AG Pool Install

Not sure where to put this. There are some lessons learned at the bottom.

What follows is my experience on putting up our pool ourselves. It may be lengthy but I usually like to read about what others go through so I hope someone finds it interesting or useful. Best to learn from others mistakes.

We bought our 21’ AG Aqua Leader 2 years ago and paid to have it installed. It cost $850. They put it up in 4 hours. Last Fall, we decided to move and take our pool with us. I took it down by myself with a little help from my wife.

We moved this Spring 10 miles away (Central Illinois) and took our pool with us. The cost for installing the pool from the same person is now $1150. It seems $1000+ is the going rate in this area. Way too much in my mind. It’s not that I’m cheap, I just think people charge too much today for what you get in return. So I decided to do it myself since I watched them do it and I took it apart. I figured the hardest part is leveling the ground. So my wife and I started working.

Thursday:
I had a neighbor come in with his skid steer and level the ground and then had sand delivered.

Friday:
Started leveling the support post blocks. This actually wasn’t bad as most were level with lowest block. I just had to level the blocks themselves.

Saturday:
Started bringing some sand in. I didn’t get much done since we had baseball games all day.

Sunday:
Started after lunch (noon). Finished bringing sand in and packing with a landscape roller. Worked pretty good. Shaved the top of the sand with a 2”x6”. Set up the bottom rail and put the wall up. *NOTE* I used a variation of a method from the last install to hold up the walls. I put dog leash stakes in the ground around the pool and used cargo straps to hold the wall up. Worked great. *NOTE*

I purchased on-line the Gorilla Pad for the bottom. *NOTE* The sand wasn’t packed good enough so I was making dents everywhere. *NOTE* I also bought wall foam. After I got it rolled around the top and cut, I realized it was going to be more of a hassle than it was worth because the walls were not upright all the way around so I took it off. I installed the Sticky Cove. Now we were ready to install the liner. We bought the Caribbean overlap for the kids. I managed to get it laid out in the center so I didn’t have to do much adjusting. We started hanging the liner using the coping to hold it on. We got about half way around when we saw that the wall was popping out of the bottom rail in several places because the support blocks were not level with the others. We had to do a lot of adjusting but we got them. The wall stayed in and we got the liner up. About this time my Father-In-Law showed up so he could start putting the outside of the pool together while I was filling it up with water to start smoothing wrinkles. We finished for the day about 8pm. I filled about 6 inches then shut off the water for the night. I had 3 post that weren’t attached because of stripped screws so I didn’t want to get too much force on the wall yet.

Monday:
Made a trip to the hardware store to get some more stainless steel screws so I could finish putting the pool post caps on. (Thanks to Aqua Leader for using standard size screws) Started filling again. I set up my pump/filter. I shut the water off around 5pm because I wanted to watch the level for skimmer time. And we were going to see Superman Returns.

Tuesday(July 4th):
Started the water again. Ran the electrical before the blistering sun came out. As I was getting the skimmer ready, I realized my gaskets were old and crusty from sitting in box in storage for 5 months. All the regular pool stores were closed for the 4th of July except Great Escape (a big chain store). I called and asked if they had the gasket and they said no. I went anyway. I found one. I also picked up replacement gaskets for the return and a new backflush tube. By the afternoon, the water was high enough to install the return and skimmer. Around 7:45 as we were getting ready to go see fireworks, the water was high enough to turn on the pump. My skimmer hose had a pinhole leak. Luckily I had another hose laying around. I managed to get it replaced before we left. Now all that’s left is getting the water clear.

We use well water, so it was pretty brown. I could only see a few inches down. I just threw a couple Stingy Sticks in the skimmer and backwashed periodically.

Thursday:
I can see the bottom pretty good. I’ll vacuum tonight. Now I have to work on the deck.


Observations:

-Pack the sand really hard. Use a power tamper if possible.
-When I replace the liner someday, I may use the foam board insulation for the floor.
-Check all your parts before installing in case you need to replace something
-DON’T install your pool around a holiday/Sunday. You may need to get parts in a hurry
-Have more than 2 able bodies to help.
-In the end, I figure I saved us around $1000
-If installs were around $500, I would have paid for it
-I plan on using Bleach instead of Chlorine

Sorry for being long winded. I left out a lot of details.

I'll try to get some pics up.

Comments/questions/observations/suggestions?

You did an excellent job on the install, glad to see more people doing this themselves, it really gives you a sense of accomplishment doesn't it?

When the wall was going up, I wished I had paid somebody to do it. Once it was all together, I was glad I did it myself.

Try a 100 foot long wall for a 30 foot round pool - the thing weighed 400+ pounds! I believe that same thought went through my mind!
Guess 2 seams/2wall portions would be too much to ask for!

We thought that levelling everything and digging in/levelling the 4 buttress free side upright channels and all those blocks was the biggest PITA and would have been worth paying someone to do that. I made my DH and boys get everything within 1/4", check, recheck and check again. The Transit seemed to be attached to his face when the shovel/rake was not attached to our hands. I became the evil overseer and everyone hated to even think about pool work for that week. The wall, while HUGE, HEAVY and LONG was also a tough job, we were just so glad to get that far that we were happy to do it LOL....If, (when - we are moving into my inlaws farm in 10-15 years) we do this again, I WILL hire someone to do the work...