Esther Williams Bottom Rails

by Fred

I received a used 24' round Esther Williams Carousel pool. It has the extruded aluminum side wall panels. I did not get a bottom rail. New ones are very expensive, and I have been told that it is not load bearing and only required to assist with installation.

Do I need the bottom rail? Can anything else be used in its place?



Hi Fred. The bottom rails are not load bearing, and the pool should stand without them, but I would consider building it next to impossible without them. The bottom rails are a very important leveling tool. Making sure each footplate is perfectly level, and then leveling the ground between them for the bottom rail is a very important part of building a pool.

The rails also support and guide the wall as you assemble it. This would be difficult without something to hold the wall in place and keep it in a true circle.

In theory, however, a pool should stand without bottom rails, and it should hold water. The reason I know this is because Wall-Mart sold a cheap pool years ago that had no bottom rails. It was a pain in the butt to build, but once done, they did hold water. This same pool had no uprights or top rails, just a cheap wall, a liner and coping.

If you were to use something like landscape edging material and make a circle it might work. You could use blocks, the plastic edging with stakes, probably any number of things. This is not something I have done so I am just guessing it would work. It sounds to me like a lot more trouble than it's worth, I would order the new parts.