Sand and J-hook Liner Question

by Mark
(MA)

I'm building a 27' 52" round pool and don't have enough sand. The instructions called for 2" of sand which I have with 1' pavers under each post flush with top of ground. I missed the part of burying the pavers so now the pool wall is up bolted. It is 1" too high leaving only an inch of compacted sand in the pool. To add more sand now I would have to dump outside and shovel in (too much work). Two questions about the cove, can I leave as is and will j-hook liner stretch that extra inch??? Thank you.

Hi Mark. I'm not real sure I'm following you so I will address several issues you may, or may not, be having.

If your pavers are on top of the ground, leaving a gap under the bottom rails you may need to back up and fix this problem. The pavers need to be flush with the top of the ground, not the top of the sand. With the pavers installed in this way the bottom rails are all resting on firm, solid, compacted soil. This is a must.

Your sand base should only be inside the pool wall. It should only be spread out and smoothed out after the pool wall has been installed.

At this point it does not really matter how deep the sand is. It needs to be deep enough to cover any rocks, lumps and bumps in the pool base. Two inches of sand is normally just fine for this. The sand gets spread out and smoothed and then the liner gets installed.

A J-hook liner should have no problem stretching an extra inch. They are normally on the large size anyway, so the less sand you have the better. Often times I opt to pull the j-hook liner over the wall and turn it into an overlap liner, just to make it a better fit and avoid wrinkles.

Be sure to visit this page and read all the pages about pool installation and pool liner installations. They should all be of help to you.

Above Ground Pool Site Map

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Jun 23, 2011
second part of question
by: Mark

Thanks for letting me know my liner will stretch. After realizing my mistake I tried to go back and bury pavers at same height but rocks in the ground prevented me from doing so. I then placed a paver under the center of all bottom tracks and backfilled under the rest of it. My other question I was trying to ask is does the 2" of sand in the pool have anything to do with stopping the liner from popping out the bottom because I only have 1" of sand. I do have a self sticking foam cove I will be using. I also thought of putting down 1" of foam on top of sand but didn't want to waste my money if I didn't have to Thanks

Hi. As long as you have the preformed cove you are just fine. An inch of sand is OK as long as the ground under it is very flat and smooth.


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