HELP! Pool jet on BEHIND new liner!

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who_dat

0
Jun 16, 2014
8
Littlle Rock, AR
Hello. I am new to the forum. I bought a house with a pool last spring. Having never owned a pool before, I learned a lot last year, but am still barely qualified to take care of it. I hired someone to replace the liner (they started on it 4 weeks ago and are still not done!). This has been one of the most frustrating/disappointing experiences I have encountered in a while. I could go on and on about all that has transpired up to this point, but I will keep it to 2 questions.

1. They told me that the "pool-crete" needed to dry out really well before the liner was placed or it would never dry. Then the day they finally did it, the guy that told me this immediately put down the liner after finishing it. Is this a big deal? This happened 4 days ago.

2. Today I get home and he has put in the returns. The thing is that he forgot one and it has been pumping water behind the liner all day. He also placed a standard return where the Polaris was supposed to connect. I would assume this is probably an easy fix, but the water pumped in behind the liner is my main concern. Is this a big deal?

Thank you for your help. I am going to call the pool company in the morning and would like to know if this is a major problem or not, because they will act like it is not even if it is one. I have had nothing but problems out of these guys, and they were the most expensive quote! It is very frustrating to pay someone $6000 to do nothing but screw you over the entire time. I haven't listed their name because I don't know if that is OK on this forum, but I would like to warn others in my area. Once I get this pressing problem solved, I will ask about other problems that they have left me needing to resolve.

The pool is a 35,000 gal, free form pool built in a retaining wall setup on a hillside. Hope this helps. Thanks
 
Return behind the liner is very bad. Your liner will float at worst, wrinkle badly at best. Sounds like you hired a hack installer. I'd turn off the valve to that return if there is one, otherwise you shouldn't run the pump til fixed.

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FIRE HIM!!!

Hire someone else to fix this!

I am so sorry you have this going on. I would seriously encourage you to hire someone else. Does this guy own his own business in the pool world? If you owe him any money, do not pay him!!! If you want to give him a chance to fix it, that's you're choice but I would have him remove the liner, replace it with a new one (why? because he already cut holes in it) and make sure he cuts in all the returns, and uses the right parts for the Polaris and not a return fitting.
 
Water on new poolcrete does not sound like a good thing at all. I would make them start from scratch and if they aren't willing or able to fix it, hire someone else to do it right. Unfortunately if you've paid them you may need to take them to small claims to get your money returned.
 
From the Strong Seal website, manufacturer of Pool-Krete which is what I'm assuming was installed.

Installation of Liner
The vinyl liner may be installed immediately upon completion of the Pool-Krete® hard bottom; however, it is recommended that there by no traffic in the pool until the Pool-Krete® has had sufficient opportunity to harden. This period will normally be two days depending upon temperature. Traffic in the pool prior to sufficient hard-ening will result in unsightly indentations which serve as collection points for dirt and potential algae. The pool, however, may be filled immediately after liner installation.

Looks like was OK to install liner right after installation of Pool Krete was complete and fill the pool. However, I'd be very concerned with water behind the liner right after the Pool Krete installation. Again, from the website:

Rain During Installation
Although Pool-Krete® should not be used during a rain, there will be occasions when the weather simply rolls in quickly during installation. If possible, cover the pool area with polyethylene. A light mist will generally not affect the Pool-Krete®. Large drops or heavy rainfall, however, will cause the wet Pool-Krete® to pock-mark or even wash out.

Don't pay them. If you have, that stinks because now you likely have to get them to finish the job or risk losing the money or having to go to claims court to try to get it... and that usually is very lengthy and frustrating. If you haven't paid them, get another builder involved to fix the problem. Ask them lots of questions about the install and get a feel for their level of expertise and how they would plan on handling the fix.
 
The jet behind the liner is almost certainly a very simple fix. It just needs a trim ring installed and then the liner cut out. The fix should take a few minutes.

It is really quite easy to miss a return once the liner is in place, especially if there are quite a few of them.
 
JasonLion said:
The jet behind the liner is almost certainly a very simple fix. It just needs a trim ring installed and then the liner cut out. The fix should take a few minutes.

It is really quite easy to miss a return once the liner is in place, especially if there are quite a few of them.
Click to expand...

I'm sure that installing the return is a very easy fix. That is not the issue. The issue is all of the water behind my liner and the pool-krete. Putting the return in place does not undo what has already been done.
 

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who_dat said:
Hello. I am new to the forum. I bought a house with a pool last spring. Having never owned a pool before, I learned a lot last year, but am still barely qualified to take care of it. I hired someone to replace the liner (they started on it 4 weeks ago and are still not done!). This has been one of the most frustrating/disappointing experiences I have encountered in a while. I could go on and on about all that has transpired up to this point, but I will keep it to 2 questions.

