Can I fix a wrinkle in my inground liner myself?

[camillian]

I have a wrinkle in the bottom of my shallow end that is about 6 feet long and about 1 inch high, It is only about 18 inches from the side and should be easy to pull out. The only thing is I am afraid of removing the water from the pool in fear of my liner falling off the walls. Is there a detailed how to anywhere on this site?

Thanks

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP.

How old is the liner?

You can approach it two ways, both of which have risks. Do these at your own risk only if you feel comfortable trying them.

The easy way is to take a toilet plunger and grab the liner and drag the wrinkle out. You risk tearing the liner if not careful if the liner has any age to it.

The other way is to drop the water level until it just covers the bottom of the pool in the shallow end. You shouldn't have any liner problems as long as some water remains in the shallow end.

 

[camillian]

Hi and Thanks for the Welcome

My pool will be two years old in September, except for some color fading my liner is in great shape, Do you think a plunger will grab and pull the liner?

 

[waste]

Welcome to TFP!!

With a 2 year old liner this shouldn't be very difficult However, you mention fading which is a good indication of a little chemical abuse (the liner shouldn't have faded in 2 years :? ) which may mean that some of the liner's elasticity is gone Any chance of posting some test results?

John pretty much covered the options Once we know test results we can better advise you on whether or not to drain any water (we'll also need test results on the water you would use to refill the pool). Even if you use the plunger, it goes easier if there's a little less water in the pool

 

[camillian]

I had my water tested a few days ago, my Alkalinity was a little high at 150 and my PH was also high at 8.4, my FC was at 2.0 and my stabilizer at 40. I added about half a gallon of muratic acid and my alkalinity and ph have come down.

My liner is a deep blue pebble color, I was warned from a few friends that the darker blue liners tend to show more fading. it tends to have a repetitive fading pattern on the pool bottom, the walls still seem to be pretty dark.

Thanks

 

[Vistal]

If you have a wrinkle in the pool that may be a indication of a more serious problem like a leak. i would make sure you have no leaks Or since it s a inground nothing is getting in from behind the wall like in between the concrete and the pool wall .i would make sure the concrete is well sealed and all cracks are filled with self leveling sealant .I think it cost me 100$ to fix mine . If you have separation in the deck and pool there is a Foam tube and self leveling sealant at the home improvement store.

 

[camillian]

No no, I got this wrinkle over the winter from ground water. I lifted the winter cover to find my liner floating, I have a bed of rock around the foot of the pool and a 10 inch round pipe which leads from the bed of rock to the surface. I put a pump in and drained the water but my liner didnt set in place 100%, unfortuneatley since the pump was working for about a day I let the pump drain when I wasn't around and the wrinkle took place.

 

[camillian]

ok i tried using the plunger with the pool full and the liner wouldnt even budge, I am now emptying some of the water.

 

[duraleigh]

Just a thought....since you already have a wellpoint in place to drain the surrounding ground water, perhaps you could wait until the liner floats again and then drain carefully and gently lower the liner back in place.

 

[camillian]

I thought of that but worried about what some have said about the vinyl liners having a memory and the longer a wrinkle is left the worse. My Liner has obviuosly stretched to compensate for the wrinkle as it still fits nicely all around the pool wall and floor. My pool builder has been delaying coming out since May, first when they opened the pool the guys said dont worry we'll fill and open it and the boss will send someone else to dive in and vacuum out the wrinkle very easy in a few days. Then when I called the pool builder he said they would wait until the weather warms up and now they are swamped with work and are telling me next week and next week over and over again. Now the guy on the phone said they will drain it as you can't really vacuum out a wrinkle. So I'm kind of fed up of the run around and seeing it, thats why I want to try to remove it myself

 

[waste]

OK, plunger didn't work... the liner had floated ... probably no chemical abuse.

Any issues with the fill water? If not, let's go for this If I were doing this on my own pool, I'd take the water down ~ 6" and try the plunger again. If that didn't work, I'd take the water down to ~3" in the shallow end and either try the plunger or just get in there and work the wrinkle out with my hands. 3" in the shallow end is enough to keep the rest of the liner 'set' while still allowing you to 'roll' the wrinkle to the wall (this won't work on a chemically abused or too old liner!)

Good luck with this :!:

 

[camillian]

Wow, I have the water down to only 9 inches from bottom in the shallow end and I still cant move it with a plunger. I will go to about 3 inches from bottom as suggested but I'm starting to get nervous about my liner losing its position as the water level drops more and more. So far it is staying in place.

 

[waste]

It's only the bottom ~2" you need to worry about

As long as the floor stays 'set' the rest will readily go back into place (keeping in mind the age and chemical abuse)

I'm off tomorrow, so should be logged on by 11:00 eastern - if you need some help, just ask and I'll try to tell you the technique :-D

 

[camillian]

Hi Guys,

Sorry I didn't reply sooner but we were up at a friends cottage this past week.

Anyway I emptied the pool to about 5 inches in the shallow end and was able to roll out the wrinkle to the side by hand. Just a note that even with only about 4 to 5 inches of water I wasnt able to do it with a plunger. I then refilled the pool added 5 bags of salt and half a gallon of muratic acid. I am going out to by a test kit today as I know the test strips are very inacurate, but in the mean time they are showing that everything is bang on. I just need to add a bit more salt because my level is 2800ppm

Thanks for all your help :lol:

 

[waste]

VERY glad you were able to 'roll' the wrinkle out

Thank you for the update!

Now go enjoy that pool

 

[Paul_A/V]

Welcome to TFP.

How old is the liner?

You can approach it two ways, both of which have risks. Do these at your own risk only if you feel comfortable trying them.

The easy way is to take a toilet plunger and grab the liner and drag the wrinkle out. You risk tearing the liner if not careful if the liner has any age to it.

The other way is to drop the water level until it just covers the bottom of the pool in the shallow end. You shouldn't have any liner problems as long as some water remains in the shallow end.

I drained 2/3 of my pool this spring to perform some maintenance. Wrinkles immediately showed up in the shallow corner opposite my builtin stairs. I found John's post and tried the plunger. It worked. Thank you John!