by 4 people |
Our Experience: Self Installation
Prologue: If you decide to do this yourself, please, please, contact me and I will give you all the advice you will need to make sure it is done correctly the first time. I'm happy to help. If I can save at least one person from having to go through the stress we did, than I'll feel that, by us going through that stress, it was worth it.
Also, this is very important, do not purchase through www.nationalpoolwholesalers.com if you want good customer service. Their customer service is absolutely a joke and the owner, Mr. Robert Kreitz should be ashamed of himself for running a business the way he does. Shame on you Mr. Kreitz. Shame. On. You.
My wife and I had this crazy idea that we needed an above ground pool. Our second idea was that we would save some money by installing it ourselves. If you fall into the same categories of craziness as us, read on to learn how we did it!
Oh, by the way, when we first looked into getting an above ground pool, the reason we decided to install it ourselves, was the $2,000 installation fee. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, I now understand why it's $2,000. Would have been well worth it.
So if you're smart, take the hit. Pay for the installation. Save your body and sanity... or, you can read on.
One last thing, if you have any questions at all about an installation you might be doing, feel free to contact me with any questions. If I can, I'll be happy to give you suggestions.
(If you want, you can jump to the bottom to see all the photos.)
DISASTER STRIKES! Yesterday (July 27th, 2007) was the 4 week-iversary of this stressful project. We were testing the pool water, which, by the way, was crystal clear, when we discovered that part of the wall was pushing out of the bottom rails. I felt like throwing up. I called my buddy and he confirmed my worst fear, we had to drain the pool before we had a catastrophic failure. We didn't even get any pictures of the crystal clear water in the pool.
So, eventually we solved our problem (or so it seems). I might add that we solved with absolutely no help from anyone. So, my best advice to anyone is that they hire this done. If, for some crazy reason, you do decide to do this yourself... by all means, contact me and I can give you all the advice you'll ever need to make sure it is done correctly the first time!
Step 1: Choosing which pool to buy
June 12th, 2007
There are so many options out there, we'll let you decide on who and where you want to buy your pool. We bought ours over the internet. The only thing I can say about that, is that some things were delivered separately, and the pool itself arrived on an 18 wheeler.
We were there to meet the truck and help pull the pallet into our garage.
We ordered it on June 12, 2007 and received it on July 6, 2007. So, prepare yourself for a bit of wait.
Fortunately, you can prepare the ground while you're waiting! See Step 2...
We were there to meet the truck and help pull the pallet into our garage.
We ordered it on June 12, 2007 and received it on July 6, 2007. So, prepare yourself for a bit of wait.
Fortunately, you can prepare the ground while you're waiting! See Step 2...
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Step 2: Choosing the pools location
June 12th, 2007 (and some days following)
Unless you're going to have someone come in and dig out a relatively flat area for you, we have this advice for you:Pick the flattest, most level piece of ground you can find in your yard. Your hands will be ever so great full. If you decide to dig out a flat area by hand, be fore warned that it is a lot of hard work.
We decide to place ours close to the edge of the concrete you see in this photo. The pool will run perpendicular to the house.
At this point in time, we lived 3 years in the house and didn't realize how much the area we chose sloped down... there was a lot of dirt to move.
(Note: this is an old photo, the fence you see has since been moved, and a smaller pen for the dogs has been built.)
Step 3: Remove the sod
June 28th, 2007
Well, because we decided to dig out the pool area by hand (never again, so please don't anyone ask me to help), we needed to remove the sod first.I attempted to do this by hand, but discovered that it took me 2 hours to remove a strip of 2ft x 18ft. Not the most efficient way to do things. (Keep in mind, we were re-using the sod).
The following Saturday, we got a sod cutter which did the job in no more than 15 minutes. I was flung around like a rag doll tied to the end of a whip, but it was very effective. Total cost: $60 rental fee.
The picture is a week later, but you can see where we transplanted the sod... that would be the stuff that looks like dead grass...
Step 4: Removing the dirt.
July 1st, 2007 (Happy Canada Day!)
