-Do It Yourself Pool Build-Basic Inground vinyl liner

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C

crazyDIYpool

Active member
Aug 2, 2022
27
PA
Pool Size
19500
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
My husband and I are installing an inground vinyl lined pool. Any suggestions/tips welcomed. I am not a particularly handy person but I am a project manager in real life.

We have purchased an on ground pool kit 18x36 (cardinal pools). With the 8 foot walk in stairs. Did inventory of everything we purchased and we are only missing the pump (I think) and it is on its way. Have our permits.

Here's the plan
Excavator comes Sat/Sun the 6/7
We begin assembling pool walls. After walls assembled we pour the ring of concrete around the outside. Scheduled for 8/12.
On 8/13 the pool crete is being put down. Then we hope to hang the liner on 8/14.

(So put up pool walls, stairs, level etc, put on coping since that's what holds up the liner, and duct tape all seams. Also put in skimmer gasket and return gasket that needs to be in place before liner)

Next we go on vacation 8-16 to 8-21. Is it okay to leave the liner and the pool half filled with water? Or should we stop with the pool crete being placed and put the liner up once we get back?

Week of 8/21 we have the plumbing done. Have stone delivered. Put drainage around the pool while its open. We also have to bury one downspout that currently discharges right across where our new deck will go.

Monday 8/29 electrician comes.
Tuesday 8/30 inspector comes and inspects electrical work, concrete ring around pool, and plumbing

Next we backfill with stone and do additional prep work for concrete deck/patio. Excavator is doing a lot of this at the beginning of the month.

Concrete guy comes? Not sure when--I bet he doesn't want to come over labor day weekend so sometime after that.

We plan to swim in our pool once the electrical work is done (so we can plug in the pump). Any issues with doing this?

And finally I will get a fence but I haven't even called anyone about that yet. We live rurally (can't see any houses from our house) and my kids are teens so we will probably just put up an orange construction fence until we get to this step.

So what am I doing wrong/what have a forgotten. I have really enjoyed (and learned) from reading other treads--thanks!!!
 
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Welcome to TFP.

I think your vacation in the middle of the project puts all your hard work up to that point at risk if you have a big thunder cell roll through your area. The walls are not stable to resist a big windstorm until the liner is in and filled with water.
 
ajw22 said:
Welcome to TFP.

I think your vacation in the middle of the project puts all your hard work up to that point at risk if you have a big thunder cell roll through your area. The walls are not stable to resist a big windstorm until the liner is in and filled with water.
Click to expand...
Not even with the concrete footer poured around the outside?

This is anecdotal, but ours has been sitting in that stage (walls up, concrete footer poured, pool base down, no liner or water) for a couple weeks now and I haven't seen anything that looks like shifting of the walls. I haven't gone back to verify measurements at this stage either though, I'm just basing that on how the pool bottom looks. I figure if anything moves that would have to crack or pull away significantly.
 
I said it was a risk.

We have been getting some violent storms lately in the NorthEast.

But you say it is already up so carry on and get the water into the pool ASAP.
 
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Best laid plans and all that…

I am extremely patient and I expected delays. A question while we wait – – anyone have any good videos to look at about installing the stairs? It appears to me I’m going to have to build some sort of support to hold the stairs in place until we pour the concrete ring.
 
Today the guy who is going to install the gas line for my heater came to give me a quote. He gave me the name of his pool builder so I called him to see what he would say. This guy was so egotistical—I’m a crazy person thinking I can do this myself etc etc. anyway he quoted me $18,000 to assemble the pool, pour the concrete ring, do the pool Crete (labor only—I have all the material) do the plumbing and backfill. I’m still going to try and assemble it myself but I’ll keep his number in case it goes sideways.

As far as the pool Crete he did offer to do just that and put in the liner for $3,000. I have another concrete finisher who quoted installing the pool Crete for $1500. He was honest that he had never done it before but I’ve seen lots of his concrete work and it’s excellent. Plus he’s a nice person…
 
The excavator is finished and I feel he did an amazing job! We have one wall up that is plumb and level and it only took us about 2 hours. I am feeling good. But now the project halts for the week.

I also got the name of a third pool installer who is going to give me a quote for the pool Crete, liner, and plumbing. I would love to not do those items myself.
 

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Worked on the walls last night—hoping to finish today. I scheduled a concrete truck and concrete pump for Friday at 3 o’clock. Fingers crossed I don’t have to cancel on them. Our diagonals are almost perfect— A little more tweaking on those and then we need to put in the stairs. We are putting spreaders across the middle – – having trouble keeping the top of the panels from leaning in a little— Is this overkill?

Is there any harm in filling the pool with water before backfilling? Or should I backfill first? Of course it seems like the best practice would be to do both relatively quickly. So the ground can press on the water in the water can press on the ground. Maybe I will just fill it halfway before backfilling.
 
(Badly drawn schematic in next post)

For the plumbing--I cannot hire anyone to do it. So I plan to go to the plumbing store and buy the stuff and see what happens.

My pool is grecian shaped with one skimmer and two returns. I will run a line from the skimmer to the pump, then from pump to filter (at some spot I need to have a discharge hose from the filter to backwash--should this be between the pump and filter? Does it come from the filter directly?) then to the heater (I do have a check valve already for the water before it enters heater. Then from the heater--at some point the line splits into two (where should this happen) and then to the two returns. I know I need schedule 40 rigid pipe? And it should be 2 inches?
 
Why not two skimmers and three returns? One skimmer and two returns is the bare minimum.

With one skimmer if you have a problem with it your pool will be shutdown. With two skimmers you can shutdown one skimmer and still enjoy your pool.

You will have stagnant water in the far corner. I would put another return there.

Which way are your prevailing winds? Skimmers should be faced into the prevailing winds.

On a rectangular pool I would rather see the skimmers on one side and the returns on the other and the water flowing from one side to the other.
 

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