Success story & Lesson learned

Just finished my first new liner installation on my 24 foot round AGP. After two weeks (with some days off for rain and what not) the pool is up and running and crystal clear. I'm so proud of myself but I knew I could do it after reading through many older posts here and watching those you tube vids that now proliferate on any subject known to man.

The story behind the story is....I decided in the fall it was time for a liner replacement. I let the water go and didn't bother with a winter cover. I really screwed up (and I even knew it) by not breaking down the pump/filter combo for the winter. I kept meaning to do it before the snow flew but put it off and put it off and then we had the winter from hell. The pressure collar snapped on the filter but thankfully that was the only damage and was easily fixed. The pot lid on the pump snapped off from the expanding ice and also the strainer basket assembly cracked.

But the pump and filter were the last steps of course. Removing the old liner is a nasty, wet and dirty job. Farm it out to your children if you can. I added about 500 lbs of sand and we rented a gas powered tamper that was a bear to get in and out of the pool. The tamper was critical. I can't imagine using a manual tamper to compact the sand.

The liner was a jbead and while it took some time it was basically hang it on the pool wall and work your way around. I didn't use a vac as some sites suggested but i had little problems removing most of the wrinkles and when I started filling I spent a couple of hours in the pool working out most of the wrinkles.

No wrinkles for the most part but lots of bumply floor. i tried putting flat pieces of cardboard on the bottom of my shoes but I couldn't get them to stay effectively. I ended up just going barefoot...But I'm a big guy so naturally there were some bumps from heels and so forth.

The big challenge was installing the new skimmer. The existing screw holes and surrounding metal had rusted, especially on the bottom edge, and I was afraid I would destroy the metal while installing the new skimmer. I lightly sanded all around the hole on the inside and outside of the panel and then I painted both sides with 3 or 4 coats of rustoleum spray paint. The paint helped stiffen the metal but the best help was the new type of butterfly gasket that came with the skimmer. I just had to slip it over the existing metal hole and it held itself in place while I attached the skimmer. I was sweating that the whole time as damaging the wall so that leakage could happen was a real possibility.

The only thing I wish I did was to better level out 4 or 5 of the support columns on one side of the pool. It was about 2 inches out of level. I used 4 x 4 porcelain tiles and inserted two of those under two columns and one under another 2. In the end it looks like I should have used 3 or 4 on each support. It's still out of true but now by an inch. I can live with that.

I've read so many posts about so many pool issues here and have learned so much from both the admins and the forum members. I thought i should post my experience in hopes it might help someone else like me in the future.

The pool guy wanted $1300 for this job. I did it for under $400 including the 25 mil liner I got for $199. The rest was sand, a new skimmer, pump parts and about 12 gallons of bleach. I'm working on CYA levels now and should be up to 40 in a few days or a week. PH is perfect from the tap (how does that work) and I'm adding bleach as needed. Started by bringing the water to shock level for a couple of days and now I'm at maintenance levels going forward.

This job is easy to do if you are handy but it takes time and you should have at least one other person helping you. If you are on the fence like I was I say go for it. Like most things it's easier than you think. I'll circle back and post a pic but you guys know what a super clean pool looks like already :-)