Hello. My name is Sol and we just had a pool disaster. Description - 16 x 32 x 9 Grecian style pool. Hayward sand filter. We have 2 large oak trees in our back yard. We had an extremely green pool and tried a number of chemicals and spent hundreds of $$ at Leslie pools and we never got any better than a green color. We were told we needed to drain and refill it. We bought a 1 hp sump pump and proceeded to drain it... by the time we got close to the bottom (1 ft), the days were very hot and long... Our pool liner started to lift from the sides and get hard and there were tons of wrinkles... We drained it down to about 1 ft sludge at the bottom (10X16x1ft deep) - and then cleaned that up (that alone took 3 hours to clean up). We then started to refill it, (I tried to smooth out the wrinkles with out much success) and the liner started pulled up around most of the corners..... we were with in about 3' of filling the pool entirely when the liner started to tear along some of the edges around the pool. Some as big as 2 ft long and 1 ft high..and we have some water behind the liner now too!!! Ugh!!! Not sure where to go from here... I am assuming we have to drain it because we have water behind it.... Any suggestions on where to go from here and recommendation on liners, etc... Thanks, Sol.
UGH!! forgot about this site to ask?s -pool disaster --
- Thread starter sharky57
- Start date
Yeah you need to have a new liner installed. Sounds like it may have been at the end of its life or a little undersized to begin with.
What I was told- not sure it was true - is because of the extreme heat, the vinyl heats up and shrinks. I have also done some research and found some patch kits. Would those possibly work? Even if it was just for 1 season.
I couldnt say. If the tears are above the water line and I just wanted to get a season out of it I might give it a shot. I grew up with liner pool but never have tried patching one.
But heat doesnt make things shrink---quite the opposite actually. The heat (or more specifically the ultra violet rays from the Alabama sun) have likely not caused your liner to shrink but to lose elasticity and therefore tear when placed under the same stress that it handled just fine when new.
But heat doesnt make things shrink---quite the opposite actually. The heat (or more specifically the ultra violet rays from the Alabama sun) have likely not caused your liner to shrink but to lose elasticity and therefore tear when placed under the same stress that it handled just fine when new.
Think of vinyl dashboards in cars made in the late 80's and 90's. The landau tops of cadillacs and such. Very similiar material to what your pool liner is made of. Sunlight breaks it down over time and it cracks.
And as Im sure you know by now....Always talk to the expert guys and gals around here (not me--Im a noob) before taking any advice from a pool store. Duraleigh and Jasonlion, among others will not give you any bad advice or any advice that you dont need.
Odds say the liners shot. Hard to tell why it happened, but at this point your best bet is to replace it. Any photos by a chance?
sharky57 said:
After seeing those pictures I'm sure a patch kit would be like throwing good money after bad and a waste of time. Not that I know squat, mind you.
Have you obtained any quotes to know what your liner will run yet?
$1600 approx installed (lowest price). All I'd like it to do (patch kits) is maybe just last this summer. I am not familiar w any of the companies online that sell the liners. I've seen some liners running about 660 approx for my size pool. I'm also not sure about getting a 20 mil vs a 26/28 mil thickness ...
Anyone know what kind of glue/adhesive to use on this and any ideas where I can get larger pieces of vinyl bigger than 5" x 26" ? Thanks....
MikeInNH
0
Ouch, I wouldn't bother trying to salvage that. I think it will just bring frustration. Looking at how faded it is below the water line, it looks like it's had a full life. I wonder if this thread would be better off in the "Everything Else" forum that covers fixing things.
Welcome to tfp, sharky57 
I don't think you liner is salvageable. As MikeinNH said, the fading alone suggests that the liner had seen it's better days. I would guess you would have had problems even if the temps were not high, since you liner most likely was not pliable anymore. Vinyl liners should never be totally drained, we recommend at always leaving at least 1 foot of water in the shallow end so the liner does not start to shrink/wrinkle.
I don't think you liner is salvageable. As MikeinNH said, the fading alone suggests that the liner had seen it's better days. I would guess you would have had problems even if the temps were not high, since you liner most likely was not pliable anymore. Vinyl liners should never be totally drained, we recommend at always leaving at least 1 foot of water in the shallow end so the liner does not start to shrink/wrinkle.
elwood58
LifeTime Supporter
This liner is shot, and will pull apart in other areas from the stress of patching it. Once they start to go like that, they are gone.
ok so do i drain it or just leave the water as is? I dont have the $$$ to replace it now... and how difficult is it to put the liner in yourself?
I'd just leave it......let whoever installs the new liner deal with it. Unless they're going to charge you extra for the drain and removal. Then do it all yourself.
When I bought my house, the liner in my pool looked like that. The house was a foreclosure, so I was trying to see if all equipment worked before I decided if I wanted to replace the liner or get rid of the pool.
I bought a slip n' slide and cut that up to get big pieces of vinyl to patch the holes. You can buy a special adhesive that is used for patching vinly liners search online. After a few weeks, some of the patches started to let go. But, at least it allowed me to fill the pool high enough that I could run the pump.
If your goal is to patch the pool so that it lasts the entire season, like the others have said I don't think that's going to work.
I bought a slip n' slide and cut that up to get big pieces of vinyl to patch the holes. You can buy a special adhesive that is used for patching vinly liners search online. After a few weeks, some of the patches started to let go. But, at least it allowed me to fill the pool high enough that I could run the pump.
If your goal is to patch the pool so that it lasts the entire season, like the others have said I don't think that's going to work.
Leave the water in the pool until it's time to change the liner. If you get a big rain you could risk having the walls push in.
faby3003 said:
I dont need it to last more than 3 months or so.... and by the way thanks!!!