Help Paul install his new liner

[kimkats]

My installer had me use a circle sprinkler to help him get the sand packed and smooth. I guess the rain can do the same thing unless it is a gully washer.

The sun on the new liner will help you get is smoothed out. It warms it up and makes it easier to work with.

He filled trash bags with water to help hold the side down right at the cove. It really helped with getting the wrinkles out.

Good luck!

Kim

 

[f3justusc]

That liner will be a lot easier to work with if it is left out in the sun. Hopefully, you will not be hindered by the rain.

 

[Pauls234]

Rain never came, but had to take a break anyway to watch my kids while wife had an appt. Sun is coming out so should help with the pliability of the new liner.

Next steps:

Remove old liner
Smooth out sand divots - It is in pretty good shape so I am going to try and do as little as possible
Drop in new liner!

Do you think my 4.5 hp shop vac will be strong enough to pull this big liner to the walls?

 

[Casey]

I didn't use a shop vac on the last liner I dropped n had minimal issues.

 

[Pauls234]

New liner is in! Working out those wrinkles is painful. Liner seems pretty tight right now, I guess as it fills it will just stretch over the cove and against the wall. Do I need to worry about giving any slack from the coping as it fills, or it will just stretch into place?

Skimmer goes on anytime past half full?

 

[tjroux]

So you didnt treat the rust?

 

[Pauls234]

So you didnt treat the rust?

I did actually, light sanding, rust inhibitor, 2 coats of rust oleum primer.

 

[Pauls234]

That brown around the base in the first picture is actually the primer, not rust. I went pretty liberal with it.

 

[phonedave]

How did the shop vac work for you? I ended up giving up on it. I replaced my liner about 2 weeks ago. The shop vac did nothing. Maybe because I added wall foam - which in retrospect is really a waste. Yeah, it makes the walls nice, but it was a pain to install, and who really touches the walls?

I cut my return and skimmer openings when the water was about 2 inches below each opening.

My pool actually buckled while I was filling it (**** pop up storms). The wall now has a slight horizontal crease about 2 feet long in it. It is not bad and nothing is going anywhere, but it still annoys me.

 

[Casey]

Looks great Paul!

 

[Pauls234]

Dave, shop vac seemed effective at pulling the liner to the wall during the first few inches of fill, which I did not expect given its small size and a pretty large pool. It's hardly a necessity though, just yet another way to try and stretch that liner out after getting bored with the backward jumping heel kicks I was doing!

Thanks everyone for the pre-planning advice and the suggestions along the way. You and the rest of TFP gave me the confidence to do it on my own, I saved a $1000 and learned something too!

Still have to put in the skimmer.... and fix my cut up deck.

 

[Pauls234]

Still have some time until the filter system gets hooked up, so just dosed it up to a target of 4 (assumed some strength loss in last year's 12% bleach that was kept in a basement). Think it's ok to put a floater in there? My concern would be that with no circulation it could just sit in one spot, like right against the wall of my beautiful new liner!

 

[kimkats]

I would not chance a floater for the reason you stated. I would try some bleach then use a straw broom to stir it up good.

Kim

 

[Pauls234]

Kim, I hear ya! I stuck with bleach and got in and stirred it around.

 

[kimkats]

I am going to put a inline chlorinator in just to use for pucks when we are gone for the weekend or overnight. I have a floater but you and I both know it likes to sit right by the side of the liner and I worry about it messing it up.

Kim

 

[phonedave]

Dave, shop vac seemed effective at pulling the liner to the wall during the first few inches of fill, which I did not expect given its small size and a pretty large pool. It's hardly a necessity though, just yet another way to try and stretch that liner out after getting bored with the backward jumping heel kicks I was doing!

Thanks everyone for the pre-planning advice and the suggestions along the way. You and the rest of TFP gave me the confidence to do it on my own, I saved a $1000 and learned something too!

Still have to put in the skimmer.... and fix my cut up deck.

My shop vac started to suck the liner INTO the vac. It would have been plenty powerful to suck the liner to the walls (which would have been great) but it would end up sucking the liner to the vac hose instead. I tried it both through the skimmer port and by sticking down the side of the pool.

-dave