New liner in 17yo pool, rusted wall bottom

[jjpaul]

Started liner replacement today. We found 3-4 inch moderate band of rust around the bottom of about 70% of the pool.
I also found areas where the bottom of the wall is not in the plastic base but I don't think it's because the wall is rusted away though. I wire brushed the rust to remove loose rust and was going to hit it with primer.
Plan was to put pad over sand, then foam cove and liner. The pad instructions say pad then cove but youtube video I saw was cove then pad and can't find much info regarding that.
Not sure about pad or cove first, how to handle rust, and if it's ok to leave bottom of wall out of track in areas.

Any help appreciated. Thank you.

 

[jjpaul]

One of the pics show wall out of track. Maybe 4 or 5 areas 3 to 4 feet long out of track.

 

[Pauls234]

That's about what the inside of my pool looked like when I replaced liner some years back. I sanded but applied a rust converter before the primer/paint. I would do that.

A few years later I found it had rusted through in a few spots and after watching some videos of AGP collapses I decided to replace it.

All of that aside, I don't know enough to say for certain, but I think that wall off its track for stretches of 3-4 feet could be a pretty big collapse risk, like time for a new pool.

Maybe @Casey or @kimkats are around and can share their thoughts or experience, but it makes me nervous!

 

[jjpaul]

I’m guessing that the track is a half an inch to 3/4 of an inch low in this area

 

[jjpaul]

I don’t know if you can tell from this picture, but the grade runs down to the pool. It was a sloping lot and this is the high side that was dug out.

 

[jjpaul]

That's about what the inside of my pool looked like when I replaced liner some years back. I sanded but applied a rust converter before the primer/paint. I would do that.

A few years later I found it had rusted through in a few spots and after watching some videos of AGP collapses I decided to replace it.

All of that aside, I don't know enough to say for certain, but I think that wall off its track for stretches of 3-4 feet could be a pretty big collapse risk, like time for a new pool.

Maybe @Casey or @kimkats are around and can share their thoughts or experience, but it makes me nervous!

Thank you for your reply. It makes me nervous as well and that’s why I posted it. I wanted to remove the pool this year but my wife wanted to keep it. She bought the liner and cove and pad, so today was the day we were going to do it. I had cut the liner a bit previously to peek in there, and I saw the rust around bottom but was hoping for the best. I hadn’t known about the wall being out of the track until we were regrading the sand there was a sand cove before.

 

[Pauls234]

I'd leave that liner, cove, pad, etc in their boxes and get a new pool. 17 years is a good life for am AGP and I'd hate to put in a new liner only to have to trash it 2 years later because the structure gave out.

Let's see if others comment, but given the calendar I think I'd sit tight and make replacement plans over the off season!

 

[kimkats]

I have a sad for you and the pool. I got a new liner to put in our pool as our old liner was old and faded. Once we got the old liner off we saw the rust I wire brushed it all. Put on rust prevention. Put on primer THEN rust-oleum paint. It looked good. We installed the new liner and got enjoy it for 4 months.....................then woke up the a huge mess. One area had given way and took the whole pool down.

Upon a close look the area that gave way was where the biggest area of rust was. Oddly it was not any where near the skimmer or return. It was on the side of the pool that got the least amount of sun. We think the condensation that formed between the liner and wall is what caused the rust.

We took the whole thing down and have as of yet to put a new one up. We shall see if we do. We do miss having a pool but I am close to being fully retired in the near future I am not in a hurry to replace it.

With the wall being out of the tracks there is NO way I would even try to just replace the liner. You HAVE to re-seat the wall into the track. It being out of the track puts more stress on the wall which could cause it to fail.

Tell your wife it will be even more work to repair the damage done when the pool comes down on it's own. You are much better off buying a new wall. Everything else can be reused so you will save some money that way.

Good luck and BE SAFE!!

 

[Jazzbasser]

We just went through this . Liner change turned into this. With the excavation already done, assembling a new pool isn't all that difficult for the average diy guy. Not recommended in 99 degree weather like we did.