Hello there,

I bought a house with an in ground pool 6 months ago and only recently discovered that one of the screws was missing from the skimmer face plate. Seeing this as a potential leak source and an easy fix (or so I thought), I went and bought stainless-steel screws and proceeded to plug it only to discover that the screw was not going in. After several attempts, I finally decided to drop the water level and remove the face plate in order to inspect what was preventing the screw from going through. To my surprise, I noticed that there was already a screw in that same hole with its head broken off just as you had described. Not knowing how to remove the headless screw, I simply patched the screw hole using a vinyl repair kit and re-attached the face plate. I proceeded to tighten the screws when the head came apart from one of the screws; it was also broken off and was glued in place with silicone in order to hide the problem (sounds familiar?). Also, some of the other screws don't tighten anymore and just keep spinning. And did I also mention that there is no gasket behind the face plate? Is this normal?
So now I have a skimmer plate with 2 broken screws, no gasket and a few spinning screws.Obviously, this needs to be fixed however seeing that the summer is almost over, is it safe to leave it for the next season? And how would I go about removing the broken screws and fixing the spinning screws without having to call a professional? I though about using vise grips to remove the headless screws but one of them is too deep to grab.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Jimmy N.
Laval, QC
Canada

You can go the hardware store and get a tool that will allow you to back out headless screws. For the screws that are simply spinning, remove the others, and they will be likely to come right out as well. I would have checked the skimmer plate for a leak prior to beginning work. Doe sit leak? Have you been losing water? Be careful not to over tighten the screws, this is what causes them to spin.