Working on The Icky Pool

Remember The Icky Pool?

Another of the unfinished projects we got started on last week was the Icky Pool. We thought for a long time about the best way to do this and all we could come up with was that we would have to completely take it down and set it back up come spring.

We started out by taking all the posts down. The rope that was strung through the loops on the liner had dry rotted and we had no trouble at all with this part.

The posts came out relatively easy.

  

Next we had to try to start draining the water from it. Boy was it COLD! The pool was placed wrong in the first place and had several high spots that made draining the water out a huge chore. 

The water started draining a bit before we even had all the posts out.

                 

It started collapsing in on itself as we removed more of the posts.

Finally all the posts removed and the water just started pouring out. At first.

It stopped draining with a good bit of water left still in it.

Once we had as much water out as we could get we tried to pull the liner over to get more out. When we did we found out that it was placed directly on the ground instead of sand or anything. But on the upside it was totally dry underneath, so we're relatively sure there are no holes or leaks in the liner.

The ground beneath was very compacted.

We got it pulled a little more over. Took forever. Its super HEAVY.

That's as far as we got it.

Once we got the liner pulled as far as we could, boy was that thing HEAVY, we decided we'd have to wait and let it dry up some on it's own so this is as far as we've gotten at this point. We still have to remove a lot of debris that has collected on the bottom of the pool, clean the liner and let it dry, and then get it stored for the winter.

There's still a TON of debris to be removed.

I'm glad we couldn't figure out another way to clean it because once we got it all pulled up we found out that if we hadn't done it this way we most likely would have lost it next year due to roots growing under it. They would have penetrated the liner and cause leaks.

One of several patches of roots that were growing under the pool.

Also, by taking it down instead of attempting to keep it in place as it was we've decided that when we put it back up next year we're going to move it to the front of the house in a much better spot where we wont have to deal with it being situated under all those trees and this wont happen again.

The new spot. Just have to cut one tree and it will be perfect.

Now if I can just get up the courage to put my hands in all that ick to remove it we'll get it completely put away for the winter. Unless someone can come up with an idea of how I can remove all this gunk without using just my hands and without tearing a hole in the liner.