Sidewall bulging inward

[rob.ert]

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum and also a newbie pool owner so please excuse me if I don't use the right terminology.

We had some really cold temps here in Canada and the 3-way selector that joins the skimmer drain and bottom drain hose to the pump has cracked one night and I woke up the next morning to find the pool almost empty. I quickly lifted the hoses above water level to prevent further draining but i was reluctant to try refilling the pool because of the cold. So i left it with only about 10 inches of water for a couple weeks until temps went above freezing for a day or so and I was able to fill the pool about half way up.
Now a few days later I noticed a bulge in one of the sidewalls, above the water level. See attached pic. I tried pushing it back out but was not able to. I can't put anymore water in the pool at this time as temperatures are well below freezing again. It doesn't look like there's any damage.

my questions are: is this something that will fix itself when I fill the pool all the way up or do I need to repar it? And if I need to repair it, how do I do it myself? is there like a tool i can use to bend it back or do i need to remove and replace that panel?

thanks!

 

[JohnT]

I'd get water in it as soon as you can. That alone may do most of the repair. Your pool structure is pretty weak when water is removed.

 

[rob.ert]

Thanks John. I'll fill her up as soon as the weather warms up a bit. I'm attaching an inside view of the bulge which also shows the water level. The bulge is hard to see, it's to the left of the return hose in the pic. What i find weird is that the bulge didn't appear when the pool was almost empty, but after I brought the water level to where you see it in the pic, which is the level I kept the pool at every winter with no issues. (it's somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 full).

 

[CB]

I had that very thing happen to me when I installed my pool.I finished the liner install early in the evening(90 plus degree day)got about a foot of water in it had to stop filling because the sun went down(50 degrees that night).Came out the next morning pool wall had a bow in it similar to what you have although not quite as bad as you have maybe bowed 2"-3".Continued to fill bow went away with no problem with liner to date.I attributed the bow to having a foot of water in the bottom with no outward water pressure and a cool night,not much elastcity in the liner until it warmed up.

 

[rob.ert]

thanks CB. This is definitely reassuring. hope we get a few warm days over here soon so that I can fill it up and hope that the wall bounces back into place.

 

[rob.ert]

well, warm weather came, the snow around the pool melted and unfortunately i found what I think is the reason for the inward bulge: the outer hard sidewall has split open under my deck. So the pool is bulging outwards at the crack level and then inwards above the water level.
I've heard people say that the pool wall is a single piece that goes all around the pool, not individual panels. If that's true then I'm afraid to even think about the replacement costs.

 

[cramar]

Ouch!
Looks like a new wall, unless you MacGyver some sort of metal panel on there and rivet it or something, personally I'd get an entire new wall.
I think it's important to try and figure out why this occured so reoccurance can be avoided? How old is the pool and have there been any other problems?

 

[rob.ert]

Ouch!
Looks like a new wall, unless you MacGyver some sort of metal panel on there and rivet it or something, personally I'd get an entire new wall.
I think it's important to try and figure out why this occured so reoccurance can be avoided? How old is the pool and have there been any other problems?

You mean an entire wall all around, right? That probably means a new liner too since i assume they'd have to drain the water to replace the outer wall. I can't really do a getto repair job as we're looking to sell the house so it has to be properly fixed.
The house was built in late 2002, but i'm not sure when the previous owner installed the pool. I bought it in spring of 2011 and never had any problem with the pool.
I figure this crack is somehow related to the fact that my pool almost drained out back in november because of a cracked pipe. Maybe that and the subsequent partial refilling (see my previous posts in this thread) caused the wall to split. I find it hard to believe that the water freezing did this, as it would have expanded upwards, not into the walls, right?

i'll call a pool guy asap, but the water is still frozen so there's nothing they can do right now. i just hope the liner doesn't rupture when the ice melts and floods my house's foundation. i'll keep an eye on it every day and drain it as soon as it starts to melt.

 

[cramar]

Yup, entire wall and liner.
This is a pretty simple DIY project though.

 

[rob.ert]

Yup, entire wall and liner.
This is a pretty simple DIY project though.

Will I need to remove & then reinstall the pillars as well? i.e. basically rebuild the entire pool from the ground up? Ouch, my wallet!!

If i have to rebuild it, then I might just ditch it and sell the house a couple K cheaper. It will be the same money-wise and I won't have to go through the hassle of rebuilding it. We only get about 15 good days of pool use a year over here anyway.

 

[cramar]

If everything else is fine (ie: rails, posts, levelness of site, etc) then you can just swap the wall and liner, I have no clue how much that would cost but I suspect it will be a few bucks.

 

[rob.ert]

If everything else is fine (ie: rails, posts, levelness of site, etc) then you can just swap the wall and liner, I have no clue how much that would cost but I suspect it will be a few bucks.

cool, thanks!
i've sent the local pool co an email with the pic asking for an estimate on parts and labor. hope their answer doesn't scare the heck out of me