Doughboy Pool with Winter Damage


(New Hampshire)

Pool Buckling

Pool Buckling

You can see from the pictures, on one half of my pool, the walls have buckled at the bottom and dropped the walls 1-2 inches from the top rails.

The pool store said it was likely from frost underneath, but also said I would have to replace the entire pool. Really?? From other posts it looks like I can drain, maybe pound out the wall and probably replace the liner.

Do you agree? Most importantly, what can I do to help prevent this from happening again. (The side of the pool under the deck was fine...) The pool is 5 years old. Thanks!!

Hi

That's my favorite model from Doughboy, one of the best pools ever made. It is sad to see it looking like that. To get a good repair job done on the wall the whole pool would need to come down. The wall could be laid out on concrete and hammered flat.

Doughboy has had problems before with the seams in that particular pattern of the 25 mil liner. It is possible the ground froze and the bottom rails rose up causing the lower damage. It is also possible that the liner leaked causing the ice to pull the wall down. The gap at the top is a good indicator that is what happened. Normal ground freezes push the wall up, leaving a kink near the bottom edge, but it does not pull the wall down.

Since I don't know how you winterize it's hard to give you tips about that, but watching the water level, and keeping it the same, is important.

When your repairs are done I would definitely start over again with a new liner. Chances are slim that the one you currently have would be re-usable.

Comments for Doughboy Pool with Winter Damage

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May 31, 2011
Taking down the wall
by: Anonymous

Thanks for the quick reply...I actually started taking the pool down, and am ready to pull the wall off the tracks...Two questions? First is there a trick to taking off the spine that connects the two ends of the wall, I'm not having any luck? Also, when I pound out the creases, is the wall strength going to be ok, or do I need to do something to reinforce where all the steel has been creased?

Hi

The last question on this page deals with the Doughboy wall bar.

Above Ground Pool FAQs

I have heard of creases near the bottom of the wall coming back, so it would not hurt to reinforce with 12 - 24 inch flat stock metal. This can be inserted into the bottom rail, inside the wall, and the top taped into place to cover any sharp edges.


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