So lets play a little catch up here. The wall went up. I figured out we had the wrong liner. Once the RIGHT one came we trudged on. Weather permitting. (usually it didn't) We discovered leveling sand inside of a walled area is not that much fun. Or easy. We gave it the old college try though and tamped it down once smoothed. Next the pink foam went down.
Once we got to the curved ends the fun began! Not really... But plenty of cardboard and tape gave us patterns to follow to cut the foam to fit. We got 2/3's of the floor done and were going to finish it the next evening but the same old story repeated itself. Yep. Rain. With a new complication. The foam installed protected the sand and base under it but now the exposed 1/3 of sand/base had the entire volume of water the whole pool area received funneled onto it. This softened the base under the sand so I decided to give it extra time to dry and firm back up before we finished the foam. Used Gorilla tape tippled on all the joints. Since we could assemble the main rectangular section out of the pool I even single taped the bottom of the joints in that area thinking that that area gets the most traffic and could use the help. I have only used the regular silver duct tape in the past so my experience is limited but I was not as enamored with the Gorilla tape as others seem to be. Thicker yes. Sticks better? Not too different to me. I'm not sure it's worth the extra $$'s.
Completed foam base and the wall foam up. Visible are the pair of ladders used to get in and out.
Another shot of the ladders. No falls or visits to the ER from them.
Adhesive used to glue the foam to the wall. Just using it on the wall was so so. Better adhesion was obtained by spraying on the wall and the foam, letting it get tacky, and then adhering it. I ordered 2 cans for our 77' of wall and it came out just right even spraying both the wall and the foam. We made it all the way around just right before the heavens opened up and dumped all the previously mentioned rain.
Since the foam is 48" and the wall is 48" and with the sand and foam on the bottom it overlapped and until we could trim it to clear the top rail bead receiver we put clothes pin and other clips on it to weather the storm. And storm it did. I heard reports of 5"-9" of rain fell that Saturday afternoon. After the realization that the pool wouldn't be ready for the 4th party sunk in it was depressing. 3 months to make it happen and it didn't. I felt like I fumbled on the goal line of the Super Bowl as time ran out. But it was also kinda of freeing. No longer did "the pool" dominate my thoughts for the weekend and holiday. We try to not dwelling on the negatives and instead focus on the positives. Many people were dealing with flooding and friends had wet basements. Not getting this done pales in comparison to that. Also, how much mud and debris would be tracked into the new pool by all the kids? LOL! On Sunday on my way to pick up the trailer I used to haul the mortar tubes and fireworks I crossed a bridge over the Whitewater River. Usually the water level is WAY down there below the bridge but not this day. It was probably about 10' below the bridge and flowing good. This is a day later! The guys at the rental yard said they were up till 4 a.m. that morning helping the city pump water from one side of the levee to the other. Once again, my problems are minor! So like I said before the party wen on without a hitch and my fireworks shoot went good. I had to go out of town for work for training and that was a good break. So it was the next weekend before I could move on with the project. Of course our Kansas winds pretty much pulled a lot of the top of the wall foam loose and needed attention before we could continue. Did I mention we used both can we had ordered? I knew 3M's blue 72? was about the same stuff but before I could begin the search a friend said he had some spray adhesive he had used on a droopy car headliner and had some leftover and I could have it. I knew right away when I tried it that it would work. I stopped by my local O'Reilly auto parts and picked up an extra can to be sure we would be able to stick whatever had come loose.
This what it was.
The top rail bead receiver installed and retained by the "clips" which bolt to the uprights. The foam cove stuck on and the bottom given one final sweep before the liner went in.
My adhesive friend came by to help with the liner install and we got it in and moved around enough to start filling it with some water. We tried the shop vac trick and it didn't pull down quite like I had seen but it helped keep the wall from blowing around in the wind and let us see how it would lay in. We smoothed out the wrinkles and finally got to splash around in some water however shallow it was. Sorry. Too busy to shoot pictures.
So this catches us up to the "cheat" pictures. Water in the pool. Skimmer and return installed. Spent 3 evenings (2-3 hours per evening) plumbing it. Thursday night about 10:30 I tried to purge the air from the pump/filter with not much luck. I mentally went over the plumbing and knew it was good. It had to be because I got too busy when I arrived and got to work and didn't start filling in water to get it where I knew it had to be and at that hour it just wasn't filling enough. The pump pulls so good only having about an inch of water past the bottom of the skimmer caused it to create a void there and allowed it to suck air and lose prime. So I called it a night and instructed MIL on where to continue to fill it to the next day. I even drew a nice little diagram which I was ribbed about today by my MS. Soooo, the first thing I did when getting there today to mow was to turn on the pump. Voila!! It works!! FINALLY!!! Water in the pool and it is running!!!!!! "Walking on Sunshine!!" ringing in my head. I actually cracked a smile! Tomorrow I'll work on the coping and walkway. Then wrestle the wood stairs over so the ladder can be put in.
A couple of shots of the simple plumbing. Like I said I reused some of the spa flex hose and valves from last year. Straight 10' sections completed the run to the far end. I'm not positive where the legs to the patio section will be but I think I dodged them. Time will tell. The pipe is on the back side of the pool and probably will be covered mostly by some gravel so beauty is secondary to getting water flowing NOW! Visible under the skimmer is a T where the water bonder will go.
Glue used to glue the flexible PVC to the rigid stuff. Some say regular glue will be OK. I've had good luck on koi pond plumbing using this correct glue so why change now?
My fingers are telling me to close this. Till we type again...............