The first thing we did, is dig a trench length ways (we got an oval pool, by the way) at the depth we figured we needed to be.We looked for what we thought was the lowest point and dug toward what we thought was the highest point. This we did with a shovel. A spade shovel. That's right, we weren't savvy enough to realize we should be using a pickaxe.
You can see we also dug trenches cross ways. We nailed a level to a long straight piece of 2x4 to make sure that we stayed relatively level.
At this point, the one sentence in our instructions that kept running through my mind was "to take your time making sure your ground is level". Apparently this is really important. The pressure was almost too much.
And, it was hot.
Step 5: Using a pickaxe
July 1st, 2007
At this point we thought we were absolutely nuts and considered calling someone with a bobcat to come in and do some damage.But, we had a brainstorm and decided all we needed was a pickaxe, some patience and hands of steel.
We could do this ourselves. And so the hard work would start...
Notice the pile of dirt in the background there.
Step 6: The rough work is done
July 3rd, 2007
It was a lot of dirt and a lot of hard work. We pecked away at it, shoveled and transported.We finally had our roughly level ground.
Step 7: The builders level
July 4th, 2007 (Happy 4th!)
This was going to be the fun part (or so we thought). It was time to be picky about how level the ground was. We needed to rent a builders level.We had every intention of doing this in one day (silly us).
If you've never used a builders level, its quite simple to use, but you'll have to be two people. Once again, except this time using the builders level, we found the lowest spot, and begun the flattening. We used our trusty 2x4 level and started scraping away at the ground. Best done with a shovel that has a flat blade.
Step 7: The builders level (cont...)
July 4th, 2007
At the end of the day, we had 1 completed circle. That was a bummer.So, we called the rental place in the morning and figured a week would be the required length of time for leveling.
(The cat was no help.)
The pool arrived!
July 7th, 2004
Finally, we got the call. The pool was being dropped off today.There it is, in all its glory.
When we removed the shrink wrap, we found that the pool wall was the heaviest box and that it was laying on its side. Of course, the box said explicitly, do not lay on side - this way up. Morons. In the end it didn't matter, our wall was unharmed.
Step 7: The builders level (cont...)
July 7th, 2007
We have finally finished the main area for the pool. Notice how nice and level it is? Thanks to our handy dandy builders level.We still have to do the area where the buttresses are going.
The pain of it all!
July 7th, 2007 (evening)
Be warned (once again), that if you're going to do all this by hand, it can be pretty rough on the hands if your regular job is a desk job.Actually, my hands don't look too bad in the picture...
For the record, at this point I had 10 blisters on my hands 2 blisters had blisters within them. (Didn't know that was possible).
Step 8: Digging out for the butresses
July 8th, 2007
Well, we were about as motivated as a prisoner walking to his execution.Out came the pick axe, the shovel, the tamper, the wheel barrow, the builders level and accessories. We pecked away at it again.
The wheel barrow finally crapped out on us. I'll have to go to Lowe's to get some nuts and bolts to hold the wheel in place. Lost the originals somewhere in the dirt pile.
You can see, we're pretty much flat. Ignore the massive root that we have to take care of.
Tomorrow we'll be laying the pavers and placing the bottom frame of the pool... I think. We had to email the pool people and find out where the installation DVD is. Too many boxes, we couldn't find it.
Step 9: Laying the pavers
July 9th, 2007
With luck, we'll pull this off in one day, but I doubt it.Which means we'll be calling for an extension on the builders level.
Step 9: Checking your levelness
July 12th, 2007
Ok, so we haven't place the pavers yet. We had good intentions, but we had some trouble understanding the instructions.My advice to anyone is, pay close attention to the pieces your connecting. We had 3 different sized rails that needed to be connected. After we determined which rails went where (note: we ended up redoing this 3 times, only because we didn't pay close attention to the instructions - but in all fairness, the instructions could have been quite a bit clearer) and how the straps worked into it all. We completed our lower framing, measured our distances and everything worked out well.
It was at this time that we did the true level test. We took the builders level, went about 50 feet away from the pool and checked our hard work for levelness. We came to within 1/5th of an inch in every location we checked.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! USE A BUILDERS LEVEL, IT'S WORTH IT!!!
