Looking for someone to replace pool liner

[aylad]

I went ahead and signed a contract with the second installer above.....he made an appointment to come out the next morning, was there when he said he'd be, equipped with what he needed to do what seemed to be a hundred measurements. One thing I like is that it's an owner/operator kind of business--he doesn't take the orders and then subcontract the work out so that if there's a problem, nobody takes responsibility for it--he takes the orders and does the installation himself with a group of guys that works for him, so if there's a problem I know exactly who/how to call. When he came, he was in a new van with temporary tags, so he apparently has good credit, and I thought it was funny that when he raised the door in back to get his stuff out, it was mixed in with his son's soccer equipment, baseball bats, etc, so he's apparently a family man. Talked a lot about his kids and their activities, and turns out he knows some of the people my daughter barrel races with, so he's not some unknown person around here. It was interesting to me that he took one look at where the holes are in the liner and said it was very common for people to start having problems with the liner pulling out of the track a couple of years prior to failing, then the problem suddenly stops, then about a year later develops the first hole in the corner that gets the most direct sun. Said it usually can be patched and used for another year or so before other holes start developing.....which is EXACTLY the timeline for those events in my pool! So he at least knows something about what he's doing, which made me feel a little more confident.

I picked out the new liner, which happens to be the same company my existing liner came from, and he says he'll be ready to start on it in approximately 14 business days, barring any sudden freezes or series of stormy days, but at least I'm ahead of the springtime rush, and he says it will be about 4 days start to finish once he starts working on it. Collected 50% of the money up front, says the other 50% isn't due until after the job is finished.

Since the liner had a leak somewhere in it and I was having to refill water on a daily basis for the last couple of weeks of warm weather in the fall, I just let it drain during the winter down to the leak, and it finally stopped just below the returns. Had to blow out the lines for the first time ever, since my pool usually is functional year-round! I did very little to it all winter because I knew we were draining it, so it has a good bit of algae growing in it right now, so I won't re-use it. Besides, I'm lucky enough that the water from our tap is almost perfect chem-wise, so once it's refilled, it will just be a matter of raising my CYA again to be back to perfect. The pool is only about 2/3 full right now, so he'll pump part of the water into my backyard. Since it slopes down toward my neighbors in the back, the rest will be pumped out into the ditch in my front yard. We live in the middle of a dead-end street and the ground slopes downward in both directions, so the ditches will direct the water both ways and hopefully absorb without flooding anybody.

So...that's where we stand right now. I'll be glad to see him start working on it--he assures me that we'll be ready to swim by the middle of April, which is usually when the water is warmed up enough, so I hope it all goes as planned!

Janet