Groundwater problem with vinyl liner

[bob22]

I just opened the pool; see pictures at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9826176@N07/sets/

Hopefully you can see them.

The problem is: groundwater is pushing the liner away from the sides of the pool. I had this problem for the last 2 years but not this bad. The last 2 times, I pumped the water out between the liner and the hard side of the pool and all was well. Is there a better way?
Thanks for any advice.
Bob

 

[JasonLion]

This kind of thing happens any time the ground water level is higher than the water level in the pool. Usually if you raise the water level in the pool up to the top of the skimmer that will take care of it. As long as the bottom of the liner doesn't shift you will be fine. If the bottom shifts you need to go very slowly and make sure the bottom gets moved back into place before filling much above the ground water level.

 

[bob22]

Jason,
Thanks for your note. I've been replacing the water while pumping it out so as to try to maintain equal pressure on the liner.
I'm not sure how to "...make sure the bottom gets moved back into place before filling much above the ground water level" you mentioned in your note?
Thanks,
Bob

 

[JasonLion]

If you really have to realign the bottom it is a big project. Most of the time everything will go back into place on it's own. But if you see wrinkles forming lower down that stay in place as you fill further you need to find some way to get the liner realigned correctly.

 

[bob22]

Jason,
I get your point. The best I can do is use my pool liner brush with the pole and hope things settle down. Last year, I had about a 1' high by 8' wide bubble around drains and that went away fine. This is much worse as it involves the sides.
Just so I'm prepared for the worst. If a lot of wrinkles remain, I assume pool would need to be drained, realign liner (or replace) and refill. My concern is that the side walls could collapse when doing this. Does this happen?

 

[JasonLion]

When the ground water is really high you don't want to fully drain, nor would you normally need to. Lowering the water a little will float the liner again and it will be possible to move it. I've heard of using sand bags to hold sections in place while you work in other areas. Depending on how bad it gets you might want to hire a professional.

The corners at the bottom are the really important spots. If they stay in place things will generally recover.

 

[bob22]

Gotcha. Another reason to go concrete I guess.

 

[Simbilis]

Is there any chance that when your pool was built, a sump drain pipe was installed under the deep end? If it's there, the top end is probably buried very shallowly outside the deep-end deck. Here's what mine looked like before they trimmed it and buried it in the backfill (bottom of picture):
[attachment=0:219zdt2s]Drain.png[/attachment:219zdt2s]
If there is one, you might be able to use it to pump the groundwater out while you fix the liner and fill the pool (or just keep pumping until the ground water level falls).

 

[bob22]

Simbilis,
I wish I had that pump installed; never offered (who knew?).
Since my original post, I've pumped out the water behind the liner and thank God the vinyl went back to install condition except for one or two short wrinkles (I tried to smooth them out but no go).
Dodged another one of life's bullets!
Thanks,
Bob

 

[waste]

Bob22, welcome to TFP!!

I HOPE I'm wrong, but it looks like there is a tear in the liner (in your first pic of the corner all bulged out)

If it is a tear, your pool water is exacerbating the ground water issue :grrrr:

I'll be back tomorrow to see if you can confirm my suspicion.

(I truly hope my eyes are just deceiving me!)

 

[jasonknox]

bob22 - My brother inlaw has the same problem. He built his pool in a low area when it was dry and in year when we get alot of rain the ground water rises and pushes his liner away from the wall. He usually waits until the ground water level lowers then drains a portion of his pool and fixes the liner.

 

[bob22]

Thanks all. There doesn't appear to be any tears or holes in the liner. I filled it back up to skimmer level to get filtering going.
Water level is stable and the green color is not fairly clear (19 bottles of bleach and about 2 lbs of granular Chlorine; I didn't want yellow mustard algae again!).
I'm afraid of reducing water level too low to fix liner as I'd have to take out more than a third and I'm afraid the sides might collapse/slide in without water pressure of the pool pushing back. Perhaps it wouldn't happen, but for now at least, I can live with a few wrinkles.
I'll post after pictures soon.