Toyman's done gone off the deep end...

I'm undecided about taking it down for the winter. We seldom see extreme cold so freezing shouldn't be a problem. On the other hand, it should last longer if stored indoors through the colder months. 

I think my tentative plan for this year is to pull it this fall, take some time over the winter to do a better job of site prep and getting things perfectly level. When I leveled everything, I didn't remove all the sod on one end. Consequently, the 70K pounds has pushed the 12X24 pads into the ground a good bit on that end. So I'm going to rent a Bobcat and dig things down a little more to get to some more stable dirt. 

I also want to dig a drain catch basin. Splash over is causing a soggy mess of the lawn. I'm thinking a French drain down both sides, to a buried catch basin and a pump to send it to the storm drain or sewer. 

As far as durability, several reviewers have had theirs up for 3-4 years without major issues. If I can get two+, I'll be happy. A replacement liner is $350. I can afford to replace it quite a few times for the cost of an in ground pool. 

I have been looking for a pool light. Assuming I couldn't install one through the side, I've been looking for something battery powered that floated. I have found a couple, and while they work, they aren't very bright. A few days ago I did a search for all pool lights and behold, Intex, the company that makes the pool, also makes a light. And it is awesome. 

The awesome part is it's a two part light. One part plugs into 110V and goes outside the pool. The other part goes in the pool and the two are held together on either side of the liner with magnets. The outside parts transmits power through the pool liner to power the inside part. 

This is last night with the floating lights. All the lights on the left are hanging on the fence.

Tonight with the new light installed.

The hose goes to the pool vacuum, which is another awesome toy Intex makes. It's self propelled and powered by the pool filter pump. It works a little like a really stupid Roomba. It drives around the bottom and sucks up any trash that has settled on the bottom. About every 20 seconds it switches from forward to reverse. No pictures of it but I'll try to remember to shoot some video tomorrow. 

So, this is where we are now. 

I needed to close up one area of the deck that had no railing. I also needed a place to store pool toys so the kids would stop dropping them everywhere. In the pile behind my shop was a old fiberglass dock box. Perfect storage. Add a couple of posts and some 5/4 for a back and presto, storage that will also keep people from falling off the deck. 

A little stratagic placement of some plants and chairs helped as well. 

Still to do is to re-plumb and remote mount the pump and salt machine. That will happen in the next week or two. 

We were inspired by your thread so we went out and bought an above ground pool today. It's 5'x10'x22" deep once inflated and was $25 at Wally World. Perfect depth for sitting and drinking beer. It fills up in about 20 minutes and the water is always nice and cold. Plus, we only put it up when we want to use it so the grass gets to live.

Seriously though, your setup has us talking about real above ground pools too.

Today I did a couple of more projects on the pool. 

We have been using a baby gate to keep the youngest (2) grandchild from trying to swim by herself. I added a couple of gates to solve that issue. 

From the porch to the deck.

Another from the steps to the deck.

Next up was killing the 8-10" gap between the pool and the deck. It was big enough I could imagine someone falling in the crack.

This is the gap in question. 

This is the fix. It doubles as a bench and reduces the gap to about 2" 

Looks like you are having a great time with the pool.

We had one for years and really enjoyed it.

Even doing the cleaning and maintenance was somewhat enjoyable because you were at the pool!

Ours was a "free" 20' round above ground. Probably had about $10k in it before I was done. Deck, outdoor shower, bathroom in the garage to keep from tracking through the house, etc. But we lived in that thing most of the summer!

Enjoy!

In reply to SaltyDog :

I've been in it every day since we put it in except yesterday. It is surprisingly good exercise and great to have on a hot day. If this one fails, there is a very good chance it will get replaced. 

We did a pool party for one of the grand kids today. 8-10 kids in the pool makes for a pretty full load. They had a blast. 

The pool survived the experience with zero issues. 

Apparently, an $800 pool lasts 3 years before the frame rusts out due to being constantly soaked with saltwater. I'm pretty happy with that. The saltwater system I used the first 2.5 summers killed all 4 corners of the frame. My fault because the pool directions say not for saltwater use. Parts are NLA or have been out of stock for 6 months. I had determined to just build new frame parts, but the liner was starting to show its age as well. 

I've been watching pool prices since mid-last summer hoping to replace it, but my $800 pool has been selling for the Covid induced price of $2500 for the last year. I considered installing a more permanent pool but with a move planned in the next few years that didn't seem like a wise choice. Several days ago Walmart dropped a sale ad for $1000, so I jumped. The freight truck delivered it 3 days early. Today's project was tearing the old pool out and installing the new one. 

This one is not going to get the saltwater treatment. I'm going to use chlorine tablets and liquid chlorine. It will be a little harder to keep up with but hopefully, that will keep the frame in one piece longer. 

Recently I read an article that made me way more informed about shipping containers than I ever wanted to be. This led me to Google shipping container pools and I found a company that builds and ships complete units but it's just a steel box that's movable so there could be a Grassroots way.