Wrinkles from spring rain - how to do reset?

[wbdahenry]

Spring brought a lot of rain, and with it came another under the winter-tarp event. That is, the liner must have floated and when the water dispersed, left some fairly large wrinkles.

Does anyone have instructions for a partial liner reset or know of a good thread on the forum here that discusses it?

I've watched the pool company crew do this twice before and know I need a vacuum source and a warm day, but any detailed instructions and tips will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

William

 

[Swampwoman]

Greetings!
I have not done this, so take my comments with a grain of salt, but i have witnessed this over time in a few threads

First off, sometimes the liner reseats itself when the water pressure abates. What's your water table like now?

I've seen tutorials on using plungers on either side of a wrinkle to lift and reset, working towards a wall. Obviously, this works better if you have a mask

Lastly, the method I think you're referring to is opening a small section of the liner via removing it from the bead track, placing a shop vac nozzle in, then duct taping to create a seal. If there's still water behind the liner, this would help remove it. I'd be cautious with this approach to avoid unintended consequences. I'm guessing that if you used a squeegee while suctioning, you might be able to move the excess vinyl to the edges.

Have you considered having a few monitoring wells/cores drilled to have the option of suctioning off excess groundwater in spring if this s a regular occurrence? It is sometimes aso possible to trench around the pool and install a French drain with grate (that's what was done in my case, plus an under-deep-end sump plumbed o my pump for reverse operation to drain sump.) however, that's a no go once built unless you were otherwise reconstructing the pool.

Hopefully someone with direct experience can assist further.

PS...Your assessment is likely correct that this is a groundwater issue. However, it bears mention that liner wrinkles can also be caused by having very low ph/acidic conditions over the winter. Are you using the TFP method of testing and pool care? If not, check out http://tftestkits.net , the [fc/cya][/FC/cya] and Pool School

Best wishes for a resoultution! Keep us posted!

 

[wbdahenry]

Thank you, Swampwoman.

The water table is dropping and we've got a couple of nearly 90 degree days this week, so we are going to give the reset a try ourselves. Our pool installer was less than accomodating -- wanting to wait till all their pool openings were done, then put us on the list, etc., probably would be July before we see them.

I've got the water drained to 4" in the shallow end, will put the vacs in (using two large shop vacs) in the morning, and suck the rest of the water out of the shallow end. Then mid afternoon, when the vinyl is warmer, we'll attempt to gently push and pull the liner back into place. Assuming all goes well, the water truck will show up at the end of the day to refill.

Doing some additional drainage work is something I am seriously considering. The french drain with grate seems the most practical, but I don't know much about the monitoring wells.

As for my water balance, I've been following TFP method since install and it is perfect.

I'll let you know how it goes and post a picture of our success.

 

[ntobik]

I've battled a high water table when it rains too. Our liner had one very bad floating incident that was a combination of a high water table and the pool flooding where it went up and over the liner track.

I've looked at a few solutions. The first is surface drainage. I had an elaborate plan that was going to cost a lot and my wife said "It only happened once, don't over-engineer." Wise woman..

Another possibility is self-drilling a sump pump. I very seriously considered this too. If anything this is the route I'll take. You can rent augurs with extension attachments at heavy rental places. My pool is 9ft deep so with two extensions (6ft) and some surface clearing I could potentially get to 7-8ft with a hole. You then drop in a corrugated black pipe, gravel at the bottom and a float activated pump. The water pumps out into your gutter outlet.

The idea behind a sump is to relieve the hydrostatic pressure. You aren't trying to pump out all of the water, just relieve the pressure. This is the method that's guaranteed to work. If you have some DIY know-how and room to work that's the route I'd explore.

 

[danpik]

The whole key to preventing liner float is to keep the ground water from exceeding the pool water height. Obviously the lower you can keep the ground water in relation to the pool water the better. If it is only an inch or so below the pool level the water pressure in the pool will be greater than the ground water and the liner should/will stay in place.