BIG trouble I think - liner detached (pics)

[NomDePlume]

Hello everybody,
I just went to check on my pool here in central NJ as we had a lot of rain past few days and found some horror... Looks like the liner has separated from the sides in many places. We have had this pool since 2012, never had this issue. I am about to call the pool company, but wanted to see if anybody can chime in on what could this be caused by. I understand each case is different, but looking for any suggestions: should we try to fix this now, wait for the spring at pool opening, I assume we need to drain out the pool. As you can see, I'm in complete freak out mode right now

Thanks very much for any feedback

 

[hotrodbones]

I had a Liner pool that this happened once due to heavy rain. This was caused by ground water and the liner just floating between the ground water and pool water. I freaked out but as the ground water drained my liner settled back into place perfectly. Maybe watch the liner and as the ground water drains use your brush to help the liner back into place. I am no expert so absolutely call your builder but I wouldn't panic just yet. Hope this helps

 

[tcrote5516]

Yea, that's groundwater pressure overpowering the pool water pressure. I've never seen that problem happen to that level before. That's really displaced a lot of water and I would be amazed if it returns back to it's normal position without a wrinkle here and there. With that said, no use in doing anything about it until you give it a chance to return to normal and see if you have liner creases or areas that have been overstretched/damaged.

I would look into drainage options in the spring. Not sure of your layout but you need to give the groundwater somewhere else to go. That took a lot of pressure to do what it did to the pool.

 

[duraleigh]

I saw this prophetic post during your pool build....

[h=2]Re: Our first pool... 41' Mountain Lake, Solar panels[/h]

Not to be a naysayer or to cause undue worry -- just speaking to local conditions (weather and ground water) and raising a question.

Central NJ has been extremely dry for several months and ground water levels are quite low for this time of year. So to see you hit ground water -- and that much of it -- raises a little bit of concern.

Did your PB suggest an external drain from under the gravel to outside the pool boundaries (i.e., a dry well/sump) or did he at least discuss/advise on that possibility? That red Brunswick shale in your pictures is known to have banding/cracking through which water can flow at surprising rates. Some PB's in Central NJ, when they hit water, will wait a few days to see the level to which the water rises, then address via gravel/dry well if necessary.

Floating liners do occur in this area (it happened to my neighbor). You might want to ask the PB before dropping-in the liner.

Good Luck!​

I know it doesn't help you now but just found it VERY interesting that knowing the local conditions is quite important.

I think you can only be in a "wait and see" mode until Spring and the groundwater recedes.

 

[NomDePlume]

Thanks, appreciate the replies. wow.. duraleigh, looks like you had seen the future But we did talk to the builder at the time and they installed gravel at the deep end and piped it to the pump so it can be pumped to waste. They actually had to keep it running while they were installing the base, so we have a connection at the base, but I have a feeling we might have to rethink (separate pump running once in a while.. I don't know). Waiting for the builder to call back...
Again thanks to all for taking the time to reply!

 

[borjis]

Good that you have the drain pipe installed...that should help your situation.

 

[NomDePlume]

Just wanted to update this thread with the end (for now) results.
By the second day about half the displacement on the liner was back to "normal" (some wrinkles) What I did as per builder instruction also was to add about 6" of water which helped push back the water under the liner even more. Pushing the liner back in place with a broom was really impossible (water is very cold and liner super stiff, I was afraid to rip it) Today third day, all the liner is back against wall/floor, it almost looks like it never happened.. but there are some wrinkles. I think the compounding factor in this issue is that I have an emergency pump under the mesh cover to keep the water from rising too high, and probably the more the incoming water pushed under the liner, the more pool water was displaced and pumped out of the pool which really didn't help. Probably the reason I had to add so much water now as the liner settled back.