Watermom's New Pool Adventure

I was grumbling about this to Ben, Janet, Carl and Al. Ben suggested I post it on the forum, so here is my saga.

What a pain it is to find and buy a new AG pool. I'm in the market to replace my pool this spring. Planning to buy a 27 ft with 54 inch walls this time. (Current one is 24 ft and 48 inch.) The local pool store that I usually frequent has what appears to be a very nice pool but only offers one liner pattern as "part of their package." I don't like the pattern and the lady says that is the only liner they will put with it. So, I guess they don't get my business. There aren't really too many pool stores locally. The other one close by that I know of is more into spas than pools and they don't always come across as too knowledgeable.

I guess one option is looking and buying online. The pool store gave me the name of the guy who does their installations. We talked with him the other evening and told him we probably weren't going to buy from the store due to no liner choices, but wondered if he would be interested in doing the installation anyways. His reply was that he only did their installations, so, no, not interested. So, now I also have to find an installer.

Gee. This is fun.

Sounds like an exciting time for you! What part of the country are you in?

Watermom is in WV. I'm surprised the pool store didn't just say: "Sure we can do it, but we'll have to charge an extra fee." Around here you can't turn around without hitting SOME pool store. And where I used to work, along Rt 22 in the Greenbrook area there are about 6 pool stores, down from 8.

So, I went back into that same store this afternoon. Told her that I was not interested in buying her pool package if I had no liner choice options. She came up with 2 others but I didn't like any of them either. There was a book of sample liners on the counter. I started looking through it. I found one I really liked.

Pool store lady: "No. That is only for inground pools."
Watermom: "Will they ever custom make one out of that liner for an AG pool."
PSL: "No. They never will. It is only for inground pools.
WM: "What difference does it make if it is custom ordered for a particular size whether it is going in an AG or IG pool? It is just a piece of vinyl."
PSL: "No. It is only for an inground pool."
WM: "Well, then I guess I am not interested. I don't want to spend this much buying a liner I don't like that I will have to live with for many years."

About that time, the pool store owner arrived. Says he, "Yes, they can custom make an AG liner for you in any size you want, but it will cost you more."
WM: "If I do a custom order, will you credit me for the 'package liner' that I will not be using?"
Owner: "Yes, I will buy it back from you and just charge you the difference."

WM: "Ok. Let me write you a check."

Problem solved. He says it will take about two weeks for the liner to come in. That gives me time to call the installer man back and say that we are buying a pool from that store after all so go ahead and put me on the schedule for an installation job. It will also give me time to take down my existing deck that goes around the perimeter of my pool. Since I am buying a 27ft and currently have a 24 ft, the arc of the curve of the deck will not line up. After the new pool in installed, we'll build a new deck.

Getting anxious for swim season!

Way to horse-trade, WM! The clerk doesn't care about a lost sale, the owner does!

Those kind of sales people make me soo mad.... The first pool I was going to buy only came with one liner. The pool I decided to buy had many choices and I got an upgraded liner for $100 more. I'm excited! I can't wait to see your pics!! I will post mine too! :) Our dilemma now that we have the pool chosen is decking material.... Staining & sealing it.

Watermom, remember to take b4 & after pictures!

And in case you don't know, from the first post "Ben, Janet, Carl and Al" are myself (PoolDoc) and the other moderators, Aylad, CarlD, and Poconos.

Good going, WM! I hope the store owner has a long conversation with the clerk. Looking forward to the photo essay of your new installation adventure.

Hi Mom, The moral of this story that the pool store needs to learn is, NEVER UNDER ESTIMATE YOUR OPPONENT. They obviously didn't know who they were dealing with.

Good Job Mom!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BigTallGuy

They obviously didn't know who they were dealing with.

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That's right! Never mess with Mom!

OK. So, today is a bright sunny day despite being a little cool this morning. Supposed to be mid-50s this afternoon, so should be a pleasant afternoon for working outside to dismantle the existing deck. My deck is built to curve with the pool, but since we are replacing the 24 ft AG with a 27 ft AG, the arc of the curve won't match up with the new pool. So, today the old deck comes down. My three little golden retriever girls wanted to help ........... but, apparently nobody else thought they would be good workers, so they got left behind on the main deck beside the house with the gate shut.

