Installing Your Pool, Stage 4: Standing The Wall

Where you are: your base is level and firm, and your bottom track is laid in a true circle. If you are not there yet, go back to stage three.

What you will have finished with: your pool wall standing in a complete circle, seam bolted, stabilizers on, and grounded.

This is the stage people ask us about most, and there is a reason. Up to now you have been working on the ground with small parts. Now you are handling one continuous sheet of steel that is anywhere from 24 to 94 feet long depending on your pool, and it arrives as a heavy roll under tension.

Here is the reassuring part, and it is true: this stage is short. On a well-prepared site with enough people, standing the wall takes well under an hour. Almost everything that makes it difficult is decided before you unroll anything.

So this post is mostly about preparation.

Pick your day carefully

Two conditions matter, and one of them is non-negotiable.

Wind is the real hazard in this stage. A partially unrolled pool wall is a very large, very light sail attached to nothing. A gust can move it, and the edges are sharp. Do not attempt this stage on a windy day. Check the forecast, and if it is breezy, wait. There is no version of this job that is worth doing in wind.

Warm is better than cold. Steel is more cooperative when it is not cold, and so are the people handling it.

Get your people lined up

This is the stage that genuinely needs bodies. Our customers tell us this consistently, and the instructions themselves assume more than one person working together.

Three or four people is the comfortable number. Two is the minimum and it is harder work. One is not realistic.

The roles sort themselves out naturally:

• One person controlling the roll as it uncoils
• One person feeding the bottom edge into the track
• One or two people holding the standing wall and setting support bars

Brief everyone before you start so nobody is improvising while holding steel.

Safety, briefly and practically

Not a lecture, just the four things that matter:

Wear gloves. Rolled steel edges are sharp. This is the single most common way people get hurt on an above ground pool install, and it is entirely preventable.

Wear closed shoes, and remember you will be walking on your finished base, so flat soles.

Respect the coil. A rolled wall is under tension. Cut the banding with the roll lying flat and controlled, not standing up.

Nobody stands inside the circle unnecessarily while the wall is being unrolled and unsupported.

Before you unroll: the orientation check

This is the step that catches people out, and getting it wrong means unrolling the whole thing again.

Your wall has pre-punched holes in it for the skimmer and the pump return. Before you unroll a single foot, confirm two things:

The holes are at the top. Not the bottom. It is entirely possible to unroll a wall upside down, and you will not enjoy discovering that at the seam.

The holes are facing the right part of the yard. They need to end up where you planned to put your equipment pad, because your pump and filter connect there. Work out where the holes will land before you commit.

Stand at the bottom track, look at where your equipment will go, and picture the finished pool. Then check the roll.

Where to start

Begin inserting the wall into the bottom track in the middle of a joiner plate, not at a joint between two track sections.

This matters because the seam of your wall will end up roughly opposite where you started, and you want that seam supported by solid track rather than landing awkwardly on a joint.

The unrolling method

The instructions describe a two-person operation, and it works well:

One person uncoils the wall on a beam or a plank. Laying the roll on a board keeps it off the sand, keeps it clean, and lets it turn smoothly as it feeds out.

The second person inserts the bottom edge into the track as it comes, working around the circle.

And then the rule that keeps everything upright:

Do not uncoil more than ten feet of wall before installing a support bar.

Support bars are the temporary props that hold the standing wall while you work. Ten feet is the maximum unsupported span, and it is worth treating as a hard limit rather than a suggestion. An unsupported run of steel wall will fold over, and a folded wall can crease permanently.

If you are short on support bars, extra people work as substitutes. Somebody standing and holding a section is doing the same job.

Work steadily rather than quickly. Feed, seat, support, move on.

Wall lengths, for reference

Useful for judging how much you have left and how many support points you will need:

An 18 foot pool has a 56 foot wall, which means at least six support points on the way round.

If the ends do not meet

This happens, and it is usually fixable without drama.

If they are out by a small amount, gently push the wall in or out around the circle to redistribute. A wall sitting slightly too far out in places uses up length that you need at the seam. This is normally enough.

If that does not work, the instructions are direct about the answer: roll the wall back up, realign the grooves, and uncoil it once more. That is genuinely the fix, and it is less painful than it sounds because you have already done it once and know how it goes.