Step 10: Positioning the pavers
July 13th, 2007
Once we had the lower rails laid out and connected. We placed the pavers beneath the supports. We then cut out the earth to place the pavers in and, again, using the builders level made sure everything stayed with in the allowed threshold. The instructions said 2 inches was allowed, but we remained within our 1/5th of an inch. Step 10: Digging and placing the pavers
July 14th, 2007
This took us 2 days to complete. We started on Friday and finished this on Saturday. Steps and Ladders
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Sand Arrives
July 13th, 2007
We ordered 6 tons of sand on Thursday for delivery on Friday. If at all possible, I would advise having the sand dumped into the middle of your pool area.We didn't because we were worried if the truck got too close to our dug out pool area, that the ground might get wrecked.
We laid out a tarp and had the driver dump in the middle. Saturday we would move it to the center of the pool...
Step 11: Moving the sand
July 14th, 2007
After we set the pavers in and everything was level. We started moving the sand into the center of our pool area.This was a lot of sand to move. I was just hoping that none of the neighborhood cats decided to make use of this giant litter box.
Step 12: The Wall!
July 15th, 2007
This was the part I was most worried about. The wall was very heavy. In fact, we decided to buy a dolly, just so we could move it from the garage to the pool area. (Fortunately, we will have many future uses for the dolly).ADVICE: When setting the wall into the bottom rails, use a piece of plywood to rest the entire roll on. It's easier to move the roll if you can just rotate the plywood by hand.
ADVICE: Get your self some 2x4's, cut them about 2 feet longer than the height of your pool. Cut a notch into one end at about 45 degrees. And use these to brace your wall as you try to set it up. Place the top of the wall into the notch, rest the 2x4 on the ground, outside the pool, hammer a stake into the ground next to the 2x4 and nail the stake and 2x4 together. I wish someone had told me this before we started. We had a tough time keeping the ever so slight breeze from blowing the wall over.
Once again, the cat was no help.
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Step 12: The Wall! (cont...)
July 15th, 2007
Once the wall was up, the ends bolted together, and the buttresses set up, I was still worried that the wind might take the thing down. This is when we figured out we could use a bunch of 2x4s to hold the thing together.In this picture, you only see 3 2x4s. We left it at that until we stopped for the day, went inside, watched the weather and saw that we were in for the chance of some nasty weather. So, back out we came and added another 4 braces around the ends of the pools.
By some stroke of luck, the nasty weather went to the north of us AND to the south of us. Man! Was I sweating bullets.
Step 13: Attaching the wall foam
July 16th, 2007
This was kind of a dilemma for us. Nowhere could we find anything telling us what the best order was for compacting the sand, attaching the wall foam, placing the happy bottom or placing the coves (corner pieces of foam between the wall and the ground).Fortunately, a friend at work used to install these suckers. So the final verdict was:
1: The wall foam
2: The sand
3: The happy bottom
4: The coves
So, here we installed the wall foam (look closely at the side). Just so you know, it was also difficult. Nothing in this project has been easy!
Step 14: Spreading the sand
July 16th, 2007
Of course, I had to miss a step. I started spreading the sand, but remembered that there were some bottom pieces of sheet metal that slipped into the rails along the straight sections of the pool. This is supposed to prevent the pool from lifting up and you from needing Moses to save your yard from flooding. I had to brush some of the sand away to get these things in.Much like everything else, this wasn't easy. After some violent hammering and forcing, the sheets were inserted and we could continue spreading the sand.
(Sorry no pics of the sheets, but here's me pushing sand.)
Step 15: Tamping the sand
July 17th, 2007
So, something I have yet to mention. The average temperature while we've been doing all this has been about 95 degrees fahrenheit with between 60 and 70 humidity. Today, it really sucked.After about 5 muscle throbbing pounds on the sound, sweat was pouring down my face.
Step 16: Obtaining help from a 3rd party
July 18th, 2007
I'm fortunate enough to be working with someone who used to install these types of pools. He was kind enough to offer his help today.We rolled out our happy bottom, cut the lengths length wise and taped them together with duct tape. This was fairly straight forward.
