protect the liner. They happily survived the ordeal.



Once all the wrinkles were flattened, a bit of fine-grained work with a rubber mallet and it was good as new!

 

[Patrick_B]

Welcome to the forum with a great opening post.

Pretty inventive for sure!

 

[tim5055]

I like it!!! That is a great device you built.

It's easy for someone to say make an insurance claim, but generally insurance should be reserved for catastrophic losses that you can not financially cover any other way. We have increased our insurance deductibles to as high as possible and maintain an emergency fund to cover the deductible should something ever occur. Insurance companies are very quick to drop a customer who makes seemingly frivolous claims or too many claims. Additionally there are now commercial databases that the insurance companies subscribe to that keep track of claims at each residence. So when insurance company A drops your coverage everyone else you apply with can see the claims and either choose not to do business or raise your premium.

 

[BellaBuggy]

Fantastic! Very well done.

 

[Charlie_R]

Thanks for sharing it on Hack-A-Day, as well! Cool project!

http://hackaday.com/2015/05/04/diy-hydraulic-clamp-saves-the-day/