I'm guessing my pool is roughly 35 years old (same age as the house) and has concrete pour for walls. New liner was installed last month which in hindsight, I should have waited. Nevertheless, liner was installed and afterwards I decided to have the pool patio remodeled with pavers. At the beginning of the project I wanted to keep the cost down so the plan was to keep the old C style coping and line up the pavers flush to the coping. As the demo started, I changed my mind and now I want a bull nose style coping which requires a new track for the liner.
As the crew dug out the sand/dirt surrounding the pool preparing for the RCA base, we discovered the pressure treated wood attached to the top of the concrete base is deteriorating in several spots. Additionally, the skimmers are cracked beyond repair.
As far as the skimmers are concerned, I think I can install these myself but I don't know what problems I may run into (I can plumb pipe myself). The skimmers are not buried in concrete but rather sand. I was quoted $1600 per skimmer by the pool company that installed the liner. The existing skimmers are from Hayward and a quick search reveals they run around $250 for their wide mouth skimmer. This appears to use the same design as what I have. If so, is this as simple as new gaskets and gluing 1 pipe?
Moving onto the wood and track. The masonry crew conferred with their pool builder and gave me these options.
- Remove all existing wood , 1 piece/section at a time, install new wood along with the new track. It was suggested this may be problem because once the old wood was removed, it may be problematic to install new wood to the existing concrete.
- Remove/replace only severely damaged wood sections and install new track along the whole perimeter. They stated this option was doable because they would be laying new concrete/mortar and wire mesh over the existing wood that would adhere to the concrete walls
I received a separate estimate from another pool contractor.
Remove all existing coping - $300
Install new pressure treated wood 18x36 - $1674
Install top extrusion - $1026
Replace 2 skimmers - $3200
At this point I don't mind paying to have it done correctly. If I can save some money by installing the skimmer myself then that's a plus.
Any pool builders here give me your honest opinion?
As the crew dug out the sand/dirt surrounding the pool preparing for the RCA base, we discovered the pressure treated wood attached to the top of the concrete base is deteriorating in several spots. Additionally, the skimmers are cracked beyond repair.
As far as the skimmers are concerned, I think I can install these myself but I don't know what problems I may run into (I can plumb pipe myself). The skimmers are not buried in concrete but rather sand. I was quoted $1600 per skimmer by the pool company that installed the liner. The existing skimmers are from Hayward and a quick search reveals they run around $250 for their wide mouth skimmer. This appears to use the same design as what I have. If so, is this as simple as new gaskets and gluing 1 pipe?
Moving onto the wood and track. The masonry crew conferred with their pool builder and gave me these options.
- Remove all existing wood , 1 piece/section at a time, install new wood along with the new track. It was suggested this may be problem because once the old wood was removed, it may be problematic to install new wood to the existing concrete.
- Remove/replace only severely damaged wood sections and install new track along the whole perimeter. They stated this option was doable because they would be laying new concrete/mortar and wire mesh over the existing wood that would adhere to the concrete walls
I received a separate estimate from another pool contractor.
Remove all existing coping - $300
Install new pressure treated wood 18x36 - $1674
Install top extrusion - $1026
Replace 2 skimmers - $3200
At this point I don't mind paying to have it done correctly. If I can save some money by installing the skimmer myself then that's a plus.
Any pool builders here give me your honest opinion?
