How long to dismantle AG pool?

Hi everyone! I'm new to the board as we just bought our first pool. Neither one of us knows anything about pools and after reading these boards, I'm completely overwhelmed and scared to death that we will be horrible pool owners (gosh, I act like we just bought a puppy or something). We bought our pool used. It is an Esther Williams pool (go ahead, be honest!) and it is 10 years old. It is a 15x30 and it has the buttresses (I think that's the right term). It has a 52" wall. I ordered a new liner which will be in tomorrow. My husband will be going over there with a friend on Saturday afternoon and is planning to dismantle it. How long should he expect this to take? The pool is fully drained (I know that's bad, but we are replacing the liner and just hoping there is no damage to the walls....it has only been empty a few days I think). It comes with a 1hp pump and a DE filter. They also have an automatic chlorinator and a light/return combo thingie. My husband is grading our lawn tomorrow night with a bobcat (he's been in the construction business for 17 years). I think we'll be taking it down 40"!!! He also will be dismantling and reassembling the pool himself (with a few friends). He doesn't seem worried about it (although *I* am). I'm super worried about the liner (beaded). I'm also worried about filling it. I think it will cost $500 to have water brought in, but I'm afraid to use our well (our well was newly dug 5 years ago, but I'm still scared). Well, sorry so long.......just wanting to know how long this should take him to get the pool down and loaded in the box truck. Thanks everyone!

I just took down a 15x30 last weekend. It took about 4 hours with 3 people. Did you get the instructions with the pool. If not i would take pictures and measure how far apart the side walls are.

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Did you get the instructions with the pool. If not i would take pictures and measure how far apart the side walls are.

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They have no information at all on the pool, so this should be pretty interesting. Here is a picture of it
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1..._0896Small.jpg
Thanks for the tips on measuring the side walls and the pictures. We will definitely do that. I am going to try and find installation instructions online for a 15x30 Esther Williams classic oval pool. I think I should be able to find something to use as a guide, wouldn't ya think?

we are in the same situation as you we will be putting ours up this weekend. this post has some instructions in it. http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=2414

This should probably be close enough...
http://www.poolsandspasonline.com/ht...e_classic.html
Oh, and just so you know, toss the liner - meaning, don't even take it, you WILL HAVE TO BUY A NEW ONE, no if's and's or but's about it.
You should be able to dismantle the pool in half a day between 2 -3 guys, have fun rolling up the wall, that will be the hardest part - it will weigh close to 300 lbs.
If there is any rust on the wall, please sand it down in those spots and prime/recoat.
Replace any equipment that looks old and brittle like skimmer and hoses, that stuff is relatively cheap and it's better to do right away than deal with it once the pool is full.
When dismantling, be careful with the screws, you don't want to strip anything.
It may be best to bring several cordless drivers with a couple of charged batteries, those pools have a hack of a lot of screws in them

I have had a lot of experience with this pool if you have particular questions.

Think positive, you can do this:)

Dennis

Thanks everyone!! Work has started..........my husband started grading the yard tonight with a bobcat. Unfortunately, the spot that we wanted to put the pool has a big ole' stump there that we (he) found while grading and now we had to find a different location for the pool. This was not easy since our yard is small and we don't have many choices. We were trying to put the pool as close to our existing deck as possible so we could just build off that, but now it's going to be further away. Oh well. What can ya do, right? Hopefully he'll finish the ground prep tomorrow morning and then get to the people's house we bought the pool from around 1ish to start tearing down. He'd like to try to put the pool up at our house on Sunday but I think that's alot of work for one weekend! However, Sunday's weather here in Ohio looks like perfect weather to put up the pool. Partly sunny with a high of 68 degrees. I'm sure I'll have 1,000 questions here before long...........thanks again for the great links and the words of encouragement!

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Originally Posted by denanbob

I think we'll be taking it down 40"!!!

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I have an Esther Williams pool as well and am just finishing up my landscaping. Are you saying that you are sinking this pool into the ground up to 40"? So that only 12" or so is exposed?

My pool has the extruded aluminum siding and can be sunk 27" into the ground so that is what I did, and it looks great. I don't think you can sink a flexible sided pool that deep into the ground, can you? Especially since if you ever dranined it below the 40" you would have partial collapse. Maybe I read this wrong and you are grading 40" on your property.

Either case, good luck with the pool.

Pool dismantle should be relatively quick though: Pop the post caps, remove the coping, remove liner, remove bead liner receiver, remove wall, remove uprights, remove arc bottom rail, disassemble carcass. All should fit in a pickup truck. You'll want to get new gasketts for the plumbing and holes for the return valve and skimmer assembly. You'll probably want new silica sand for the filter.

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Maybe I read this wrong and you are grading 40" on your property.

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Or maybe I wrote it wrong........LOL! Yes, we had to take out 40" of ground in order to get a level 15x30 surface. So now we have an embankment basically of almost 4 feet. Picture this.............15 feet from our house is a
48" dropoff in land. Then about 3 feet in starts the pool. We are putting gravel around the pool about 18" from the wall I think. We are using railroad ties to build a retaining wall for the drop off. The top part will be landscaping only so no grass to mow up there. I hope this makes sense. Actually, here is a picture.......
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1..._0916Small.jpg