Pool Install Progress- sweeet progress

Wanna see what we did today?

Black 6mil plastic and the first strip of Happy Bottom.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...happystart.jpg


Happy Bottom
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...appybottom.jpg

Sides going up (after they had already fallen down once, had to get some buddies to help at this point-10 mile per hr winds)
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...e/halfwall.jpg

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...lfwallsame.jpg

Foam cove down, starting wall foam
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...oamstart-1.jpg

This Forum only allows 5 pictures per post. I am going to start another post w/ the rest of the pictures.....

Heres the rest of today's pictures:

One of our 6 daughters:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...e/veronica.jpg

Liner in!
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...inerinsame.jpg

Filling w/ water
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...e/linerin2.jpg

Top seats on
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...topseatson.jpg

Ok so there she is.
We are exteremely nervous tho. At the south side of the pool there is a ton of room between the liner and the wall. So we stopped filling for the day. Tomorrow it will be in the 80's. I hope we can reajust if needed. There was so much wind today that the wind was getting in the skimmer and return openings and blowing the liner between the liner and the wall. We thought it was going to be ok but now we are not so sure. Wish i had a picture of that....
Will see what we can do tomorrow.
Praying it doesnt crash in tonight. There is a possiblility of storms and high winds..... lovely, juuust lovely.......

So grateful for all your help,
~Hoffmans

Looks great so far....man, that thing looks monstrous...makes my little 18' round looks like a splasher pool. Great !, now I;ve got pool envy.

Great picts of the pool and love how your daughter stood near it to give an idea of its size. I'm sure the kids will love having a pool. The pool looks huge. Thanks for sharing. Kimrst

Great pics, thanks and congrats.

The part I like the best is how you used the pool framework to keep the wall from blowing over while you were installing it. It's so much easier that way.

Enjoy the pool, Dennis

How far is that from your house? Will you be putting a deck on at some point? Looks great and I am sure your family will LOVE having that pool.

With regards to the pool collapsing, these pics actually help give some idea of what you could do to avoid that next time.
At first look, I was wondering how it could possibly have pulled in, after reading some more, you'd stated the south side had a big space, this means you liner was pulled too much to one side.
You have to perfectly center the seam at the bottom so it's equal amounts from the wall all around. I had given my pool a saucer shape, this gives me 8" extra depth in the center, and allowed me to get in there and pull the slack towards the sides as it filled - something you should do too, I see your floor has a ton of slack, however, if it's all wrinkled under half a foot of water you cannot pull it anymore, you have to do it early on when you have 1-3 inches of water.
Another thing I noticed is your liner is not perfectly straight up/down, those angled folds on the walls (pic 3 - filling with water - I assume is also showing us the inside of teh south side) show me it's got a good 2-3 foot counterclockwise twist on the upper wall compared to the liner on the floor - this in itself will act as if your liner is extremely shortened on the wall.

From what I can see in pic with your daughter - you built the pool on the happy bottom, but the happy bottom extends past your pool underneath, then you hung the happy wall, then the liner - is that correct?
If so, I'd highly recommend that you build a cove in the pool, currently, your setup could potentially allow for the liner to push under the bottom of the wall (and it likely will if there is nothing blocking that bottom corner).
I'd recommend you hang vapour barrier down the wall and onto the floor, then either install pre made cove, or do what I did in my case (and am very happy with) is i built an 8" (angled portion) cove out of sand on top of the vap. barr., the barrier will stop ANY attempt at wash out or pressure pushing it out, and the cove provides an awsome transition for my vac (barracuda) to travel from floor to wall - it never gets stuck. Plus, the oversized cove allowed a nice standing/resting area for my son before he learned to swim.
I think premade cove it way too small and if the ground settles 1.5 inches under any bottom track (or you get some frost heave) it'll push right under.
Since you're backfilling, it likely won't push under if the fill is solid, however, only time will do that (about 3 winters) since you can't really compact or you'll break the pool.

Here's what I would do - first nice sunny day:

Build coves if you want to - my recommendation - but your choice.
Reason I recommend - it'll give you a littel extra material behind your liner so your liner actually has some extra slack.

Get the liner in again, perfectly center the bottom perimeter seam so it is the same distance from each inner corner.

connect the liner along the top, however, make sure you do not ger a skew in it like on that pic, the wall directly opposite where your daughter is standing is PREFECT, but it looks like someone may have been rushing or pulling too much to get the south side clipped on, maybe it needs to be stretched to fit all around, if it does, then it should be stretched lightly and EVENLY all around, not as a last resort tug during clipping the last 1/4 to 1/2 perimeter, this is what skewed your wall/floor and messed things up.

Once it's sitting in there nice and straight up/down, get the hose in, a few people should get in the pool and pull from the inside towards the walls in circles - what I did is to put a bucket of water dead center, pulled once moving clockwise all around it - moved out 6-12 inches, pulled moving counterclockwise, moved out 6-12 inches, pulled clockwise, etc etc, always changing direction, this keeps the liner as is and won't skew your floor in relationship to your walls, if you see skew lines on the walls, adjust your walls accordingly. If you're not alble to work ahead of the water, shut it off at1/2 to 1" of water until your floor is smooth and walls lined up, then keep filling and checking.

Good advice Matt. I missed that earlier that they had no cove. I would also say put one in, you won't be sorry. Use masons sand and the vapor barrier method Matt noted above with appx 2' of plastic at appx 1' up pool wall side from the floor and duct tape it there and draping 1' out on the floor - bank the masons sand up at an angle to between 8"-10" or so. We did it this way on this pool, not our old pools just had sand dumped in and packed but not evenly or nicely like this - it does make a very nice cove and helps keep it from washing out. Our cleaner can then go up the side, and nothing collects in that crease you will get in the bottom where wall meets floor because there is no 90 deg crease. You will notice that the steps and ladders, etc. are all made to accomodate the cove.

Ok I just found this post from Matt. I have been reading the Crashed In Thread.
BUT .........
We do have cove. It is Gladon Foam Cove.
We followed the Manufacture's Instructions for Installation.
1. Black Mil Plastic
2. Happy Bottom
3. Bottom rails
4. Walls.
5. Foam Cove
6. Wall Foam
7. Liner

We do not have 2" of sand or other material on the bottom tho.

The wind was blowing the liner like a kite... Serious Pain the rear.

Good advice all the way around.
Especially your PM about the liner.
Will follow your advice.

Thank You,
~Hoffmans

last post here so we don't confuse - can see how liner will keep shifting norht with teh winds pushing from south - possibly a big part of the problem. Can tape cardboard over openings to stop wind from getting in.
Although, in hindsight, I'd say you picked a bad day to do the install, the next warm sunny day will be your friend, and you'll be amazed at how easy it will all seem.