Winter Woes!

[hrsdennis]

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

[matt4x4]

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.