DIY Inground Liner Install Questions - Help PLEEZ !

[lewispool]

We are installing a vinyl liner ourselves. So far we have repaired the vermiculite, done a fine job on a coping repair (which I will have to tell ya'll about - really smart thing my hubby did I think), and put the wall foam up (which I think was the hardest job of all, oddly enough). We started dropping the liner, but I have a couple of questions:

1)what is the best way to do it? ie. put the corners in then work from middles towards corners, etc.

2)when you put the vaccum on it, how tight will it be to the wall corners, and floor corners , etc before putting the water in?

We tried it last night and the went from the shallow corners to deep corners and the deep corners are really tight. We have diagonal corners and the last liner ended up pulling away from the wall several, several inches in the corners, esp in the deep end (and that is where the eventual failure was). I thought it wasn't measured properly, but perhaps I was wrong. :-D I read on here that some pull away in the corners is expected even at install, but I want to know what is the best way to install the liner to get the most ease in the corners. Also, when we had the vaccum running everything pulled tight and wrinkles were out but the liner never did seat all the way into the floor joints or wall joints. I assume it doesn't completely until the water stretches it in. Is this correct? We've worked too hard and paid too much to screw up now!!

 

[JasonLion]

How well it fits is a question of how exactly it was measured. A perfect liner will just barely pull right into place with no excess left when the vacuum is running and everything is lined up just right. If the liner is a little small it won't quite go all the way into the corners, which is fine, they have a lot of stretch. Better a tiny bit small than too large. The more you need the liner to stretch the more important it is to do the install on a warm sunny day.

 

[waste]

Sorry I'm late to this party

The liner ought be marked at the shallow end transition points (the break and the corners). While I can't remember every liner I've installed, there is usually an arrow sticker on the back side of the liner NEAR the transition points. The actual place where the floor of the liner transitions is marked in pen on the inside of the liner, it's discrete and may take a careful eye to find it. Match the pen mark to the appropriate transition and used your foot to hold the liner in that place then pull the liner straight up and put it in the receiver (~1' of the bead in the track). Once these points are all in place, tuck the liner in in between them.

As for the tightness of the corners and seams, in addition to what Jason said - making sure the vessel is completely airtight (duct taping the seams and coping to wall joints, making sure all pipes are sealed (the junction box end of the conduit, the pump end of the suction and return lines, the finger holes in the skimmer lids and the gap around the vacuum, where it slides behind the liner), that the vacuum hose goes down to within 1" of the wall/ floor corner and that you have enough vacuums (appropriately placed) for your size pool are contributors to a liner not pulling tight into the shell.

I apologize to you and all the other DIY IG liner pool folks for not having part 10 done yet (this is part of what I'm STILL trying to get posted for part 10 of this series)