Ladder issue for above ground pool

[The Raddish]

The ladder that the previous owners left with our pool was held together with duct tape. So my wife said we had to get a new one, and so we looked for a decent ladder at a decent price.

We decided on this one from www.intheswim.com.com. We ordered it yesterday and it was here today. Nice service from them!

Here's the problem though. It digs into the edge of the cove in the bottom of the pool, and I'm worried that it will rip a couple of holes in my nice new liner. This isn't good. I can't move the ladder any more forward than it already is due to the position on the deck.

Any brilliant suggestions? Is there some rounded off plastic attachment I can secure to the bottom of the ladder?

[BADBRAD]

Go to wal-mart and buy a bath tub mat for $5.Mine has the suction cups on the bottom so it doesn't float from under the ladder.Kids use pool all summer and mat stays in place.

[matt4x4]

With the back edge of that digging into the cove, what also happens (even if you put a bath mat under) is that a lot more pressure is exerted on a smaller spot since the weight in not evenly distributed across the entire base of the ladder.
What I would do is get a piece of plastic or wood the same width as the ladder, but not as deep as the ladder (2 feet x 6 inches?? approx), mount it under the ladder towards the front, this should give you a bit of a space where the ladder is hitting the cove. It will raise the ladder and inch or so, but should still work fine - make sure you really round the edges good - this should give you a good surface area for distributing the weight.

[sevver]

What about building the deck closer to the pool where the ladder is? I can only imagine that the deck is built away back from the top rail. Is there maybe some way that you could add on to the existing deck, maybe cantelever some 2x4 or something towards the pool, and overlap a bit of the top rail? If I were to do it I would carriage bolt the boards to the deck and route the edges, you could even use a bit of 1" plywood for that matter I suppose, stain it to match.

I think that ultimately what you need to do is move the ladder, and making the transition any different at the bottom is not an answer to a problem. Good luck.

[The Raddish]

I can't really change the deck to move the ladder forward too much without putting stress on any overhanging portion of the deck, so I'm thinking that I have two options (three if I send the ladder back).

Option 1:

I could do like Matt said and find a way to distribute the weight over the floor and cove. I've looked to see if there is some kind of molded plastic that someone has already come up with to do this, but I haven't had any luck so far. I'm not sure I want to use wood for this since it will be forever under water.



Option 2:

I could saw off the back portion of the ladder at the same angle as the cove, and round off all the edges. In addition, I could use one of those ladder mats underneath it. This would help distribute the weight throughout the ladder. Of course, this would void any warranty that comes with the ladder, but I'm not sure a warranty on a molded ladder is really that big a deal.



Barring finding something relatively quickly that I could use to put under the ladder, I'm leaning toward option 2.

[matt4x4]

If you want to get real fancy, you could use a jig saw, cut most of the back away, leaving only the flat of the bottom sticking past, then you can heat that a bit and bend it up the angle, use a solder gun to weld the seam back onto it and get a smoother edge that way. less chance of having that edge poke into anything. Just a variation of choice 2.....