In this picture (see next step's picture) you can see the happy bottom under the liner. Ignore the liner for now.
Step 17: The top rails
July 18th, 2007
In this picture (see prior step's picture) we were putting on the top rails. Because we were using a beaded liner, we could get away with attaching the top rails permanently.NOTICE: Purchase a beaded liner! You'll be so happy you did (see later steps).
When you're doing this, be sure to attach the long beaded hook, followed by a rail and a top brace thing-a-ma-jig. Then move on to the next one, beaded hook, rail and brace. We used a rubber mallet to pound the rail onto the wall. Worked very well!
Step 18: The cove and liner
July 18th, 2007
The instructions actually tell you to unfold your pool liner outside of the pool area. Don't do this. Place the liner in the pool, be careful when climbing in, and unfold it there.We may have been lucky that it unfolded the way it did, but it was a lot quicker and easier than unfolding and folding it back up. Plus, can you imagine trying to get that thing over the walls unfolded!?
In this picture you can see how it's hanging on the wall. This was by and far the easiest part of the entire process. Once you got the liner hooked in it was fairly simple to hook it in everywhere.
Step 19: The 2 W's - Water and Wrinkles
July 18th, 2007
This part isn't so bad, but it's very time consuming and if you aren't sure what you're doing, good luck! I was fortunate enough to have my friend help me and he showed me how to determine what to move and shift and dewrinkle.Slap the hose in and start filling!
This has been very time consuming. At this point I'm still working on it, but I figure if I have wrinkles in my pool, they'll just irritate me, so I better do it right.
Pay attention to all of your seams, they'll tell you how straight your liner is and if you need to shift left right up down side to side, or what ever.
Look at the corner seams (between the wall and bottom). If they aren't at the same location on either side, you need to shift from one side to the other.
It actually is quite the work out. I had to stop today because it was getting dark and I still had one last long wrinkle to get out, plus a big air bubble in the middle.
Next Morning: We got 2 inches of rain last night. The bubble has become a wrinkle. Hopefully, there isn't too much water in there. I've still got 2 large wrinkles to move.
Step 20: More De-Wrinkling
July 19th, 2007
I de-wrinkled the bubble's wrinkle and my wife and I worked the larger wrinkles out. I've filled the pool up to about 6 inches and stopped for the evening.The rain we had caused some of the mini-cliffs to slide down, meaning I'll be working on my retaining wall over the weekend (sheesh, never a moments rest).
I have to say this, it's really beginning to look like a pool and feel like a pool.
Also, I truly believe we wouldn't be where we are right now without the help of my friend. I honestly think we wouldn't have the liner looking the way it does right now. Thanks, Todd!
Step 20: More De-Wrinkling
July 20th, 2007
We added another few inches of water to the pool while we went to the local hardware store and ordered some retaining wall bricks and pea gravel. This is kind of a bitter sweet moment, because it means we're almost finished, but it also means there's more digging in my future.
I hopped in to the pool after dinner and tried to weed some of the wall wrinkles out, but determine we were pretty much done de-wrinkling.
It's kind of nice to take a break from the pool, even if we can't use it yet. I'm going to take it easy tonight, because tomorrow's going to be another day of sweat, blood and tears.
I think I'll do some work on SpideeMail... it's been too long now.
I hopped in to the pool after dinner and tried to weed some of the wall wrinkles out, but determine we were pretty much done de-wrinkling.
It's kind of nice to take a break from the pool, even if we can't use it yet. I'm going to take it easy tonight, because tomorrow's going to be another day of sweat, blood and tears.
I think I'll do some work on SpideeMail... it's been too long now.
Step 21: The End Pillars
July 21st, 2007
Today, after getting up rather late, I had to dig out around the ends of the pool so I could attach the end pillar pieces. This wasn't so bad, but I sure wasn't excited about having to use the shovel gain.Once the dirt was moved and I had more space to get at the bottom of the pillars, things went fairly quickly and smoothly. Try not to set your drill at too high of a speed, or you'll end up stripping the sheet metal screws they send. And, of course, they don't exactly give you any extras.
