HELP, was our skimmer set too low.

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

Do you have the skimmer basket on site? Is it a conventional drop in basket, or a two-piece "floating weir" basket? A floating weir basket has a rise of about 6" from the top lip of the installed basket and might work with way the skimmer is set up. Mine is branded as a Pentair/Alladin product.

 

[Liz315]

I took some extra photos with tape measure and the booklet for the skimmer. Something that seems promising is the skimmer diagram shows the tile slopped down like mines is now. But the top of the skimmer is about 2” lower than the bottom of coping which happens to be the height they added to the top of the gunite to set the coping level.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Liz,

I still say the skimmer is set about 2" two low.. Normally the top of the coping is level with the top of the skimmer lid.. If you look at the decking side of the coping you can see that the top of the skimmer is way too low.

No matter what, that skimmer will not work when when the water is at the middle of the water line tile.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[cowboycasey]

Jim, the skimmer is correct, they added the 2 inches to everything else and messed the skimmer up and now the skimmer is 2 inches low... the only way to fix is to remove the tiles, coping and the extra 2 inches of mud they put on top of the bond beam and start over...

The mud on the bond beam should have been 1/4 to 1/2 inch at most

 

[Liz315]

Well I hope that’s not the case because our entire concrete deck was poured already which would mean that’s too high now. The manual says there is a 1” adjustment to the skimmer could it possibly be raised and the coping just by the skimmer just be removed along with the plug and retile that section?

 

[cowboycasey]

the skimmer lid can be moved up and down 1 inch for differing decks, (I do not have one so not sure how to raise the lid part) that is correct but not the body of the skimmer...

Really your problem if left the way it is.. your water line will be at the top of the skimmer and it will not skim anything... if you have the water line at the middle of the skimmer it will be at the 5 to 6 inch bottom level on your 6 inch tile.. Your water will always look low even though it is correct for the skimmer..

 

[Liz315]

So if you look at the tape measure in front of the skimmer it looks like 4” down will be close to the skimmer center. The diagram for the skimmer shows water line actually pretty high could this unit actually require the water to sit higher? If so then maybe it would be closer to 3.5” which wouldn’t be terrible I suppose?
I just need my builder to call me back this is the only thing I can think of right now. Thanks everyone for your help.

 

[Liz315]

Sorry to keep blasting this, but what if to buy us an inch they put in like a 1” decorative glass tile that gets grouted with the plaster? I can choose something that looks like the water color maybe that will mask it?

 

[cowboycasey]

You could do some 2 inch tile and it would look interesting as you would see it when the waves were going and it might sparkle in the sun just below the water line....

If you did that they would have to rip out the 2 inches of mud they put under the skimmer hole and remove the tile going into the skimmer...

Measure from the tile going into the skimmer down to where the skimmer bottom should be... is that 2 inches? If so it would work great as it would look like you meant to do it with contrasting tile and the darker tile you have now

You would have an 8 inch tile line and really it will not look out of place too much... I would recommend ceramic tile in a contrasting color.... Might some kind of cobalt blue, check out these 4 sets of 2 inch tile, 1 of those would look great... Or some kind of 2 x 6 inch tile would also work..

 

[PoolGate]

I've never seen a skimmer lid set that low. I would think with high water, the water would actually rise up over the top of the skimmer lid and pour onto the deck. Have you spoken with the builder yet? Also maybe contact the skimmer maker and see what they say.

 

[Liz315]

Yeah this is the text I got from him I’m extremely upset.
He wrote:
The skimmer gets a collar..... its fine....It’s actually frustrating getting these pics and messages...

Does anyone know what this means? Could he be correct? Believe me I want to be wrong but this is not how he should have responded.

 

[cowboycasey]

Write back...

Its not fine and it is REALLY frustrating your not doing anything about this.. I am paying you to build the pool correct, please be here today to deal with this...

 

[PoolGate]

It almost looks like the pool was made too shallow and they did this to increase the water depth. Do you have a specific water depth in your contract? I just don't see how you are going to get any skimming action unless your water level is very low. Is it just one skimmer?

 

[Liz315]

From what I can tell from doing a search the collar just raises the skimmer cap so I suppose would fix the one members concern water would com out the skimmer lid.
Is where the skimmer is on the inside really not an issue? I wish I understood how this all worked together.

 

[cowboycasey]

That is correct, it would raise the cap to the height of the deck but it will not fix the skimmer...

It is an issue because it will not skim anything if the water is at the top of the skimmer..

 

[Jimrahbe]

Liz,

The most important thing about the vertical position of the skimmer is that when the water is in the middle of the waterline tile, it also needs to be in the middle of the skimmer's mouth.

When I look at your first pics, it appears to me that when the water is in the middle of the waterline tile, it will be at the top of the skimmer's mouth..

This means that your skimmer will not skim.. Yes, water will go in and back to the pump, but you will not get any skimming action.

You are not going to be able to fix that by adding tile or a collar for the lid.

Your pool builder needs to actually come out and see the problem.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[PoolGate]

Yep my collar was raised a bit too. But just a bit. Raising it too much would mean the water might go between the skimmer cap and under the concrete deck. Depends how deep he was going to make the deck.

See these pics for a properly installed skimmer. The water is exactly 1/2way up the tile line and skimming action is great. If the water is a little low, it is actually a bit better. If the water gets too high, there is no skimming action. Yes, there is some leeway, but not a lot.

You can see how much is in my skimmer. If the water level gets too high, the pool can be full of floating leaves and garbage but the skimmers don't have anything in them.

 

[Bperry]

Yeah this is the text I got from him I’m extremely upset.
He wrote:
The skimmer gets a collar..... its fine....It’s actually frustrating getting these pics and messages...

Does anyone know what this means? Could he be correct? Believe me I want to be wrong but this is not how he should have responded.

wow, a reply like that would set me off to the point of firing him.

 

[PoolGate]

wow, a reply like that would set me off to the point of firing him.

Yeah he was deflecting from the mis-installed skimmer by focusing on the collar.

 

[Desert Dog]

I hope your builder finds a solution to this mistake. From looking at your pics and no-one here being on sight to look at it, I see a couple possibilities to what occurred.

1) The coping was unknown prior to the pool shell/skimmer being set or it was changed after. The bond beam height/Skimmer height should be set with coping and surrounding area in mind.

2) The opposite side of the pool bond beam was set 2-3 inches low and the side with the skimmer needed the extra mud to bring the coping up to level.

3) The people who set the coping set it too high. But why?

4) Perhaps they miscalculated from the beginning and what looks like a slope in the back ground was going to run water into the pool and this was their fix other than retaining wall etc.

In any account, you need to get the builder out to see the problem first hand.

Good luck.