New “free” pool
Aug 6, 2009 Home Projects
Earlier this spring we got a complete free pool on freecycle. It was in pretty good shape, we just had to take it down. At the time it was still cold, in fact part of the pool was buried and was frozen into the ground! The liner had a small leak in it but didn’t matter since it was still frozen too and got destroyed.The reason “free” is in quotes is it still cost some money to install:
A new liner (duh)
Building permit
Electrical supplies ($45 GFCI breaker!!)
Spray paint for the uprights and rails
Renting tiller
Pavers to go around edge
New filter cartridge
Vermiculite for bottom
Misc. replacement hardware
Food to feed the friends who helped on set up day (Thanks Scott)
All in all, no where near the several thousand a new pool would have cost.
For others who might do this, we found the Vermiculite at Menards in the “insulation” department for insulating block walls, worked out to be cheaper than bags of sand and a whole lot lighter to handle!! It also gives a wonderful bottom. We installed the liner using a shop vac to suck it into place and have no wrinkles!! My family had several pools and I had been though setting them up before, and this method rocked!
Next thing will be to install the solar heater we also got on freecycle. I am not happy with it’s cheesy installation though and will be looking into something better. (Oh goody, another project)
You may also notice the home made solar cover roller. It was a quick project that needs some refinement (it bows real bad) When I redo it, probably season, I will try to document it as well.
