New to me house, 1962 in ground pool, can I save it?

Jan 28, 2014
5
I bought a house with an in ground concrete pool that was installed in 1962. Pool has been out of use and drained for at least 5 years. Previous owners were in their 80s and stated they only drained it because they didn’t want to maintain it anymore. All the pipes are full of antifreeze. Can I save it, or should I just hire an excavator and bury it? I’d like to keep it, maintenance tips for concrete pool are welcome!632116E1-6573-49B7-A09B-2358010D9AEE.jpeg
 
TK,

I believe that what you have is a vinyl liner pool with the liner missing... I could be wrong, so let's see if we can get some input from some of our other members,,

@JamesW

@bdavis466

No matter what it is, it might cost as much to bury it as fix it, depend on the city codes where you live..

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
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We can help you turn that in to a wonderful, working pool! I am with Jim in that I THINK that might be a liner pool as well. Can you take a closer picture of what is right under the white stuff right by the decking? Are those tiles or vinyl?

Kim:kim:
 
I don't think that it's a vinyl liner pool. I think that it's a fiberglass wall and concrete bottom pool.

I don't see anything obvious that would make it unusable.

You will probably have to replace the tile, recaulk the wall seams, and resurface the concrete bottom.

You will need to pressure test the plumbing and check all of the equipment.

Check the skimmers for damage or other issues.

I would get a few proposals for renovation to see if it's worth salvaging.
 
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I'm no pro but im with James here. Looks to me like the border is still intact. The border would have been thrown out with the rest of the liner. When i joined here this last spring there were a couple of these pools needing work. Search for `hybrid pool' and 'fiberglass wall concrete bottom' and many come up that look identical. make sure to use the 'G' (google) button on the bottom to do the search.

Im going to also guess that the pool equiptment was 15 years old when it was turned off for 5 years. So you'll probably need that too.
 
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The concrete is poured up to the walls.

I'm not sure how much they are used in new construction.

I don't think that they are very common now.

Typically, the bottom gets painted and the walls get caulked at the seams.

Current paint is pretty horrible. So, maybe a plaster resurfacing would work.



 
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A full good renovation will probably be expensive.

It will need quite a bit of work to get it watertight and functional.

It's going to need a full onsite inspection to determine if it's worth paying for a full renovation.
 
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Oh how I love an older pool reno! Its a good size pool- love that. And deep enough for diving <swoon!> PLEASE please fix this older gem and you'll get many, many years of pleasure out of it.

TFP can help you along the way.

Maddie :flower:
 
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Do you have a picture of the equipment and pad it sits on?

It's kinda like looking at the engine of a car for me. Even if the OP decides to fill, he may have some equipment worth salvaging.
 

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Do you have anything against vinyl liners ? Some people do and wouldnt want one. But it would be very easy and among the cheapest fixes.
 
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In my area these pools were put in by the dozen. They were called family fun pools, not really sure why? a builder here ran around we actually have a handful that are commercial pools. The fiberglass walls had some sort of sandbag weight system to hold walls plumb. Which is crazy to see when they are ripped out. We have some of these in our Service route, prone for leaking at the wall seams and the floor seam. Some of the pools up here actually had a gunite floor with the fiberglass walls. Installing bead track and hanging a liner is the cheapest way out of updating the pool.
 
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We can help you turn that in to a wonderful, working pool! I am with Jim in that I THINK that might be a liner pool as well. Can you take a closer picture of what is right under the white stuff right by the decking? Are those tiles or vinyl?

Kim:kim:
Hi Kim! It is not a liner pool, the bottom is concrete and the plaster has flaked off. The top white part is a strip that held tiles, but they have fallen off in places.
 
Do you have a picture of the equipment and pad it sits on?

It's kinda like looking at the engine of a car for me. Even if the OP decides to fill, he may have some equipment worth salvaging.
I'm unsure of the age of the equipment, but I planned on replacing the pump to a newer one and having the old one as a spare. It has a sand filter that I'm not sure I can rescue, but I'm going to give it a try. I'll take a picture of the equip this weekend.
 
A full good renovation will probably be expensive.

It will need quite a bit of work to get it watertight and functional.

It's going to need a full onsite inspection to determine if it's worth paying for a full renovation.
Problem is that I'm in Dubuque IA and the 4 pool companies that I called don't want to touch the project.
 
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