1. They told me that the "pool-crete" needed to dry out really well before the liner was placed or it would never dry. Then the day they finally did it, the guy that told me this immediately put down the liner after finishing it. Is this a big deal? This happened 4 days ago.

2. Today I get home and he has put in the returns. The thing is that he forgot one and it has been pumping water behind the liner all day. He also placed a standard return where the Polaris was supposed to connect. I would assume this is probably an easy fix, but the water pumped in behind the liner is my main concern. Is this a big deal?

Thank you for your help. I am going to call the pool company in the morning and would like to know if this is a major problem or not, because they will act like it is not even if it is one. I have had nothing but problems out of these guys, and they were the most expensive quote! It is very frustrating to pay someone $6000 to do nothing but screw you over the entire time. I haven't listed their name because I don't know if that is OK on this forum, but I would like to warn others in my area. Once I get this pressing problem solved, I will ask about other problems that they have left me needing to resolve.

The pool is a 35,000 gal, free form pool built in a retaining wall setup on a hillside. Hope this helps. Thanks
Click to expand...
I believe my Polaris has an adapter that screws into a standard 1.5" return set up for a cleaner.
 
timerguy said:
I believe my Polaris has an adapter that screws into a standard 1.5" return set up for a cleaner.
Click to expand...

Yes I would assume that is easy to correct. Just shows that their attention to detail is very poor. I spoke with the owner earlier and he is sending the guy back out to look at it and "get it corrected". As I thought, he has no intentions of installing a new liner. Which is OK with me if that is the correct thing to do, but everyone here seems to think that is the only way to fix this. What should I do? I looked and have only paid him a $1000 deposit at this point.
 
Question is, what is he going to do with all the water behind the liner? I'm assuming the return adapter for the Polaris is still somewhere. If not you can probably find one on line for not too much. I got some of the connector fittings from Leslie's without paying for shipping.
 
If you have an installed pool light, turn it on at night and look very closely at the pool bottom and side walls. If you can do this in the pool with a mask on, you will see every imperfection in the floor and walls. You should be able to see if there is any significant damage to the PoolKrete and can then decide to pay them or demand fixes.
 
jmhjgh said:
If you have an installed pool light, turn it on at night and look very closely at the pool bottom and side walls. If you can do this in the pool with a mask on, you will see every imperfection in the floor and walls. You should be able to see if there is any significant damage to the PoolKrete and can then decide to pay them or demand fixes.
Click to expand...

The pool lights are one of the other problems they have left for me to resolve that I mentioned in my original post. I lost both of my pool lights during this process as well. Cords stuck in conduits and the quote they gave me to replace them was going to be about them same as the cost of the liner install. So I told them to forget it and I will figure it out later, because I do want lights. I will probably start another thread about that at some point about my options for getting lights back once I get this more pressing issue behind me.

So, that is a good idea, but not possible due to having no pool lights now. Also, water was new and clear until pump was turned on yesterday, now completely green and more difficult to see through. So, back to any other suggestions regarding how to proceed with the green water behind my brand new, currently being installed pool liner...
 
If your pool was full at the time you turned on the pump and the liner was tight to the wall, that might limit how much water is actually behind the liner. You should be able to see the liner being pushed away from the wall if you have a large amount of water behind the liner. If so, they will likely have to drain, remove the liner, and replace or reinstall. I think you need to wait on see what the pool company has to say.
 
I don't think the liner has to be replaced. I've heard of (and seen on this site) installations where the liner had to be removed or reset after initial installation. That shouldn't be a problem at all with a new liner provided they didn't cut holes in the wrong spots. It's older liners that you don't want to be removing as they'll be stretched out and less pliable, etc.

As for the pool-krete you'll have to wait and see when the liner is lifter what damage was done, if any; you may have gotten lucky or you may have to have the side with the return and bottom redone.

Good luck, and keep us posted.
 
So it sounds like even people who think that maybe the liner itself could be reused, still think it has to be removed completely and then put back in place. Of course I have not heard back from them, but I can assure you their "solution" is to quickly put in a new return and say that there was not much water back there or they sucked it all out. Bets anyone?
 
jmhjgh said:
If your pool was full at the time you turned on the pump and the liner was tight to the wall, that might limit how much water is actually behind the liner. You should be able to see the liner being pushed away from the wall if you have a large amount of water behind the liner. If so, they will likely have to drain, remove the liner, and replace or reinstall. I think you need to wait on see what the pool company has to say.
Click to expand...

The water was about 1 foot in the shallow end, so not full or empty.

Well, I nailed what he was going to say. He said "He got there and cut in the return and only a little bit of water came out. So you must have cut off the pump pretty quick." Their plan is to move ahead like it never happened and see how it turns out...

I don't know what to do
 

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