"FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com" (alphaass)
06/05/2016 at 21:00 • Filed to: POOLOPNIK
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"FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com" (alphaass)
06/05/2016 at 21:00 • Filed to: POOLOPNIK | 2
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...or reasons why the 3rd car fund currently sits at zero. Last week we had a new pool installed to replace one that was unrepairable. Long story short, the guy we were paying to treat the pool used too much chlorine and the resulting corrosion destroyed the pool frame last spring. We went without pool for a year, using the money not spent on chemicals/electricity to save for a new one. Well, the new one is here, the warm weather is back, and we had one thing left to do that the installers didn’t do for us: get the steps in - but there was a problem.
The original handrail for the wedding-cake style steps was metal and also a victim of corrosion from excessive chlorine. Finding just a replacement railing is difficult, and buying a whole stair set for $200+ seemed silly since our plastic stairs are just fine. Per recommendation of the pool store, I set out on building my own out of $20 of PVC pipe.
Used my radial arm saw to cut the pipe. I realize that I have completely the wrong blade on here, but I figured it would be fine for a few cuts. Yes, I did wear safety glasses. It smelled like awful. I’ve cut PVC on power saws before and not smelled this... maybe it was the blade or maybe it was just combining with all of the old saw dust.
The entire thing consists of 4 lengths of pipe, 2x 45-degree elbows, one 90-degree elbow and the original flanges from the stairs. The 1.5" pipe seemed to be a slightly smaller OD than the steel pipe, but it didn’t wiggle too bad and this sure beats cutting steel. Also, it shouldn’t corrode.
I used a clamp to hold the pipe and drilled pilot holes. I didn’t have any clamps made for piping, so there was lots of rolling involved, but eventually I got it clamped well enough for this quick project. (Yes I realize my shed is a mess - that may be another post later this week.)
With screws in place, I started assembling up on the pool deck. Original plan was to get half of it attached to the stairs and then put the whole thing in the pool and mate the second half to it.
I told my dog how excited I was at this point, but he was not amused.
I think he was trying to tell me that plastic steps float. So I now had the first boat in my new pool. I managed to get the flange and pipe out before they got caught on the rail.
I then took my first swim in the new pool to retrieve the steps that had floated to the other end by the time I got my trunks on and anchored them down with three 5-gallon buckets full of sand.
While all of this was going on, I was missing the “dinosaur party” in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . I don’t think it was intentional, but I though that was a pretty clever pun. In other news, after replacing both motors the battery now won’t hold a charge, so that is my next project.
At this point I just had a few more pieces of pipe to prime/cement.
And with that it was done!
Unfortunately, one of the screw holes in deck is stripped/rotted out, so I need to fill it with epoxy and re-tap a hole in it, but 2 of 3 should work OK for now. It is a little wobbly, but so was the original metal handrail. Yes the deck is looking a little rough after a year of neglect. Also the new pool doesn’t perfectly match the old one, so I may just go around with some 1x4's to finish it. But the pool is useable again. And now that the rain is gone we will probably be jumping in this week! Now hopefully by maintaining it properly ourselves I can start to build that car fund back up...
OPPOsaurus WRX
> FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
06/05/2016 at 21:40 |
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so how did u not try to get the guy who messed up your pool to replace what he damaged?
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FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
> OPPOsaurus WRX
06/05/2016 at 21:54 |
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I don’t think there was anything malicious or negligent about him. He was recommended to us after we tried and failed to keep the water clean on our own. Turns out he mainly did in-ground pools and didn’t know that the chlorine levels he was using to keep our water sparkling would eat away at the steel and vinyl of an above-ground if we didn’t do some extra maintenance to prevent it. Learning experience for me and wasn’t worth fighting a guy just trying to support his family - but I’m sure not hiring him back.