an anyone give me advice? We are putting in a new liner, It is a j hook liner. Any way we finagled it, it put wrinkles at the wall but mostly wrinkle free on bottom. My main concern is one of the long sides (21x42 above ground pool) has excess liner at bottom, but the opposite side seems very tight (it is pulled away from wall approximately 6 inches.) I am worried it may cause damage to he pool wall? It currently has about a doot of water in it as we are filling it. Drainimgnis an option if this seems like it is a provlem. Today was not sunny, so no heat to help stretch it. Do we need to be worried about this?
pool liner installation-normal or big problem?
- Thread starter blondestar1616
- Start date
If I'm reading your description correctly I would drain it and start over. Are you using a shop vac to "set" the liner before you put water in it?
We did use the shop vac. It is such a large pool, we would suck it out until it sucked the liner to the wall, then we covered up the skimmer and hose opening to keep the air from going back in, but within 15 minutes or so, it seems that most of the air has gone back in
. Draining it is an option, as it is not too full, but we are not exactly sure what to do even if we started over completely? There was no indication on the liner where the radius started, so we did our best to line up the seam with the coving at the walls.
So as soon as it sucks the liner to the wall you are turning the vac off? If so, drain it and start the vac and once you get the liner lined up correctly, leave the vac on and start filling. Once you have about a foot of water in the shallow end you can turn the vac off and finish filling.
Yes, that is what we did. I stuck the shop vac hose into the circle hose hole from the pool liner. After about a minute, it would suck the liner into the vacuum hose, that is when I turned it off. Maybe I should stick vacuum hose down in the square skimmer opening and leave it on? Thanks so much for your time! It is currently filling (with the hose) but I can turn it off and drain when I get home.
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And, another thing is we could never get the liner aligned correctly. It was like any way we moved it, it created issues somewhere else, it seemed.
I stick the vac hose in the skimmer opening and get it close to the cove without touching it.
It's all about compromises. The best thing to do is get it as evenly distributed as possible and then just start filling it up. Those places will straighten themselves out as it fills as long as it isn't all to one side or one corner.
It's all about compromises. The best thing to do is get it as evenly distributed as possible and then just start filling it up. Those places will straighten themselves out as it fills as long as it isn't all to one side or one corner.
Here is a picture I snapped when I installed my liner earlier this year. If you look just to the left of the shed, you can see the vacuum hose going in from the top of the liner. I taped over the skimmer and return holes. As you can see, it pulled the liner tight to the walls. When it did that, I was able to adjust the liner to be centered in the pool. Once I did that, I put just a little tension on the sides by pulling up on the liner and clipping it back in place. This allowed the weight of the water to help pull out the wrinkles. Once I got about 6" of water in there I was able to shut off the vacuum and let it fill and push the liner tight to the walls.
If the one wall is sagging like the pic you posted and the other is so tight and has 6" gap and pulling on the wall, you have to drain and reseat the liner. You have too much liner on that one side. I would take the water out and gently pull the liner that's sagging towards the tight end. Make sure the seams are right in the middle of the cove the whole way around.
Whew! Ok great thanks all! We at least have a plan now! Will be draining what is in there and doing the above mentioned steps. One problem is that since it is a 22000 gallon pool, and we are doing most of it by hose, it will take some time to get 6 inches, so not sure that i want to leave the vacuum running for that many hours?? We can and may get some water hauled in, but I didnt want to do that until we were sure the liner is how it should be, which i think we should be able to figure that out with all the tips yall have given.. does anyone see it being a problem with having a foot of water and then draining it and putting water in it again? i know reusing liners is not typically recommended
It is fine to drain the water and then refill. We caution against this practice for pool owners who want to completely drain and refill a pool because the liner will shift. You need to shift your liner. 
I would try and leave at least 2" of water in the pool and pull all that slack off the walls toward the other side where it's pulling.
I would try and leave at least 2" of water in the pool and pull all that slack off the walls toward the other side where it's pulling.Ah. Smart Well yall are making me feel much better!! We flip homes, and have rentals, with my husband and i doing all of the work. but we had never tackled a pool before! Someone gave us this pool including all the decking (composite) but we had to take down So my husband went at it, we got the walls up together with little problem (had a laser for leveling the area etc) and I expected the liner to be the easy part! But for some reason we have really struggled with it LOL
Well yall are making me feel much better!! We flip homes, and have rentals, with my husband and i doing all of the work. but we had never tackled a pool before! Someone gave us this pool including all the decking (composite) but we had to take down So my husband went at it, we got the walls up together with little problem (had a laser for leveling the area etc) and I expected the liner to be the easy part! But for some reason we have really struggled with it LOL