Using A Gladon Pool Cove

[Rick5150]

I have seen many responses on Google and I do no think I have seen one that really explains the situation.

Last year our pool collapsed after 16 years - that was because there was a small tear in the liner near the top. Every year we patched it and it deemed to do will once the patch was applied, but that made the inside rust right by the bolts. That is the only liner it had too! So on July 2018, the wall rusted and the pool collapsed. That was a 18 x 33 pool and the bottom had a small leak at the bottom that washed some of the cove away, but once the patch was on good, it did find for a few years.

I had a recent surgery that cost more than I care to talk about. That prevented us from getting a new pool, so we got a free pool on Craigslist. It turned out to be a Escalade 15 x 30 oval pool. It needed some work, but that did not cost too much, so we are at the point where the liner will be coming in soon. I used a rust converter in the tiny areas that had rust and put POR-15 on the areas that gave us problems last time AND that the previous owner from Craigslist had. It looked like the gaskets were leaking. So it looks perfect now - brand new. We purchased a 1/8" foam pad for the walls to make sure any imperfections are minimized.

That is the history of our new pool...

The question is we bought Gladon Styrofoam pool cove and it goes not make sense to me.

Our pool states that "Using neutral alkalinity sifted earth or fine sand without pebbles, build a 2" base over the entire pool area to protect the liner." Then they state to "Next, using sifted earth or fine sand, build a 6" to 8" pool cove inside the metal wall along the entire circumference."

The Styrofoam cove is only 3 3/4" tall, and it shows the cove fitting into the lower pool rail. They said this is to keep sand from washing away from the bottom of the pool from the outside. This means that the cove MUST be at the lower rail in the notch provided on the cove. But if we use a 2 inch tall base with the cove, that means the top of the cove would only be 1 3/4" tall. It does not make any sense.

If we put the cove on after the 2" of sand base, then water could wash away the sand under the pool, so it would defeat the purpose. I am thinking I should just return the cove and make a sand one like I did last time, but I did like the idea of added protection against washouts. I like the idea of the 6-8" sand cove because it the liner didn't have shrinkage issues.

Any ideas? Thank you!!