Now, if I could just get that pool installer to return my phone calls! Three phone messages left with no call-backs. Not getting the warm fuzzy ..........

Called my pool store back yesterday afternoon to let them know that I still had not heard from the pool installer guy. (He is not a pool store employee, just an independent guy that they have referred many customers to in the past few years. They say he does really good work, though.) At any rate, after having called them mid-week to tell them I couldn't get a hold of this guy, they, too tried to reach him and left him a message saying either call me or call them back. He didn't return their call either. So, they gave me the name of somebody else that they use and that guy called me back about 15 minutes later and was at my house a half hour after that taking a look and giving me an estimate. So, if my pool and liner which were ordered a week ago arrive around Thurday of this week which they think will happen, then we are on the schedule for this guy to install the new pool next weekend. After working most of the day yesterday and out there again today, my old deck is almost totally dismantled.

(I'm glad they got me on the schedule so quickly. I normally get my equipment hooked up by now and start chlorinating as our weather gets warm pretty early and I don't want green water. Since I'm getting ready to dump the pool, it seems a waste to go to the trouble to hook up the equipment and start dumping bleach in but my pool is getting a slight green tinge. Hoping it doesn't get too bad by next weekend, but temps are supposed to be in upper 70s so I expect by next weekend, it will be pretty green and yucky! I have a feeling I'll end up throwing some bleach in there cuz I just can't stand to see it turn green!)

This is exciting! When I did my FantaSea, their installer guy was a bit persnickety...:)

Guess who called this afternoon? Yep --- the first guy who we've been trying for a week to get a hold of. Sorry, I tell him, we have already hired someone else since we didn't think you were interested.

I have been fighting the urge all week to go throw some bleach in my pool which is green. I have a real problem looking at it green, but it just doesn't make sense to spend the money on bleach when the pool is coming down. We are in the process of draining it by siphoning it with a hose. I thought the new one might be installed this weekend, but the weather hasn't been real cooperative and I'm not sure if the pool and liner came in yet. I called the pool store this afternoon, and they are still on their winter hours and closed on Friday, so I'll try again tomorrow.

The deck was torn down last weekend and off course the area under the deck had no grass growing. Now with all the rain, we have a nice muddy area in the yard. Of course this also means that I have muddy pups. Yuck! I have three golden retrievers, all female, a 7-yr. old and two 11-month old pups. The older one has more sense and doesn't see the mud as a playground. The puppies have NO sense and have no intentions of avoiding the mud.

When the installer was out here last weekend looking around, his initial plan was to get the ground prepped and then come back the next day and do the pool walls and liner and then the third day, cut out the skimmer and return. I told him that plan wasn't gonna work. The ground prep and the wall installation have to happen on the same day. There is no way I'll be able to keep the dogs out of the sand, etc. So, he's gonna have to work a long day and not leave a freshly prepped area just sitting there unless he wants to redo it. I know that is kind of a pain for him, but that's why I'm paying him!

For years, we have fought with our solar cover. It is a huge piece of vinyl and even cut into smaller pieces, it is still a pain. The last few years, we cut our cover into fourths and rolled each piece onto a piece of PVC pipe and then lifted each out onto the pool deck. This has certainly been better than any other way we have tried but even still, I've continued to wish for an easier way. Recently, when looking on line, I ran across something called a Solar Roller Cover Stick. I think I'm going to buy one and hope that it works as well as it appears. You can take a look at it at the following link and there is a place on that page where they have demo videos of how it works. If any of you have bought one of these, I'd love to hear your comments.

http://www.solarroller.com/products/...over-stick.htm

We cut ours in sections and fold it accordion-like when we take it off, then either stack the sections on the deck or under it. With this method of folding it's easy to put back on the water: You just push it to unfold with the net pole. It's a one person job. The solar stick looks interesting but may require two people to lift out. My deck isn't wide enough on the long sides of the oval to where this would be feasible.

I'll be waiting with bated breath to hear the results. I abandoned the pool cover I bought last season after using it only a handful of times. Total PITA to deal with, but I sure wouldn't mind having my pool 5-10 degrees warmer.

I know what you mean about it being a total PITA to fool with that huge piece of vinyl!! But, the difference it makes in keeping my pool warm is HUGE so despite it being a pain, I still use it. Especially when combined with my solar heater, there is quite a difference in my pool's water temperature. Without the solar cover on there, you basically lose at night whatever heat you picked up during the day.

