Help! Newbie...with liner bulges and losing water fast

[Lizbeth]

Hi everyone. I found this site looking for information, and I hope someone can help. We bought a house with an IG pool (26,0000g, vinyl liner, sand filter) 8 months ago. Started opening it up a few weeks ago and it was looking great....until the flash flood rains started. It has been raining for nearly two weeks. We are in a higher area, but surrounding homes are flooding due to prolonged rains. We live at the bottom of a moderate (not too steep) hill, and all houses up the hill have gutter drains that point in the direction of our house. Hasn't been a problem all year until now. Water has been rushing down through our fence, over our flower beds, and into the pool, carrying mulch, mud, etc. into the pool, so quickly that it filled up from below the skimmers to the pool rim in less than an hour on a couple of nights. We've tried to keep the water level as normal as we can by sending it to waste, but the drainage just can't keep up. We woke this morning to find the pool completely overflowing. We drained water to normal level (slightly below mid-skimmer), anticipating more rain, and within an hour of shutting off the pump (just ran it long enough to drain some, it's full of too much junk right now) the pool continued to lose water down about 6 inches below the skimmers. There is at least one large bulge now in the liner on the side. Can't fully assess the situation, as it is still raining and can't see under water line as the water is dark brown. We are just at a loss as what to do, guessing the liner may have torn somewhere?? So frustrated, as we found out this was an ongoing problem for the previous owner.

Had a few landscape people out who have said we need 6" french drain and retaining wall behind the pool to protect it in the future. But what to do now? Almost scared to ask....

Thanks so much!

liz

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! Do you have a main drain at the bottom of the pool? There could be a tear in the liner, or if there are openings for returns or other plumbing, ground water could have pushed the liner away from the fitting and caused a leak. Unfortunately you will have to wait until the rain stops to get a good look at what is going on. Hopefully the liner will be repairable.

 

[JasonLion]

The liner might get some wrinkles, but I doubt that there is any real damage. Probably the ground water level is just as high as the pool water level, so there is nothing holding the liner against the walls any more. When the ground water level goes down it should go back into place.