Am I screwed or will I be ok? Vinyl pool drained over the winter while it was closed.

[kodiak1120]

I was cleaning my pool at the end of last season using the brush. The brush head came off the pole and I accidentally put a small hole in the liner with the edge of the pole. I bought a patch kit that day and tried to patch it. It was very hard to patch because I had to swim down to where the hole was and my natural buoyancy was forcing be back up. I think I took like two attempts and the second seemed successful.

Anyway, last night I just happened to turn my pool light on and I could see through the cover that there did not seem to be any water above the light. I peeked under the cover and saw that the pool was more than half drained.

This morning I took part of the cover off to inspect. The liner actually seems ok. The picture of the corner of the shallow end is the worst section, but it's only some minor wrinkling.

I'm going to put enough water in it to keep about a foot in the shallow end and then try to redo the patch. Anyone have experience with this? Will my liner survive or will it get worse as the water level increases?

Also, does anyone have any suggestions on applying the patch. The kit I bought comes with pieces of vinyl you cut and a metal can of waterproof sealant, that kind of looks like what PVC cement comes in.

Thanks.

 

[ajw22]

@zea3 @kimkats @Casey can you provide some patch tips?

 

[Casey]

I was cleaning my pool at the end of last season using the brush. The brush head came off the pole and I accidentally put a small hole in the liner with the edge of the pole. I bought a patch kit that day and tried to patch it. It was very hard to patch because I had to swim down to where the hole was and my natural buoyancy was forcing be back up. I think I took like two attempts and the second seemed successful.

Anyway, last night I just happened to turn my pool light on and I could see through the cover that there did not seem to be any water above the light. I peeked under the cover and saw that the pool was more than half drained.

This morning I took part of the cover off to inspect. The liner actually seems ok. The picture of the corner of the shallow end is the worst section, but it's only some minor wrinkling.

I'm going to put enough water in it to keep about a foot in the shallow end and then try to redo the patch. Anyone have experience with this? Will my liner survive or will it get worse as the water level increases?

Also, does anyone have any suggestions on applying the patch. The kit I bought comes with pieces of vinyl you cut and a metal can of waterproof sealant, that kind of looks like what PVC cement comes in.

Thanks.

Where is the hole? You need 2 people to patch floors because the body becomes buoyant when the lungs are full of air. (I highly suggest someone you trust!!!) One person patches the floor area n the other person holds the patcher underwater. This is where the trust comes in place. Cut 3 patches one bigger than the last starting with the first smaller n going up to the biggest. The only way to know if the liner will make it is to try n push it in place and fill the pool and watch it closely.

 

[kodiak1120]

Where is the hole? You need 2 people to patch floors because the body becomes buoyant when the lungs are full of air. (I highly suggest someone you trust!!!) One person patches the floor area n the other person holds the patcher underwater. This is where the trust comes in place. Cut 3 patches one bigger than the last starting with the first smaller n going up to the biggest. The only way to know if the liner will make it is to try n push it in place and fill the pool and watch it closely.

Thanks... I actually found my patch kit from last year so I redid the patch. Ripped the old one off, which was probably a bad idea. Cut the new one much bigger and redid it. The hole is in the deep end on the slanted part of the wall, so it's hard to get to, even with the water half drained. It's also impossible to weight it down after the patch too because of where it is.

I think the patch was succesful because it is being "pulled into" the hole. I don't think that would happen if water was able to get by. The only thing that worries me is there are wrinkles in the patch that seem to go from the edge to where the hole is. I'm hoping that there is glue in those spaces to seal it off or that they don't go all the way to the center.

I will follow your advise and do a bigger patch tomorrow over this one. I can only do one more though because the size of the material is limited and my patch this morning is pretty big.

 

[kodiak1120]

I did the bigger patch over the smaller one. It was hard to get all of the edges down flat due to the size. I put on a ton of the glue (used about half the bottle). Did a bucket test and it seems to be holding (knock on wood). I also bought some dye and dropped it in right over the area of the patch. The dye slowly fell towards the patch, but there was zero evidence that it was being pulled under the patch, so that made me feel better. The only other openings below the water line right now are the pool light and bottom drain. I dropped a few drops of the dye in near the pool light and I actually thought I discovered a leak because the dye quickly moved in the direction of the light housing. I looked up some info on underwater pool lights and apparently there is a "wet" area behind the light. I did another dye test and I think it's just the water moving from the pool into the housing behind the light. I could see the dye kind of going behind the light, but then it would sort of puff out again. It was a bit windy and the top of the water was moving up and down slightly, so I think it's just the water being pushed and pulled behind the light into the house. Also, from what I've seen, the housing usually cracks where the conduit exits out the back, near the top. My pool water is so low that only the bottom 1/4 of the light is under water, so that area would be dry right now anyway.

Filling it up. Hopefully my leak is fixed.