Winter Woes!

Well, now that the spring-like weather is upon us, I have inspected my existing 24' round pool that is 8 summers old. Where the skimmer is, the wall is buckled in, but only from the bottom of the skimmer to the top rail. Push and pull as hard as I can, I cannot pull it out. Also, (and we have begun noticing this for the last couple of summers), some roots (maybe even some very small pointy trees :) ) that are really trying to push through the bottom of the pool. In fact, at night with the pool light on, the bottom of the pool looks like the surface of the moon! My questions to you are:
1. Should we consider replacing our pool? If so, we'd like to go bigger. Size
will depend on our deck.
a. How difficult do you think it would be to modify our existing deck?
b. Should we consider a pool with a main drain? (currently don't have
one)
c. the bottom would need to be re-excavated to remove new root
growth. What, if anything, can be put down as a "base" to prevent us from ever having to re-excavate again?
d. Our current pool was purchased from a pool "superstore". I'd like to
buy smart (not that I didn't the last time, just didn't know as much..) this time. What specific brands should I look into?
e. I'm considering bromine instead of chlorine. How realistic is this as a sanitizing option for an AG pool?
2. Or is there another solution to my problems besides a new pool???
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...n/IMG_0975.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...n/IMG_0976.jpg

That looks exactly like the damage on my pool - ice damage, arggggh! We're replacing ours. It looks like you have the stainless steel panel on yours, though. It might not be so difficult to replace just that part.

Ohh, this is sooooo sad!!! :(

ElleM is correct. We have a resin pool, with the steel wall where the skimmer is located. In the event that the steel wall gets damaged, you can just replace that one part. It does mean draining and removing the liner, which is a lot of work, but cheaper than replacing the whole pool!

I thank those of you who left me with some advice. I've had three guys out to look at the pool. Consensus is that this stainless steel is a seperate piece as you can feel the two rows of hardware on either side of the panel through the liner. So, the plan is, dependent on availability, replace the panel, put in a new liner, install a maindrain, relevel the sand base and possibly put a Happy pad down, have water trucked in to save our well, and hopefully enjoy the summer. If availability of the panel is weeks to months, then we are going to try to open the pool and deal with this as a cosmetic issue for now and then deal with the above at the end of the season. Of course we won't know what's in store leak-wise until we get water above the skimmer line if we have to go that route.
We also went ahead and bought a new Waterway 22" sand filter with a 2spd. 1hp pump. We are going to place that in a new location, about 14' linear feet from the pool and hard plumb that in ourselves. Our goal with this is to reduce pump noise while floating on a quiet sunny day.
We haven't hired anyone yet or started plumbing so if you have any advice to offer, I'm open!!
Anyway, this forum is awesome! I have learned so much from everyone! Thank you.

I hate service panels, what a stupid idea. With a little common sense the skimmer and return area should last as long as the rest of the wall.

Any sheet metal shop could make a replacement panel for you at half the dealer cost. But I would not even do that. I would fill the pool up as high as you can and push that sucker back into place. Make sure the wall goes under the stabilizer rod and you should be fine.

Changing the service panel would be my second choice. After eight years it would not hurt to change the liner. At this time you could redo your base, change service panel and install a new, pretty liner. There is no reason I can see to change the whole pool. You will know for sure when the old liner is out. If rust has not ruined your wall you should be good to go. Replace liner, coping and gaskets.

If you have the money to spend, changing the pool and deck design might be an option for you.

Best of luck, Dennis

That looks like damage from frost heave to me, it may extend beyond the service panel. It looks like part of your pool is burried about 1 foot, this should not be a problem whilst changing the service panel except that you will have to excavate the outside of the panel as well as a couple of feet each way in order to access all the bolts.
If the ground is solid, the rest of the pool should stay where it is.
I'd do as Dennis suggests, try and push the thing back out first, there are several ways to go about doing that, I'd be tempted to take the top rail off, remove the skimmer, peel the liner back in that spot only (just to avoid pinching it in the squeeze), take 2 pieces of 3'x3' 5/8th plywood with 2x4's strapped across each to make them even more rigid, bolt them together with the bolts going through the skimmer opening (1 @ each corner) as well as some more along the top above the wall - this should squeeze the wall flat again without damaging anything else.
I doubt you have any liner leaks judging from your water level, and likely everything else is OK.
All this method would set you back is a couple of new gaskets for the skimmer.


All in all, it's a cosmetic issue at this point, there isn't enough water pressure that high up in the pool to create any concern.