Reconfiguration question for Waste

[bobyoe]

Heatherc asked about reconfiguring a vinyl-lined pool. Her thread was about making a pool shallower. You indicated you do several a year. Do you make them deeper? change shape? I would love to know details about what this entails. Any info, pictures, ball-park figures would be appreciated greatly!
Boby

[waste]

Bobyoe, if you have the desire and enough $$$ to back it up, you can change anything you want on your pool

The 2 things we usually change on existing pools are depth and steps.

When we change the depth it is to make the pool shallower (from an 8' diving pool to a 2 or 3 tiered sport pool ie 3.5' shallow/ entry level, a 4 - 4.5' middle level and a 5-6' "deep" level)

For adding steps to a pool with none, we will more often add 'retro-steps' (which are made of the same steel as the panels and bolt together, just like the panels and fit into one of the shallow end corners) and order the new liner to accommodate them. Sometimes, we remove a 6 or 8' panel (PITA- you have to remove a section of deck, dig it out and jackhammer out the concrete collar at the bottom) and install the new preformed fiberglass steps, repour the collar and do various voodoo to the plumbing (we have returns in all our steps).

But you want to know about deepening a pool or changing it's shape. Although I've never done it, I think I can come up with a few reasons that would make doing such more difficult and/ or expensive.

Deepening an existing liner pool would require removal of a LOT of floor material! You say that 'digging a deeper hole is a breeze with a backhoe or excavator!' however, you can't use a big machine without (very!) potentially wrecking one or more of the panels - I can only see it being done with picks and shovels, which is going to make the project cost $$$ for just the labor. Also, what if the reason that the pool is shallow is because the installer hit ledge when digging the pool and the owners didn't want to blast out the ledge? - we have a couple pools each year that were supposed to be 8' pools but because of hitting ledge, ended up being sport pools, sometimes folks just can't afford the unexpected blasting charge . Blasting couldn't be done in an existing pool because of the damage it would cause to the walls and the ground supporting them, though a long time (=$$$) with a jackhammer could solve that problem.

As for changing the shape of the pool, the process would involve the same things that I've mentioned with adding preformed steps and deepening the pool - it can be done, but would be quite labor intensive.

I hope this gives you a decent idea of what could be involved in such a project - possible but potentially very expensive, it could well end up being cheaper to rip out the old pool and have the one you want installed If you want to post your pool specs and how you want to change them, I'll be happy to give you my opinion and suggestions!

As always, if you need me to clarify something I've said or give a little more info - all you need do is ask - waste

[bobyoe]

I get it------So it would just be cheaper to move?
Boby