Rocky start to a new pool

[CDN]

Hello TFP gurus. I had a pool installed about 5 years ago. We hired a professional pool installer that did the entire job except contracted cement truck. It’s a metal sided pool with a white coping( part where the liner locks in), maybe the wrong word. After the second year we noticed a couple spots on the white coping that looked like were poking out and cracked the paint. Also noticed bumps on the walls under the liner. Our pool installer said it was ok and we tried to ignor the spots.

Fast forward to this year. When we took the safety cover off this spring one of the biggest poking out spots is a huge hole. Our pool installer is playing hard to find.
Now that the hole is there I can see rocks exposed underneath.

Ok sorry was hoping to make the short story. Is this normal? Is this something we did wrong looking after our pool? Installation errors, or methods?

What are options for repairing something like this? And it makes me worried that the bumps we feel on the walls under the liner is more of the same thing happening on the walls.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

Take care everyone!

CDN

 

[ajw22]

Welcome to TFP.

Can you show us some pics with a wider view of your pool so we can see the construction of your pool, coping and deck?

 

[CDN]

Sure thing AJW22 thanks for reading. I just realized I may have posted in the wrong section. I apologize. Helping baby girl go to sleep and doing this on my phone. Here are some views from farther back. Hopes that helps.
Thanks!

 

[CDN]

Hello everyone, Does this mean no one has seen this before?

 

[Wobblerlorri]

I've sure never seen, but looks like something the PB should be owning up to. Looks like someone drilled a hole through your coping for some reason. Is that the only one, or are there more of these holes? Have you fully taken off the cover? Do you have rats around? Looks like it could have been chewed into the coping...

EDIT: on second look, that's almost definitely chewing. I know a lot of animals enjoy the taste of plastic, it tastes sweet to them. You may have had a rat standing on your cover trying to chew a new hidey hole and stopped when it found the rock backfill. I'd keep trying to get hold of the PB for repair or replacement, and check your warranty for animal damage coverage.

 

[jmhjgh]

Can you post a picture of one of the other bumps?

 

[Wobblerlorri]

Or it might be critters chewing OUT.

 

[CDN]

LOL that is an awesome theory. Our solar blanket won't hold a rat i'm sure. Have had frogs, moles, mice, and toads but never anything bigger. Well drunk neighbour kids one night but that is a story in of itself. It is aluminium coping attached to the steel wall. There is 3" of concrete above that spot and 3/4 clear gravel under that straight down to the footings.
That spot start by a poking out bump on the coping and quickly ends up like that corroded mess big hole it is now. I can see packed the gravel in the hole still so nothing tried to cone from the outside for sure.

Installer said first he's ever seen like that and said he'll be in contact with the coping / wall company. I'm hopeful but not optimistic.
JM I'll get some pics of the other spots tonight when i get home.

I was hoping for a smoking gun like "ya its not grounded properly and that always happens" or a batch of product from Latham was junk.

Thanks for weighing in.

 

[jimmythegreek]

You got a batch of bad coping. Aluminum is recycled led nowadays and theres some alloys mixed in that cause galvanic reaction and are a hole. That's not a fun repair to make look good. Gotta chew out the rotten area and use epoxy or jbweld type putty mix and shape it to match then paint to match existing. Theres no way to replace without cutting into the deck

 

[Wobblerlorri]

Wow! It looks just like a critter chewed a hole in it! Thanks Jimmy!

 

[Chickinvic]

Not normal. It looks like something ate through it (burrowing rodent). I'm also in Ontario btw, so hello!

 

[jimmythegreek]

They are metal it must have had diamond teeth!

 

[Chickinvic]

They are metal it must have had diamond teeth!

It's just aluminum. Rats can chew through that stuff.

 

[Shirker]

Squirrels?