If the gap is substantial, the problem is almost certainly your circle rather than your wall. Go back and check the radius of your bottom track, measured to the centre of the track cavity. This is exactly why stage three matters so much.

Do not force a wall that does not want to meet. Forcing it puts a permanent stress into the structure at the seam.

Joining the seam

Two details here, and both matter.

Which way round. The end of the wall that is reinforced by a fold goes inside the circle, facing where the liner will be. The other end faces outward. Getting this backwards leaves a raw edge facing your liner, which is a puncture risk.

Then bolt it, working through the pre-punched holes.

The torque warning

This is the most important single instruction in this stage, and it comes with an explicit warning in the paperwork:

The warning box in your assembly instructions reads, word for word:

Do not use an impact gun for the wall screws. Maximum clamping force of 60 in pounds to a maximum of 85 in pounds.

That phrasing is a little awkward, so here is the practical reading: 85 inch pounds is the ceiling, and you should not go above it.

Eighty-five inch pounds is not much force. An impact gun will blow straight past it without you noticing, which is exactly why the warning exists. Over-tightened fasteners in thin steel strip the material, deform the wall around the hole, and create a weak point in the one place the pool is joined to itself.

Use a hand driver, or a torque screwdriver if you have one. This is a job where slightly under is far better than over.

Stabilisers on the joint

Once the wall joint is screwed together, install the round stabilisers on top of the seam.

These hold the top edge of the wall in shape at the point where it is joined, which is where it most wants to move.

Grounding the wall

This is a code requirement, not an optional extra.

The instructions specify grounding the second wall bolt from the top of the wall seam, using a 6 gauge terminal and 6 gauge copper ground wire, connected to a 36 inch grounding rod driven at least 36 inches away from the pool perimeter.

Two things to say about this:

Requirements vary by jurisdiction. Your local electrical code is the authority, and bonding rules for pools are more involved than a single ground wire in many areas.

Have a licensed electrician handle the electrical side. Fitting a terminal to a bolt is within reach of most homeowners, but the overall bonding and grounding scheme for a pool is genuinely electrician territory, and it is one of the things an inspector will look at.

What good looks like

Before you move on:

• The wall stands in a complete, even circle with no flat spots or bulges
• It is fully seated in the bottom track all the way round, with no section riding up
• The seam is bolted, with the folded end facing inward
• Fasteners are firm but not over-tightened
• Round stabilisers are on the joint
• The skimmer and return holes are at the top, facing your equipment pad
• The grounding connection is made at the correct bolt
• Support bars are still holding it while you work

Leave the support bars in place. The wall stays supported until the uprights go on in stage five. Do not remove them at the end of today because it looks finished.

Before you move on

• Calm, windless day chosen
• Three or four people available
• Gloves on, flat closed shoes
• Skimmer and return holes confirmed at the top, facing the equipment pad
• Started at the middle of a joiner plate
• Roll uncoiled on a beam or plank
• Support bar set at least every ten feet
• Bottom edge fully seated in the track all the way round
• Folded end of the seam facing inside
• Seam bolted by hand, no impact gun, not over 85 inch pounds
• Round stabilisers fitted on the joint
• Grounding connected at the second bolt from the top of the seam
• Support bars left in place

The short version

• Do not do this on a windy day. That is the real hazard in this stage.
• Get three or four people. This is the stage that needs them.
• Gloves, always. Rolled steel edges are sharp.
• Check the skimmer and return holes are at the top and facing your equipment pad before you unroll anything.
• Start in the middle of a joiner plate.
• One person uncoils on a plank, one feeds the wall into the track.
• Never unroll more than ten feet without setting a support bar.
• If the ends do not meet, redistribute gently, then re-roll and try again. Do not force it.
• The folded end of the seam goes inside, facing the liner.
• No impact gun on the wall screws. Hand tighten, and do not exceed 85 inch pounds.
• Fit the round stabilisers, ground the second bolt from the top, and leave the support bars in place.

Next in this series: the cove, finishing the sand base, and setting the uprights. With the wall standing, you go back to the ground for a stage, and it is a much calmer afternoon than this one.

Wall not meeting at the seam, or not sure your circle is right? Send us photos and your measurements through our contact page before you start forcing anything.