As a new above ground pool owner, I have made a huge mistake when I winterized my pool and as a result, the skimmer cracked and needed to be replaced. I purchased a new skimmer and when I tried to remove the existing skimmer, it would not budge after removing all the screws. I called the pool store I purchased the pool from and they said that the company that installed the pool used silicone to adhere the skimmer to the pool. We have tried everything from a razor blade to knives and screw drivers to pry it off, but just get slivers of the gasket with silicone to come off. The skimmer will not budge, we even tried heating it up with a hair dryer to see if the silicone would be more pliable when hot, no such luck! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. P.s. the new skimmer does not require silicone , is this a normal practice? I guess if you never ned to replace it this is fine, but if you do need to replace it it is a real pain in the a**!!

Not knowing what we are actually dealing with unless you can post a picture using "go advanced/manage attachments", I will suggest the new tool by Dremel or the Fein Multimaster with the metal scraping blade. The Fein tool is at Untitled Document (http://www.feinus.com). The Dremel is probably at Dremel.com (http://www.Dremel.com). There is also another company making look-a-likes. The Fein doesn't come cheap, but it's a quality tool. The Dremel vibrates too much for me.

There are products like this: Ace - Ace Tree: Paint: Caulk & Sealants: Pure Silicone Caulk: McKanica® Silicone Caulk Remover Gel (0351) (http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2151183&CAWELAID=109395747)

And read this;

How to Remove Caulk in 6 Easy Steps - Popular Mechanics (http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/how_to/4213124.html)