closing a problem pool

by Frustrated
(Columbia, TN)

We bought a house with an above ground pool and discovered that it was slowly losing water at the rate of almost an inch a day. This pool was not used last season and had a foot of algae water when we looked at the house. The previous owners cleaned and filled the pool before we moved in. We have been battling algae ever since and filling the pool every few days. We discovered several small pinholes at the bottom of the walls (where the algae seems to form first) and have decided that we will replace the liner next season. My question is how to close knowing that we will be replacing the liner and that there is a slow leak. The water level is already below the skimmer and pool has some algae. Do we need to fill and clean before adding winterizing chemicals? Unless we are checking it every few days - the algae will return no matter how much shock, algaecide and cleaning we do. I really do not want to pay for all the water just to keep it up until we fix it. What should I do?

Hi,

If the pool were mine I would put a cover over it and forget about it for the winter. The leaking will slow down the lower the water gets and it will probably still have at least a foot of water in it come spring. The cold weather will also slow down the algae growth and it will probably not look bad when you remove the cover.