Skimmer installation

[Andreamtl]

We have a concrete pool and we redid our skimmer 4 years ago when we were doing some landscaping. We’ve sandblasted the pool to do repairs and the whole area where we repaired is completely hollow and the pool renovator says it’s cause we used the wrong skimmer, one for vinyl vs concrete. I went back in my bills we did indeed use a skimmer made for concrete pools but he still says this plastic piece is causing water to infiltrate and it should be done in concrete. He is saying to redo for 3k... or it will just come back. Any ideas of what we should do is rather not spend another 3k if I don’t have to but I don’t want to have to redo this process in another 3 years

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! Did you do the repair yourself? If not I would contact whoever did the repair. However I don't think the materials used are necessarily the problem. It looks like that area of the pool may be under some stress, or pressure since there is a noticeable hump in the top edge of the pool near the skimmer, an area that needs patching in line with the right corner of the skimmer, and that the skimmer body itself looks uneven and slightly torqued to the left. I'll ask some of our build experts to take a look.

@JamesW, @jimmythegreek

 

[Andreamtl]

Thanks no we had a pool company do it and we did call them. They say nothing wrong with the install of the skimmer just needs a good concrete job however that company also were the ones to the concrete job 3 years ago so why is it already ruined...the other pool contractor we have now says their some plastic piece that should be in concrete and that piece is causing water to get behind the concrete and that’s why we should dig the whole thing up. Oh boy! It’s hard to know who to trust. 1st company says this company is just trying to scare me but I can’t stomach redoing this whole thing in another 3 years

 

[zea3]

Its not fine. The guys that installed this skimmer didn't even bother to level it, so it would not surprise me that they skipped a few other steps as well. Did you formerly have waterline tile in the pool? Do you have any pictures of how the pool looked before it was drained?

 

[Andreamtl]

No we don’t have tile. This is a photo from last year as we were filling it and this is a photo from when they were installing it in 2017

 

[zea3]

You can really tell the skimmer is not level to the pool, and its set too high with nothing under it. Did they encase the skimmer body in concrete or is it just hanging in the yard? It almost looks like you could install this yourself and save 3k!

 

[Andreamtl]

I’ll have to dig to see how it is incased. I guess my dilemma now is to rip it out or not as the current pool contractor is telling me water is getting in by the plastic behind the concrete and hollowing out the wall, the wall is hollow right now under the skimmer

 

[jimmythegreek]

In the pic they are installing coping so I assume they are done. That is not the proper install for a concrete pool. The skimmer needs to be encased in concrete so the plaster can seal around the opening. The way they have it the skimmer will move with the ground and break the water seal letting water behind it amd eroding the earth and concrete

 

[Andreamtl]

This is a picture from 3 days later , so I guess it wasn’t totally done at that point. if you were going to in case it in concrete would like it’s supposed to be done would this be part of the process? Thank you so much for input

 

[jimmythegreek]

Looks like a wooden form for concrete. That should have been done before the plaster/tile. I cant really tell from the pic what was done. What does the inside throat to the skimmer plastic look like from the pool side looking in