I cannot express how much I LOVE our fiberglass pool!! When we bought our home it had a very large 35 year old concrete pool (30' x 60'). After 15 years enjoying the pool (the pool was now 50 years old) we had to make big changes because the floor drain was bad. After many estimates (vinyl, gunite, fiberglass etc.),we decided on fiberglass. The old concrete pool was very hard to keep clean and it was way too big for us. We went with a San Juan fiberglass pool that is much smaller. The new pool was placed right inside the old pool and filled with stone all around. We did have to do demo work on the old pools coping & side first. We also had to put a line in to pump out if necessary because of the old pool floor underneath but in 5 years we have not had any problems. Everything was included except for the electrical work and we had our own electrician do the work for us. It included 4' of concrete surround but we increased it to 6' and added a pebble finish on top. The fiberglass is SO easy to clean and stains are not problem if you use a stain treatment at opening and closing each year and a metal treatment once a month. We have our fiberglasss 5 years now and it looks as good as the day it was put in. Each year we are amazed when we open it how clean it is. No water line marks, no algea problems,the steps are spotless and yes, the water does have a silky feel to it. We also have 2 labs who swim in it daily and other than empting the skimmer basket there is very little work. By the way, before we moved to this home we has a vinyl pool. So I have had the pleasure of taking care of all three types; vinyl, concrete, and fiberglass. Hopefully we will never move again, but.....if I had to put another pool in, it would be a fiberglass. hands down! I can't tell you enough how much we love it!

"Weeds", unwanted plants, tend to grow where more desirable plants either cannot or are too thin. This is the result of poor soil, most often. Start your redo with a good reliable soil test, your University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service offers this service very inexpensively. In addition to knowing what the soil pH is and the levels of major nutrients perhaps these simple soil tests might be of some help. 1) Soil test for organic material. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains’ too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell, to a point. Too much organic matter can be bad as well. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy. You will never be totally free of "weeds" but plants growing in a good healthy soil are better able to compete with those unwanted plants. kimmq is kimmsr

Sounds like your contractor is describing a delaminating coping section. While this does need to be fixed, and that does require replacement usually, my problem is that this should have been picked up during the estimate. Checking for delmainations of the tile and coping are basically the only things you can check for an estimate since everything else is still underwater. The coping, tile, expansion joint and interior pool surface are all connected and if any one of them is deficient it can damage the rest of them. Sounds like your contractor is giving you some decent advice, just would have been nice for you to be aware that this might be an issue back at the beginning of the project.

For what it is worth, I thought I'd circle back on what we chose to do in case it helps anyone else. We love our wood windows and I just wasn't sold on replacing them with fiberglass yet. After lots of research I found Clear Image Glass in Issaquah, WA. (not compensated for mentioning them) The majority of my windows were structurally sound, but with some foggy spots. After a thorough inspection, we decided that most just needed new sills. They are made with Alaskan Yellow Cedar (better for NW elements if choosing wood) and depending on location in house chose LOE 366 or 272. Weathervane is the original manufacturer and not in business anymore, so in the areas we were adding windows, they built custom windows to match our existing exactly. The few areas with rot were fixed. It has been almost a year and we are super pleased. We were even able to keep our existing kitchen windows! New sills were half the cost (or less, depended on window). Custom windows were higher than other bids, but was worth it. For us, we were really happy to keep wood and the charm. Here are my kitchen windows, painted with new sills.