Hi all. I’ve spent many hours reading this great forum, but never had a reason to post until now. I have a 20x40 in ground vinyl liner pool. It’s about 20 years old. I have no idea of the age of the liner, but it needed a replacement. I got a bad rip in the deep end about a week ago and roughly half of the water has drained out. A good bit of water has worked it’s way up to the shallow end where the liner is now floating. Looking through the rip it appears that my deep end floor at least is concrete/vermiculite. I know it will likely be a few months before I can replace the liner. Should I pump out the water or just leave it? Is there anything I can/should do? The consensus seems to be empty pool= bad news but what about water trapped under a liner for an extensive period of time?
Badly ripped liner
- Thread starter CJC
- Start date
- Jul 21, 2013
- 52,233
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Welcome to TFP.
You do not want to let a liner pool sit without water in it. The water supports the walls and without water you can have the walls buckle.
@jimmythegreek suggests throwing a tarp into the pool that will hold water and keep it at least half full.
Otherwise if kept empty you should use plywood and 2X4's to brace the walls.
You do not want to let a liner pool sit without water in it. The water supports the walls and without water you can have the walls buckle.
@jimmythegreek suggests throwing a tarp into the pool that will hold water and keep it at least half full.
Otherwise if kept empty you should use plywood and 2X4's to brace the walls.
Thanks for the quick response. I hate to leave this thing in limbo for 2-3 months, but I guess that’s a downside to a liner pool... bright side is I get to test what a dark blue bottom would look like, haha. I was a little concerned about the water undermining the foundation etc, but realistically the cats out of the bag already on that if it were to happen.
If you could throw an ugly patch on it for time being that's best. Leaks in the floor are not good overall but water left in pool is safer than a dry pool. As a last resort a tarp serving as a liner works to buy time