HELP - Floating Liner - Is this Normal?

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GigaMike

0
Sep 1, 2015
19
Albany NY
Hi,

I closed my pool on Sunday and drained it about 15 inches, just below the jets and blew them out. Then it rained a LOT the past two days (3-5" according to weather). I noticed my liner doing THIS (pics below) when I came home from work today. It is floating and pulling away pretty good. I read another pool blog that said this can happen if you have high water tables and my back yard does back up to wetlands. The grass around the pool is saturated pretty good. Also FWIW I had a woodchuck problem under the patio when I moved in about a month ago. They are gone but I have no idea how much they burrowed.

The wife isnt happy and is asking me to drain the whole pool. I dont think that is necessary. Im not sure if I need to drain it more, or wait for the floating to go away. Did I drain it too much? about 24" below the coping.

Do I drain as much as I can right now? Wait to see if it subsides (no more rain this week). Do I need a new liner?

Also, what do I do about winterization / Add more algaecide?

Thanks!

In this first pic, the liner is completely above the water line right in the center.








 
From what I know, high water tables, which includes drainage around the pool will put pressure on the vermiculite and/or sand/concrete mix, whichever your pool has. All the rain you just had probably was the "straw that broke the camels back". The pool liner is in between water in the pool, steel walls and the base is about a 2" concrete mix with dirt behind it. If water starts putting pressure on the base, your liner will float. This is due to water building up and seeping through the concrete and then air enters behind the liner (This is what I was told from someone in the business).

It appears that the pressure is more in certain areas. Drainage around a pool is critical. With my pool installation, there were French drains (with piping installed around) the pool and a trench that is 1' deep sloping almost 100' getting down to about 4' in a recharge pit. The total runs were over 200' of drains for a 17*33 free form pool.

If it was me, I would call a drainage specialist to come in and dig down to remove the underground water that is putting pressure on your liner and then create a dry well of crushed stone, hooked up to a sump pump to keep water away from the pool. That water has to be pumped out away from the pool and the house not to cause further problems. Once you fix this problem, then someone has to come with a pool vacuum and suck the air back out of the liner. It is possible the same drainage company can do this. The professional may recommend draining and removing the liner to determine the damage that has occurred. Hard to tell.

Sorry to hear about what happened. Keep us posted on how you resolve this issue. I would start locally by searching "swimming pool repairs".
 
whatever you do, do not drain any more water out. The water in the pool is currently lower than the watertable in the surrounding yard. Since water want to seek its own level, it is pushing the water in the pool higher to accomplish this. The best thing to do now is start adding water back into the pool. Once the level of the pool starts to rise above where it is now the liner will start to go back down. It may take a while as the amount of water you need to displace is equal to the amount behind the liner. I can not guarantee this will fix the problem completely but, it may prevent further damage.
 
A similar situation happened to me today. I think I flooded the one side of my pool, causing my liner to bulge. I'm praying once the water drain around the pool and is absorbed into the ground it will return to normal. Thought??? My pool sits up in my yard so I'm thinking it will drain naturally.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
MarianParoo said:
How are you doing, Mike?
Click to expand...

Hasn't gotten better hasn't gotten much worse. The liner is pulling away from the coping a tad in the one corner so I'm thinking about throwing my cover pump in there and pumping the water out. If it is a cement or cement bottom or something I don't think it has anywhere else to go. Thoughts??

I called two pool companies and I'm waiting for a call back. Most have a reputation around here of selling you quite a bit more than you need so I'm worried they are going to want more than the cost of a new pool to "repair" this one.
 
GigaMike said:
Hasn't gotten better hasn't gotten much worse. The liner is pulling away from the coping a tad in the one corner so I'm thinking about throwing my cover pump in there and pumping the water out. If it is a cement or cement bottom or something I don't think it has anywhere else to go. Thoughts??

I called two pool companies and I'm waiting for a call back. Most have a reputation around here of selling you quite a bit more than you need so I'm worried they are going to want more than the cost of a new pool to "repair" this one.
Click to expand...

Keep calling other companies. See if you can find someone on the side that works or has worked for a PB. A lot of water/air has been introduced behind the liner, so the advice of adding water is what is needed at the moment. Although, you will need to suck water/air out of the liner as you are adding water. I have seen a shop vacuum with an extension tucked behind the liner and then duct tape was used. Professionals use the Cyclone, which is specially designed for liners. If you can peel back a small section of the liner and put a vacuum extension, this should work. Tape everything up to seal real well. If you add water with out removing water. you probably will develop wrinkles in the liner.

Once you are done, it is important you have drainage (for around the pool and for the high water tables) installed by a professional so this does not occur again. Please keep us posted!
 

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GigaMike sorry you're having trouble. You mentioned moving in -- house is new to you, right?

You *might* already have a sump plumbed into your equipment if your water table s high -- I did and didn't know it until a pool tech came out and told me that's what the third line way....then he closed the skimmer and drain lines opened to sump line, and pumped off a ton of water ;)

So check into that...might be a nice surprise!
 
Thanks for the tip. I definitely don't have another pipe at the equipment pad. Maybe something underneath or burried. The pool is 15 years old so I don't have much luck finding the original builder.

I did read somewhere that sometimes a sump or French drain is plumbed into the main drain. I could turn the pump back on and see what happens? I did blow out the main drain during winterizing not sure if that was a good idea
 
Fill pool with water !
This happened to me.
Lots of rain and i was siphoning to keep water from overflowing pool.
But, according to pool guy, if i had kept water in pool very high, then that would have helped push BACK against the ground water.

Correction: I dont know whether to add the water right now. Add the water once the liner has found its way back to the wall.
 
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Add water to the pool and push the liner back into place as best you can. It is not air behind the liner but ground water. That equalizes the pressure on both sides of the liner so there is no pressure to hold the liner up firmly against the pool wall.

The liner simply "floats" between the two bodies of water.

As the ground water slowly lowers, the pressure inside the pool liner becomes greater and starts to push the liner back into position. If you get lucky, it will return where it belongs. Most people have to push and pull and "fit" the liner back in as the groundwater lowers.
 
You must add water to the pool. I have a large squeegie I use to get my liner to settle back in place when I get water under it. It takes a little forethought to figure out which way to push/pull so the liner sets properly. I also have suction cups with suction-locks. I have never had a float anywhere near the size of yours, but I always work my liner back in place. I don't trust to luck when it comes to wrinkles.
 
MarianParoo said:
You're fine. When I had my biggest float, I pulled a section of the liner back at the coping and pumped the water from behind the liner straight into the pool.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the tips. I'm pumping it out from the wall now into the pool. Fwiw the wall appears to be fiberglass boards.

If I can get a pool company to return my call I will see if they can help future proof it. Just not sure how if my water table is so high from being so close to wetlands and a creek. Not to mention my neighbor tells me a creek used to be right where my hoise is running eastbound towers the north south creek shown. My sump pump works like crazy too. I'll keep everyone posted.

As for winterization what should I do? Do I need to add more chemicles? How low do I drain it ? I was below the jets which is pretty far. I could go below the skimmer and leave it. I have rubber plugs in the returns now.

 
Let's make sure this issue is fixed first. Yes, you will need more chemicals. The downside of pumping from "behind and into" is that the water is not very clean. Let's see what happens as the liner gets seated. Are you prepared to get in the pool to adjust the liner?
 

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