Gorilla Pads are pre-cut floor pads designed to protect and cushion the bottom of above ground pools. Unlike old pool foam padding, which can be easily be cut or pierced by grass, roots, or rocks under your above ground pool liner, Gorilla Bottom pool floor padding is impervious to almost any sharp object.
Concrete is probably the best option since it is usually 100% level and smooth. Also, grass can't grow through concrete and animals and bugs can't damage or burrow through it either. Grass or dirt is also another great option, as long as it has been properly leveled and you've killed off the grass first.
Yes! It is always a good idea to use padding under your liner as another layer to prevent roots, stones, or other debris from making a hole in your liner and causing a leak. There are many different kinds of padding on the market, to name a few there are: Gorilla Pad, Happy Bottom, and Foam Pad.
Above-ground pools should be placed on pool floor padding for two important reasons: Installation of padding underneath the swimming pool liner protects it from stones, roots, or other sharp debris that might cut the pool liner and cause a leak.
Pool Floor Padding
By far the best material to place under a swimming pool liner is Armor Shield or Gorilla Pad. These materials are breathable allowing moisture to escape and are extremely tough, keeping insects and moles from coming through and piercing the vinyl pool liner.
The crazy thing about nutgrass is the fantastic strength and tenacity in the tiny weed – it can push up through asphalt, concrete, and yes – pool liners. Nutgrass can grow underneath the pool, and push up through your liner, puncturing holes in the vinyl, and looking like tiny blades of seagrass.
The durable Rhino Pad® is a pool pad designed to keep an even, flat, protective surface on your pool floor below the liner. The Rhino Pad® acts as a vapor barrier to keep water away from your pool's metal components, minimizing corrosion.
The pool area must be level before installation of an above ground pool and Gorilla pad. This requires the area to be excavated and any debris to be removed from the area to create a level surface. Some pool users then add a 2-inch layer of swimming pool sand. This layer of sand adds an additional layer of protection.
For your pool's base, you want sand that's very fine and free of any rocks or pebbles. This type of sand is referred to as mason sand, masonry sand, or sometimes mortar sand. While mason sand is the most popular choice, another option is concrete sand.
As long as it's flat and level, a concrete pad is a perfect base for an above-ground pool. If you don't have the budget or space for a built-in pool, an above-ground model is a great alternative.
Many wonder though if above ground pools are exclusively used over grass, sand, or soil only and if installing it over concrete is impossible (for fear of it getting punctured). The good news is, yes, you can install your above ground pool on concrete if a sand or soil base is not possible.
Cement-lined pools are also an alternative to Vinyl and other pool liners. Any pool liner installation company that constructs such pools has to make a hole in the ground and prepare a cement mixture before pouring it into the hole.
The typical lifespan of a vinyl liner is anywhere from 15-20 years and where your liner falls in that range depends, most crucially, upon your proper maintenance of the pool's chemistry.
Can you put a new vinyl pool liner over an old one? We do not recommend that you leave your old pool liner in your above ground swimming pool when replacing the liner. It may seem like an extra layer of protection, but in reality, it will create more problems for you.
For a rectangular pool that's 18 feet long by 9 feet wide, you'd need at least 1 cubic yard of sand for your base.
The recommended type is No. 20 grade silica sand, with specification of 0.45 to 0.85mm (0.018 to 0.033 inches) with a Uniformity Coefficient less than 1.75. Too fine of a grade of sand will clog too quickly, and too soft of a sand will break up and also cause clogging.
Regarding this, “50 lb bag of sand cover how much area?”, generally a typical 50 lb bag of sand yields 0.5 cubic feet that will cover 3 square feet area for standard 2 inch depth for excavation and backfills, for 1 inch depth, it will cover 6 square feet, for 3 inch depth, it will cover 2 square feet and for 4 inch ...