Need a new liner, maybe refinish instead?

[John85]

Good Morning,
I moved into a house with a vinyl liner pool early this summer. The liner is in it's 8th or 9th season (15-year), but I've had to patch several times over the summer (mostly on the cove in the corner). This might be from my vacuum robot (Dolphin Nautilus) or bad brush technique (or a shifted liner I have two pronounced wrinkles in the shallow end I'll try to fix around closing).

I'm trying to plan ahead I'm thinking about replacements (Is it common to replace a 15 yr liner after 8?). Obviously I could put in another liner, but I was thinking about pebblesheen or something like that (i.e. something I can't tear), so I had a few questions.
Is that possible?
What are good times of year to do this (I'm in St Louis MO)?
Can I add new features (like a sun shelf, etc.)?
Ballpark cost (I mean are we talking 5k, 10k, more? 27400 gal pool, 18x34, 8'8" in deep end)?

Thanks for any advice/help you can offer?

 

[jtrovato21]

I could be wrong, but I don't think you can convert a vinyl liner pool to a plaster pool without completely starting over. You need to have a gunite shell in order to get a plaster finish. I don't think you can just plaster over the steel/composite walls of a vinyl liner pool. I think your best bet is to just look into a new liner.

 

[Geebot]

It could be possible if someone used a liner on what was previously a plaster pool - not unheard of - but it's an exceptional circumstance.

 

[duraleigh]

It could be possible if someone used a liner on what was previously a plaster pool - not unheard of - but it's an exceptional circumstance.

Just to keep the conversation going so OP can understand clearly.......No! You cannot make a liner pool into a plaster pool. No! You cannot make a sunshelf or other structure in a liner pool.

 

[John85]

How do I know if there's Gunite behind it or not? I know there's something hard behind the liner (that's probably obvious though, because dirt would collapse in on the pool otherwise). It was built in 2000, but I don't have any of the original paperwork.

- - - Updated - - -

But presumably if it was a plaster pool, converted to liner, it could be converted back to plaster (and theoretically add said shelf, or no?)?

 

[ntobik]

Not all vinyl liner pools are steel walled. We live in Western PA where more than 90% of the in-ground pools have a liner. But until the 1990s most are classic cement shells with a liner track, not steel walls.

Our pool is a cement shell, it was poured in the 1980s. The cement is about 18in thick, it's massive and probably overbuilt. The pool has had a liner in since day 1. This spring we rehabbed our pool, redid plumbing, new decking, new liner. While the liner was out I had a chance to examine the shell. We had the PB pour new steps in a corner where a ladder was previously. Since the shell is concrete it wasn't a big deal. My wife briefly contemplated raising the deep end as well, but the amount of concrete to do so would have been outrageously expensive.

The liner is nice, but I've gone back and forth on whether I'd do plaster in the future. My father-in-law (who also has a cement pool) said we should ditch the liner and go plaster. In the end I went with a liner because they're popular in the area. All of the PB's I talked to preferred liners. The one I went with said they could do other finishes, but almost no one did them and they're considered high end. So rather than trying to find a specialist in an area that has few to none I just went with the popular route.

I was told to expect 8-10 years max on the liner. The previous liner was original, but the material was extremely heavy.

 

[swimcmp]

John Yes you can add a sunshelf. You just have to find the right company to do it. More than likely your pool was and always has been a straight vinyl pool NO you cannot switch it to plaster. You would have to start over. Many of the liner companys are doing things that used to be in the concrete only capability