Nights is when our pool loses all the heat gained during the day. We run the pump at night to take advantage of the 50% reduction in rates. The above-ground steel walls act like a heat sink when the temperatures drop at night.

Ok. So, today the old pool was taken down. I had replaced my liner about 6 years ago and at that time, there was some rust on the pool walls. They took a wire brush and knocked the rust off and then sprayed it with Rustoleum. That bought me another 6 years. Apparently, today the rust was back in the same areas as before and there were a couple of pinholes in one area of the wall. The bottom tracks and frame were still in good shape however.

After the pool was removed today, the guy used some kind of a thing to pack down my sand. Not so much for the final prepping for the floor, but more to bring the water to the surface. We have had a lot of rain lately and its gonna have to dry out some before we can install. The problem is that in Charleston, the summer forecast is the same every day -- hazy, hot and humid with a chance of an afternoon thunderstorm. (And, even though today is the first day of spring, it is summer here already. Temps in the mid 80s. We don't really get much spring around here. We go from winter, which is typically mild, to summer. Maybe a week or two of spring at most.) They are calling for quite a bit of rain this weekend, so we are hoping that a lot of it will dry out tomorrow and he'll be able to work Thursday and Friday and get it installed before the weekend.

While he was doing this, my dogs were on the deck by the house with the gate closed. I told him that his nice smooth sand that he had just packed was not going to look that way when he returned on Thursday because there is no way my dogs are going to stay out of it. He said it didn't matter. He'd just pack it down again and that today's packing was to help it dry more than to actually be prepping the ground. Five minutes after he was gone, all three of them were out there prancing over every square inch of the area where the old pool had been. So far, I haven't seen any of them digging, but that doesn't mean they won't do it later!

I also had a return call from the carpenter that we had contacted for an estimate on the new deck which will be put up after the pool is installed. We made tentative plans for him to come back Monday evening to have a look.

I'm anxious to have it all done and have my yard all put back together. Plus, with as hot as it is, if I can get the pool filled, the solar panels hooked up and the solar cover on there (after I buy a new one), then we can start getting some heat in there!

Here are some pictures. This first couple are from several years ago. In them, you can see how my pool and deck are in my yard. (Or I guess I should say "were" since right now the pool and deck have both been removed.)

From the road behind my house looking into my yard:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f...Spring-web.jpg


The next was taken from the house looking out into my backyard. Ignore the ugly white lattice "fence." Puppies like to chew pump cords, ya know!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-T...G_2196-web.jpg



This one shows the pool after the light blue liner was replaced. It was taken in 2006.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-y...G_1292-web.jpg



And, now, some pictures taken this afternoon after my pool was dismantled and removed from the yard. Notice all the pawprints in the sand. My "little girls" quickly decided they needed to play in the sandpit and they spent much of the afternoon in there. I looked outside one time and they were all asleep in a pile in the middle of it.


First is Kylie. She is 11 months old and the most mischievous of the three. She is always in the middle of any and everything that is going on. Fortunately for her, she is so cute that you can't stay mad at her for long.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-q...G_3138-web.jpg



Next, comes her sister, Malia, also 11 months old --- same litter. Malia is a little more aloof than Kylie and more reserved. She kind of just does her own thing most of the time.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-S...G_3142-web.jpg



Last but not least is our sweet Kenzie. Kenzie will be 8 in May and is the sweetest and most gentle dog we have ever had. (We've had 6 golden retrievers -- all female -- over the last 24 years.) She tolerates the puppies' nonsense pretty well and lets them crawl all over her in all their rambunctiousness. A lot of people ask us if she is the mother of these pups, and the answer is no. But, she is a good big sister to them and we love her to pieces. She is the only curly golden we have ever had. She still has all her winter hair and it is a heavy coat. But, all three are starting to shed. They need to. It was 87 degrees in Charleston today! You can also see the pool area in this pic, uh.... I mean, play arena!

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-L...G_3130-web.jpg



I just noticed that in some of the pictures, it looks like my pool is not level. That is not true. It is just the photographer who can't hold a camera straight, apparently!

Hey Watermom, that sand pad isn't looking too smooth!!! :) :)

The pups are really growing up. They're cute!

