Once we got the pool set up, the next item on the to do list was to fill the pool with water to two inches depth so we could smooth out the bottom. Wrinkles are no fun to walk on, they hurt your feet and they’re ugly. The two-inch fill helps the vinyl lay flat because the weight of the water presses down on it, thereby eliminating any wrinkles. If there are a few small wrinkles left, you’re supposed to just smooth them out on your own.
Sounds easy.
One teeny, tiny problem. This pool is 18 FEET across. Because of the “small wrinkle” placement once the water was in, we needed to move four inches of pool bottom from the right side to the left side. Two inches of water doesn’t sound like a lot, but you can’t just pick up the bottom and flick it to set the wrinkles free like you would a flat sheet on a bed. Water is heavy. And two inches of water, spread across an eighteen-foot-diameter circle is really heavy.
13 though he could do it by getting into the very shallow water and kicking at the wrinkles with his feet.
Uh, no.
You have to smooth out the wrinkles by getting on your hands and knees and slowly rolling the vinyl, between your fingers and thumbs, in the direction you want to go. And you manage to move an eighteen-foot long wrinkle three inches toward the goal in the space of about, oh, an hour.
At least I had help. For a full twenty minutes, 9 was down on his hands and knees, too, slowly rolling vinyl to rid us of wrinkles. Then he got distracted playing in two inches of water and I was on my own.
I was in that icy, fresh-from-the hose water smoothing out the bottom of the pool on my hands an knees for about twenty three hours. Once I was done, there were words we added a few more inches of water to weight down the bottom so it could “relax” overnight.
This is what it looked like in the morning. Not one flippin’ wrinkle. Smooth as glass, I tell you. SMOOTH. It is a sight to behold.
9:55 a.m.
11:17 a.m.
2:19 p.m.
5:47 p.m.
Come on in! The water is lovely.
And you won’t find a smoother bottom anywhere.
Yay! There it is!! Enjoy. And thanks for posting the pics. It was interesting to see it go up.
I’m so glad and I’m sure you’re equally glad that the pool is up.
Here is my non-owning backyard question: how do you get the water into the pool?
Have fun playing in the pool.
Looks like you have fun ahead!
Oh, it looks so refreshing!!!
It looks so inviting… And with the great weather we’re having today, I wish I could be in a pool like that with a book in my hand and a piña colada in the other.
LOL! I have set up pools and they are a pain! Have fun with that this summer!
Teri
oh… so jealous. Wish I was a bit closer than 2500 miles.
Ohhhh, I want one. Then again I kind like my grass. Hmmmm.
Have a blast, enjoy and stay cool! *G*