Hey! My husband and I are newish pool owners in Rochester, New York with 2 young toddlers. We inherited a 50yo 17x35’ vinyl lined “Shorehill” pool with the purchase of our house. The filter basket was cracked deep down at the joint and we discovered a major leak in the return line (300 gallons/day!) in spring 2023. We survived the summer by adding water daily and fortunately we have great drainage in our yard. Two weeks ago we had >1400SF of concrete demoed and we are re-plumbing & re-lining the pool, as well as installing vinyl-over steps and a Coverstar Eclipse autocover with “walk on” bluestone lid. (We aren’t planning to actually walk on it but wanted something that would be resilient for 2 wild toddlers.) We are doing thermaled bluestone coping and a bluestone patio. We are also adding an above ground hot tub. Pool pump, sand filter & heater all seem to be in good working order as they performed well all season.
We are actually decent (def not pros!) with pool chemistry. Our biggest questions are pretty detailed around the autocover install and final surface height for the landscaper, whether we should pour a concrete subdeck (no one thinks we need one bc of the pool age and soil is incredibly compacted around it but we don’t want to make the wrong decision by skipping it if it would be quite beneficial
), and generally about optimizing fit/finish, and then winterizing everything (we feel very on the clock here with the snow coming).
We also have coping questions as we’d like to cantilever it but aren’t sure how far over is safe/acceptable - both on the sides over the autocover track and on the back wall on the brackets where the autocover is being installed. The autocover box brackets at the deep end are also about 1” above the height of the side tracks. This is because we need the cover leading edge bar to fully retract otherwise we know our kids will be hanging on it (
). The autocover guy (20y experience) agreed having it be able to fully retract is also preferable. How do we resolve this difference to a final height for our landscaper so the coping is all the same level…? 
What size should we ask for the bluestone coping to be cut to for the autocover box area? My husband wants to be able to move them himself for maintenance.
We have enjoyed lurking for a few weeks and we are looking forward to learning more from you and getting some of our burning questions answered with your shared experience!
Photos show some before reno & during autocover install.
We are actually decent (def not pros!) with pool chemistry. Our biggest questions are pretty detailed around the autocover install and final surface height for the landscaper, whether we should pour a concrete subdeck (no one thinks we need one bc of the pool age and soil is incredibly compacted around it but we don’t want to make the wrong decision by skipping it if it would be quite beneficial
), and generally about optimizing fit/finish, and then winterizing everything (we feel very on the clock here with the snow coming). We also have coping questions as we’d like to cantilever it but aren’t sure how far over is safe/acceptable - both on the sides over the autocover track and on the back wall on the brackets where the autocover is being installed. The autocover box brackets at the deep end are also about 1” above the height of the side tracks. This is because we need the cover leading edge bar to fully retract otherwise we know our kids will be hanging on it (
). The autocover guy (20y experience) agreed having it be able to fully retract is also preferable. How do we resolve this difference to a final height for our landscaper so the coping is all the same level…? What size should we ask for the bluestone coping to be cut to for the autocover box area? My husband wants to be able to move them himself for maintenance.We have enjoyed lurking for a few weeks and we are looking forward to learning more from you and getting some of our burning questions answered with your shared experience!
Photos show some before reno & during autocover install.