Hoping the storm system that's coming through here now doesn't make it up your way....lots of tornadoes around, and they're saying the system is moving so slowly that were in for 3 days of pretty solid rain. Glad I shocked the pool before the pump quit....

Keep us posted on your new pool progress--can't wait to see it finished!!

Jan

What sweet dogs! One of our shepherds turned 8 in January. He would LOVE to come play in your sand!

Jan,
That is the storm that is heading our way. That's why we are really hoping this will dry up tomorrow so the pool can go up Thursday and Friday before it gets here. It has only been 3 weeks since there were tornadoes flying all around this part of the country, too, which isn't the norm for these parts. This time it isn't expected to be so devastating but I think they are calling for pretty heavy rain. In a place as mountainous as WV, that means flooding! Although I don't like living on top of a mountain when it snows, when the valleys are flooding, I'm glad for my mountain. If we ever have to worry about flooding up here, then everybody better get busy building an ark!

Pool installation today! The guys were here yesterday evening dropping off lots of big cardboard boxes. So, we spent the evening and this morning puppy watching as they are pretty interested in those boxes and want to get into them. They'll have to 'supervise' from within the closed gate of the deck right outside the house. I know they aren't gonna like being cooped up on the deck all day but there is no other way. We have a couple of chains that have stakes on the end. We'll stick them in the ground and use them to give the dogs some time off the deck occasionally throughout the day.

We had that problem with a franchised pool store in my area... (I don't know if I can post the name of the store so I won't) We went in twice, & never did this man put in our finances to make this judgement... But everytime we stated and then showed him what we wanted, he told us it was either unavailable or "out of our price range"! Never did we tell this man how high we were willing to go, but he just kept pointing us over to the tiny little pools & trying to talk us into basic packages. On the third visit, we pretty much told him we weren't interested.

We took our business else & get a bigger & better package for less... ;) But now we are in the same situation as you, we want to get rid of our 24 ft round pool for a 27 ft round!! lol

Our pool is installed. We have two hoses currently filling it. It's gonna take awhile. The guys are coming back tomorrow to cut out the skimmer and return, put down some stone around the perimeter of the pool and do some cleanup. On Monday, I have a different guy coming to give me an estimate on a new deck. I'll post some pics a little later.

How exciting! Looking forward to the pictures.

Gotta love spring!

The first sign of mid 70s here in nj and my attention goes straight to the pool.

Congrats WM, the shame of the scenario at your pool store is that employee will put them out of business. The owner did the right thing.

Got an estimate for the deck a couple days ago and he will be back to start in another week or so. We usually build our own decks but decided to hire it out this time.

We were out of town over the weekend and came home to find pieces of ripped black landscaping cloth around the yard and scattered stone complements of those pups. (We had the black cloth and stone put around the outside of the pool after the pool was installed.) So, my 16 year old son cleaned up the scraps and re-positioned the stones to cover the black cloth again. I'm sure they'll try and dig again. That's what puppies do, unfortunately. I'm on spring break this week so will be home and can watch and scold when I catch them so hopefully we can put an end to this prank.

Lots of stuff falling from my trees into the pool, so hooked up the Polaris 65 to get most of it out and then threw in Wanda the Whale to get the remaining little stuff on the bottom so it looks much better. Of course, in the spring, this is repeated over and over as we have lots of flowering trees and maple trees with all their 'helicopters' all over the place. But, I don't mind because the trees in WV are beautiful.

Since it is a new fill with no CYA, I threw in some trichlor which I seldom use but now is a good time to use it as it will add chlorine and CYA at the same time. It also will drop the pH so since mine was 7.3, I also added some Borax.

Once the deck is built and the yard is back to normal, I'll get my solar panels hooked up and start getting some heat in the pool. I have to buy a new solar cover since this pool is larger than the old one. My Solar Roller Cover Stick that I ordered did come in the other day, but I haven't yet opened the box.

I haven't forgotten about more pics but want to wait until the deck is on and the yard is cleaned up first.

Deck is done, pump and filter have been relocated and now we are working on burying the PVC/hoses that will run from the pump/filter's new location to the area where my solar panels go. If we can get a few dry days, this should be finished this week. Also, still have to install the pool steps which mount on the top of the new deck. Then, I'll take some pics and post them.

