Good afternoon everyone! We have some pool repair/replacement questions that I am hoping someone can help us with.
First some background about our pool. We have roughly an inground Fox 16’ x 32’ kidney shaped pool that was originally installed in the mid-1970’s by the previous owners (we bought the house a couple years back) and now we need to replace the coping, repair the side walls and put down new vermiculite.
One pool guy that come out to look at it said we could cut out the bottom part of the coping and install a vertical coping piece that would get screwed into the side walls to accept a new liner. This would allow us to not have to tear out the concrete, but the original coping (and all its ugliness) would remain. As we would like to redo some of the elements around the pool regarding the layout with the equipment and seating and would like a cantilever bullnose coping in concrete or tile, we are leaning towards tearing up the concrete so that we can do all of that and fully replace the vinyl liner coping at the same time. However, the pool guy warned us that we may uncover larger issues with the bracing and walls if we remove the concrete, in which case we might end up needing to replace the entire pool all together. While we are hoping to avoid this, we also do not want to have to deal with major repairs again several years down the road because there was a problem that we didn’t see now. Our current goal is to reuse the bracing and side walls that exist if possible.
We have been told that Fox pool bracing design has not really changed in the last 50 years so we are anticipating seeing their X-brace when we open up the concrete. Is that accurate?
We were able to dig out one side of the pool on our hill to see the top of the braces in that location and there is some rust and damage to the point that the top of the brace appears to be rusted apart? See attached photos. In your opinion, are these beyond repair and need to be replaced?
Let me know what you all think. This will help us determine if we leave the concrete and tie in the new vertical coping, spend the time to take out the concrete so as to reuse the bracing and sides, or just tear the whole thing out.
Also – if we do have to tear out the pool and put a new one in, what are your thoughts on buying a pool kit and installing it ourselves (minus the concrete work, which we would hire out)? We are both pretty handy (architect and electrical engineer) and think it’s doable, but I’d like to know your thoughts and any tips will help!
Thanks!
First some background about our pool. We have roughly an inground Fox 16’ x 32’ kidney shaped pool that was originally installed in the mid-1970’s by the previous owners (we bought the house a couple years back) and now we need to replace the coping, repair the side walls and put down new vermiculite.
One pool guy that come out to look at it said we could cut out the bottom part of the coping and install a vertical coping piece that would get screwed into the side walls to accept a new liner. This would allow us to not have to tear out the concrete, but the original coping (and all its ugliness) would remain. As we would like to redo some of the elements around the pool regarding the layout with the equipment and seating and would like a cantilever bullnose coping in concrete or tile, we are leaning towards tearing up the concrete so that we can do all of that and fully replace the vinyl liner coping at the same time. However, the pool guy warned us that we may uncover larger issues with the bracing and walls if we remove the concrete, in which case we might end up needing to replace the entire pool all together. While we are hoping to avoid this, we also do not want to have to deal with major repairs again several years down the road because there was a problem that we didn’t see now. Our current goal is to reuse the bracing and side walls that exist if possible.
We have been told that Fox pool bracing design has not really changed in the last 50 years so we are anticipating seeing their X-brace when we open up the concrete. Is that accurate?
We were able to dig out one side of the pool on our hill to see the top of the braces in that location and there is some rust and damage to the point that the top of the brace appears to be rusted apart? See attached photos. In your opinion, are these beyond repair and need to be replaced?
Let me know what you all think. This will help us determine if we leave the concrete and tie in the new vertical coping, spend the time to take out the concrete so as to reuse the bracing and sides, or just tear the whole thing out.
Also – if we do have to tear out the pool and put a new one in, what are your thoughts on buying a pool kit and installing it ourselves (minus the concrete work, which we would hire out)? We are both pretty handy (architect and electrical engineer) and think it’s doable, but I’d like to know your thoughts and any tips will help!
Thanks!