Retaining Wall Bricks Arrive!
July 21st, 2007
The bricks and pea gravel we ordered last night arrived. This was kind of exciting.Once again, I anticipated starting this today. And, once again, I didn't get to this today.
Step 22: The Top Rails
July 21st, 2007
After I finished attaching all the end pillars, I could finally attach the top rails. Things were going fairly smoothly, the holes never lined up, so it was always kind of awkward trying to screw in the sheet metal screws. I stripped a lot of them here, and not because my drill setting was to high, most of the time it was because the holes didn't line up causing the screw not to catch.So, I ended up running out of sheet metal screws and having to go to Lowe's to buy more. No worries, I'll finish tomorrow.
Step 23: The Joining Pieces
July 21st, 2007
I couldn't finish the top rails, but I wanted to see what it looked like having the joining pieces on.Damn!
This sucker is starting to look like a pool!
Just a side note as I read through everything, we never did hear back from the company we purchased the pool through about the DVD that was supposed to accompany our pool.
When I called regarding the DVD (see Step 8), I spoke with what sounded like a kid who could have cared less that I just spent about $5000 on one of their pools. So, customer service was non-existence.
Step 24: The Retaining Wall
July 22nd, 2007
After we attached the remaining top rails and screwed in the joining covers, we started on the retaining wall.Of course, it was another scorcher with high humidity. I only managed to finish the area where the retaining wall would be the highest.
It doesn't look to shabby.
Step 25: Adding the skimmer and outlet
July 23rd, 2007
The water is getting higher (we haven't been going full bore), but today it was time to put the skimmer in. This wasn't difficult at all, it was just a little nerve racking slicing through the liner. Step 26: Prepping for the pump and filter
July 23rd, 2007
Of course, we had to prep for the filter and pump. This meant digging out a section of earth far enough away from the pool not to be a hazard. It also meant investing in some copper and electrical connections, and a few extra pavers.The post next to the pavers is where the outlet is going to go. I have intentions to cover the pump in it's own little housing, but we'll see how far we get with that this year.
Step 27: Getting electricity
July 24th, 2007
Long process, isn't it?Now we had to run some electricity to where the pump was going to be sitting. There's a few things we need to do here, install a GFCI breaker (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter), run an outdoor electrical cable to our post (see prior picture), connect to switched outlet (the switch is for our convenience), and then we need to bond (ground) our pool.
Most of this is easy to do if you're familiar with home wiring. Grounding the pool seems funny, but is important. We were lucky that the bond wire from our garage panel runs out of the garage right next to the pool, so I could connect our pool bond to that.
I made sure to buy a weather proofed outlet adapter so things would stay dry.
Oh, and, no, the pool isn't full yet.
Step 28: Attaching the pump and filter
July 25th, 2007
My wife and I spent some time at Lowe's looking for some valve connections and extra pipe so we could have some shut-offs between the pool and pump.Unless we wanted to start gluing PVC together, we found nothing.
In the end, we went without. The water in our pool was starting to get cloudy and we needed that pump running, so we decided we would live without for the moment get things running.
I was constantly afraid I was going to over tighten things. The first time I connected everything, we had leaks in every connection. I had to take it all apart and wrap more teflon tape around the joints and risk screwing in the pipe further. Fortunately it worked.
We got two flexible hoses and two clamps with no indication in the instructions where we should place the two clamps. Well, I guessed, and I guessed poorly. One of the hoses blew off the pump and water started dumping out every where.
So, I would have to go to Lowe's tomorrow and get some hose clamps for all connections.
As the water gets cloudier...
Step 28: Attaching the pump and filter (cont.)
July 26th, 2007
I went to Lowe's today at lunch time and bought some clamps.After connecting the hose clamps, we turned the pump on and decided we would vacuum the pool before adding any chemicals.
The pool had other ideas.
Yep, you guessed it, hose clamps weren't tight enough. That pump is flippin' powerful!
Well, we managed to vacuum the pool and add some chemicals. We were careful not to over do the chemicals for fear of losing complete control of our water. We'll know tomorrow how we did.
