Well, the news is not good. At least from the perspective of my wallet. Turns out that the location of the rip in the liner, where the wall meets the floor, and the fact that the liner has aged and become brittle precludes any type of successful repair. At least according to the pool guy that assessed the damage yesterday. I kinda knew, in my heart of hearts, that this would be the diagnosis. In fact, I was reluctant to even try to tread into the pool to attempt a repair of the damage for fear of my weight being enough that my feet would do even more damage to the liner. It'd almost be like walking on a very thin sheet of ice. The liner would likely crack under my feet.
Now, in addition to the liner replacement, there remains the question of the river rock coping that surrounds the pool. There are quite a few areas where the mortar securing the stones is in need of repair. Lots of places where the mortar is cracked or missing and some of the other stones are loose. In all honesty, the coping has always been a negative in my opinion. With our 11 year old twins and all their friends using the pool all summer long, it's always been a concern that they may slip or loosen and dislodge one of the stones, just like I did. If I'm being forced to replace the liner, this may be the best and only time to redo the coping with something more practical. Pool guy suggested replacing the stones with bull-nose coping. Cost: $3,500.
Another option is to just re-mortar and repair the stones that are already there, but my concern is that it might just end up being a patch and repair operation every season and then we'll be faced with the prospect of eventually redoing the coping but instead with a relatively new liner where we risk damage and who knows what.
I gotta say, I'm having a hard time deciding the best course of action regarding the coping. It seems like replacing the stone with bull-nose is the sensible thing to do but the prospect of eating mac 'n cheese 6 days a week for the next year to pay for it is, shall we say, hard to swallow.
Any decision will have to be made soon, though. We're looking at several weeks to complete this job and the coming Passover holiday is not gong to help expedite any work orders, I'm sure.