I also bought a large (11.5 ft.) off-set umbrella that will shade a portion of my deck. I get tired of having to continually move my umbrella stand around the deck to account for the position of the sun. This new umbrella won't totally solve that problem, but will help for much of the day.

Anxious to swim!

How about some pics?

I can never keep my umbrella facing the way I want when I off-set it.

So far the umbrella has stayed where I position it. I looked at several different ones before I bought this one from Sears. I cleared off the deck of construction materials and hosed it off this afternoon. I'll try and get around to some pics at some point this week.

Hello Watermom-

Congrats on your pool progress. We just had installed our very first AGP and we are very excited. Anyhow, the reason I mention this is that our yard is sloped EXACTLY like yours half of our pool is dug in like yours. I just emailed my husband your retaining wall pic and he loved it and was asking if you had a finished picture. So I'm hoping you can post soon so we can get quotes. Thanks for the great idea. Maybe this is too much to ask, but do you recall what your retaining wall cost? My husband isn't a DIY kind of guy so we'll need to hire someone. Thanks in advance. -Susan

Actually, that is all there is to the wall. It only goes a portion of the way around the pool due to the lay of the land. In the picture above, it does kind of look unfinished but that is just because during the removal of the pool and deck, some of the top layer got bumped around and when that picture was taken, some of the stones had not yet been put back in place. I'll look and see if I have any other pictures that show it better. As far as cost, I have no idea. It was built years ago when my first pool was put up. Each piece is a separate block. They have a kind of lip on the bottom of each piece that catches on the one underneath so they can't slide or anything. You just stack them together. No mortar or anything. Easy to put up and pretty sturdy. Go to Lowe's or Home Depot or someplace and take a look at the blocks. I bet your hubby can do it. It is just stacking them. Nothing more than that.

Just to clarify --- my pool isn't dug in. There is a walk space between my pool and the retaining wall. I'll add some pictures to this thread this weekend to show you better. Check back on this thread.

You are going to love having a pool! Welcome and thanks for the subscription, by the way!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Watermom

For years, we have fought with our solar cover. It is a huge piece of vinyl and even cut into smaller pieces, it is still a pain. The last few years, we cut our cover into fourths and rolled each piece onto a piece of PVC pipe and then lifted each out onto the pool deck. This has certainly been better than any other way we have tried but even still, I've continued to wish for an easier way. Recently, when looking on line, I ran across something called a Solar Roller Cover Stick. I think I'm going to buy one and hope that it works as well as it appears. You can take a look at it at the following link and there is a place on that page where they have demo videos of how it works. If any of you have bought one of these, I'd love to hear your comments.

http://www.solarroller.com/products/...over-stick.htm

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I just watched the videos for the cover stick yesterday. The woman demonstrator didn't give me much confidence about the ease of the process tho. Watermom I am going to wait for your feedback after using it for awhile so do keep us posted here. Also, when your cover was cut into fourths didn't it blow off or uncover in some areas while on the water in a strong wind? I have tons of trees and debris from them and battle such all season long. While the cover and i are in the water kind of fold the cover into a burrito and fold the ends in to trap the rain and debris in and then hoist it onto my deck as fast as possible so the filthy water doesn't dump right into the pool. Sometimes there is gallons of dirty water I am attempting to hoist up. I then unroll the burrito on the deck so all the water n yuck drains thru the deck. If really bad I have to then hose down the cover and then the deck. Yesterday I saw on poolsupplies.com some plastic grommets to insert into the cover to allow water to drain freely...but then I would have debris coming out of 6 grommets and have filth draining all over the pool vs one spot of to heavy to hoist. I then have to hurriedly grab the net to snag the big stuff while the green and tiny stuff floats away and creates more mess to vac at some point. This process is the worst part about owning a pool as I can't afford an automatic pool cleaner and clean with a stick pump run vac. Please lmk how the cover in fourths worked for u or send me the link. Videos would be even better!

No videos of the cover cut into fourths. Sorry! It did NOT blow off of the pool. One thing we did do was after all the pieces were unrolled off of the PVC pipes and were on the pool, we took the empty poles and laid them across the cover in various places.

I will report back on the Solar Roller Cover Stick. I'm hoping it works really well.

I hope it does too. Thanks Watermom!

Can't wait to see pictures of the new pool and deck...Good luck with the new set up !!