For the record, we added shock treatment and two pucks of chlorine in our basket.
DISASTER STRIKES!
July 27th, 2007
Disheartened.Discouraged.
Beaten-up.
Tonight we discovered we have to drain the pool.
When I have more energy and will to talk about it, I'll write more here.
Disaster Strikes! (cont...)
July 28th, 2007
Contacted customer service,was asked to send pictures of our problem. Called them back...
12:18 PM
Talking to customer service...
12:22 PM
Listening to music...
12:30 PM
Spoke with customer service after they looked at the pictures. They're going to contact the manufacturer who hopefully has a network of service people throughout the US to help us. Unfortunately, they're closed on the weekends.
Looks like our project is on hold until then.
12:18 PM
Talking to customer service...
12:22 PM
Listening to music...
12:30 PM
Spoke with customer service after they looked at the pictures. They're going to contact the manufacturer who hopefully has a network of service people throughout the US to help us. Unfortunately, they're closed on the weekends.
Looks like our project is on hold until then.
Crazy Weekend
July 29th, 2007
This has definitely been a crazy weekend. My wife and I are starting to believe our house is possessed. Today, we're sitting in our living room eating lunch and we hear a loud bang and glass shattering.I carefully walk into the kitchen (where the sound came from) and see a whole bunch of glass shards all over the kitchen floor. I scan the place trying to see what happened and what was broken.
Something, smashed through our kitchen window. Initially I thought it was a gunshot. It turns out though, my neighbor, who was kind enough to fix my riding lawnmower, was testing it across the lane down by his neighbors house (we're talking a good 200 feet away). He saw a mound of weeds and thought it could use some cutting... turns out it was hiding a collection of rocks.
You guessed it, that lawnmower shot one of those rocks from down the block, somehow through 2 bushes and our kitchen window.
What a crazy weekend.
Oh, by the way, my motivation has return and we'll be attempting to fix the pool starting tomorrow. This means removing the remaining water. Hope we get this done before fall.
Draining the Pool
July 30th, 2007
We actually started draining the pool Friday evening. Saturday we moped around depressed about our discovery. Sunday we rolled up our sleeves and decided we should take care of the domestic neglect we placed upon our house for the past 4 weeks. We cleaned up the yard and the inside of the house.Today, we sucked more water from the pool in preparation for our repairs. We all climbed into the pool as the remaining water drained, perhaps if only to say we all used it once this season.
We also went to Lowe's and bought a bunch more pavers to place under the sections where the wall popped out. We also bought some rubber weather stripping so we can make a giant squeegee and get all the water out before we take apart the top rails and pull the liner from the bead hooks.
Our customer service reps at the company we bought the pool from apparently are playing the game of "take the money and run". Still no word back.
The Empty Pool
July 31st, 2007
Well, we had to buy (a lot of purchasing going on here) a pump to suck out the remaining few gallons of water.
Tomorrow we may not do anything because there's a chance of storms. Translation: Thursday we're probably going to be sucking out more water.
Oh well... so goes it.
Tomorrow we may not do anything because there's a chance of storms. Translation: Thursday we're probably going to be sucking out more water.
Oh well... so goes it.
Day Off
August 1st, 2007
Today we were expecting some rain, so we decided that we'd take the day off.
Probably a good thing for our sanity.
Be back tomorrow.
Probably a good thing for our sanity.
Be back tomorrow.
Taking off the Top Rails
August 2nd, 2007
We took the top rails off today in preparation of tomorrow's rail fixing. I was definitely not looking forward to it. Placing New Pavers
August 3rd, 2007
I figured I should take the day off work. We were expecting some heavier rain fall this evening so everything needed to be done before we got dumped on.We removed the liner, exposed the happy bottom. Pulled the happy bottom back, moved the sand and dug beneath the rails so we could slide pavers under the rails.
It was a lot of work, but we finished it with about 1.5 hours to spare before the rain hit us hard.
