Building my Pool from Scratch

by Judy
(Calhoun, Ga)

Last fall the side of my 24' pool burst. So being do-it-yourselfers my husband and I decided we can make it better.

We have put together sheets of 20 gauge galvanized steel for the walls. We've heard that a 24' is not always exact, will a liner work if its a few inches more or less?

I don't want a big wrinkle on the wall. Also do we need a bottom rail? We are going to use the top rail of the old pool, we're placing the new pool inside the walls of the old one (the 3/4's that's still standing and in good shape) we were going to slice the length of a garden hose and place on the bottom to prevent it from sinking. What do you think?



Hi Judy. It sounds like it would work. You could clean out the bottom as close to the tracks as possible and rest the new metal there. The cove would then hold it in place. I would not worry about the garden hose, it should not sink and the hose would make it awkward to work with and not fit as close to the old wall as it should.

The biggest problem you might have would be around the top. I have found from experience that the two pieces of metal, the new material and the old wall, will never come together as one. This can make it very difficult to fold the liner over and get the coping and rods to stay in place properly. I would suggest cutting the new metal so it fits about four inches lower than the old wall. Go around this area with a couple of layers of duck tape.

You now have a single layer of wall to fold the liner over. The only problem with this might be if the old wall is to broke down in places to hold the small amount of weight the liner puts on it. It might become necessary to rivet the two wall together in a few places to give it a little more strength.

Any 24' liner should work, the exact size is not that critical.