One Upright Leaning Out

by Allan
(Toronto, Canada)

I just completed installing an 18' round 52" high AGP. The pool is completely full and I noticed that the water level at one upright is about 1.5" higher than 3 uprights over.

The water level around the rest of the pool is about 3/4" lower than at that one upright. The bottom track 3 uprights over is lifted approx 1" off the ground. Is this a disaster waiting to happen or is this something manageable?

Thanks, Allan

Hi Allan.

It is probably not a disaster waiting to happen. I would keep a close eye on it for a while, just to be sure nothing is shifting or getting worse. If it is stable and stays the same, that's good.

I would also pack the bottom rails in with dirt. I would pack dirt under them and over them, this adds to the stability of the pool.

With that done, just keep an eye on it. The next time you have to drain the pool, for any other reason, fix it then.

Leaning Post on an Above Ground Pool

by Monica Milller
(Chicago, IL)

I have a post that is leaning outward. How do I fix this without taking the pool apart?

Hi Monica.

It's usually possible to correct this problem without taking the pool apart, but not with the pool full of water. Depending on the cause of the leaning post, the pool may have to be just below the halfway point or almost empty.

The most common cause of a leaning post is an out of level footplate. A low post will cause it to lean out and raising it would straighten it. For this, a nearly empty pool is required. Once the water level was down you would use a shovel under the bottom rail and raise it enough to get dirt, or a brick, under the footplate. Depending on how much you raised it you may also need to pull a couple of top rails, pull the liner back, and check the cove.

It might be possible to fix it by releasing the screws holding the rails down, pushing the post straight and using different screw holes to reattach the rails. This can usually be done with the pool about half full.

If your leaning post happens to be on the side of an oval pool, like the photo, your problem is a little more complicated. The block behind the angle brace was either set improperly or was omitted altogether.

This pool will need to be drained down to just a few inches of water. The post can then be pushed in and the block raised. This will probably cause base damage inside the pool.

The channel the angle brace attaches to extends inside the pool, under the liner. As the outside is raised the inside will be lowered causing a sand base to shift.

It is very likely the liner will need pulled back just enough to smooth the base and make sure there is no chance of the liner coming in contact with the metal pressure plates.

Pool Uprights Not Straight

by Matt
(NH)

We just finished installing a 24ft above ground pool. It says in our directions to fill with 12 inches of water and then make sure all the verticals are level. Some were off a bit, and when we tried to level them the walls began to buckle in! Any advice??

Hi Matt.

I am going to work under the assumption that when you say you leveled the verticals you meant you made them straight up and down. Forcing the verticals, or uprights, too much in any direction could easily bow a sidewall.

When an above ground pool is set up perfectly level and perfectly round you should not be having a problem with some of the uprights being straight and others not. When the first upright is set straight, and all the top rails are set in the proper screw holes, they should all remain straight.

There is a way to straighten the uprights without bowing the sidewall. You could try resetting all the uprights using different holes in the top rails. Using the correct holes in not critical, keeping the uprights straight is.

Most above ground pools have top tails that will work on several different size pools. They do this by using different screw holes. You can make use of these different holes or you can even make new one it you need to.

There is one more trick that we use occasionally. When the bottom rails fit very loosely into the foot plates, it is easy for the footplates to get bumped and moved. If some of the uprights wind up at an angle, lightly tapping the footplate with a hammer will move them over and straighten the upright.

Another cause for pool walls to be buckling is a bottom rail or two that is too high. Scraping dirt out from under them with a screw driver will allow the wall to pop back into place.

It is also possible that you are talking about the overall pool level being a problem. Measure from the top rail down to the water level in several places around the pool. All your readings should be within an inch of each other. Fixing this type of leveling problem is described on this page.

Pool Out of Level

Pool Walls not Straight and Uprights Crooked

by Pam Donnelly
(College Grove TN)

We just had our pool installed by professional installers and the walls are wavy and some of the uprights are not straight. We are going to cover most of it with a deck, but the top rail is not straight, so this will look really bad when its all finished. You can also see that on the inside of the pool where the walls are uneven, you can see the supports pushing in. All the photos I see online show very straight top rails, so wondering what the company needs to do to come out and fix this?

Hi Pam
I line all oval pool braces up against a string line on the inside of the pool and I laser level all supporting blocks. Your problem is one or the other, or maybe both.