As a side note, I spoke with the customer service guy at the manufacturer's. Initially, he wasn't there, but he did call back, and I spoke to him for probably half an hour about my situation. It always came back to things needing to be level (which we know they were) and the rails needing to sit on a solid surface. Obvious the rails were not sitting on a solid surface, hence, the pavers. So how did we end up there? Well, the buttresses bolt into the bottom plates, and the heads of the bolts sit beneath the bottom plates. Of course, all of our pavers were level with each other, but when we place the plates the buttresses were bolted into on the pavers, we had lift of about 1/4 of an inch. The rails were no longer on solid ground and were sagging a little bit. A very tiny bit, but evidently, enough so that the wall could pop out a bit. Unfortunately, the instructions never touched on this, and unfortunately we had noticed this and weren't sure whether it would be a problem or not, so we assumed (incorrectly) that we could just continue on. Poor assumption. I did mention this issue to the customer service guy who said he would take it away and make sure that it was included in a later version of the instructions. I sure hope he does. I'm just surprised more people haven't had this problem... I guess we just weren't smart enough. Bummer.
Filling Up and De-wrinkling (again)!
August 4th, 2007
De-wrinkling was easy this time.
More Water and Some Perfectionism
August 5th, 2007
We decided we would correct some of the pavers beneath the supports that bolt into the buttresses. Some more hard work, but we figured while we were at it, we could make things more precise.Hope it was worth it!
Water Continues to Fill
August 6th, 2007
We're continuing to fill up the pool. Slowly so we can watch for bad things that might happen. I think I've become completely paranoid now.We bought some valves and PVC piping so we can drain things fairly neatly. We don't want a mud bath like the last time (and hopefully only time).
Top Rails Re-attached
August 7th, 2007
We've re-attached the top rails, added some shock to the water and are continuing our wait to fill things up. Tomorrow I'll assemble the PVC pipe and valves for our pump and filter.Stay tuned...
Step 28: Attaching the pump and filter
August 8th, 2007
Let's back track a little now that we're kind of on track again.Draining the pool made me realize we needed to have some kind of valve system that would ease the draining process. We went to Lowes (again) and bought some PVC pipes, valves and connectors.
I created a "Y" input to the pump with both sections of the "Y" valved. One section would connect from the skimmer, the other would have an attachment (flexible hose or a long pipe I could place over the wall) to suck out water that sits below the skimmer and jet.
The back of the filter has an output, so I attached a valved pipe there, so I could attach a drainage hose when I needed to lower the water level.
I also placed a valve on the return hose, so I could turn it off when I was discharging to the storm sewers (I used 2 50ft 2" rubber hoses). I plan on piping underground out to the side walk where I can attach something to divert it to the street (next years project).
Step 29: Building a deck around the pool
August 10th, 2007
Well, this is probably (ok, maybe) going to be next years Lens. My motivation at the moment is fairly limited, but we still needed a means of getting into the pool, so I built a mini-deck and attached our ladder to it.Hmm... for some reason I don't look to enthusiastic...
By the way...!
September 22nd, 2007
So it's been over a month since I made any kind of posting. I'm not sure if anyone is following this, or if it's been more of a quick read and on to the next thing, or if people come across this and just move on. Either way, we did actually use the pool. In fact, we tried to use it as often as we could before the weather got to cold.Now it's too cold, we haven't winterized the pool yet, but will do so next weekend. We had a bit of a warm spell over the past few days. Though we know we wouldn't be able to, I guess we had small hopes that we might be able to use it again.
Anyhow, here's a picture of us in it.
Shutting Down
September 29th, 2007
Well, it's time for us to winterize. I've built the piping to suck the water out to somewhere below the pump return. We'll see how that turns out tomorrow.
One wouldn't think it would take too long to winterize, but I won't be surprised if we spend most of tomorrow getting that done. I'll post some pictures as well.
As a side note, I think some where in all of this banter I mentioned that I think our house is possessed. Well, today, our water heater burst and started to leak. Fortunately we caught it shortly after it happened and managed to drain it and shut off all the water into the water heater.
