Cracked skimmer, compromised wood for liner track....what to do

[anthony21078]

I'm guessing my pool is roughly 35 years old (same age as the house) and has concrete pour for walls. New liner was installed last month which in hindsight, I should have waited. Nevertheless, liner was installed and afterwards I decided to have the pool patio remodeled with pavers. At the beginning of the project I wanted to keep the cost down so the plan was to keep the old C style coping and line up the pavers flush to the coping. As the demo started, I changed my mind and now I want a bull nose style coping which requires a new track for the liner.

As the crew dug out the sand/dirt surrounding the pool preparing for the RCA base, we discovered the pressure treated wood attached to the top of the concrete base is deteriorating in several spots. Additionally, the skimmers are cracked beyond repair.

As far as the skimmers are concerned, I think I can install these myself but I don't know what problems I may run into (I can plumb pipe myself). The skimmers are not buried in concrete but rather sand. I was quoted $1600 per skimmer by the pool company that installed the liner. The existing skimmers are from Hayward and a quick search reveals they run around $250 for their wide mouth skimmer. This appears to use the same design as what I have. If so, is this as simple as new gaskets and gluing 1 pipe?

Moving onto the wood and track. The masonry crew conferred with their pool builder and gave me these options.

- Remove all existing wood , 1 piece/section at a time, install new wood along with the new track. It was suggested this may be problem because once the old wood was removed, it may be problematic to install new wood to the existing concrete.

- Remove/replace only severely damaged wood sections and install new track along the whole perimeter. They stated this option was doable because they would be laying new concrete/mortar and wire mesh over the existing wood that would adhere to the concrete walls

I received a separate estimate from another pool contractor.
Remove all existing coping - $300
Install new pressure treated wood 18x36 - $1674
Install top extrusion - $1026
Replace 2 skimmers - $3200

At this point I don't mind paying to have it done correctly. If I can save some money by installing the skimmer myself then that's a plus.

Any pool builders here give me your honest opinion?

 

[ajw22]

Why can't they remove all the old wood and repair the concrete as necessary before putting a new wood frame around the pool?

I would be concerned about covering rotting wood with wire mesh and concrete. The wood will continue to rot and in a few years you will have voids in the concrete that can collapse and lose strength.

 

[anthony21078]

Why can't they remove all the old wood and repair the concrete as necessary before putting a new wood frame around the pool?

I would be concerned about covering rotting wood with wire mesh and concrete. The wood will continue to rot and in a few years you will have voids in the concrete that can collapse and lose strength.

Covering the existing wood with new concrete was a concern of mine as well. I personally contacted the pool company that installed my liner over the phone and sent a few pictures by text to get a rough estimate.

The pool contractor that the masonry crew uses was also only contacted by phone and showed pictures (they are coming tomorrow in person).

For me, I run to the forums for more opinions so I have a better knowledge base of the problem and how to address it.

Im sure what you suggested is an available option. I will report back