Serious Winter Damage This Year.

This has been the worst winter for my pool since it was erected.

To give you an idea, the mesh safety cover was SO laden with snow and ice that it stretched over a half-dozen of the spring-loaded clips. The metal ring that you hook over the fixed pin was stretched from a circular shape to a deep elliptical one, and one clip snapped off entirely. These are the covers that advertise with a baby elephant standing on them!

The straps pulled at the coping rails that liner j-hook goes into, and pulled most of the rails out of the wood, into the pool. Amazingly, the liner appears undamaged. The screws used by the installer were zinc hex-heads and they all rotted out. Luckily the P/T under them is still sound. Some of the rails have damage but it only appears to be cosmetic.

So today I began repairs. Luckily there is still a layer of ice on the water, particularly around most of the edges. Where the liner came loose it fell on the ice and not into the water--easy to recover.

My tools and hardware?
5 pounds of ceramic star-bit 2" screws, used for decking.
Makita impact driver
8 x36" quick clamps from Harbor Freight. 4 light duty, 4 heavy duty, all with padded jaws.
Miniature hair dryer, with ground-fault plug, and drop-cord going into GFCI outlet as well--VERY IMPORTANT!
Hammer
Flat-bar
Leatherman.
Portable 18v Shop Vac

The process is to clean the surface and vacuum behind the liner to get out debris.

Pull the old rusted screws out of the length of coping rail (about 6' long)

Slide the liner j-hook into the rail and slowly force it back into place, using a clamp to pull it in. Use the new ceramic screws to secure it.

Where ever the liner is not fully in the slot (or out of it completely) use a clamp to hold the liner where it's completely in. Then heat the liner with the hair dryer until it is pliant and work it into the coping slot til it hooks in.

So far, I've been able to repair the two worst coping rails, and the results are acceptable. The rest of the rails should pull into place easily. All of the coping rails will be secured with the new ceramic screws.

So that's this spring's startup project.