The way everything is plumbed in this house caused us to shut down water completely. Trying to stay positive, my project this evening was going to be cleaning up more of the basement. I figure the house was being kind and decided to blow the water heater when I was going to clean up anyhow. :)
Anyhoo... stay tuned till tomorrow and hopefully I'll be able to say the pool is closed for the winter.
One wouldn't think it would take too long to winterize, but I won't be surprised if we spend most of tomorrow getting that done. I'll post some pictures as well.
As a side note, I think some where in all of this banter I mentioned that I think our house is possessed. Well, today, our water heater burst and started to leak. Fortunately we caught it shortly after it happened and managed to drain it and shut off all the water into the water heater.
The way everything is plumbed in this house caused us to shut down water completely. Trying to stay positive, my project this evening was going to be cleaning up more of the basement. I figure the house was being kind and decided to blow the water heater when I was going to clean up anyhow. :)
Anyhoo... stay tuned till tomorrow and hopefully I'll be able to say the pool is closed for the winter.
Shutting Down (cont...)
September 30th, 2007
We cleaned the pool (again), dumped in the chemicals, drained the pool, placed the cover on with the giant blow up pillow underneath. Hung some water bags from the cover to keep it on. Disassembled the pump and pipes with 10 minutes to spare.
That is, 10 minutes before we were annihilated by a severe thunderstorm. As the wind blew and thunder clapped, we watched in prayer that our cover would stay on. I'm happy to announce that it did. The giant pillow underneath, however, shifted all over the place and in the end was at a 90 degree angle from where it started.
But, I have to say, I'm satisfied.
No more stress until next year!
Stay safe and I'll let you all know how the 1st opening goes.
That is, 10 minutes before we were annihilated by a severe thunderstorm. As the wind blew and thunder clapped, we watched in prayer that our cover would stay on. I'm happy to announce that it did. The giant pillow underneath, however, shifted all over the place and in the end was at a 90 degree angle from where it started.
But, I have to say, I'm satisfied.
No more stress until next year!
Stay safe and I'll let you all know how the 1st opening goes.
The Full Picture Collection
June 12th, 2007 to Present
This is a collection of most of the pictures we took putting our pool together.
curated content from Flickr
Opening up...!!!
May 19th, 2008
Well, we made it through the winter with "ZERO" issues! Friday evening we pulled the cover off the pool. Over the weekend we reconnected the pump and filled her up to the rim. Today we put the chemicals in, the pump is a-pumping! We are cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to enjoy the pool this year with minimal stress (well, at least compared to the stress level last year, this year shouldn't be all that bad :).
Reader Feedback
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- BobSteen BobSteen Apr 26, 2008 @ 3:43 pm
- Hold the presses! The fabric and pea gravel are for around the pool. The only thing between the liner and the ground should be sand. You won't have to worry about grass growing under the liner, there's no way it can. When the pool is up, lay some weed fabric around the pool and cover it with pea gravel for a nice landscaping effect.
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- yardmom53 yardmom53 Apr 24, 2008 @ 9:26 pm
- Thanks for the help. Does the weed fabric and the pea gravel go under the sand? Seems like the pea gravel would damage the liner.
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- BobSteen BobSteen Apr 15, 2008 @ 9:50 pm
- Hi Yardmom53, we didn't apply any weedkiller to the ground, in fact, we were told not use any sort of chemicals around the pool to avoid possible corrosion. After we put the pull up, we lay down the black weed prevention fabric and covered with pee gravel, with a brick border. I think there are some pictures in the album...
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- yardmom53 yardmom53 Apr 13, 2008 @ 11:13 pm
- Hi! We are in the process of putting up our above ground pool. It is all dug out and level. What did you do to keep the weeds and grass from coming back up? Did you apply weed killer? Thanks for your help!
Perrie
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- SquidooGal SquidooGal Mar 24, 2008 @ 12:53 pm
- The information you provided here is priceless. There are so many people who decide to get an above ground swimming pool but do not know how to prep for it. I just gave you 5 stars! Good job!
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Just so I can see where everyone is coming from!
by BobSteen
My wife and I decided we wanted an above ground pool and would do the installation our selves... maybe we were a little crazy, but you can read all ab... (more)
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