Hole In Bottom Of Above Ground Pool Wall

by Fishdc
(NH)

I have a rust hole in the very bottom of my aluminum above ground pool wall. Our pool guy told us the pool is gone, as this is dangerous and could split open with kids in the pool and send them all gushing out over the sharp metal with the 10,000 gallons of water.

Is there a safe way to repair or should we get a new pool? He said a hole in the bottom is worse than in other spots.


Hi. It is very true that holes near the bottom of a pool wall could easily burst open at any time. This is not likely to happen with a properly repaired wall. What is more likely to happen is the repair will hold up just fine and a spot you did not repairs will burst. So examine the entire wall very carefully before deciding to make any repairs.

If your wall is just weak near the bottom reinforcing it should get you many more years out of your pool. Hardware stores sell metal coils in different widths. If you were to get about 70' of 24" flat metal and tape it to the inside of you pool wall it should be as good as new, or better.

You start by pulling back the pool cove so that the bottom rail is exposed. This flat stock metal will be inserted into the bottom track, just inside your existing wall. The top edge of the metal then gets duct taped to the side wall to cover any sharp edges. The cove gets replaced and the new liner installed. It's pretty much that easy.

Most of my career as a pool installer I was just as leery of doing any kind of wall repair. Even though I thought the idea was probably safe, there was no way I could put my name behind the job and be held responsible for it. It was much later that I started experimenting with wall repair and realized that when done properly, it's nothing to be afraid of. Done properly, the pool was not going to collapse and I was not going to get sued. I would just charge the appropriate amount of money to buy the right material and do the job right.