Wrinkle on slope at bottom of vinyl liner pool (pics inside)

[bbillingsley1985]

This is a newer pool and we are on our 2nd season (installed in early 2021). The first season I noticed absolutely 0 wrinkles anywhere. This year shortly after opening, I noticed that there is basically 1 line of a wrinkle across the bottom part of the pool on the slope (not the walls). It's maybe 3-4" down the slope towards the deep end. I've attached some pictures. You'll notice that about ~60% of the entire bottom width of the pool has the line. Before I messed with it last night, it stretched the entire width of the pool. Last night I spent some time in the pool barefoot and was able to fix the remaining ~40% by just smoothing it out with my foot pushing in pretty hard. The side I fixed was the easiest side where it was just barely sticking up. The remaining amount is sticking up further but not terribly high....I'm guessing less than 1/4".

I noticed it was there shortly after opening the pool for this season but I feel like it wasn't as bad as it is now. We had a lot of people in the pool over the 4th of July playing volleyball and a lot of people were standing right where that slope begins. I cannot be certain, but I feel like the wrinkle got worse after that.....though again its possible that it may have already been in that same shape. You don't really notice it at all in the day time except you can barely feel it when you step on it and I only noticed it at night when I turned the lights on that the line is there.

Questions:

Is this normal? Do I have a major problem? This is the only spot in the entire pool that I see a wrinkle and again it's probably 3-4" after the slope downward to the deep end begins. During install everything seemed ok and again year 1 I didn't notice any wrinkles at all. Could the concrete have settled a little bit underneath causing the wrinkle? Could multiple people kind of pushing down on the liner while playing volleyball have caused it? I guess I'm just wondering if this is something I should freak out about or if this is relatively normal and harmless. I don't care about the wrinkle itself too much, just hope it isn't a sign of something bad. All the walls are fine with no wrinkles.

I'm unsure if I can fix the remaining width of the wrinkle barefoot because that wrinkle was sticking higher up. Is there a better tool to use/rubber shoes maybe that may work better to get the wrinkle out or should I not mess with it? I certainly don't want to make anything worse. I'm ignorant on exactly how the pool was built but it feels like there is padding underneath the liner throughout. The liner does not feel like its wet underneath. When I push down hard with my toe I can feel it hitting that pad underneath it and it doesn't feel like its wet or anything.

I'll attach some photos of when it was being built, being installed and what the wrinkle looks like as of last night. I appreciate any help.

 

[ajw22]

@jimmythegreek thoughts about a wrinkle in a liner?

 

[bbillingsley1985]

Got an update on this. So my pool is 100% concrete on the bottom, including the shallow end as you can see in the pics. I mentioned a pad earlier underneath the liner. I didn't specifically ask or anything but looks like they put a pad down just in the shallow end. I have no clue if this is normal practice or not. I do like it because it feels real nice standing on it. I may be calling it wrong but I compare it to like a carpet pad underneath carpet. It's very thin but you can tell it's there to provide a tiny bit of padding.

Anyway, directly where the wrinkle is is where the pad ends. I can feel it with my hand where I fixed the wrinkles that the pad ends right on that slope....3-4 inches down.

Is this normal for a pad to even be on a concrete pool? And no doubt the volleyball game we played caused the wrinkle because on the spot I fixed I can push down on the slope and cause it to wrinkle again where it slides off that pad. Can't get it to budge at all on the actual concrete part past the pad, I can only push it back up where the pad is.

I can deal with it as long as no long term issues will happen but has this happened to anyone else and is what I'm saying even making sense?

 

[jimmythegreek]

Looks like ground water over the winter shifted the tail of the foam pad. This is why I never lay foam down on the floor. No issue other than aesthetics. Most people who do this glue the foam down

 

[bbillingsley1985]

Thanks jimmy for the information. I feel better that there's no major issue other than the look. I actually found that if I use one of these suction cups that you use to remove a panel from say a LED TV, I was able to suction that to just next to the wrinkle, and then push it up the slope and with a lot of work, eventually fixing the wrinkle. Problem is its slow going. I spent an hour the other night messsing with it and fixed maybe a 1 ft of it lol. Then the wrinkle just moves further up until I kind of smoosh it down at the very top of the slope. I then got scared that I could potentially be making the problem worse so just quit. It is definitely annoying but I'll probably just have to live with it.