Want to repair a floated and cracked pool!

I have an older built 16x32 inground pool made up of a concrete/gunite (unsure) bottom floor with a safety ledge and fiberglass wall panels. I have a reoccurring leak and a paint job that is steadily flaking off because I used the wrong paint. I want to put a liner in my pool to take care of both my issues. I'm no expert in pools, and so I need advice on what exactly to do. I understand that if my pool doesn't already have the right coping with the track, it's pointless to insert a liner. I am willing to cut my pool deck and replace my coping with the correct coping and track. At this point I'll do whatever it takes!

Also, something you all should know. My pool floated above the ground 18" in the deep end, and so I had to cut the top of the walls off to match the level of the deck. When it floated, it cracked, and that's why my pool is leaking.

Thanks for your time, advice and comments,
Jarrod

I put off answering this, to try to give myself time to come up with a 'nice' answer.

Sorry, but I've failed: a floated pool is pretty much toast.

The only way I can imagine a competent and honest contractor attempting to help you is on a "NO guarantees whatsoever; payment up front!" basis. There's just no way to know what all has gone wrong . . . and what all will CONTINUE to go wrong . . . without digging up the pool. That means, ANY repairs are just a crap-shoot, with no way to be sure they will work.

In fact, most competent and honest contractors will run away from a pool like that, as soon as you say, "I don't want to dig it up; I just want to fix it". Maybe there's some way to hang a liner in an unstable floated pool (they can gradually sink back down when filled), but I've never heard of it.

So be careful: I'm afraid you're likely to become a shyster's 'mark' if you aren't honest with yourself about the problems your pool is really facing. And if you do become a 'mark' you'll just end up wasting money, without fixing your pool.

Good luck.